Fragmenda

Scripture

Leviticus 18–20

Leviticus 18

Marriage is prohibited in certain degrees of kindred: Anda all unnatural lusts.

1 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 

Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: I am the Lord your God.

3 

You shall not do according to the custom of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt: neither shall you act according to the manner of the country of Chanaan, into which I will bring you. Nor shall you walk in their ordinances.

4 

You shall do my judgments, and shall observe my precepts, and shall walk in them. I am the Lord your God.

5 

Keep my laws and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them, I am the Lord.

6 

No man shall approach to her that is near of kin to him, to uncover her nakedness. I am the Lord.

7 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother: she is thy mother, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

8 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s wife: for it is the nakedness of thy father.

9 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy sister by father or by mother: whether born at home or abroad.

10 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or thy daughter’s daughter: because it is thy own nakedness.

11 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, whom she bore to thy father: and who is thy sister.

12 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: because she is the flesh of thy father.

13 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: because she is thy mother’s flesh.

14 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother: neither shalt thou approach to his wife, who is joined to thee by affinity.

15 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: because she is thy son’s wife, neither shalt thou discover her shame.

16 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: because it is the nakedness of thy brother.

17 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy wife and her daughter. Thou shalt not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to discover her shame: because they are her flesh, and such copulation is incest.

18 

Thou shalt not take thy wife’s sister for a harlot, to rival her: neither shalt thou discover her nakedness, while she is yet living.

19 

Thou shalt not approach to a woman having her flowers: neither shalt thou uncover her nakedness.

20 

Thou shalt not lie with thy neighbour’s wife: nor be defiled with mingling of seed.

21 

Thou shalt not give any of thy seed to be consecrated to the idol Moloch, nor defile the name of thy God. I am the Lord.

22 

Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: because it is an abomination.

23 

Thou shalt not copulate with any beast: neither shalt thou be defiled with it. A woman shall not lie down to a beast, nor copulate with it: because it is a heinous crime.

24 

Defile not yourselves with any of these things with which all the nations have been defiled, which I will cast out before you,

25 

And with which the land is defiled: the abominations of which I will visit, that it may vomit out its inhabitants.

26 

Keep ye my ordinances and my judgments: and do not any of these abominations. Neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you.

27 

For all these detestable things the inhabitants of the land have done, that were before you, and have defiled it.

28 

Beware then, lest in like manner, it vomit you also out, if you do the like things: as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

29 

Every soul that shall commit any of these abominations, shall perish from the midst of his people.

30 

Keep my commandments. Do not the things which they have done, that have been before you: and be not defiled therein. I am the Lord your God.


Leviticus 19

Divers ordinances, partly moral, partly ceremonial or judicial.

1 

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 

Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel. And thou shalt say to them: Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy.

3 

Let every one fear his father, and his mother. Keep my sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.

4 

Turn ye not to idols: nor make to yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God.

5 

If ye offer in sacrifice a peace offering to the Lord, that he may be favourable:

6 

You shall eat it on the same day it was offered, and the next day. And whatsoever shall be left until the third day, you shall burn with fire.

7 

If after two days any man eat thereof, he shall be profane and guilty of impiety:

8 

And shall bear his iniquity, because he hath defiled the holy thing of the Lord. And that soul shall perish from among his people.

9 

When thou reapest the corn of thy land, thou shalt not cut down all that is on the face of the earth to the very ground: nor shalt thou gather the ears that remain.

10 

Neither shalt thou gather the bunches and grapes that fall down in thy vineyard: but shalt leave them to the poor and the strangers to take. I am the Lord your God.

11 

You shall not steal. You shall not lie: neither shall any man deceive his neighbour.

12 

Thou shalt not swear falsely by my name, nor profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord.

13 

Thou shalt not calumniate thy neighbour, nor oppress him by violence. The wages of him that hath been hired by thee shall not abide with thee until the morning.

14 

Thou shalt not speak evil of the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind: but thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, because I am the Lord.

