Leviticus 20

Leviticus 20:5

Augustine of Hippo: So that those of his people forniquen after the princes. The meaning is not: “the princes of his people”, but: those of his people forniquen. It is understood here by princes to those who were venerated as gods, as the Apostle says: According to the Prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2,2). And in the Gospel the Lord says: Now the Prince of this world has been thrown out (John 12,31). And: Behold, the Prince of this world will come and he will find nothing in me (John 14,30). — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 72 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Leviticus 20:9

Origen of Alexandria: But when we wish to examine the very letter of the words as given by Matthew, “He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death,” consider whether it was taken from the place where it was written, “Whoso strikes his father or mother, let him die the death; and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death.” For such are the exact words taken from the law with regard to the two commandments; but Matthew has quoted them in part and in an abridged form, and not in the very words. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF Matthew 11.9

Leviticus 20:10

Ambrose of Milan: A woman accused of adultery was brought by the Scribes and Pharisees to the Lord Jesus with the malicious intent, that, if He was to acquit her, He might seem to annul the Law, if He condemned her, that He might seem to have changed the purpose of His coming, since He came to remit the sins of all men. To the same purport He said above, “I judge no man.” So when they brought her they said, “This woman was taken in adultery, in the very act; now Moses in the Law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest Thou?”

While they were saying this, Jesus stooped down and wrote with His finger on the ground. And as they waited for His answer, He lifted up His head and said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” What can be more Divine than this sentence, that he should punish sins who is himself free from sin? For how can we endure one who takes vengeance on guilt in another and excuses it in himself? When a man condemns in another what he commits himself, does he not rather pronounce his own condemnation?

Thus He spake, and wrote upon the ground. What then did He write? This, “Thou beholdest the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye.” For lust is like a mote, it is quickly kindled, quickly consumed; the sacrilegious perfidy which led the Jews to deny the Author of their salvation declared the magnitude of their crime.

He wrote upon the ground with the finger with which He had written the Law. Sinners’ names are written in the earth, those of the just in heaven, as He said to His disciples, “Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” And He wrote a second time, that you may know that the Jews were condemned by both Testaments.

When they heard these words they went out one after another, beginning at the eldest, and sat down thinking upon themselves. “And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” It is well said that they went out who chose not to be with Christ. Without is the letter, within are the mysteries. For in the Divine lessons they sought, as it were, after the leaves of trees, and not after the fruit; they lived in the shadow of the Law, and could not discern the Sun of Righteousness.

Finally, when they departed Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. Jesus about to remit sin remains alone, as He says Himself, “Behold the hour cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone;” for it was no messenger, no herald, but the Lord Himself Who saved His people. He remains alone, because in the remission of sins no man can participate with Christ. This is the gift of Christ alone, Who “took away the sins of the world.” The woman too was counted worthy to be absolved, seeing that, on the departure of the Jews, she remained alone with Jesus.

Then Jesus lifted up His head, and said to the woman, “Where are those thine accusers, hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee, go, and sin no more.” See, O reader, these Divine mysteries, and the mercy of Christ. When the woman is accused, Christ stoops His head, but when the accusers retire He lifts it up again; thus we see that He would have no man condemned, but all absolved.

By the words, “Hath no man condemned thee?” He briefly overthrows all the quibbles of heretics, who say that Christ knows not the day of judgment. He Who says, “But to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give,” says also in this place, “Hath no man condemned thee?” How is it that He asks concerning that which He saw? It is for our sakes that He asks, that we might know the woman was not condemned. And such is the wont of the human mind, often to enquire concerning that which we know. The woman too answered, “No man, Lord,” that is to say, Who can condemn when Thou dost not condemn? Who can punish another under such a condition as Thou hast attached to his sentence?

The Lord answered her, “Neither do I condemn thee.” Observe how He has modified His own sentence; that the Jews might have no ground of allegation against Him for the absolution of the woman, but by complaining only draw down a charge upon themselves; for the woman is dismissed not absolved; and this because there was no accuser, not because her innocence was established. How then could they complain, who were the first to abandon the prosecution of the crime, and the execution of the punishment?

