How Christ said the first mass, By Rev. James L. Meagher, D.D. Part 6.

The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud

In the middle ages all Jewish books were condemned to be destroyed, the Talmud was ordered burned; but they saved a few copies. A Jew learned in Talmudic lore was converted to the Catholic Church, and explaining to the Pope the contents of this work, the Pontiff forbade any further destruction of this product of antiquity. This decree saved the Talmud from utter destruction.

The Talmud is divided into six sections: "Seeds," "Festivals," "Women," "Jurisprudence," "Holiness," and "Purity," making sixty " Tracts," each treating of different matters—both Talmuds forming sixty volumes in quarto. 1

These Talmuds show you the Jewish mind before and during the time of Christ. There is little in them to be condemned, as many hold who never saw them, except that the Jerusalem Talmud, contains some scandalous attacks on Christ's character. But the Babylonian Talmud hardly alludes to Him.
You pass page after page of weary waste of discussion, disputes of learned sages, and their opinions of what the Torah "the Law," means reminding you of disputed points of moral theology. The oldest part, called the Mishna, the purest and best, is rich in information, for it comes down perhaps from beyond the Babylonian Captivity, when Israel was led by the prophets guided by the Holy Spirit.
The Gemara, coming after the Captivity, shows minds absolutely without faith, devoid of a spark of the supernatural. All is founded on the Torah, "the Law," as they call the Books of Moses,—the first five books of the Bible. The prophets are seldom quoted; the beautiful Temple service is explained, but they never look beyond and behind it to see the Christ it foretold.
They looked for two Christs—one to be born of David's family who was to establish a kingdom of matchless splendors, trample on his enemies, and wade through rivers of blood to his throne in Jerusalem, where he would make the Jews rulers over all the earth. Borrowing these ideas from the Jew, Mohammed and his successors spread their empire by the sword. The other Christ or Messiah, to be born of Joseph's tribe, was to be a suffering Christ to come and die; why, they do not explain.
Bible and Talmud, both written by Hebrews, differ in a striking degree—one is the product of inspired men, through whom God spoke to the world, the other was written by men of an outcast nation, spiritually dead, absolutely divested of every spark of supernatural faith. One pulsates with life; in every page you see, in the original, the foretold Redeemer, the face of the Holy Ghost; the other, the Talmuds, show the heart of a race punished for idolatry by the Babylonian Captivity, and for the crime of killing their Messiah driven by the Romans into all the earth fulfilling these words. "We will not have this, man rule over us," "His blood be on us and on our children."
We do not always realize what an Oriental tradition is. To us a tradition is a story, more or less true, changing from one generation to another, vague, or exaggerated, founded on truth, but developed by time.
But a tradition among the Jews was a religious truth coming down from their forefathers, told and repeated in the synagogues, in the Temple, at feasts, by family firesides, given exactly word for word as they had heard it. If it were not given as handed down, in almost the very same words, if a word were added to it, or left out, the whole company cried out, the relator was execrated and driven away. This was the way the patriarchs taught their children the story of the creation, the fall of man, the religious belief of ancient days. In this way they claim religion and history were handed down till Moses wrote them in Genesis.
Adam died in the year 930 when Mathusala was ninety-four years old. The latter lived till Sem, called also Melchisedech, was in his fiftieth years. Sem, or Melchisedech, died on Sion when Isaac was thirty-three years of age, and the latter lived till he was 180,—2288 years after the creation of Adam, and but a short time before the birth of Amram, Moses' father. Thus history came down from Adam and the patriarchs to Moses the great Lawgiver, Founder of the Hebrew nationality and writer of the first five books of the Bible. 2

