Leviticus 12 — Church Fathers

Douay-Rheims

Exodus

Chapter 11

Chapter 13

Numbers

Chapter 12

Leviticus 12:1-8

CLEANSING AFTER CHILDBIRTH

2 entries

1 And our Lord spake to Moyses, saying:

2 Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: A woman if receiving seed she bear a man child, shall be unclean seven days, according to the days of the separation of her flowers.

3 And the eighth day the little infant shall be circumcised: 1 note

4 but herself shall remain three & thirty days in the blood of her purification: No holy thing shall she touch, neither shall she enter into the Sanctuary, until the days of her purification be expired.

5 But if she bear a woman child, she shall be unclean two weeks, according to the custom of the flux of her flowers, and sixty six days she shall remain in the blood of her purification.

6 And when the days of her purification are expired, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of a year old for an holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtle for sin, to the door of the tabernacle of testimony, and shall deliver them to the Priest,

7 who shall offer them before our Lord, and shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed from the flux of her blood, this is the law for her that beareth a man child or a woman child.

8 And if her hand find not, neither is able to offer a lamb, she shall take two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for an holocaust, & another for sin, and the Priest shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed. 1 note

2 entries

Leviticus 12:1-8 2 entries

CLEANSING AFTER CHILDBIRTH

BY WHAT KNIFE ON WHAT DAY.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) verse 3

It was certainly not for nothing that the commandment was given for the child to be circumcised on the eighth day; it can only have been because the rock, the stone with which we are circumcised, was Christ. It was with knives of rock or stone that the people were circumcised;^[1] now the rock was Christ.^[2] So why on the eighth day? Because in seven-day weeks the first is the same as the eighth; once you’ve completed the seven days, you are back at the first. The seventh is finished, the Lord is buried; we are back at the first, the Lord is raised up. The Lord’s resurrection, you see, promised us an eternal day and consecrated for us the Lord’s day. It’s called the Lord’s because it properly belongs to the Lord, because on it the Lord rose again. The rock has been restored to us; let those be circumcised who wish to say, For we are the circumcision.^[3]

Sermon 169.3

THE LORD BECAME POOR FOR US.

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 672–735) verse 8

The Lord commanded in the law that those who could were to offer a lamb for a son or a daughter, along with a turtledove or a pigeon. But one who did not have sufficient wealth to offer a lamb should offer two turtledoves or two young pigeons. Therefore the Lord, mindful in everything of our salvation, not only deigned for our sake to become a human being, though he was God, but also he deigned to become poor for us, though he was rich, so that by his poverty along with his humanity he might grant us to become sharers in his riches and his divinity.

Homily 18