Then He said to her who had gone astray, “Go, and sin no more.” He reformed the criminal, He did not absolve the sin. Faults are condemned by a severer sentence, whenever a man hates his own sin, and begins the condemnation of it in himself. When the criminal is put to death, it is the person rather than the transgression which is punished, but when the transgression is forsaken, the absolution of the person becomes the punishment of the sin. What is the meaning then of, “Go, and sin no more?” It is this; Since Christ hath redeemed thee, suffer thyself to be corrected by Grace; punishment would not reform but only afflict thee. — Letter XXVI

Augustine of Hippo: Any man who commits adultery with the wife of another or who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife will die without remedy. The text says in plural: they will die without remedy, referring to the adulterer and the adulteress. And he wanted to point out here some difference between any man and his neighbor, although the Scripture often puts forth almost any man. But what does this expression mean, which speaks first of any man and then repeats the same thing about the neighbor, being natural that, if one has to abstain from the wife of any man, one should abstain much more from the wife of the neighbor ? If you had spoken first of your neighbor, you would have to add something about any man, so that he would not believe that he could commit adultery with the wife of one who was not a neighbor. Now, if the lesser evil is not lawful, how can the greater evil be lawful? Because if it is not lawful to commit adultery with the wife of any man, how much less will it be to commit it with the wife of your neighbor! Does this repetition perhaps try to explain what was said first, so that the evil is understood so great that it is committing adultery with the wife of any man, because, if one did, he would commit adultery with the woman of the neighbor? In reality, every man is a neighbor of another man. — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 73 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Leviticus 20:16

Augustine of Hippo: And if a woman approaches a beast to join with her, you will kill the woman and the beast. They will die without remedy: they are guilty. We can ask how an animal can be guilty, being an irrational being and not subject to the law in any way. Is it perhaps because, as in the rhetorical figure, the words are translated -which in Greek is called metaphor-, passing from an animate being to an inanimate one -and this is what is said, for example, a wild wind and an angry sea-, So also here has it moved from a rational to an irrational one? Indeed, we can think that the beasts have been ordered to kill precisely because, contaminated with such a great sin, they renew the memory of an unworthy act. — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 74 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Leviticus 20:17

Augustine of Hippo: Whoever takes his wife as his wife, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, seeing her nakedness and seeing her nakedness, is a disgrace. They will be exterminated in the presence of their offspring. He has discovered his sister’s nudity. They will carry their sin. What does it mean here to see but to know it through sexual intercourse? It is the same thing that is said in the law: He met his wife (Genesis 4,1.17.25), to indicate that he performed the sexual act with her. When it is said: They will bear with their sin, as they are talking about the punishment that will be applied to them, sin is here called punishment for sin. — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 75 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Leviticus 20:20

Augustine of Hippo: Whoever lies with his relative, discovers the nakedness of his relative: they will die without children. We can ask to what extent this kinship must be understood, since when it is distant, it is certainly permissible to take a wife and always has been. But it must be understood that it is not lawful to take it within the degrees that the law forbade and according to which it was said: Who goes to bed with his relative. Probably he has left without mentioning some, like the sister, daughter of both parents, or the wife of the mother’s brother, that is, of the maternal uncle. Because first it was forbidden to marry the wife of the paternal uncle, although this is not called kinship, but affinity. What does it mean: They will die without children, since such unions have born children before and are also born now? Should we think that it is established by God’s law that those born of these unions do not consider themselves children and, therefore, that they do not live their parents alive in any right? And you shall not make your souls abominable, neither with the beasts, nor with the birds, nor with that which creeps on the earth, things that I have separated you as impure. It seems that here it is indicated that these things are not impure by nature, but by some mysterious sign, because it is said: Things that I have separated you as impure, as meaning that they would not be impure to them if God had not separated them. — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 76 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Leviticus 20:27

Augustine of Hippo: The man or the woman who had a ventriloquist or a sorcerer, will die without remedy. You will stone them. They are guilty. Who are you referring to? The man and the woman, or the man and the ventriloquist, or the woman and the ventriloquist or sorcerer? Most likely, it looks like this: not only who has, but also who has. — QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 77 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)