In the same way, they claim, the teachings they called the "traditions" of the Jews, passed down till written in the Talmud. In the schools of Babylonia and Judea, the scholars received only what was taught, no deviation was allowed, not a word was changed. From his high seat, like a pulpit, the learned Rabbi gave the sayings of their fathers, the traditions of the elders held as sacred as the written word, sometimes more so, and the pupils learned them by heart and treasured them as the breath of their nostrils.
Living in Babylonia since the days of the Captivity, the Hebrews were not there disturbed by the Christ's life, his teachings, the tragedy of his death and the preaching of the apostles, The Talmud contains little relating to Christianity. We find in it Hebrew rules and customs of the Passover, as it was celebrated in the days of the Jewish kings.
We will describe the Temple worship on the Day of the Atonement, because we wish to lay before the reader the minute details of how God was worshiped in the days of Christ, because the Temple ceremonial was introduced into the synagogue and was followed by Christ on the night of the Last Supper, and because atonement of sin is the very foundation of every Old Testament offering fulfilled in the Last Supper and is now continued in the Mass.
The Temple high priest in the ceremonial, and the celebrant to-day offering the Mass, image Him, the High Priest of eternity who came into the world, offered his life and sufferings as a sacrifice, then passed back again into his heavenly sanctuary. Therefore ascending the altar steps, beginning Mass the celebrant recites these deep words of the Church's Liturgy :
"Take away from us, we pray thee, O Lord, our sins, that with pure minds we may be made worthy to enter into the Holy of Holies. Through Christ our Lord. Amen." 3
To link every offering with Christ and the Holy Spirit burning in him, following God's orders, every sacrifice was consumed or roasted on the altar with a fire which had come down from heaven. 4 But Nadab and Abiu, Aaron's sons, sacrificed with a strange fire, which did not typify the Holy Ghost or relate to the foretold Redeemer. For that awful sin God struck both dead. 5 Then the Eternal ordained the ceremonial the Hebrews were to follow each year on the Day of the Atonement. 6
The Bible does not go into the details of that sacred, holiest and most striking of all the Temple ceremonies. But before us is the Tract Yomah "Day of Atonement," of the Babylonian Talmud. We will go over the whole volume, search in the rubbish for the pure untarnished
gold of the days before Christ, and lay before the reader these interesting details. As we go along we will give explanations of the Hebrew texts that the reader may better understand how Christ and the Mass were foretold. 7
The high priest, representing Christ for the Hebrew nation, alone performed all the ceremonies of this solemn day which always fell on the tenth day of Tishri. In fear and trembling, he bore the sins of Israel behind the veil in the gold-walled room, the Holy of Holies, image of heaven, where the Shekina, the Holy Spirit, dwelled as a cloud by day and a fire by night, in the tabernacle and first Temple. Before the ceremonial of this day, priest and people, even the very sanctuary, were unclean, and without this ceremonial the services of the following year could not be carried on. The Law laid down numerous details, 8 but we will give the more minute descriptions of the Talmud. 9
"Seven days before the Day of Atonement, the high priest moves from his house, lest his wife might defile him, and takes up his abode in the Palhedrin Chamber, called in Greek Paraderon, (the Lord's Chamber), near the Nicanor Gate. Another priest, generally the Sagon, his substitute, is chosen and instructed to take his place if he becomes unclean. 10 Out of his own pocket he must buy all the animals for the sacrifice." 11
Thus he foretold the sinless Christ atoning for the iniquities of the world, and foreshadowed the unmarried clergy entering our sanctuary to offer Mass.
"Why was he separated six days before the feast? When God gave the Law on Sinai, he called Moses up the mountain. 'And the glory of the Lord dwelled on Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days, and on the seventh day he called him out of the midst of the cloud.' 12 During all these six days of preparation, they sprinkled the high priest with the ashes of all the red cows offered."
These animals, were sacrificed outside the walls of the city, led over the bridge spanning the Cedron, built by the high priest out of his own pocket. Across that same bridge they dragged Christ the night of his arrest. The red cows foretold Christ, red with his blood, offered in sacrifice for mankind. The high priest was sprinkled with water mixed with their ashes, to typify that the pontiff was typically in spirit sprinkled with the Redeemer's blood to clean him from sin to offer the sacrifice and enter the sacred sanctuary. Sprinkling the high priest foretold our holy water.
"Aaron was separated seven days, during which time Moses instructed him regarding the services of this day. During these days two men of the Beth Din 'The Court of Law' taught him (the high priest) the ceremony as it was written, as at this present it hath been done, that the rite of sacrifice might be accomplished.' 14 Moses ascended into the cloud and was sanctified in the cloud in order that he might receive the Torah ' The Law,' for Israel in a state of holiness." 15
"This happened the day after the Ten Commandments were given, which was the first of Moses', fast of the next-, forty days. 15a The high priest the Day of Atonement has not the gold plate with the engraved words; ' Holiness unto Jehovah' on his brow " for he represented our High Priest Christ" who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree." 16
"The chamber where he took up his abode was first called the 'Chamber of the Lords,' but after the high priests bought their office with money, after the Roman occupation of Palestine, it was called the Hall of the Palhedrin, 'Officers.'"
All houses, chambers, etc., had hangings on the doorposts boxes of leather, in which on parchments were written the morning and evening prayers. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul and with thy whole strength," etc. "And thou shall write them in the entry, and on the doors of thy house." 17 Did they give rise to the holy water founts of our churches and houses, that by taking the water, and blessing ourselves we may remember our baptism and redemption through Christ?
"No chamber of the Temple had these Muzuzahs except the Palhedrin Chamber, because for seven days it was the high priest's abode, and the Nicanor Gate through which the people entered the Temple.
" First he clothed himself in the eight vestments God prescribed for Aaron and his sons, went with the gold basin turned over the sacrifices burning on the altar to make it burn better. Every day he sprinkled the blood of the victims, offered the incense in the Holies, trimmed the lamps of the seven-branched candelabrum, and takes for his own use a part of the first offerings, which he eats. Incense he offers first, then he trims the lamps, and sacrifices the lamb morning and afternoon. (Incense typified the prayers of Christ offered to his Father before he was sacrificed.)" They drew lots to choose the priests to wait on him. The first lot was to select the priests to clean the ashes from the great altar, called the Ariel, ' Lion of God,' the second, for those who would kill the victim, sprinkle the blood, clear the ashes on the altar of incense in the Holies, trim the lamps and carry up the members of the sacrifices. The third lot was to choose the one among the nine priests to offer the incense in the Holies."
The incense was offered first, and that is the reason the candles are first lighted and the celebrant of the Mass first incenses the altar at the beginning of Mass. "And Aaron shall burn sweet-smelling incense upon it in the morning. When he shall dress the lamps, he shall burn it." 18
"Then follow directions to mark the horns of the great altar with the blood of the victims in the form of a cross which we will describe later." Four chambers were in the heating-house, like small rooms opening into a great hall, two belonged to the sanctuary (the Priests' Court in the middle of which stood the great altar of sacrifice), and two were profane, and small wickets parted the sacred ones from the profane. The southwestern was for the lambs for the sacrifice.

