Whether a Suitable Cause Can Be Assigned for the Ceremonies Which
Pertained to Sacrifices?
Objection 1: It would seem that no suitable cause can be assigned for
the ceremonies pertaining to sacrifices. For those things which were
offered in sacrifice, are those which are necessary for sustaining
human life: such as certain animals and certain loaves. But God needs
no such sustenance; according to Ps. 49:13: "Shall I eat the flesh of
bullocks? Or shall I drink the blood of goats?" Therefore such
sacrifices were unfittingly offered to God.
Obj. 2: Further, only three kinds of quadrupeds were offered in
sacrifice to God, viz. oxen, sheep and goats; of birds, generally the
turtledove and the dove; but specially, in the cleansing of a leper,
an offering was made of sparrows. Now many other animals are more
noble than these. Since therefore whatever is best should be offered
to God, it seems that not only of these three should sacrifices have
been offered to Him.
Obj. 3: Further, just as man has received from God the dominion over
birds and beasts, so also has he received dominion over fishes.
Consequently it was unfitting for fishes to be excluded from the
divine sacrifices.
Obj. 4: Further, turtledoves and doves indifferently are commanded to
be offered up. Since then the young of the dove are commanded to be
offered, so also should the young of the turtledove.
Obj. 5: Further, God is the Author of life, not only of men, but also
of animals, as is clear from Gen. 1:20, seqq. Now death is opposed to
life. Therefore it was fitting that living animals rather than slain
animals should be offered to God, especially as the Apostle
admonishes us (Rom. 12:1), to present our bodies "a living sacrifice,
holy, pleasing unto God."
Obj. 6: Further, if none but slain animals were offered in sacrifice
to God, it seems that it mattered not how they were slain. Therefore
it was unfitting that the manner of immolation should be determined,
especially as regards birds (Lev. 1:15, seqq.).
Obj. 7: Further, every defect in an animal is a step towards
corruption and death. If therefore slain animals were offered to God,
it was unreasonable to forbid the offering of an imperfect animal,
e.g. a lame, or a blind, or otherwise defective animal.
Obj. 8: Further, those who offer victims to God should partake
thereof, according to the words of the Apostle (1 Cor. 10:18): "Are
not they that eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?" It was
therefore unbecoming for the offerers to be denied certain parts of
the victims, namely, the blood, the fat, the breastbone and the right
shoulder.
Objection 9: Further, just as holocausts were offered up in honor of
God, so also were the peace-offerings and sin-offerings. But no
female animals was offered up to God as a holocaust, although
holocausts were offered of both quadrupeds and birds. Therefore it
was inconsistent that female animals should be offered up in
peace-offerings and sin-offerings, and that nevertheless birds should
not be offered up in peace-offerings.
Objection 10: Further, all the peace-offerings seem to be of one
kind. Therefore it was unfitting to make a distinction among them, so
that it was forbidden to eat the flesh of certain peace-offerings on
the following day, while it was allowed to eat the flesh of other
peace-offerings, as laid down in Lev. 7:15, seqq.
Objection 11: Further, all sins agree in turning us from God.
Therefore, in order to reconcile us to God, one kind of sacrifice
should have been offered up for all sins.
Objection 12: Further, all animals that were offered up in sacrifice,
were offered up in one way, viz. slain. Therefore it does not seem to
be suitable that products of the soil should be offered up in various
ways; for sometimes an offering was made of ears of corn, sometimes
of flour, sometimes of bread, this being baked sometimes in an oven,
sometimes in a pan, sometimes on a gridiron.
Objection 13: Further, whatever things are serviceable to us should
be recognized as coming from God. It was therefore unbecoming that
besides animals, nothing but bread, wine, oil, incense, and salt
should be offered to God.
Objection 14: Further, bodily sacrifices denote the inward sacrifice
of the heart, whereby man offers his soul to God. But in the inward
sacrifice, the sweetness, which is denoted by honey, surpasses the
pungency which salt represents; for it is written (Ecclus. 24:27):
"My spirit is sweet above honey." Therefore it was unbecoming that
the use of honey, and of leaven which makes bread savory, should be
forbidden in a sacrifice; while the use was prescribed, of salt which
is pungent, and of incense which has a bitter taste. Consequently it
seems that things pertaining to the ceremonies of the sacrifices have
no reasonable cause.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Lev. 1:13): "The priest shall offer
it all and burn it all upon the altar, for a holocaust, and most
sweet savor to the Lord." Now according to Wis. 7:28, "God loveth
none but him that dwelleth with wisdom": whence it seems to follow
that whatever is acceptable to God is wisely done. Therefore these
ceremonies of the sacrifices were wisely done, as having reasonable
causes.
