Page images
PDF
EPUB

about the altar: they then cleanse the bodies, || for the law does not permit them to leave of it divide them into parts, salt them, and lay until the morning. But if any one sin, and is them upon the altar; while the pieces of wood conscious of it himself, but hath nobody that are piled one upon another, and the fire is can prove it upon him, he offers a ram, the burning. They then cleanse the feet of the flesh of which the priests eat, as before, in sacrifices, and the inwards, in an accurate the holy place, on the same day. And if the manner and so they lay them to the rest, to rulers offer sacrifices for their sins, they bring be purified by the fire, while the priests receive the same oblations that private men do; exthe hides: this is the way of offering a burnt- cept they so far differ, that they are to bring offering. for sacrifices a bull, or a kid of the goats, both males.

Those who offer thank-offerings do indeed sacrifice the same creatures; but such as are unblemished, and above a year old: however, they may take either males or females. They also sprinkle the altar with their blood; but they lay upon the altar the kidneys, the caul, and all the fat, and the lobe of the liver; with these they bring also the rump of the lamb; they give also the breast and the right shoulder to the priests; so they feast upon the remainder of the flesh for two days; and what re-lamb. They bring the same quantity of oil mains they burn.

[graphic]

The sacrifices for sins are offered in the same manner as is the thank-offering: but those who are unable to purchase complete sacrifices offer two pigeons, or turtle-doves; one of which is made a burnt-offering to God, and the other is given as food for the priests.

But we shall treat more accurately about the oblation of these creatures, in our discourse concerning sacrifices; but if a person fall into sin by ignorance, he offers an ewe lamb or female kid of the goats of the same age; and the priest sprinkles the blood at the altar; not after the former manner, but at the corners of it. They also bring the kidneys, and the rest of the fat, together with the lobe of the liver, to the altar: while the priests bear away the hides, and the flesh, and spend it in the holy place,* on the same day;

bull, the carcass of the victim was removed, and the priest issued forth from the cavity, a spectacle ghastly and horrible, his head and vestments being covered with blood, and clotted drops of it adhering to his venerable beard. As soon as the pontifex appeared before the assembled multitude, the air was rent with congratulatory shouts; so pure and so sanctified, however, was he now esteemed, that they dared not approach his person, but beheld him at a distance with awe and veneration." Maurice's Ind. Ant. vol. v. p. 196, B.

*

What Reland observes here, out of Josephus, as

Now the law requires, both in private and public sacrifices, that the finest flour be also brought: for a lamb, the measure of one tenth deal; for a ram, two; and for a bull three. This they consecrate upon the altar, when it is mingled with oil: for oil is also brought by those that sacrifice: for a bull, the half of a hin; for a ram, a third part of the same measure; and one quarter of it for a which they do of wine, and they pour the wine about the altar; but if any one does not offer a complete sacrifice of animals, but brings fine flour only for a vow, he throws a handful upon the altar, as its first fruits; while the priests take the rest for their food; either boiled, or mingled with oil, but made into cakes of bread: but whatsoever it be that a priest himself offers, it must of necessity be all burnt. Now the law forbids us to sacrifice any animal at the same time with its dam; and in other cases, not till the eighth day after its birth.

Other sacrifices are also appointed for escaping distempers, or for other occasions; in which meat-offerings are consumed, together with the animals that are sacrificed; of which it is not lawful to leave any part till the next day, only the priests are to take their own share.

[graphic]
[graphic]

compared with the law of Moses, Leviticus vii. 15, (that the eating of the sacrifice the same day it was of fered seems to mean only before the morning of the next, although the latter part, i. e. the night, be in strictness part of the next day, according to the Jewish reckoning,) is greatly to be observed upon other occasions also. The Jewish maxim, in such cases, it seems, is this: that the day goes before the night, and this appears to me to be the language both of the Old and New Testament. See also the note on IV. 4, and Reland's note on IV. 8.

CHAP.

CHAP. X.

CONCERNING THE FESTIVALS, AND HOW EACH DAY OF SUCH
FESTIVAL IS TO BE OBSERVED.

