Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 6:18
All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. [It shall be] a statute forever in your generations concerning the offerings of the LORD made by fire: every one that toucheth them shall be holy.
18. whosoever toucheth them shall be holy ] This does not mean that only priests who have properly purified themselves may touch the most holy things, but that anyone, priest or layman, who inadvertently comes in contact with anything that is ‘most holy,’ becomes holy (i.e. dedicated to God, and put at His disposal), cp. Jos 6:18; Jos 7:15. No rule is given here about the treatment of such persons; for inanimate things which are brought into contact with the ‘most holy,’ see Lev 6:27-28. According to Hag 2:12, the garment in which ‘holy flesh’ is carried, does not communicate holiness to the food which it may happen to touch.
Holiness is here regarded as a contagious quality; contact with holy things must be avoided, just as contact with things that are considered unclean is forbidden. This similarity in the treatment of things which from the levitical standpoint are so widely separated as the holy and the unclean is a survival of primitive modes of expression, due to imperfect conception of the gods, and of their relations to men. For further discussion of this subject see Driver ( C. B.) on Exo 29:37, with quotation from Frazer, G. B., G. B. Gray on Num. ( Intern. Crit. Comm.) pp. 209 211, Rob.-Sm. Rel. Sem. 2 p. 152, and the note B, pp. 446 f., and HDB. Art. Uncleanness, iv. 826 f. Cp. notes on ch. 11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It may be understood either,
1. Of persons, that none should touch or eat them but consecrated persons, to wit, priests. Or this may be an additional caution, that they who eat them should be not only priests, or their male children, but also
holy, i.e. having no uncleanness upon them, for in that case even the priests themselves might not touch them. Or rather,
2. Of things, as may be gathered by comparing this with Lev 6:27,28. Whatsoever toucheth them, as suppose the dish that receives them, the knife, or spoon, &c. which is used about them, those shall be taken for holy, and not employed for common uses. See Exo 29:37.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it,…. And they only, for none but they might eat in the holy place, and therefore these holy things that were to be eaten there, were only eaten by them; what might be eaten by the priests in their own houses, their wives and daughters ate of, but in the holy place only their males, and a male was one that was thirteen years of age:
[it shall be] a statute for ever in your generations, concerning the offerings of the Lord made by fire; a statute to last till the Messiah should come, the true meat or bread offering; and the bread he gave was his flesh, and he that eats of it shall not die, but live for ever, Joh 6:27:
everyone that toucheth them shall be holy; signifying, that no one ought to touch them but a holy person, one devoted to holy services, the priests and their sons; or “whatsoever” o toucheth them, the dishes they eat those offerings out of, or the knives they cut them with, were not to be used for anything else.
o “quicquid”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(18) All the males among the children of Aaron.The sin offerings, the trespass offerings, and the remainder of the peace offerings being most holy, could only be eaten by the male members of the families of the priests within the court of the sanctuary; whilst the offerings of tithes, fruit, the shoulder and breast of the peoples peace offerings, &c, being less holy, were not only eaten by the officiating priests in Jerusalem, but by their incapacitated sons, their daughters, &c, provided they were ritually clean. Any priest who ate the most holy things outside the wall of the courts, or the less holy things outside of the walls of Jerusalem, received forty stripes save one.
Every one that toucheth them shall be holy.According to this rendering, which exhibits one of the views that obtained during the second Temple, the meaning is that any one who touches the sacrifices of the first order of holiness must not only be a descendant of Aaron and a male, but must have sanctified himself by undergoing the necessary ablutions. (See Lev. 22:6-7.) There is, however, another view of the passage which is of equal, if not of anterior, date. That is, whoso or whatsoever toucheth them shall become holy. Any layman or any ordinary utensil, &c., becomes sacred by touching one of the higher order of sanctity. (See Exo. 29:37; Exo. 30:29; Eze. 44:19; Eze. 46:20; Hag. 2:12.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Statute for ever Chap. 17, note.
Every one that toucheth them shall be holy This applies to persons and to things. The priest is forbidden to eat these oblations while ceremonially defiled, and the sacred utensils brought in contact with them must not be put to any secular use. Every layman who touched the most holy things became holy through contact, so that he must henceforth guard against defilement as scrupulously as the priests, but without their rights and prerogatives. This placed him in an awkward relation to secular things.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 6:18. Every one that toucheth them shall be holy Whatsoever toucheth them, &c.; see Lev 6:27. The meaning of this, according to our version, is, Every one [of the priests] shall be holy, that is, free from all legal defilements, who toucheth, that is, eateth of these offerings; ch. Lev 22:6.Note; Holiness of heart should always accompany the sacredness of office.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Lev 6:18 All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. [It shall be] a statute for ever in your generations concerning the offerings of the LORD made by fire: every one that toucheth them shall be holy.
Ver. 18. Shall be holy. ] God “will be sanctified in all that draw near unto him.”
“ Procul hinc, procul este profani. ”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
All the males = every male.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the males: Lev 6:29, Lev 21:21, Lev 21:22, Num 18:10
It shall: Lev 3:17
every one: Kol asher yigga bahem yikdash, “all – whether person or thingthat toucheth them shall be – or must beholy;” that is, the priests must not eat of these oblations when under any ceremonial defilement, and the sacred utensils used about them must not be employed for any other purpose, or in any other way. Lev 22:3-7, Exo 29:37, Hag 2:12-14, Zec 14:20, Zec 14:21, 1Pe 1:16, 1Pe 2:9
Reciprocal: Exo 30:29 – whatsoever Lev 6:27 – touch Num 5:9 – offering Num 18:8 – the charge
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 6:19-23. The High Priests Special Offering.The High Priest offers a meal offering every day, half in the morning, half at evening. The amount is the same as that of the smallest class of sin offerings (Lev 5:11). Priests do not consume their own sin offering; this sacrifice must therefore be burnt entire. The reference to the day of installation (Lev 6:20 a) must be a mistaken gloss (as is clear from perpetually, Lev 6:20 b).