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 2), the ceremonies of the Old
Law had a twofold cause, viz. a literal cause, according as they were
intended for Divine worship; and a figurative or mystical cause,
according as they were intended to foreshadow Christ: and on either
hand the ceremonies pertaining to the sacrifices can be assigned to a
fitting cause.
For, according as the ceremonies of the sacrifices were intended for
the divine worship, the causes of the sacrifices can be taken in two
ways. First, in so far as the sacrifice represented the directing of
the mind to God, to which the offerer of the sacrifice was
stimulated. Now in order to direct his mind to God aright, man must
recognize that whatever he has is from God as from its first
principle, and direct it to God as its last end. This was denoted in
the offerings and sacrifices, by the fact that man offered some of
his own belongings in honor of God, as though in recognition of his
having received them from God, according to the saying of David (1
Paral. xxix, 14): "All things are Thine: and we have given Thee what
we received of Thy hand." Wherefore in offering up sacrifices man
made protestation that God is the first principle of the creation of
all things, and their last end, to which all things must be directed.
And since, for the human mind to be directed to God aright, it must
recognize no first author of things other than God, nor place its end
in any other; for this reason it was forbidden in the Law to offer
sacrifice to any other but God, according to Ex. 22:20: "He that
sacrificeth to gods, shall be put to death, save only to the Lord."
Wherefore another reasonable cause may be assigned to the ceremonies
of the sacrifices, from the fact that thereby men were withdrawn from
offering sacrifices to idols. Hence too it is that the precepts about
the sacrifices were not given to the Jewish people until after they
had fallen into idolatry, by worshipping the molten calf: as though
those sacrifices were instituted, that the people, being ready to
offer sacrifices, might offer those sacrifices to God rather than to
idols. Thus it is written (Jer. 7:22): "I spake not to your fathers
and I commanded them not, in the day that I brought them out of the
land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt-offerings and
sacrifices."
Now of all the gifts which God vouchsafed to mankind after they had
fallen away by sin, the chief is that He gave His Son; wherefore it
is written (John 3:16): "God so loved the world, as to give His
only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish,
but may have life everlasting." Consequently the chief sacrifice is
that whereby Christ Himself "delivered Himself . . . to God for an
odor of sweetness" (Eph. 5:2). And for this reason all the other
sacrifices of the Old Law were offered up in order to foreshadow this
one individual and paramount sacrifice--the imperfect forecasting the
perfect. Hence the Apostle says (Heb. 10:11) that the priest of the
Old Law "often" offered "the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins: but" Christ offered "one sacrifice for sins, for ever."
And since the reason of the figure is taken from that which the
figure represents, therefore the reasons of the figurative sacrifices
of the Old Law should be taken from the true sacrifice of Christ.
Reply Obj. 1: God did not wish these sacrifices to be offered to Him
on account of the things themselves that were offered, as though He
stood in need of them: wherefore it is written (Isa. 1:11): "I desire
not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves and
lambs and buckgoats." But, as stated above, He wished them to be
offered to Him, in order to prevent idolatry; in order to signify the
right ordering of man's mind to God; and in order to represent the
mystery of the Redemption of man by Christ.
Reply Obj. 2: In all the respects mentioned above (ad 1), there was a
suitable reason for these animals, rather than others, being offered
in sacrifice to God. First, in order to prevent idolatry. Because
idolaters offered all other animals to their gods, or made use of
them in their sorceries: while the Egyptians (among whom the people
had been dwelling) considered it abominable to slay these animals,
wherefore they used not to offer them in sacrifice to their gods.
Hence it is written (Ex. 8:26): "We shall sacrifice the abominations
of the Egyptians to the Lord our God." For they worshipped the sheep;
they reverenced the ram (because demons appeared under the form
thereof); while they employed oxen for agriculture, which was
reckoned by them as something sacred.
Secondly, this was suitable for the aforesaid right ordering of man's
mind to God: and in two ways. First, because it is chiefly by means
of these animals that human life is sustained: and moreover they are
most clean, and partake of a most clean food: whereas other animals
are either wild, and not deputed to ordinary use among men: or, if
they be tame, they have unclean food, as pigs and geese: and nothing
but what is clean should be offered to God. These birds especially
were offered in sacrifice because there were plenty of them in the
land of promise. Secondly, because the sacrificing of these animals
represented purity of heart. Because as the gloss says on Lev. 1, "We
offer a calf, when we overcome the pride of the flesh; a lamb, when
we restrain our unreasonable motions; a goat, when we conquer
wantonness; a turtledove, when we keep chaste; unleavened bread, when
we feast on the unleavened bread of sincerity." And it is evident
that the dove denotes charity and simplicity of heart.