TH

winter, the law enjoins us to pitch tabernacles in every one of our houses, but so that we preserve ourselves from the cold of that time of the year; as also that, when we should arrive at our own country, we should come to that city which we should have then for our metropolis, because of the temple therein to be built; and keep a festival for eight days, and offer burnt-offerings, and sacrifice thankofferings; that we should then carry in our hands a branch of myrtle, and willow, and a bough of the palm-tree, with the addition of the pomecitron; that the burnt-offering on the first of those days was to be a sacrifice of thirteen bulls, fourteen lambs, and fifteen rams, with the addition of a kid of the goats, On the seventh month, which the Macedo- as an expiation for sins; that on the follownians call Hyperberetæus, they make an ad- ing days the same number of lambs, and of dition to those already mentioned, and sacri-rams, with the kids of the goats; but abatfice a bull, a ram, seven lambs,† and a kid of the goats for sins.

HE law requires, that out of the public expenses a lamb of the first year be killed every day, at the beginning and ending of the day; but on the seventh day, which is called the Sabbath, they kill two, and sacrifice them in the same manner. On the new moon they both perform the daily sacrifices, and slay two bulls, with seven lambs of the first year, and a kid of the goats also, for the expiation of sins; that is, if they have sinned through ignorance.

ing one of the bulls every day, till they amounted to seven only. On the eighth day all work was laid aside, and then, as we said before, they sacrificed to God a bullock, a ram, seven lambs, and a kid of the goats for an expiation of sins and this is the accustomed solemnity of the Hebrews when they pitch their tabernacles.

But in the month of Zanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, || and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries (for on this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians), the law or

The tenth day of the same lunar month they fast till the evening; and this day they sacrifice a bull, two rams, seven lambs, and a kid of the goats for sins; and, besides these, they bring two kids of the goats, one of which is sent alive out of the limits of the camp into the wilderness, for the scape-goat, and to be an expiation of the sins of the whole multitude; but the other is brought into a place of great cleanness, within the limits of the camp, and is there burnt, with its skin, without any sort of cleansing. With this goat is burnt a bull not brought by the people, but by the high-dained that we should every year slay that priest, at his own charge, which, when it is sacrifice, which I before observed we slew slain, he brings of the blood into the holy when we came out of Egypt, and which was place, together with the blood of the kid of called the Passover; and so do we celebrate the goats, and sprinkles the ceiling with his this passover in companies, and leave nothing finger seven times, as also its pavement, and of what we sacrifice till the day following. as often towards the most holy place, and The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that about the golden altar. He also at last brings of the passover, and falls on the fifteenth day it into the open court, and sprinkles it about of the month, and continues seven days, wherethe great altar. Besides this, they set the ex-in they feed on unleavened bread ; on every tremities, and the kidneys, and the fat, with one of which days two bulls are killed, and the lobe of the liver, upon the altar, and the one ram, and seven lambs. Now these lambs high-priest presents a ram to God as a burnt- are entirely burnt, besides the kid of the offering. goats, which is added to all the rest, for sins; for it is intended as a feast for the priest on every one of those days. But on the second

On the fifteenth day of the same month, when the season of the year is changing for

* Exod. xxix. 38. + Numb. xxix. 2.

Numb. xxviii. 3.
Levit. xxiii. 27.

§ Numb. xxix. 12.

Or Abib. Deut. xvi. 1.

[ocr errors]

day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they do not touch them. And while they suppose it proper to honour God, from whom they obtain this plentiful provision, in the first place they offer the first fruits of their barley, and that in the manner following: they take a handful of the ears, and dry them; they then beat them small, and cleanse the barley from the bran; they then bring one tenth deal to the altar, to God, and, casting one handful of it upon the fire, they leave the rest for the use of the priests; and after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest. They also, at this participation of the first fruits of the earth, sacrifice a lamb as a burntoffering to God.

When a week of weeks has passed over after this sacrifice, which weeks contain forty and nine days; on the fiftieth day, called by

the Hebrews Asartha, which signifies Pente

cost, they bring to God a loaf made of wheat flour, of two tenth deals with leaven; and for sacrifices they bring two lambs; and when they have only presented them to God, they are made ready for supper for the priests: nor is it permitted to leave any thing of them till the day following. They also slay three bullocks for a burnt-offering, and two rams, and fourteen lambs, with two kids of the goats for sins nor is there any one of the festivals but in it they offer burnt-offerings. They also allow themselves to rest on every one of them : accordingly the law prescribes in them all what kinds they are to sacrifice, and how they are to rest entirely, and must slay sacrifices in order to feast upon them.

