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*H Command the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: Offer ye my oblation and my bread, and burnt sacrifice of most sweet odour, in their due seasons.
Ver. 2. Seasons. These precepts had often been repeated already: but perhaps they had not been exactly observed in the desert, so that Moses inculcates them once more, as if to remind the people that they will now have no excuse, if they neglect these sacrifices in the promised land. C. — These frequent repetitions may also remind us, with what attention we ought to worship God. D.
* Footnotes
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Exodus
29:38
This is what thou shalt sacrifice upon the altar: Two lambs of a year old every day continually,
*H These are the sacrifices which you shall offer: Two lambs of a year old without blemish every day for the perpetual holocaust:
Ver. 3. Lambs. Kids would not suffice. See Ex. xxix. 38. The lambs must not be above a year old. But it is not clear whether they could be offered eight days after their birth, as on other occasions. Ex. xxiii. 19. C.
*H It is the continual holocaust which you offered in mount Sinai for a most sweet odour of a sacrifice by fire to the Lord.
Ver. 6. Sinai. Hence it seems to have been discontinued for 38 years. C. Lev. ix. 17. M.
* Summa
*S Part 4, Ques 37, Article 3
[III, Q. 37, Art. 3]
Whether Christ Was Becomingly Presented in the Temple?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ was unbecomingly presented in the Temple. For it is written (Ex. 13:2): "Sanctify unto Me every first-born that openeth the womb among the children of Israel." But Christ came forth from the closed womb of the Virgin; and thus He did not open His Mother's womb. Therefore Christ was not bound by this law to be presented in the Temple.
Obj. 2: Further, that which is always in one's presence cannot be presented to one. But Christ's humanity was always in God's presence in the highest degree, as being always united to Him in unity of person. Therefore there was no need for Him to be presented to the Lord.
Obj. 3: Further, Christ is the principal victim, to whom all the victims of the old Law are referred, as the figure to the reality. But a victim should not be offered up for a victim. Therefore it was not fitting that another victim should be offered up for Christ.
Obj. 4: Further, among the legal victims the principal was the lamb, which was a "continual sacrifice" [Vulg.: 'holocaust'], as is stated Num. 28:6: for which reason Christ is also called "the Lamb--Behold the Lamb of God" (John 1: 29). It was therefore more fitting that a lamb should be offered for Christ than "a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons."
On the contrary is the authority of Scripture which relates this as having taken place (Luke 2:22).
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 1), Christ wished to be "made under the Law, that He might redeem them who were under the Law" (Gal. 4:4, 5), and that the "justification of the Law might be" spiritually "fulfilled" in His members. Now, the Law contained a twofold precept touching the children born. One was a general precept which affected all--namely, that "when the days of the mother's purification were expired," a sacrifice was to be offered either "for a son or for a daughter," as laid down Lev. 12:6. And this sacrifice was for the expiation of the sin in which the child was conceived and born; and also for a certain consecration of the child, because it was then presented in the Temple for the first time. Wherefore one offering was made as a holocaust and another for sin.
The other was a special precept in the law concerning the first-born of "both man and beast": for the Lord claimed for Himself all the first-born in Israel, because, in order to deliver the Israelites, He "slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, both men and cattle" (Ex. 12:12, 13, 29), the first-born of Israel being saved; which law is set down Ex. 13. Here also was Christ foreshadowed, who is "the First-born amongst many brethren" (Rom. 8:29).
Therefore, since Christ was born of a woman and was her first-born, and since He wished to be "made under the Law," the Evangelist Luke shows that both these precepts were fulfilled in His regard. First, as to that which concerns the first-born, when he says (Luke 2:22, 23): "They carried Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord: as it is written in the law of the Lord, 'Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.'" Secondly, as to the general precept which concerned all, when he says (Luke 2:24): "And to offer a sacrifice according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons."
Reply Obj. 1: As Gregory of Nyssa says (De Occursu Dom.): "It seems that this precept of the Law was fulfilled in God incarnate alone in a special manner exclusively proper to Him. For He alone, whose conception was ineffable, and whose birth was incomprehensible, opened the virginal womb which had been closed to sexual union, in such a way that after birth the seal of chastity remained inviolate." Consequently the words "opening the womb" imply that nothing hitherto had entered or gone forth therefrom. Again, for a special reason is it written "'a male,' because He contracted nothing of the woman's sin": and in a singular way "is He called 'holy,' because He felt no contagion of earthly corruption, whose birth was wondrously immaculate" (Ambrose, on Luke 2:23).
