Who does not know that in the Holy Scriptures—that is, the lawful, prophetic, evangelical, and apostolic, endowed with canonical authority—some things are set down in such a way that they are only to be known and believed, as is that in the beginning God made heaven and earth, and that in the beginning was the Word, and whatever divine or human deeds are narrated only to be understood; but that other things are so commanded that they should be observed and done, or forbidden lest they be done, as is: Honour thy father and mother, and: Thou shalt not commit adultery?
Now of those things which are written by way of commanding and forbidding, some are veiled beneath the mysteries of the sacraments, which were enjoined to be done by that people of the Old Testament as many things and are not now done by the Christian people, but are only required to be understood and are so treated—as is the sabbath for a visible rest, as the unleavened bread in bread without leaven, the passover in the slaying of a lamb, as the many kinds of sacrifices and of foods to be avoided, and the new moons and the yearly solemnities, which the Jews observe even to this day, and those justifications which do not properly pertain to works of righteousness, but are understood to signify something.
For what Christian is compelled in the seventh year to restore a slave to liberty, and, if the slave should be unwilling to depart, to pierce his ear against the doorpost with an awl, and other things of this kind? But other things are even now to be done, if they are precepts to be done, and not to be done, if they are forbidden—such as those which I mentioned: Honour thy father and mother, and: Thou shalt not commit adultery. Concerning those things, therefore, which are so set down in the sacred writings by way of commanding or forbidding or permitting, that even now, that is, in the time of the New Testament, they pertain to
the practising of a godly life and morals, I have undertaken to compose this work which I have taken in hand, that, as far as God helps me, I may gather together all such things from the canonical books and heap them into one, as it were a mirror, that they may be easily inspected. For it was fitting that these things should be so set down by our authors as they have been set down, so that precepts should be mingled with narratives or disputations, things proper with things figurative and things figurative with things proper, while the order of events done is preserved, or answer is made to adversaries, or those who are to be taught are instructed, or those who disdain what is ready and open are in a manner renewed by the discovery of hidden things.
But we in this work neither bring the unbeliever nor build him up unto faith, nor exercise by certain wholesome difficulties the wit and attention of learners, but we admonish the one who, already believing, has willed to obey God, that he may here inspect himself, and attend to how much he has advanced in good morals and works, and how much he still lacks. For thus he can both give thanks for the things he has and take sufficient pains about the things he does not have, that he may have them, and, for the keeping of the former and the attaining of the latter, apply the care and prayers of a faithful piety. But in all these things which I have set out to place for inspection, whatever shall seem to be contrary among themselves, must afterwards, when the questions have been proposed, be expounded and resolved.
Indeed, as for the punishments of evildoings and the rewards of right doings—although I have thought some worthy of mention—yet who does not know that in the New Testament they are unlike those of old? From the very Law, therefore, which was given through Moses, we shall approach the beginning of the divine precepts, such as we have promised to recount. I. THESE THINGS ARE FROM THE BOOK OF THE LAW WHICH IS CALLED EXODUS. Thou shalt not have alien gods before me. Thou shalt not make for thyself a graven thing, nor any likeness of that which is in heaven above and which is on the earth beneath, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them nor worship them. Likewise: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who has taken the name of the Lord his God in vain.
And a little after: Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be long-lived upon the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not speak false testimony against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any of the things that are his. Likewise, after the Decalogue, in other places in the same book these precepts of living are found: You shall not make with me gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. And somewhat after: He who strikes a man, not willing to kill, let him die the death. But he who lay not in wait, but God delivered him into his hands, I will appoint thee a place to which he ought to flee.