However, out of the common charges baked bread was set on the table of shew bread without leaven, of twenty-four tenth deals of flour, for so much is spent upon this bread: two heaps of these were baked; they were taken the day before the sabbath, but were brought into the holy place on the morning of the sabbath, and set upon the holy table six on a heap, one loaf still standing over against another, where two golden cups, full of frankincense, were also set upon them; and there they remained till another sabbath; and then

*Levit. xxiii. 16.

other loaves were brought in their stead, while the loaves were given to the priests for their food, and the frankincense was burnt in that sacred fire wherein all their offerings were burnt also; and so other frankincense was set upon the loaves instead of what was there before. The high-priest also, at his own expense, offered a sacrifice twice every day. It was made of flour, mingled with oil, and gently baked by the fire. The quantity was one tenth deal of flour. He brought the half of it to the fire in the morning, and the other half at night. The account of these sacrifices I shall give more accurately hereafter, but I think I have premised what for the present may be sufficient concerning them.

CHAP. XI.

OF THE PURIFICATIONS.

MOSES took out the tribe of Levi from communicating with the rest of the people, and set them apart to be a holy tribe, and purified them by water, taken from perpetual springs, and with such sacrifices as were usually offered to God on the like occasions. He also delivered to them the tabernacle, and the sacred vessels, and the other curtains which were made for covering the tabernacle, that they might minister under the conduct of the priests, who had been already consecrated to God.

He also determined concerning animals, which of them might be used for food, and which they were obliged to abstain from, which matters, when this work shall give me occasion, shall be farther explained, and the causes shall be added by which he was induced to allot some of them to be our food, and enjoined us to abstain from others. However, he forbade us entirely the use of blood for food, and esteemed it to contain the soul and spirit. He also forbade us to eat the flesh of the animal that died of itself, as also the caul, and the fat of goats, and sheep, and bulls.

He also ordered that those whose bodies were afflicted with were afflicted with leprosy, and that had a gonorrhoea, should not come into the city;t

We may here note that Josephus frequently calls the nay,

[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

thence made the laws which concerned others that had the distemper. He did this for the honor of God; but, as to these matters, let every one consider them after what manner he pleases.

nay, he removed the women, under certain || countrymen who were pure of it also, and
situations, till the seventh day, after which h
looked upon them as pure, and permitted them
to come in again. The law permits those
also who have taken care of funerals to come
in after the same manner, when this number
of days is over; but if any continued longer
than that number of days in a state of pol-
lution, the law appointed the offering two
lambs for a sacrifice, one of which they are to
purge by the fire, and the other the priests take
for themselves. In the same manner do those
sacrifice who have had the gonorrhoea; but for
the lepers, he suffered them not to come into
the city at all, nor to live with any others, as
if they were in effect dead persons. But if
any one had obtained, by prayer to God, a But if any one suspected that his wife had
recovery from that distemper, and had gained been guilty of adultery, he was to bring a
a healthful complexion again, such a one re-tenth deal of barley flour: they then cast one
turned thanks to God with several sorts of sa-
crifices, concerning which we will speak here-
after.

As to the women, when they have borne a child, Moses forbade them to come into the temple, or to touch the sacrifices, before forty days were over, supposing it be a boy; but if she hath borne a girl, the law is that she cannot be admitted before twice that number of days' be over; and when, after the aforementioned-time appointed for them, they perform their sacrifices, the priests distribute them before God.

handful to God, and gave the rest of it to the priests for food. One of the priests set the woman at the gates that are turned towards the temple, and took the veil from her head, and wrote the name of God on parchment, and enjoined her to swear that she had not at all injured her husband, and to wish that, if she had violated her chastity, her right thigh might be put out of joint, that her belly might swell, and that she might die thus: but that if her husband, by the violence of his affection, and of the jealousy which arose from it, had been rashly moved to this suspicion, that she might bear a male child on the tenth month. Now, when these oaths were over, the priest wiped the name of God out of the parchment, and wrung the water into a vial. He also took up some dust out of the temple, if any happened to be there, and put a little of it into the vial, and gave it her to drink ; whereupon the woman, if she were unjustly accused, conceived a child, and brought it to perfection; but if she had broken her faith of wedlock to her husband, and had sworn falsely before God, she died in a reproachful manner:* her thigh fell off from her, and her belly swelled with a dropsy: and these are the ceremonies about sacrifices, and about the purifications thereto belonging, which Moses