Reply Obj. 2: As the Son of God "became man, and was circumcised in the flesh, not for His own sake, but that He might make us to be God's through grace, and that we might be circumcised in the spirit; so, again, for our sake He was presented to the Lord, that we may learn to offer ourselves to God" [*Athanasius, on Luke 2:23]. And this was done after His circumcision, in order to show that "no one who is not circumcised from vice is worthy of Divine regard" [*Bede, on Luke 2:23].
Reply Obj. 3: For this very reason He wished the legal victims to be offered for Him who was the true Victim, in order that the figure might be united to and confirmed by the reality, against those who denied that in the Gospel Christ preached the God of the Law. "For we must not think," says Origen (Hom. xiv in Luc.) "that the good God subjected His Son to the enemy's law, which He Himself had not given."
Reply Obj. 4: The law of Lev. 12:6, 8 "commanded those who could, to offer, for a son or a daughter, a lamb and also a turtle dove or a pigeon: but those who were unable to offer a lamb were commanded to offer two turtle doves or two young pigeons" [*Bede, Hom. xv in Purif.]. "And so the Lord, who, 'being rich, became poor for our [Vulg.: 'your'] sakes, that through His poverty we [you] might be rich," as is written 2 Cor. 8:9, "wished the poor man's victim to be offered for Him" just as in His birth He was "wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger" [*Bede on Luke 1]. Nevertheless, these birds have a figurative sense. For the turtle dove, being a loquacious bird, represents the preaching and confession of faith; and because it is a chaste animal, it signifies chastity; and being a solitary animal, it signifies contemplation. The pigeon is a gentle and simple animal, and therefore signifies gentleness and simplicity. It is also a gregarious animal; wherefore it signifies the active life. Consequently this sacrifice signified the perfection of Christ and His members. Again, "both these animals, by the plaintiveness of their song, represented the mourning of the saints in this life: but the turtle dove, being solitary, signifies the tears of prayer; whereas the pigeon, being gregarious, signifies the public prayers of the Church" [*Bede, Hom. xv in Purif.]. Lastly, two of each of these animals are offered, to show that holiness should be not only in the soul, but also in the body. _______________________
FOURTH
*H And for a libation you shall offer of wine the fourth part of a hin for every lamb in the sanctuary of the Lord.
Ver. 7. In the. Heb. "in the holy thou shalt cause the shecar to be poured out unto the Lord, a drink-offering." See C. iv. 3, on the meaning of shecar. H. — Some believe, that artificial wine of palm-trees, &c., might serve for libations. In this sacrifice, the priests furnished the liquor; so that all was to be poured out on the altar of holocausts, which stood in the court. C.
* Footnotes
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Matthew
12:5
Or have ye not read in the law, that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple break the sabbath, and are without blame?
*H Which regularly are poured out every sabbath for the perpetual holocaust.
Ver. 10. Which, &c. Heb. "the burnt-offering of every sabbath, besides the perpetual holocaust and its libations," which were due for every day. H. — On the sabbath, two more were to be offered of the same age. Jansenius observes, that three of theses belonged to the morning service, and one to that of the evening. M. C.