If any man deliberately kill his neighbour by lying in wait, thou shalt tear him away from my altar, that he may die. He who strikes his father and mother, let him die the death. He who steals a man and sells him, being convicted of the crime, let him die the death. He who curses his father or mother, let him die the death. If men quarrel and one strike his neighbour with a stone or with a fist, and he die not, but keep to his bed, if he rise up and walk abroad upon his staff, he that struck him shall be innocent, yet so that he make restitution for his lost labour and for the expenses upon the physicians. He who strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and he die under his hands, shall be guilty of the crime:
but if he survive one day or two, he shall not be subject to punishment, because it is his money. If men quarrel, and one strike a pregnant woman, and she indeed miscarry, but she herself live, he shall be subject to a penalty, as much as the woman's husband shall demand and the arbiters shall adjudge: but if her death ensue, he shall render life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. If any man strike the eye of his manservant or maidservant and make them one-eyed, he shall let them go free for the eye which he put out. Likewise if he knock out a tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he shall let them go free.
If an ox gore a man or woman, and they die, it shall be stoned to death: and its flesh shall not be eaten, and the owner of the ox shall be innocent. But if the ox was wont to gore from yesterday and the day before, and they testified to its owner, yet he did not shut it up, and it kill a man and a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner shall be put to death. But if a ransom be laid upon him, he shall give for his life whatever shall be demanded. If it gore a son or a daughter, it shall be subject to a like sentence. If it attack a manservant or maidservant, he shall give thirty shekels of silver to the master, but the ox shall be stoned.
If any man open a cistern and dig it and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall therein, the owner of the cistern shall pay the price of the beasts: but that which is dead shall be his own. If one man's ox wound another's ox and it die, they shall sell the live ox and divide the price, and the carcase of the dead one they shall divide between them. But if he knew that the ox was wont to gore from yesterday and the day before, and its owner kept it not in, he shall render ox for ox and receive the whole carcase. If any man steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for one ox and four sheep for one sheep.
If a thief be found breaking into a house or undermining it, and being smitten die, the smiter shall not be guilty of blood. But if he did this after the sun was risen, he has committed murder, and he himself shall die. If he have not wherewith to make restitution for the theft, he shall be sold. If the thing he stole be found alive with him, whether ox or ass or sheep, he shall restore double. If any man damage a field or a vineyard and let loose his beast to feed upon another's, whatever best thing he has in his own field or vineyard, he shall restore according to the estimate of the damage. If a fire break out and find thorns and lay hold of stacks of grain or standing crops in the fields, he who kindled the fire shall make good the damage.
If any man entrust money or a vessel to a friend for safekeeping, and it be stolen away by theft from him who received it, if the thief be found, he shall repay double: if he lie hidden, the master of the house shall be brought to the gods and shall swear that he stretched not out his hand upon his neighbour's property to perpetrate fraud, as much in the ox as in the ass and sheep and garment, and whatever can cause damage: and the cause of both shall come to the gods: and if they adjudge it, he shall restore double to his neighbour. If any man entrust to his neighbour an ass, an ox and a sheep and any beast for keeping, and it die or be maimed or taken by enemies, and no one see this, an oath shall be taken between them that he stretched not out his hand upon his neighbour's property:
and the owner shall accept the oath, and the other shall not be compelled to make restitution. But if it was stolen away by theft, he shall restore the loss to the owner. If it was devoured by a beast, let him bring to him that which was slain, and he shall not make restitution. He who has requested from his neighbour any of these things as a loan, and it be maimed or die while the owner is not present, he shall be compelled to make restitution. But if the owner was present, he shall not restore, especially if it had come hired for the wages of its labour. If a man seduce a virgin not yet betrothed and lie with her, he shall endow her and shall have her as wife. If the father of the virgin be unwilling to give her, he shall pay money according to the measure of the dowry which virgins are wont to receive. Thou shalt not suffer sorcerers to live. He who lies with a beast, let him die the death.
He who sacrifices to gods, save to the Lord alone, shall be slain. Thou shalt not grieve a stranger nor afflict him: for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not harm the widow and orphan. If you injure them, they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry, and my fury shall be indignant, and I will smite you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows and your sons orphans. If thou lend money to my poor people who dwell with thee, thou shalt not press him like an exactor nor oppress him with usury. If thou take thy neighbour's garment as a pledge, restore it to him before sunset: for it is the only covering he has, the raiment of his flesh, nor has he any other in which to sleep: if he cry out to me, I will hear him, because I am merciful.