Thirdly, it was fitting that these animals should be offered, that
they might foreshadow Christ. Because, as the gloss observes, "Christ
is offered in the calf, to denote the strength of the cross; in the
lamb, to signify His innocence; in the ram, to foreshadow His
headship; and in the goat, to signify the likeness of 'sinful flesh'
[*An allusion to Col. 2:11 (Textus Receptus)]. The turtledove and
dove denoted the union of the two natures"; or else the turtledove
signified chastity; while the dove was a figure of charity. "The
wheat-flour foreshadowed the sprinkling of believers with the water
of Baptism."
Reply Obj. 3: Fish through living in water are further removed from
man than other animals, which, like man, live in the air. Again, fish
die as soon as they are taken out of water; hence they could not be
offered in the temple like other animals.
Reply Obj. 4: Among turtledoves the older ones are better than the
young; while with doves the case is the reverse. Wherefore, as Rabbi
Moses observes (Doct. Perplex. iii), turtledoves and young doves are
commanded to be offered, because nothing should be offered to God but
what is best.
Reply Obj. 5: The animals which were offered in sacrifice were slain,
because it is by being killed that they become useful to man,
forasmuch as God gave them to man for food. Wherefore also they were
burnt with fire: because it is by being cooked that they are made fit
for human consumption. Moreover the slaying of the animals signified
the destruction of sins: and also that man deserved death on account
of his sins; as though those animals were slain in man's stead, in
order to betoken the expiation of sins. Again the slaying of these
animals signified the slaying of Christ.
Reply Obj. 6: The Law fixed the special manner of slaying the
sacrificial animals in order to exclude other ways of killing,
whereby idolaters sacrificed animals to idols. Or again, as Rabbi
Moses says (Doct. Perplex. iii), "the Law chose that manner of
slaying which was least painful to the slain animal." This excluded
cruelty on the part of the offerers, and any mangling of the animals
slain.
Reply Obj. 7: It is because unclean animals are wont to be held in
contempt among men, that it was forbidden to offer them in sacrifice
to God: and for this reason too they were forbidden (Deut. 23:18) to
offer "the hire of a strumpet or the price of a dog in the house of
. . . God." For the same reason they did not offer animals before the
seventh day, because such were abortive as it were, the flesh being
not yet firm on account of its exceeding softness.
Reply Obj. 8: There were three kinds of sacrifices. There was one in
which the victim was entirely consumed by fire: this was called "a
holocaust, i.e. all burnt." For this kind of sacrifice was offered to
God specially to show reverence to His majesty, and love of His
goodness: and typified the state of perfection as regards the
fulfilment of the counsels. Wherefore the whole was burnt up: so that
as the whole animal by being dissolved into vapor soared aloft, so it
might denote that the whole man, and whatever belongs to him, are
subject to the authority of God, and should be offered to Him.
Another sacrifice was the "sin-offering," which was offered to God on
account of man's need for the forgiveness of sin: and this typifies
the state of penitents in satisfying for sins. It was divided into
two parts: for one part was burnt; while the other was granted to the
use of the priests to signify that remission of sins is granted by
God through the ministry of His priests. When, however, this
sacrifice was offered for the sins of the whole people, or specially
for the sin of the priest, the whole victim was burnt up. For it was
not fitting that the priests should have the use of that which was
offered for their own sins, to signify that nothing sinful should
remain in them. Moreover, this would not be satisfaction for sin: for
if the offering were granted to the use of those for whose sins it
was offered, it would seem to be the same as if it had not been
offered.
The third kind of sacrifice was called the "peace-offering," which
was offered to God, either in thanksgiving, or for the welfare and
prosperity of the offerers, in acknowledgment of benefits already
received or yet to be received: and this typifies the state of those
who are proficient in the observance of the commandments. These
sacrifices were divided into three parts: for one part was burnt in
honor of God; another part was allotted to the use of the priests;
and the third part to the use of the offerers; in order to signify
that man's salvation is from God, by the direction of God's
ministers, and through the cooperation of those who are saved.
But it was the universal rule that the blood and fat were not
allotted to the use either of the priests or of the offerers: the
blood being poured out at the foot of the altar, in honor of God,
while the fat was burnt upon the altar (Lev. 9:9, 10). The reason for
this was, first, in order to prevent idolatry: because idolaters used
to drink the blood and eat the fat of the victims, according to Deut.
32:38: "Of whose victims they eat the fat, and drank the wine of
their drink-offerings." Secondly, in order to form them to a right
way of living. For they were forbidden the use of the blood that they
might abhor the shedding of human blood; wherefore it is written
(Gen. 9:4, 5): "Flesh with blood you shall not eat: for I will
require the blood of your lives": and they were forbidden to eat the
fat, in order to withdraw them from lasciviousness; hence it is
written (Ezech. 34:3): "You have killed that which was fat." Thirdly,
on account of the reverence due to God: because blood is most
necessary for life, for which reason "life" is said to be "in the
blood" (Lev. 17:11, 14): while fat is a sign of abundant nourishment.