15 

Thou shalt not do that which is unjust, nor judge unjustly. Respect not the person of the poor: nor honour the countenance of the mighty. But judge thy neighbour according to justice.

16 

Thou shalt not be a detractor nor a whisperer among the people. Thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbour. I am the Lord.

17 

Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: But reprove him openly, lest thou incur sin through him.

18 

Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of thy citizens. Thou shalt love thy friend as thyself. I am the Lord.

19 

Keep ye my laws. Thou shalt not make thy cattle to gender with beasts of any other kind. Thou shalt not sow thy field with different seeds. Thou shalt not wear a garment that is woven of two sorts.

20 

If a man carnally lie with a woman that is a bondservant and marriageable, and yet not redeemed with a price, nor made free: they both shall be scourged: and they shall not be put to death, because she was not a free woman.

21 

And for his trespass he shall offer a ram to the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony.

22 

And the priest shall pray for him: and for his sin before the Lord: and he shall have mercy on him, and the sin shall be forgiven.

23 

When you shall be come into the land, and shall have planted in it fruit trees, you shall take away the firstfruits of them. The fruit that comes forth shall be unclean to you: neither shall you eat of them.

24 

But in the fourth year, all their fruit shall be sanctified, to the praise of the Lord.

25 

And in the fifth year you shall eat the fruits thereof, gathering the increase thereof. I am the Lord your God.

26 

You shall not eat with blood. You shall not divine nor observe dreams.

27 

Nor shall you cut your hair roundwise: nor shave your beard.

28 

You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead: neither shall you make in yourselves any figures or marks. I am the Lord.

29 

Make not thy daughter a common strumpet, lest the land be defiled, and filled with wickedness.

30 

Keep ye my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

31 

Go not aside after wizards: neither ask any thing of soothsayers, to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.

32 

Rise up before the hoary head, and honour the person of the aged man: and fear the Lord thy God. I am the Lord.

33 

If a stranger dwell in your land, and abide among you, do not upbraid him:

34 

But let him be among you as one of the same country. And you shall love him as yourselves: for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

35 

Do not any unjust thing in judgment, in rule, in weight, or in measure.

36 

Let the balance be just and the weights equal, the bushel just, and the sextary equal. I am the Lord your God, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.

37 

Keep all my precepts, and all my judgments: and do them. I am the Lord.


Leviticus 20

Divers crimes to be punished with death.

1 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 

Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: If any man of the children Israel, or of the strangers that dwell in Israel, give of his seed to the idol Moloch, dying let him die. The people of the land shall stone him.

3 

And I will set my face against him: and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he hath given of his seed to Moloch, and hath defiled my sanctuary, and profaned my holy name.

4 

And if the people of the land neglecting, and as it were little regarding my commandment, let alone the man that hath given of his seed to Moloch, and will not kill him:

5 

I will set my face against that man, and his kindred, and will cut off both him and all that consented with him, to commit fornication with Moloch, out of the midst of their people.

6 

The soul that shall go aside after magicians, and soothsayers, and shall commit fornication with them: I will set my face against that soul, and destroy it out of the midst of its people.

7 

Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy: because I am the Lord your God.

8 

Keep my precepts, and do them. I am the Lord that sanctify you.

9 

He that curseth his father, or mother, dying let him die. He hath cursed his father, and mother: let his blood be upon him.

10 

If any man commit adultery with the wife of another, and defile his neighbour’s wife: let them be put to death, both the adulterer and the adulteress.

11 

If a man lie with his stepmother, and discover the nakedness of his father, let them both be put to death: their blood be upon them.

12 

If any man lie with his daughter in law: let both die, because they have done a heinous crime. Their blood be upon them.

13 

If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination: let them be put to death. Their blood be upon them.

14 

If any man after marrying the daughter, marry her mother, he hath done a heinous crime. He shall be burnt alive with them: neither shall so great an abomination remain in the midst of you.

15 

He that shall copulate with any beast or cattle, dying let him die: the beast also ye shall kill.

16 

The woman that shall lie under any beast, shall be killed together with the same. Their blood be upon them.

