Philo: On the Rewards and Honours of the Priests from the Ancient Writings of The Set-Apart Bible. Read free with the Sacred Names (Yahuah, Yahshua, Elohim) and audio narration.
1 The law did not allot any share of the land to tl priests, in order that they like others might derive revenu from the land, and so possess a sufficiency of necessa things ; but admitting them to an excessive degree of honoi he said that God was their inheritance, having a reference the things offered to God ; for the sake of two objects, bo that of doing them the highest honour, since they are th made partners in those things which are offered up by pio men, out of gratitude to God ; and also in order that th * Leviticus xsii. 12. ON THE REWARDS OF PRIESTS. 205 ght have no business about which to trouble themselves cept the offices of religion, as they would have had, if they re forced to take care of their inheritance. And the following are the rewards and pre-eminent honours lich he assigns to them ; in the first place, that the necesry food for their support shall at all times be provided ■ them without any labour or toil of their own ; for God tnmands those who are making bread, to take of all the fat d of all the dough, a loaf as first fruits for the use of the iests, making thus, by this legitimate instruction, a provision : those men who put aside these first fruits, proceeding in e way that leads to piety ; for being accustomed at all times offer first fruits of the necessary food, they will thus have . everlasting recollection of God, than which it is impossible imagine a greater blessing ; and it follows of necessity, that e first fruits offered by the most populous of nations must i very plentiful, so that even the very poorest of the priests, list, in respect of his abundance of all necessary food, appear be very wealthy. In the second place, he commands the nation also to give em the first fruits of their other possessions ; a portion of me out of each winepress ; and of wheat and barley from ch threshing floor. And in like manner they were to have a share of oil from all ie olive trees, and of eatable fruit from all the fruit trees, in •der that they might not pass a squalid existence, having lly barely enough of necessary food to support life, but that ley might have sufficient for a certain degree of comfort and ixury, and so live cheerfully on abundant means, with all icoming ornament and refinement. The third honour allotted to them is an assignment of all ie first-born males, of all kinds of land animals which are 3rn for the service and use of mankind ; for these are the lings which God commands to be given to the men consented to the priesthood ; the offspring of oxen, and sheep, and oats, namely calvos, and lambs, and kids, inasmuch as they oth are and are considered clean, both for the purposes of ating aud of sacrifice, but he orders that money shall be given s a ransom for the young of other animals, such as horses, nd asses and camels, and similar beasts, without disparaging heir real value ; and the supplies thus afforded them are very 200 PIIILO JUDiEUS. great; for the people of this nation breed sheep, and cat. tie and ilocks of all kinds above all other peoples, separating them with great care into flocks of goats, and herds of oxen and Ilocks of sheep, and a vast quantity of other troops o animals of all kinds. Moreover the law, going beyond all these enactments in tb their favour, commands the people to bring them the firfruits, not only of all their possessions of every description but also of their own lives and bodies ; for the children an separable portions of their parents as one may say ; but if oik must tell the plain truth, they are inseparable as being o kindred blood,*. . . . and being bound to them by tin allurements of united good will, and by the indissoluble b< of nature. But nevertheless, he consecrates also their own first-bon male children after the fashion of other first fruits, as a sor of thanks-offering for fertility, and a number of children botl existing and hoped for, and wishing at the same time tha their marriages should be not only free from all blame, bu even very deserving of praise, the first fruit arising from whicl is consecrated to God ; and keeping this in their minds, botl husbands and wives ought to cling to modesty, and to attein to their household concerns, and to cherish unanimity, agree ing with one another, so that what is called a communion an< partnership may be so in solid truth, not only in word, bu likewise in deed. And with reference to the dedication of the first-born mal children, in order that the parents may not be separated fron their children, nor the children from their parents, he value the first fruits of them himself at a fixed price in money, order ing everyone both poor and rich to contribute an. equal sum, no having any reference to the ability of the contributors, nor t the vigour or beauty of the children who were born ; but con sidering how much even a very poor man might be able t give ; for since the birth of children happens equally to th most noble and to the most obscure persons of the race, h thought it just to enact that their contribution should also b equal, aiming, as I have already said, particularly to fix a sin. which should be in the power of everyone to give. * The above passage is quite unintelligible in the Greek, and U give up by Maugey as irremediably corrupt. ON THE REWARDS OF PRIESTS. 207