Leviticus 14:4
Shall command him that is to be purified, to offer for himself two living sparrows, which it is lawful to eat, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
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The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- præcipiet ei, qui purificatur, ut offerat duos passeres vivos pro se, quibus vesci licitum est, et lignum cedrinum, vermiculumque et hyssopum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ προστάξει ὁ ἱερεύς, καὶ λήμψονται τῷ κεκαθαρισμένῳ δύο ὀρνίθια ζῶντα καθαρά, καὶ ξύλον κέδρινον καὶ κεκλωσμένον κόκκινον καὶ ὕσσωπον·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְצִוָּה֙ הַכֹּהֵ֔ן וְלָקַ֧ח לַמִּטַּהֵ֛ר שְׁתֵּֽי צִפֳּרִ֥ים חַיּ֖וֹת טְהֹר֑וֹת וְעֵ֣ץ אֶ֔רֶז וּשְׁנִ֥י תוֹלַ֖עַת וְאֵזֹֽב
Haydock's commentary
Sparrows. Hebrew tsipporim. Septuagint, "little birds," which the law only determines must be clean; such probably as might be procured most easily. The leper was to present them, and kill one. But the priest sprinkled with its blood the other bird, which was tied with a scarlet ribband to the cedar-wood and hyssop, in such a manner that its head and wings were not much wet, as it as to fly away. (Calmet)
The cedar prevents putrefaction, the hyssop is very odoriferous, the scarlet and the bird denote beauty and life, which qualities the leper must acquire. So the penitent regains the virtues he had lost, with interest. (Tirinus)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew VII. 28
But wherefore did He command him also to show himself to the priest, and to offer a gift? To fulfill the law here again. For neither did He in every instance set it aside, nor in every instance keep it, but sometimes He did the one, sometimes the other; by the one making way for the high ruleof life that was to come, by the other checking for a while the insolent speech of the Jews, and condescending to their infirmity. And why marvel, if just at the beginning He Himself did this, when even the very apostles, after they were commanded to depart unto the Gentiles, after the doors were opened for their teaching throughout the world, and the law shut up, and the commandments made new, and all the ancient things had ceased, are found sometimes observing the law, sometimes neglecting it?
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).