17 

If any man take his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and see her nakedness, and she behold her brother’s shame: they have committed a crime. They shall be slain, in the sight of their people, because they have discovered one another’s nakedness. And they shall bear their iniquity.

18 

If any man lie with a woman in her flowers, and uncover her nakedness, and she open the fountain of her blood: both shall be destroyed out of the midst of their people.

19 

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy aunt by thy mother, and of thy aunt by thy father. He that doth this, hath uncovered the shame of his own flesh: both shall bear their iniquity.

20 

If any man lie with the wife of his uncle by the father, or of his uncle by the mother, and uncover the shame of his near akin, both shall bear their sin. They shall die without children.

21 

He that marrieth his brother’s wife, doth an unlawful thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be without children.

22 

Keep my laws and my judgments, and do them: lest the land into which you are to enter to dwell therein, vomit you also out.

23 

Walk not after the laws of the nations, which I will cast out before you. For they have done all these things: and therefore I abhorred them.

24 

But to you I say: Possess their land which I will give you for an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who have separated you from other people.

25 

Therefore do you also separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the clean fowl from the unclean. Defile not your souls with beasts, or birds, or any things that move on the earth, and which I have shewn you to be unclean:

26 

You shall be holy unto me, because I the Lord am holy: and I have separated you from other people, that you should be mine.

27 

A man, or woman, in whom there is a pythonical or divining spirit, dying let them die. They shall stone them. Their blood be upon them.

Catechism

Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part 1, Chapter 6, Sections 1-7

Importance Of This Article

Filled with the Spirit of God, and contemplating the blessed and glorious Ascension of our Lord, the Prophet David exhorts all to celebrate that splendid triumph with the greatest joy and gladness: Clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto God with he voice of joy.... God is ascended with jubilee.

The pastor will hence learn that this mystery should be explained with the greatest diligence; and that he should take care that the people not only perceive it with faith and understanding, but that they also strive as far as possible, with the Lord's help to reflect it in their lives and actions.

First Part of this Article: "He Ascended into Heaven"

With regard, then, to the exposition of this sixth Article, which has reference principally to this divine mystery, we shall begin with its first part, and point out its force and meaning.

"Into Heaven"

This, then, the faithful must believe without hesitation, that Jesus Christ, having fully accomplished the work of Redemption, ascended as man, body and soul, into heaven; for as God He never forsook heaven, filling as He does all places with His Divinity.

"He Ascended"

The pastor is also to teach that He ascended by His own power, not being taken up by the power of another, as was Elias, who was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot; or, as the Prophet Habacuc, or Philip, the deacon, who were borne through the air by the divine power, and traversed great distances.

Neither did He ascend into heaven solely by the exercise of His supreme power as God, but also by virtue of the power which He possessed as man. Although human power alone was insufficient to accomplish this, yet the virtue with which the blessed soul of Christ was endowed was capable of moving the body as it pleased, and His body, now glorified, readily obeyed the behest of the soul that moved it. Hence, we believe that Christ ascended into heaven as God and man by His own power.

Second Part of this Article: "Sitteth at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty"

The words He sitteth at the right hand of the Father form the second part of this Article. In these words we observe a figure of speech; that is, a use of words in other than their literal sense, as frequently happens in Scripture, when, accommodating its language to human ideas, it attributes human affections and human members to God, who, spirit as He is, admits of nothing corporeal.

"At the Right Hand"

As among men he who sits at the right hand is considered to occupy the most honourable place, so, transferring the same idea to celestial things, to express the glory which Christ as man has obtained above all others, we confess that He sits at the right hand of the Father.

"Sitteth"

To sit does not imply here position and posture of body, but expresses the firm and permanent possession of royal and supreme power and glory which He received from the Father, and of which the Apostle says: Raising him up from the dead, and setting him on his right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality, and power, and virtue, and domination, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and he hath subjected all things under his feet. These words manifestly imply that this glory belongs to our Lord in so special and exclusive a manner that it cannot apply to any other created being. Hence in another place the Apostle testifies: To which of the angels said he at any time: Sit on my right hand.