The southeastern was for the showbreads (the proposition bread in our Bible). In the northeastern the Machabees, the Asmoneans, had hidden the stones of the altar profaned by the Greeks. The northwestern was used as a passage to the bath-house. The chamber at the northeast was the place where the wood was kept, and blemished priests examined the wood there, as moldy wood was unfit for the altar. The northwestern chamber was the place for the cured lepers, who came to the Temple to be sprinkled. Wine and oil for the offerings were kept there, and it was called the chamber of oil.
"The altar stood in the middle of the court, and was in size thirty-two ells, ten ells opposite to the door of the Temple, twenty ells wide, eleven ells toward the north, and eleven ells to the south, so that the altar was opposite to the Temple, and its walls."

1 See Edersheim, Life of Christ, i. 47,103,104,175.

2 De Religione Hebrӕorum, n. 68.

3 Roman Missal.

4 Levit. ix. 24.

5 Levit. x. 2.

6 Levit, xvi. 16.

7 The words of the Old Testament in the Talmud are not the very same as those found in the translations Christians use, but the sense is the same. No two persons will give the same terms when translating from another language.

8 Levit. xvi.

9 See Geikie, Life of Christ, i. 95.

10 Levit. viii. 34.

11 Babylonian Talmud, Tract Yomah.

12 "Day of Atonement," Chap 1; Mishna and Gamaras.

13 Exod. xxiv. 16.

14 Levit. viii. 34.

15(a) Talmud, Tract Yomah, "Day of Atonement" p. 4.

