BackTopContentsNext

Exodus 12

Exodus 12:15, 19

15. ... Whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

15. Quicunque comederit fermentatum a die primo usque ad diem septimum, excidetur anima illa ex Israel.

19. ... Whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.

19. Quicunque comederit fermentatum, exterminabitur anima illa e coetu Israel: tam peregrinus quam indigena terre.

 

15. Whosoever eateth leavened bread. This law specially refers to the keeping of the Passover. God had before forbidden the use of leaven; and He now enacts the punishment to be inflicted, if any should neglect the prohibition, and mingle leaven with the Paschal feast. But it is not without reason that we have postponed to this place what Moses has joined together with the institution of the Passover; for the plan proposed by us demands that the political laws, which sanction God's worship by the denunciation of punishments, should occupy their peculiar place. From the punishment it appears that, although it may be in itself a trifling matter to abstain from leaven, (as Paul teaches that "bodily exercise profiteth little," 1 Timothy 4:8,) yet, inasmuch as in this ceremony the redemption of the people was kept in memory, it was a very gross crime not to observe whatever God had prescribed, for we must estimate the importance of the rites of the law from their object. 1


1 "Selon leur fin, et leur verite." -- Fr.

BackTopContentsNext