Chap. VIII The Feast of Expiation
Upon the tenth day of the month Tisri, answering to September with us, the Feast of Expiation was commanded to be celebrated, Levit. 13. It was called the Feast of Expiation, because the High-priest did then confess unto God both his own sins, and the sins of the people: and by the performance of certain Rites and Ceremonies expiate them, and make an attonement unto God for them.
The Ceremonies at this time to be performed, concerned either the People and the Priest, or the Priest alone. Those which concerned the People and the Priest, consisted in the afflicting of their souls by fasting. Whence this Feast was also called364 Dies Jejunii, the Fasting Day, Jer. 36. 6. Which serveth for the understanding of that, Act. 27. 9. Sailing was now dangerous, because the Feast was already past; that is, the Feast of Expiation was now past, and Winter was at hand.
Those Ceremonies which concerned the Priest alone, were two: First, then the High-priest entred into the Holiest of Holies, which was peculiar unto this day. Secondly, he being about to sacrifice for himself and his house, he took unto him a young Bullock for a sin-offering, and a Ram for a burnt offering, putting on his Priestly Robes: After he had washed himself in water; he took of the Congregation two He-goats for a sin-offering, and a Ram for a burnt offering. The two He-goats he presented before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle, casting lots which of them should be sacrificed, which let scape alive. This last was termed365 the scape Goat, because the other being slain, this was sent alive into the Wilderness. The Greek Interpreters call this Goat ἀποπομπαῖον, Malorum depulsorem, A defender from evils; which name the Heathens applied to their Tutelar Gods. They intimated, that when the scape Goat carried away the sins of the people into the Wilderness, he likewise carried away all those evils which belonged unto those sins. And for the securing the people in this point, the Lord commanded the High priest to confess in the name of all the people, and to disburden the sins of the whole Congregation upon the head of the scape Goat. The form of Confession, according to the relation of the Hebrew Doctors, was this:366 O Lord, thy People, the House of Israel, they have sinned, they have done wickedly, they have transgressed before thee; I beseech thee now, O Lord, pardon the sins, iniquities, and transgressions, with which the People, the House of Israel have sinned, done wickedly, and transgressed before thee, as it is written in the Law of thy servant Moses: that in that day he shall make Attonement for you, that he might cleanse you, and that you might be clean from all your iniquities before the Lord.
The modern Jews now (because there can be no proper sacrifice, the Temple of Jerusalem being destroyèd) the men they take a white Cock on this day, the women a Hen.367 This Cock they swing three times about the Priests head, saying, Gallus Gallinaceus hic commutatio erit pro me: that is, This Cock shall be a propitiation for me. After that they kill the Cock; acknowledging themselves worthy of death; and then they cast the intrals upon the top of the house, that some Raven or Crow might carry both them, and together with them, their sins into the Wilderness. And least they might seem to be mad without reason, they assign the cause why they make choice of a Cock, at this time, to be this: This word368 Gebher in the Holy Language signifieth a Man, in their Talmud it signifieth a Cock. Now, say they, the Justice of God requires, that as Gebher sinned, so Gebher should make satisfaction. From this Feast of Expiation it is probable, that the Grecians used a yearly Expiation of their Cities, which was performed on this manner: Certain condemned persons were brought forth with Garlands upon their heads, in manner of sacrifices, these they would tumble from some steep place into the Sea, offering them up to Neptune, using this form of words,369 περίψημα ἡμῶν γενοῦ, Sis pro nobis peripsema: As if he had said, Be thou a Reconciliation or Propitiation for us. The like kind of Expiation was used among them in time of any Pestilence, or contagious infection; for removal of such diseases, they then sacrificed certain men unto their Gods, such men they termed καθάρματα.370 These two words are used by the Apostle, 1 Cor. 4. 13. and they are translated filth and off-scouring: We are made as the filth of the World, and as the off-scouring of all things. The words signifie properly the filth or dirt scraped off mens shooes, or from the pavement of the ground: But in Budæus his opinion,371 the Apostle had allusion unto those kinds of Expiations in use amongst the Heathens. As if he had said, We are as despicable and as odious in the sight of the people, as much loaded with the revilings and cursings of the multitude, as those condemned persons, who were offered up by way of publick Expiation.
Now, seeing at this Feast principally the High-Priest was a Type of Christ, it will not be amiss to note the agreement between the Type and the Truth.
| Aaron. | Christ. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The High-priest went into the Holiest of all, Levit. 16. 3. | 1. | Christ our High-Priest went into the Holy place, namely, the Heavens, Heb. 9. 12. |
| 2. | He went once a year, Exod. 30. 10. | 2. | He entered once, Heb. 9. 12. |
| 3. | He with the blood of Goats and Calves, Heb. 9. 12. | 3. | He by his own blood, Heb. 9. 12. |
| 4. | He alone, Heb. 9. | 4. | He alone hath trodden the Wine-press, Isay. 63. 3. |
| 5. | He, clothed with his Priestly Robes, Levit. 16. 4. | 5. | He, ordained and sealed to this Office, by his Father from all Eternity. |
| 6. | He took two Goats, Levit. 16. | 6. | He took two natures: the impassibility of his God-head was shadowed by the Scape goat: his sufferings in his Manhood, by the Goat that was sacrificed, Theod. Qu. 12. in Lev. |
| 7. | The Goat did bear the Peoples iniquities. | 7. | Christ was made sin for us, 2 Cor. 5. 22. |
Notes
364 Joseph. de bel. Jud. pag. 43.
365 עזאזל Gnaz azl. ex עז Gnez. capra & אזל Azal, abiit R. D. Kimchi in Radic.
366 P. Fag. Lev. 16.
367 Buxtorf. Synagog. cap. 20.
368 גבר
369 Suidas in voce περίψημα.
370 Καθάρματα ἐλέγοντο οἱ ἐπὶ καθάρσει λιμοῦ τινὸς ἤ τινὸς ἑτέρας νόσου θυόμενοι τοῖς θεοῖς, Vetus Scholiast. in Aristophan. Plut. pag. 48.
371 Budæus annot. reliq. in Pandect. De pœnis, p. 334.