Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings which the Israelites consecrate to me; otherwise they will profane my holy name. I am the Lord. Leviticus 22:2
The Hebrew priesthood, similar to the Egyptian, was a hereditary position. In Egypt, the Pharaoh was an incarnation of the god Ra. As such he functioned as the High Priest, and under him, to perform the multitude of priestly ministrations to the gods, was the elite and ancient hierarchy of priests. The Hebrew priesthood descended from Aaron and his tribe of Levi, and the High Priest was the mediator between YHWH and the people at worship. As we have seen time and again, worship is sacrifice, and sacrifice necessarily involves food, either in the form of sacred flesh or cereal offerings. They are consecrated to offer the offerings by fire to YHWH, the “bread” (Hebrew leḥem) of their God (20:6, 22). Along with this, it can be safely assumed that another priestly function was to teach the people about the meaning of their worship and the law they lived by (so Milgrom).
As for the priests themselves, the fundamental word to describe them is “holy” (20:6). The same is true for the people at large, but something further is demanded of the priests which we may call “perfection” in both moral and physical spheres. A priest must not come in contact with the dead, except for the immediate family; the High Priest cannot even do this. He must not take on pagan priestly mourning customs, like tonsures, shavings, and cuttings. They must marry virgins, and daughters of priests must be pure on pain of death. They must not have any physical deformities, but be perfect in every way.
The temptation for priests who handle the offerings of the people would be to enrich themselves by them (Chapter 22:1-3). A gross example of this is Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas, who blatantly took what was YHWH’s and sexually molested the women at the Sanctuary (I Samuel 2:11-25). This admonition is repeated in verses 15 and 16 for emphasis; in between them are a set of laws on skin disease, discharges, and eating anything unclean, along with the prohibition of non-priests eating sacred food (22:4-14).
The rest of the chapter deals with the sacrificial animals themselves. They must be physically perfect. Following this comes a very strange law concerning sacrificial animals born by their mothers. The baby must be able to remain with its mother for seven days, after which it is lawful to sacrifice. Moreover, the mother and its young ones cannot be sacrificed on the same day (22:25-30, cf. Exodus 22:30). The usual explanation is that of humanitarianism. However, as Milgrom points out, the imagery of an eight-day old suckling taken to the slaughter offers little comfort to the animals involved nor to the sacrificers. There really is no room for sentimentality before the violent reality of sacrifices. The only clue of the meaning here is the seven days’ motif, taking us to creation, where perfection was completed on the seventh day. As for the prohibition of not killing the mother and the offspring on the same day, again, it was not out of sentimentality, but rather out of respect for animal life and to guard the Israelites against wanton killing (so Wenham).
All these laws, as indeed, the whole of Mosaic legislation, were designed to make the Hebrews pause and think through how they lived their lives before YHWH. They had to think before they did just about anything. And their thinking led them into the heart of YHWH, who sanctified them. Our modern secular culture looks in disdain upon these laws, but this is about thoughtless as can be. This is one reason, perhaps, why the Jews, proportionally, are so intelligent; their laws make them think. They grow up around their tables arguing up one side of an argument and down the other. This is called Mahloket, meaning, argumentation for the sake of heaven.
But let us come back to the High Priest. In Israel, the three offices of priest, king, and prophet were strictly kept separate. If these were merged into one person, that person would be venerated as a god, as in Egypt and the surrounding nations (Heschel). Jesus is not only High Priest and sacrificial victim, but also the Messianic King, and Prophet as well, completely in line with His Divinity. The salvation He brings to humanity is brought about in His flesh. As a man, Jesus was perfect, both in body and spirit, sinless, thus fulfilling the priestly type under the Mosaic Covenant.
However, as the perfect fulfillment of this priestly type, we see how He upended the whole of Levitical priestly legislation. As the divine High Priest, He touched the dead to raise them, He touched the lepers to heal them, the woman with the discharge touches Him and she is healed. He hangs out with prostitutes and sinners. Rather than the impurities contaminating Him, He sanctifies the impurities. Though He was perfect in body, He allowed Himself to be marred and deformed in His Passion. Jesus as Divine High Priest is, on one hand, the fulfillment of the old High Priest, but at the same time the very opposite.
Finally, these laws should speak to the hearts of the Catholic Clerics who are charged with handling the offerings of the “Bread of God.” If purity of heart and body was demanded under the old, how much more when handling the Body and Blood of Christ? If the priest handles the Eucharistic offering with profound respect and reverence, the people will as well.
Takeaway: The Old Testament High Priest must be as close to perfection as possible and must not be contaminated by anything impure. Jesus as fulfillment was absolutely perfect in body and soul, but could not be contaminated, and sanctified everything He touched.
Questions:
- How do you respond to the comment above about how these laws were given to make the Hebrews think their way to God in their day to day lives?
- In what ways can you think Jesus fulfills these priestly laws on one hand, yet completely undermines them on the other?
- Can you give examples of priests who handle holy things carelessly or with reverence, and how this affected you or the congregation?
Resources Used:
Heschel, A. The Prophets, vol. 2 New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
Milgrom, J Leviticus
Radner, Leviticus
Wenham, G. The Book of Leviticus