Thou shalt not revile the gods, and thou shalt not speak ill of the prince of thy people. Thou shalt not delay to offer thy tithes and firstfruits. The firstborn of thy sons thou shalt give to me. And a little after: Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie, nor join thy hand that thou mayest speak false testimony for the impious. Thou shalt not follow the crowd to do evil, nor in judgment shalt thou acquiesce in the opinion of the many, so as to swerve from the truth. Neither shalt thou pity a poor man in a lawsuit. If thou meet the ox of thine enemy or his straying ass, bring it back to him. If thou see the ass of one who hates thee lying under its burden, thou shalt not pass by, but shalt lift it up with him. Thou shalt not turn aside in the judgment of the poor. Thou shalt flee from a lie. The innocent and just thou shalt not kill: for I abhor the impious.
Thou shalt not receive gifts, which blind even the prudent and subvert the words of the just. Thou shalt not be troublesome to the sojourner: for you know the souls of strangers, because you also were strangers in the land of Egypt. And after certain things interposed, when he spoke of the aliens: Thou shalt not adore their gods, neither worship them. Thou shalt not do their works, but shalt destroy them and break in pieces their statues: and you shall serve the Lord your God. And after much in the same book concerning the gods of the nations: But destroy their altars, break their statues, and cut down their groves. Thou shalt not adore an alien god. The Lord, jealous is his name, he is a God zealous.
Do not enter into a covenant with the men of those regions, lest, when they have committed fornication with their gods and adored their images, some one of them harm thee by inviting thee to eat of the things sacrificed. Neither take a wife of their daughters for thy sons, lest, after they themselves have committed fornication, they cause thy sons also to fornicate after their gods. Thou shalt not make for thyself molten gods. And a little after: The firstfruits of the fruits of thy land thou shalt offer in the house of the Lord thy God. These things I have thought fit to gather from the book of the Law which is called Exodus. Now in the same manner let us inspect in the following Leviticus. II. ON LEVITICUS. Every man, he says, shall not approach one near of his own blood, to uncover her nakedness. I am the Lord.
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father and the nakedness of thy mother: she is thy mother, thou shalt not reveal her nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's wife: for it is thy father's nakedness. The nakedness of thy sister by thy father or by thy mother, whether born at home or abroad, thou shalt not reveal. The nakedness of the daughter of thy son or of thy granddaughter by thy daughter thou shalt not reveal: for it is thine own nakedness. The nakedness of the daughter of thy father's wife, whom she bore to thy father, and who is thy sister, thou shalt not reveal. The nakedness of thy father's sister thou shalt not uncover: for it is thy father's flesh. The nakedness of thy mother's sister thou shalt not reveal, because she is thy mother's flesh.
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, nor approach his wife, who is joined to thee by affinity. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter-in-law, because she is thy son's wife, nor reveal her shame. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: for it is thy brother's nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy wife and her daughter. Thou shalt not take the daughter of her son and the daughter of her daughter, to reveal her shame: because they are her flesh, and such a coupling is incest. Thou shalt not take thy wife's sister as a rival to her, nor uncover her nakedness while she yet lives. Thou shalt not approach a woman who suffers her menses, nor reveal her uncleanness.
Thou shalt not lie with thy neighbour's wife, nor be defiled by mingling of seed. Thou shalt not give of thy seed to be consecrated to the idol Moloch, nor profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord. Thou shalt not lie with a male as with a woman: for it is an abomination. Thou shalt not couple with any beast, nor be defiled with it. A woman shall not lie under a beast, nor be mingled with it: for it is wickedness. Neither be defiled in any of these things. And after some space: Let every one fear his mother and his father. And after one verse: Turn not to idols, nor make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God. And a little after:
Thou shalt not, he says, gather the ears that remain, nor collect in thy vineyard the clusters and the grapes that fall, but shalt leave them to be gleaned by the poor and the strangers. I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal. You shall not lie, neither shall any one deceive his neighbour. Thou shalt not swear falsely in my name, nor profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord. Neither shalt thou slander thy neighbour, nor oppress him by force. The work of thy hireling shall not remain with thee until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind: but thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, for I am the Lord. Thou shalt not do that which is unjust, nor judge unjustly. Thou shalt not consider the person of the poor, nor honour the countenance of the mighty. Judge thy neighbour justly.