Wherefore, in order to show that to God we owe both life and a
sufficiency of all good things, the blood was poured out, and the fat
burnt up in His honor. Fourthly, in order to foreshadow the shedding
of Christ's blood, and the abundance of His charity, whereby He
offered Himself to God for us.
In the peace-offerings, the breast-bone and the right shoulder were
allotted to the use of the priest, in order to prevent a certain kind
of divination which is known as "spatulamantia," so called because it
was customary in divining to use the shoulder-blade (_spatula_), and
the breast-bone of the animals offered in sacrifice; wherefore these
things were taken away from the offerers. This is also denoted the
priest's need of wisdom in the heart, to instruct the people--this
was signified by the breast-bone, which covers the heart; and his
need of fortitude, in order to bear with human frailty--and this was
signified by the right shoulder.
Reply Obj. 9: Because the holocaust was the most perfect kind of
sacrifice, therefore none but a male was offered for a holocaust:
because the female is an imperfect animal. The offering of
turtledoves and doves was on account of the poverty of the offerers,
who were unable to offer bigger animals. And since peace-victims were
offered freely, and no one was bound to offer them against his will,
hence these birds were offered not among the peace-victims, but among
the holocausts and victims for sin, which man was obliged to offer at
times. Moreover these birds, on account of their lofty flight, were
befitting the perfection of the holocausts: and were suitable for
sin-offerings because their song is doleful.
Reply Obj. 10: The holocaust was the chief of all the sacrifices:
because all was burnt in honor of God, and nothing of it was eaten.
The second place in holiness, belongs to the sacrifice for sins,
which was eaten in the court only, and on the very day of the
sacrifice (Lev. 7:6, 15). The third place must be given to the
peace-offerings of thanksgiving, which were eaten on the same day,
but anywhere in Jerusalem. Fourth in order were the "ex-voto"
peace-offerings, the flesh of which could be eaten even on the
morrow. The reason for this order is that man is bound to God,
chiefly on account of His majesty; secondly, on account of the sins
he has committed; thirdly, because of the benefits he has already
received from Him; fourthly, by reason of the benefits he hopes to
receive from Him.
Reply Obj. 11: Sins are more grievous by reason of the state of the
sinner, as stated above (Q. 73, A. 10): wherefore different victims
are commanded to be offered for the sin of a priest, or of a prince,
or of some other private individual. "But," as Rabbi Moses says
(Doct. Perplex. iii), "we must take note that the more grievous the
sin, the lower the species of animals offered for it. Wherefore the
goat, which is a very base animal, was offered for idolatry; while a
calf was offered for a priest's ignorance, and a ram for the
negligence of a prince."
Reply Obj. 12: In the matter of sacrifices the Law had in view the
poverty of the offerers; so that those who could not have a
four-footed animal at their disposal, might at least offer a bird;
and that he who could not have a bird might at least offer bread; and
that if a man had not even bread he might offer flour or ears of corn.
The figurative cause is that the bread signifies Christ Who is the
"living bread" (John 6:41, 51). He was indeed an ear of corn, as it
were, during the state of the law of nature, in the faith of the
patriarchs; He was like flour in the doctrine of the Law of the
prophets; and He was like perfect bread after He had taken human
nature; baked in the fire, i.e. formed by the Holy Ghost in the oven
of the virginal womb; baked again in a pan by the toils which He
suffered in the world; and consumed by fire on the cross as on a
gridiron.
Reply Obj. 13: The products of the soil are useful to man, either as
food, and of these bread was offered; or as drink, and of these wine
was offered; or as seasoning, and of these oil and salt were offered;
or as healing, and of these they offered incense, which both smells
sweetly and binds easily together.
Now the bread foreshadowed the flesh of Christ; and the wine, His
blood, whereby we were redeemed; oil betokens the grace of Christ;
salt, His knowledge; incense, His prayer.
Reply Obj. 14: Honey was not offered in the sacrifices to God, both
because it was wont to be offered in the sacrifices to idols; and in
order to denote the absence of all carnal sweetness and pleasure from
those who intend to sacrifice to God. Leaven was not offered, to
denote the exclusion of corruption. Perhaps too, it was wont to be
offered in the sacrifices to idols.
Salt, however, was offered, because it wards off the corruption of
putrefaction: for sacrifices offered to God should be incorrupt.
Moreover, salt signifies the discretion of wisdom, or again,
mortification of the flesh.
Incense was offered to denote devotion of the heart, which is
necessary in the offerer; and again, to signify the odor of a good
name: for incense is composed of matter, both rich and fragrant. And
since the sacrifice "of jealousy" did not proceed from devotion, but
rather from suspicion, therefore incense was not offered therein
(Num. 5:15).
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