16 I. Peter ii. 24.

17 Deut. vi. 4-9.

18 Exod. xxx. 7, 8, etc.

How Christ said the first mass, By Rev. James L. Meagher, D.D. Part 5.

"The Shekinah Glory Enters the Tabernacle"; illustration from The Bible and Its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons; Charles F. Horne and Julius A. Bewer (Ed.), 1908

When John the Baptist baptized the Lord at Gilgal, the Shekina, in the form of a dove, overshadowed Christ. At the Transfiguration, in the form of a cloud. He covered Thabor's height. When preaching in the Temple He spoke in testimony of the Saviour. When he died He left the Holy of Holies as a mighty wind, saying, " Let us go hence." He rested on the western walls of the Temple, according to Jewish writers. The day of the Ascension He surrounded the ascending Christ. "And a cloud received him out of their sight." The day of Pentecost the fiery cloud, the Holy Ghost, 1 filled the Cenacle and rained down tongues of fire on the Apostles, giving each the language of the nations he was to convert.
Jewish writers tell us, the Shekina took up its abode on the summit of Olivet, for three and a half years, day and night they heard His voice in pleading words: " Come back to me, O my people, O come back to me ! " The Presence never spoke again. 2
In numerous places the Talmud has the words " Holy Spirit" having the same meaning as in Christian writings. The Old Testament, the Talmuds, Targums, Philo and Rabbinical writers use words which in translations of the Bible are rendered as Lord, God, etc., which show they had a dim idea or knowledge of the Trinity. As all translations are weak, our English Bible loses these peculiar terms.
The Hebrew Word Yaqara " The excellent Glory," found especially in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, means God the Father in the act of revealing, while the term Memra "the Logos," "The Word," is the Divine Son revealed. Hundreds of times Memra will be found in Moses' five books. The Targum Onkelos gives it 179, the Jerusalem Targum 99, and that of Pseudo Jonathan 321 times. Yaqara is God in his divine majesty; Memra is God in his wisdom; the Shekina is God revealing himself to man.
We give an example of the Targum Onkelos. " God, Yaqara, spoke to Abraham." 4 " God, Yaqara, rested at the top of Jacob's ladder," 5 and later spoke to the patriarch. 6 Moses uses the word when he says God called to him from the bush, 7 promised the manna, 8 when the Hebrews defeated Amalec, 9 when Jethro visited Moses, 10 and when the Lord, Yaqara, gave the Ten Commandments.11 There are hundreds of terms in the Hebrew Bible which are dim revelations of the Persons of the Trinity.
The first foundations of the Hebrew religion was laid by the Eternal Father Yaqara. The forms of nature, the knowledge of divine things, were given by Memra, the Word of God, the Wisdom of the Father, the Son of God. The ceremonial, law, tabernacle. Temple and Hebrew Church were founded by the Shekina the Holy Spirit. The Apostles and converts were then, by reading the Old Testament, ready to receive the belief in the Trinity, first clearly revealed when Christ said, " Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 12
These words were applied to the Persons of the Trinity in the times of the patriarchs, and continued down through Moses' writings. When God called Moses from the fiery bush to develop the patriarchal religion into the tabernacle and Temple ceremonial and found the Hebrew nationality, he revealed himself by a new name, " I am who am," 13 which was rendered by the Hebrew Jehovah " The Existing One " or Adonai, " Lords," from adon, "Lord," "sir."
While Elohim, from Eloi, " My God," represents the Eternal as creating and governing the universe, Jehovah shows him in his relation to man as the " God of mercy " revealing himself to the world, forming the covenant, giving the Law, forgiving sin, and promised as the Redeemer. Elohim is the God of justice punishing the wicked—the Eternal Father to whom sacrifices are offered by directions of Jehovah the Divine Son, with whom the Shekina acts, enlightening patriarchs and prophets.
After writing the Law and sprinkling the people with blood, " Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abiu, and the seventy ancients of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel." 14 Here the original Hebrew has the word Yaqara, as also in verses 11 and 17.
When God established the daily sacrifice of tabernacle and Temple for perpetual oblation 15 the word is Yaqara, as it is when Moses asked to see His glory. 16 The same word is used when God filled the tabernacle with his glory. 17
The bullock and ram for peace offerings are sacrificed before Yaqara, 18 the Lord, Yaqara, commanded 19 them when He appeared to the multitude. 20 When the ark was set down, Moses said, " Return, O Lord, to the multitude of the house of Israel." 21 God as Yaqara spoke to Aaron and Mary, promised to appear to the prophets in vision and dream, and he spoke to Moses, who saw the Lord Yaqara.22" Moses prayed to the Yaqara not to destroy the Hebrews, and the Yaqara was not with them when they wanted, against his wish, to go to the Promised Land. 23