Hence one cannot but smile at those who say, that Moses was himself afflicted with the leprosy when he fled out of Egypt, and that he became the conductor of those who on that account left that country, and led them into the land of Canaan: for had this been true, Moses would not have made these laws to his own dishonor, which indeed it was more likely he would have opposed if others had endeavoured to introduce them: and this the rather, because there are lepers in many nations who are yet in honor, and not only free from reproach and avoidance, but who have been great captains of armies, and been intrusted with high offices in the commonwealth, and have had the privilege of entering into holy places and temples: so that nothing hindered, but if either Moses himself, or the multitude that was with him, had been liable to such a misfortune, he might have made laws about them for their credit and advantage, and have laid no manner of difficulty upon them. Accordingly, it is a plain case that it is out of violent prejudice only that they report these things about us. But Moses was pure from any such distemper, and lived with

camp the city, and the court of the Mosaic tabernacle a
temple, and the tabernacle itself a holy house, with allu-

VOL. 1.—(9.)

[blocks in formation]

provided for his countrymen. He also pre-rity in their sacred ministrations, but in their scribed the following laws to them.

[graphic]

CHAP. XII.

OF SEVERAL LAWS INSTITUTED BY MOSES.

AS for adultery, Moses forbade it entirely, as esteeming it a happy thing that men should be wise in the affairs of wedlock, and that it was profitable both to cities and families that children should be known to be genuine, He also abhorred a man's connexion with his mother, father's wife, aunt, sister, or son's wife, as instances of abominable wickedness. He also forbade a man to lie with his wife when she was defiled; and not to come near brute beasts; nor to approve of the lying with a male in order to hunt after unlawful pleasures on account of beauty. To those which were guilty of such insolent behaviour, he ordained death for their punish

ment.

As for the priests, he prescribed to them also a double degree of purity; for he restrained them in the foregoing instances, and also forbade them to marry a harlot, a slave, or a captive, and such as got their living by cheating trades, and by keeping inns; as also a woman parted from her husband on any occasion whatsoever. Nay, he did not think it proper for the high-priest to marry even the widow of one that was dead, though he allowed that to the priests; but he permitted him only to marry a virgin, and to retain her; whence it is that the high-priest is not to approach one that is dead,† although the rest are not prohibited from coming near to their brethren, parents, or children, when they are dead, but they are to be unblemished in all respects. He ordered that the priest, who had any blemish, should have his portion indeed among the priests; but he forbade him to ascend the altar, or enter into the holy house. He also enjoined them not only to observe pu

These words of Josephus are remarkable, that the lawgiver of the Jews required of the priests a double degree of purity, in comparison of that required of the people, of which he gives several instances. This was the case also among the first Christians, of the clergy, in comparison of the laity, as the apostolical constitutions and canons every where inform us. + Levit. xxi. 11.

daily conversation, that it might be unblameable also; and on this account it is, that those who wear the sacerdotal garments are without spot, and eminent for their purity and sobriety. Nor are they permitted to drink wine so long as they wear those garments. Moreover, they offer sacrifices that are entire, and have no defect whatever.

Moses gave them all these precepts, being such as were observed during his own life-time: but though he lived now in the wilderness, yet did he make provision how they might observe the same laws when they should have taken the land of Canaan. He gave them rest to the land from ploughing and planting every seventh year, as he had prescribed to them to rest from working every seventh day; and ordered that then what grew of its own accord out of the earth should in common belong to all that pleased to use it, making no distinction in that respect between their own countrymen and foreigners; and he ordained that they should do the same after seven times seven years, § which in all are fifty years; and the fiftieth year is called by the Hebrews the Jubilee. Jubilee. At that time debtors are freed from their debts, and slaves are set at liberty, which slaves became such, though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws whose punishment was not capital; but they were punished by this method of slavery. This year also restores the land to its former possessors in the following manner: when the jubilee is come, which name denotes liberty, he that sold the land, and he that bought it, meet together, and make an estimate on one hand of the fruits gathered, and on the other hand of the expenses laid out upon it. If the fruits gathered come to more than the expenses laid out, he that sold it takes the land again; but if the expenses prove more than the fruits, the present possessor receives of the former owner the difference that was

We must here note with Reland, that the precept given to the priests of not drinking wine, while they wore the sacred garments, is equivalent to their abstinence from it while they ministered in the temple, because they then only wore those sacred garments, which were laid up there from one time of ministration to another.

§ Levit. xxv. 1.

wanting,

« PreviousContinue »