Thou shalt not be a slanderer nor a whisperer among the people. Thou shalt not stand against thy neighbour's blood. I am the Lord. Hate not thy brother in thy heart, but rebuke him openly, lest thou have sin upon him. Thou shalt not seek revenge, nor be mindful of the wrong of thy fellow citizens. Thou shalt love thy friend as thyself. I am the Lord. Keep my laws. And a little after: You shall not eat with the blood. You shall not divine by augury, nor observe dreams. Neither shall you round off your hair in a circle, nor shave off your beard. And you shall not cut your flesh over a dead person, nor make any figures or marks upon yourselves. I am the Lord. Do not prostitute thy daughter, lest the land be contaminated and filled with wickedness. And after one verse: I am the Lord.
Turn not aside to magicians, nor inquire anything of soothsayers, that you be not polluted through them. I am the Lord your God. Before a hoary head rise up, and honour the person of the aged, and fear thy God. I am the Lord. If a stranger dwell in your land and abide among you, do not reproach him, but let him be among you as a native, and you shall love him as yourselves: for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Do not anything unjust in judgment, in measure, in weight, in quantity. Let the balance be just and the weights equal: let the measure be just and the sextary equal. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Keep all my precepts and all my judgments, and do them.
I am the Lord. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: These things shalt thou say to the children of Israel: A man of the children of Israel or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, if any one give of his seed to the idol Moloch, let him die the death: the people of the land shall stone him: and I will set my face against him, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he gave of his seed to Moloch and contaminated my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.
But if the people of the land be negligent and, as it were making light of my command, let go the man who gave of his seed to Moloch, and be unwilling to kill him, I will set my face against that man and his kindred, and I will cut off both him and all who consented with him, in committing fornication with Moloch, from the midst of his people. The soul that turns aside to magicians and soothsayers, and commits fornication with them, I will set my face against it and destroy it from the midst of its people. Be sanctified and be holy: for I am the Lord your God. Keep my precepts and do them. I am the Lord who sanctify you. He who curses his father or mother, let him die the death. He cursed father and mother; let his blood be upon him.
If a man commit adultery with another's wife and perpetrate adultery with his neighbour's spouse, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall die the death. He who lies with his stepmother and uncovers his father's shame, both shall die the death: their blood shall be upon them. If any man lie with his daughter-in-law, both shall die, because they have wrought wickedness: their blood shall be upon them. He who lies with a male as with a woman, both have wrought abomination, let them die the death: their blood shall be upon them. He who, having a wife, takes her mother, has wrought wickedness: he shall be burned alive with them, that so great a wickedness may not remain in your midst. He who couples with a beast and cattle, let him die the death: kill the beast also.
A woman who lies under any beast shall be slain together with it: their blood shall be upon them. He who takes his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she beholds her brother's shame, they have wrought a nefarious thing: they shall be slain in the sight of the people, because they have mutually uncovered their nakedness, and they shall bear their iniquity. He who lies with a woman in her menstrual flow and uncovers her nakedness, and she opens the fountain of her blood, both shall be slain from the midst of their people. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy maternal or paternal aunt. He who does this has laid bare the shame of his own flesh: both shall bear their iniquity.