II.—HOW THE HEAVENLY MYSTERIES OF THE MASS WERE UNVEILED IN THE TEMPLE.

Leaving not the supernal glories he had with the Father and the Holy Spirit before the world was, the Eternal Son was made man, suffered death to redeem us, then with our nature united to the Divinity, he went back into the spirit world unseen, where he ever offers sacrifices from our altars.
Day by day, at every Mass, he returns from these eternal, boundless, spaceless, timeless realms, hides his body, soul, and Divinity under forms of bread and wine, is sacrificed in Eucharistic offering, in Communion feeds our souls, and then enters again his eternal sanctuary. Thus every Mass is like a renewal of the Incarnation and an entry into heaven. Communion is an image of God made man in the Person of the Divine Son united to each soul who receives him, and the feasts of the Incarnation and birth of Christ intermingle with feasts of the Eucharist in all Church Liturgies.
Every year the Hebrews held a most holy and mysterious Temple rite, foretelling Christ's death and his entry into heaven at his Ascension and after every Mass. God himself told Moses how to establish the ceremonies of this the Day of Atonement, so celebrated in Jewish writings. But only thirty-four verses are all we have in the Old Testament relating to this great day. 24 The ancient world has vanished, the priesthood ceased centuries ago, and not a stone remains on a stone of the Temple. But fortunately, a work hardly ever seen by Christian eye has most minute details of this the most striking of all the Temple ceremonies of the time of Christ.
One Part of the Babylonian Talmud Tract Yomah: " Day of Atonement," is filled with descriptions of the rites and ceremonies of that day. We will first see the orgin of this remarkable product of the Jewish people, which they revere next after the Old Testament. Then we will lay before our readers details picked out here and there from this work, at the same time giving explanations of the text as we go along. This is the first time, we think, that this work has been given to Christian readers in this form. For the Talmud has been looked on as a vile product of the Jewish mind, written to deceive, and perhaps prejudice has prevented its study. We will first give the origin and history of the Talmud.
The year 3,428 of Adam's creation, 128 of Rome's foundation, 626 before Christ, reigned in Babylon Nabuchonosor II. " Nebo protects the landmarks." Nebo comes from nibach " to teach," " to prophesy." Because of their idolatry, God allowed this monarch's armies to capture Jerusalem, destroy Solomon's Temple, carry away the Hebrews as slaves and scatter them over the plains of Babylonia.
There they began to better study their religion. With the Torah " The written Law," in Moses' five books, they claimed, came down also the Talmud " The Teachings "; that these traditions were as old as Holy Writ; that they were equally revealed to Moses with the law, and that they are the explanations and the supplement of the written word and Temple ceremonial.
The New Testament mentions these traditions thirteen times. 25 The Scribes and Pharisees had carried them to excess, which Christ reproved. In their foundations these Talmud traditions are correct. Many traditions come down to us from apostolic days, always existed, came from no Pope or counsel, and found everywhere. Such universal customs or teachings give us an idea of the Talmudic Jewish traditions, when stripped of fanciful, or distorted exaggerations. 26

The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem, by David Roberts (1850).

In the year A. D. 70, the Jews rebelled against the Romans. Vespasian marched down from the north to invade Judea. Elected emperor by the army, his son Titus became commander, took Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, carried the captive Jews to Rome, where they worked building the Colosseum. A few years later the Jews again rebelled, and Hadrian captured the sacred city, left it a heap of stones and forbade a Jew to enter the sacred city under pain of death, except once a year to celebrate the Passover.
On the site of an old cemetery, Herod Agrippa had founded Tiberias, nestling on the shores of the Lake of Galilee. The leading Jews made this their religious capital, where they founded a flourishing college, to which wealthy Jews from all the nations sent their sons to be educated, especially if they were destined to become rabbis or preachers of the synagogue.
None but a Jew would be received; the Gentiles were, they held, doomed to hell because they did not know the Torah or written law, and the Talmud or traditional Law, which were only for the Jew. St. Jerome tells us he could not find a Jew in Jerusalem or Bethlehem who dared teach him Hebrew, and he went down to Tiberias, where he says " his teacher feared for his life like another Nicodemus."
In the second century after Christ, the famous Jehudah Hansi, heir of a wealthy family, and honored as a patriarch, was president of this college. He began to write the traditions in the year 150 after Christ 27 which they claimed could be traced back as far as Josaphat, 28 David's recorder, and which they contend God had given to Moses with the written word.
These writings of Jehudah form the Mishna " Study," the first part of the Talmud. His successors at the Tiberias school wrote the part called the Gemara " Explanation " or " Commentary," on these traditions given in each Mishna. Later learned Jewish sages added further explanations, and opinions of different schools of thought which flourished before the destruction of the Temple under Titus, were added. In later ages still other opinions were incorporated till the work becoming unwieldy, a decree of the Sanhedrin forbade any other additions. This is what is now called the Jerusalem Talmud.
In the year B. C. 490, the great Persian king issued the decree that the Jews could return and rebuild their city and Temple. But many Hebrews engaged in trade remained in Babylonia, and at the time of Christ numerous Hebrew colonies there flourished. These also had their traditions coming down, as they held, from Moses. They also began to write them down in the same form as the learned rabbis of Tiberias. Their labors come down to us under the name of the Babylonian Talmud.
The Talmuds, most peculiar products of an age when Christ walked the earth, throw a bright light on the Old Testament, Hebrew customs, Temple ceremonial, public and private prayers, and show the Jew of that epoch in his religious belief and practice.
Living in Palestine before the Babylonian Captivity, the Hebrew kept himself separated from all nations, for he was of the chosen race, of whom the Messiah was to be born. Of brightest mind, glorying in being a son of Abraham, he kept secret from pagans his religion, and it was almost impossible to penetrate the secrecy of his belief and practice. Religious right thinking and living, faith and morals, were only for the Jew. All Gentiles were condemned to hell, because of their ignorance of the Law or Torah and of the Talmud, and they would not teach the Gentiles, for the Law was for the Jews—this was the prevailing idea of the Scribe and Pharisee in the days of Christ.
Mutual suspicions caused the persecutions of the middle ages, the Jew was prescribed in every Christian country, the Hebrew mind became exceedingly acute because of adversity and poverty. But amid all their miseries they held with a death-grasp to their religion— perhaps there is a Providence in this, for they show that the Old Testament is true.

1 Luke ii, 14.

2 S. Augustine Sermo, Ixxi. de Verb ; Mach. xii. n, xix.

3 Shemoth, R. 2. Ed. Warsh. 7 b. 12, etc.

4 Gen. xvii. 22.

5 Gen. xxviii.13.

6 Gen. xxxv. 13.

7 Exod. iii. 1-6.

8 Exod. xvi 7-10.

9 Exod. xvii. 16.

10 Exod. xviii. 5.

11 Exod. xx.

12 Matt, xxviii. 19.

13 Exod. xiii. 14.

14 Exod. xxiv. 10.

15 Exod. xxix. 43.

16 Exod. xxxiii. 18, 22, 33.

17 xi. 32--36.