*H And on the first day of the month you shall offer a holocaust to the Lord, two calves of the herd, one ram, and seven lambs of a year old, without blemish,
Ver. 11. Month. This is not reckoned among the festivals. Lev. xxiii. The Rabbins look upon it as a day of devotion, particularly for women. Buxtorf. Syn. xvii. Spencer (Rit. iii. 1,) maintains, that the Hebrews began their month when the moon first appeared, and that they imitated the pagans in keeping that day holy. But his proofs on both heads are very unsatisfactory. The Hebrews followed the solar year for many ages after Moses, though they might have adopted the lunar towards the close of the republic; and the pagans themselves ridiculed those as vile imitators of the Jews, who kept the new moons as a festival. Hor. Sat. i. 9. Sabbata Vin tu Curtis Judæis oppedere. — The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, and Turks, have given in to various superstitious practices in honour of the moon. See Macrob. Sat. i. 15, &c. C. — The devil is commonly the ape of God, and teaches his votaries to adopt the ceremonies of the true religion, either to elude them more easily, or to bring those practices into discredit. Thus Middleton has endeavoured to shew the conformity of Pagan and Papal Rome, as if the ceremonies of the Catholic religion were to be rejected, because some of them have been in use among the heathens. By the same argument, he may ridicule the revelation of God himself, on this subject, and represent vestments, holy water, &c. as superstitious. He may pull down altars, condemn all forms of prayer, abolish all worship, both of soul and body. For such things have all been prostituted to idols! But those who are not totally infatuated by prejudice, will deplore the abuse of these things, and will not refrain from adoring the true God according to his will, with all the faculties both of their soul and body, on account of the devil and his false prophets having extorted similar acts of worship from their followers. It is no wonder that Protestants should ridicule our holy ceremonies, since they scruple not to assign so base an origin to those which God expressly prescribed. H. — The sacrifices which were ordered to be offered up on the first day of the month, were probably designed to renew the memory of the world's creation, or rather of the divine Providence, which regulates the seasons. Nothing was sold on this day. Amos viii. 5. But people went to hear the prophets, (4 K. iv. 23,) and feasted among themselves, 1 K. xx. 18. It is thought that many rested also from servile work, though this is no where commanded. C. — Tirin agrees with Tostat and Sanctius, in supposing that servile work was prohibited, for which he refers to 1 K. xx. 19. He also asserts, that the Jews observed the lunar system, and that their months consisted of 29 and 30 days alternately, as 29 days and a half elapse from one moon to another. The sound of trumpets probably announced this solemnity. C. x. 10. Lev. xxiii. H.
*H And the tenth of a tenth of flour tempered with oil in sacrifice for every lamb. It is a holocaust of most sweet odour and an offering by fire to the Lord.
Ver. 13. Tenth. An assaron, gomer, or chomer, which is the tenth part of an epha, as that is the tenth of a core or chomer, which is the largest Hebrew dry measure, containing 32 pecks and one pint English; so that the gomer would be equivalent to five pints. H. — This quantity of flour accompanied each holocaust at the beginning of every month. C.
*H A buck goat also shall be offered to the Lord for a sin offering over and above the perpetual holocaust with its libations.
Ver. 15. Above. This is the import of the Heb. &c.: for no libations accompanied the sin-offerings, nor incense. See C. xv. 3. Lev. v. 12. M.
* Footnotes
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Exodus
12:18
The first month, the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the same month, in the evening.
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Leviticus
23:5
The first month, the fourteenth day of the month at evening, is the phase of the Lord.
*H And in the first month, on the four tenth day of the month, shall be the phase of the Lord,
Ver. 16. Phase, or Passover, the most solemn of all the festivals, when the lamb was to be eaten on the 15th of Nisan, and during the eight days no leavened bread was allowed. The Jews searched all the corners of their houses, lest some might be concealed by mice, and they would not so much as name it. S. Paul exhorts us to do the like, in a spiritual sense, by purifying ourselves from every defilement of sin when we receive the blessed sacrament, and by not even mentioning sins of impurity. 1 Cor. v. 7. Ephes. v. 3. H.
*H Besides the morning holocaust which you shall always offer.
Ver. 23. Offer, as well as that in the evening, which was in less danger of being forgotten.
*H So shall you do every day of the seven days for the food of the fire, and for a most sweet odour to the Lord, which shall rise from the holocaust, and from the libations of each.
Ver. 24. Fire. Heb. "food of the sacrifice made by fire." — Rise. Heb. "it shall be offered besides the perpetual holocaust, and its libations," morning and evening. All the aforesaid sacrifices and libations were to be repeated on each of the seven days, v. 19. 22.
*H The day also of firstfruits, when after the weeks are accomplished, you shall offer new fruits to the Lord, shall be venerable and holy: you shall do no servile work therein.
Ver. 26. The day of Pentecost, seven weeks after the Passover, was the next in solemnity, to thank God for the wheat harvest, of which the first-fruits were now presented. H. — Two loaves, made with leaven, were given to the priests. Lamy. See Lev. xxiii. 17.
*H And you shall offer a holocaust for a most sweet odour to the Lord, two calves of the herd, one ram, and seven lambs of a year old, without blemish:
Ver. 27. Two calves. Only one is specified in Leviticus, being that designed for the morning; another was immolated at night. C. — The same victims are prescribed as v. 19. M.