Whoever lies with the wife of his uncle, whether on his father's side or his mother's, and uncovers the shame of his kindred, both shall bear their sin: they shall die childless. Whoever takes his brother's wife does an unlawful thing: he has uncovered his brother's nakedness: they shall be without children. And in another place: A man or a woman in whom there is a divining or a soothsaying spirit, let them die the death. They shall stone them: their blood be upon them. And likewise in another place, when he was speaking of the high priest: He shall take a virgin to wife, he says: a widow, or one that is divorced, or defiled, or a harlot he shall not take, but a maiden of his own people: lest he mingle the stock of his own kindred with the common people of his nation: for I am the Lord who sanctify him. And after much more:
The man who curses his God shall bear his sin. And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord, let him die the death: all the multitude shall stone him, whether he be a native or a stranger. He who blasphemes the name of the Lord, let him die the death. He who strikes and kills a man, let him die the death. He who strikes an animal shall make it good, that is, a life for a life. He who inflicts a blemish on any of his fellow citizens, as he has done, so shall it be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth he shall restore. Whatever blemish he has inflicted, such shall he be compelled to bear. He who strikes a beast of burden shall render another. He who strikes a man shall be punished. Let there be equal judgment among you, whether a stranger or a citizen has sinned:
For I am the Lord your God. And after some space: You shall not make for yourselves an idol or graven image, nor set up standing-stones, nor place a marked stone in your land, to worship it. For I am the Lord your God. Thus far from Leviticus. Now from the book whose name is Numbers we shall set down what seemed worth recording. III. CONCERNING NUMBERS. When a man dies without a son, his inheritance shall pass to his daughter. If he has no daughter, his brothers shall be his heirs. But if he has no brothers, you shall give the inheritance to his father's brothers. But if he has no uncles either, the inheritance shall be given to those who are nearest to him: and this shall be for the children of Israel a holy ordinance by perpetual law, as the Lord commanded Moses.
And after much more: No one shall be condemned on the testimony of one witness. You shall not accept a price from one who is guilty of blood. These things we found in Numbers, which we thought worth examining. Next we shall consider Deuteronomy. IV. CONCERNING DEUTERONOMY. There shall be no respect of persons: you shall hear the small as the great, nor shall you accept anyone's person: for the judgment is God's. And after many things interposed, where he repeats the Decalogue: Keep therefore your souls carefully. You saw no likeness on the day when the Lord spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
lest perhaps, being deceived, you make for yourselves a carved likeness or image of male or female, the likeness of any of the beasts that are upon the earth, or of the birds that fly beneath heaven, or of the creeping things that move upon the earth, or of the fishes that dwell in the waters under the earth: lest perhaps, lifting your eyes to heaven, you see the sun and the moon and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error, worship and serve the things which the Lord your God created for the service of all the nations that are under heaven. And a little after: Beware, he says, lest at any time you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you, and make for yourselves a carved likeness of those things which the Lord has forbidden to be made: for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. And in another place:
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any things that are in heaven above, or that are on the earth beneath, or that abide in the waters under the earth. You shall not adore them nor serve them. For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, requiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing mercy unto many thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: for he shall not be held guiltless who takes his name upon an empty matter. And a little later:
Honor, he says, your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is about to give you. You shall not kill. Neither shall you commit adultery. And you shall not steal. Nor shall you speak false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his house, nor his field, nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his. And elsewhere in the same book: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And a little after: When you have eaten and are filled, take diligent heed lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
You shall fear the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear. You shall not go after the strange gods of all the nations that are round about you: for the Lord your God, a jealous God, is in the midst of you: lest at any time the fury of the Lord your God be kindled against you and take you away from off the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Likewise a little after, when he was speaking of foreigners: Neither shall you contract marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for your son: for she will seduce your son, that he follow not me, and that he serve strange gods the more: and the fury of the Lord will be kindled and will destroy you quickly. But rather thus you shall do to them:
Overthrow their altars, break their statues, cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. And after some space: You shall burn their graven images with fire. You shall not covet the silver and gold of which they are made, nor take any of it to yourself, lest you be ensnared, because it is an abomination to the Lord your God. Nor shall you bring anything of an idol into your house, lest you become accursed like it: you shall detest it as filth, and hold it as pollution and defilement for an abomination, for it is accursed. And in another place: Observe and beware lest at any time you forget the Lord your God and neglect his commandments and judgments and ceremonies, which I command you this day: