Child. By this manner of expressing himself, Moses excludes the blessed Virgin, as the ancient fathers and the moderns generally remark. She conceived without concupiscence, and was subject to none of the usual inconveniences of child-birth. (Suarez) --- So that whether this law was instituted to ex... [ Continue Reading ]
_Eighth. Nothing but the child's health could retard the day, (Calmet) unless the parents were under the necessity of taking a journey, as they were in the desert, &c. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Sanctuary, or court of the tabernacle, where the women had probably a place apart. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Days. In all 80, double the time required for a male child, as they infirmities of women continue so much longer when they bear a female. (Vales. sac. Philos. c. xviii.) Hippocrates allows forty-two days for the one, and thirty for the other. --- Purification. Some copies of the Septuagint read, in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lamb, to thank God for her happy delivery. --- Sin, or uncleanness, which was esteemed a legal offence. Perhaps this sacrifice was also designed to expiate the sins she might have fallen into, (Menochius) since she was last able to offer one; and likewise the original sin of her female offspring. T... [ Continue Reading ]
_Blood, which has caused her legal uncleanness._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lamb. This was the case of the blessed Virgin: (Luke ii. 24,); so poor was she! (Menochius) --- It seems difficult to conceive, how all the women of Palestine could present themselves before the tabernacle, 40 or 80 days after the childbirth. Perhaps the law regarded those only who lived in the nei... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XII.... [ Continue Reading ]