18 Levit. ix. 4.

19 Ibidem.

20 Iibidem 23,

21 Yaqara, Numb. x. 36.

22 Numb. xiv. 8

23 Numb. xiv. 14-42.

24 Levit xvi

25 Matt. xv. 2, 3, 6 ; Mark vii. 3, 5, 8, 9, 13 ; Acts vi. 14 ; Gal. i. 14 ; Col. ii. 8, II. Thes. ii. 14 ; I. Pet. 18.

26 See Geikie, Life of Christ, u. 193, etc.

27 Zanolini, De Fide Jud. Cap. 1.

28 II. Kings, viii. 16, 20-24; III. Kings iv. 3 ; I. Par. 1. 18-15.

How Christ said the first mass, By Rev. James L. Meagher, D.D. Part 3.

Directly east of the Holies, the three Courts of the Priests, of Israel, and of the Women—formed one great Court, divided as the names suggest. In the middle of the Priests' Court, now called the Es Sakhra "the Rock ", where Abraham offered his son Isaac, rose the great sacrificial altar foretelling Calvary and its Victim the priests were to sacrifice that fatal Friday. To still more precisely typify Calvary, this altar was made of unhewn stones, built into four walls on the outside, the stones being held together by leaden bands, and the interior filled with earth.
The altar was fifteen feet high and forty-eight feet square, the exact dimensions of Calvary. It was in two terraces, the first forty-eight feet, the next thirty-six ; the latter having a pathway, along which the ministering priest walked. The top was thirty feet square, on which burned three fires. To the south was an inclined plain forty-eight feet long by twenty-four wide, leading up to the altar. Each corner of the altar had a hollow bronze " corner " rising about eighteen inches high, to typify the arms of the cross. The one at the southwest had two openings with silver funnels, into which they poured the wine and water on the feast of Tabernacles, foretelling the Mass. 1
This ever-burning fire, which had come down from heaven, in these three places on the sacrificial altar imaged the Shekina as fire and cloud on the mercy-seat. 2 One fire was to burn the flesh of the animals, the other was for the incense, the third to light the other fires if they went out. The roasted flesh was removed each day; but the bread and wine on Saturday were taken from the Holies and laid on a table for the priests to eat and drink. At the north of the altar stood the incoming priests chosen by " lot," and on the south stood the outgoing clergy, who had finished their duties for that week, the latter took their portions of bread and wine; in the center stood the high priest, and as the outgoing priests passed, they gave him half their portion of the proposition bread. The bread could be eaten and the sacred wine partaken of only on Saturday by priests in a state of Levitical purity, to foretell that only priests free from mortal sin must partake of Communion.
A red line ran round the middle of the altar; above, the blood of the victims to be eaten was thrown, and below, the blood of the holocausts " entirely consumed." 3
At the north of the altar rose six long rows of stone pillars, each about nine feet high, having near the top four rings to which they tied the bodies of the victims while removing the skins. Near-by were eight lower stone pillars, with hooks on which they hung the pieces of sacrificial flesh. Near-by were a marble table for laying out the pieces, a gold table for sacrificial vessels after the service, and another silver table on which they laid the victims before the services.
The Temple places we have described called the Chel "The Sacred Place," was surrounded by the Choi "The Profane." There the Gentiles could worship. But they were forbidden under pain of death to enter farther in. Greek, Latin and Hebrew bronze tablets on the surrounding marble balustrade, some of them found in the ruins in our day, told them the penalty of entering beyond. This Profane Place represented the Heathen nations not yet called to the Church till the Apostles went to preach to them. This is the reason every Catholic Church has a porch representing the heathens and infidels.
Now let us see the origin and history of these sacrifices of the Jewish Church. The grand liturgy of the Temple, the sacrifices of the Hebrew Courts have passed away, for the Sacrifice of the cross they foretold has been accomplished, while the sacrifice and ceremonial of the Holies, foretelling the Mass, still continues in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
When God condemned our parents for their sin. He foretold that from the woman would be born a Personage who would crush the serpent's head.' 4 Then was revealed a person more powerful than the demon; the Seed of a virgin, a father is not mentioned ; suffering is in the prediction that his heel would be bruised; and victory in the words that he would crush the serpent's head. 5

But ages of education and revelation were wanted that mankind might understand the cross and Mass. When the world was young, divinely directed patriarchs formed the ancient Passover, unfolding mystic rites, which Moses developed into the tabernacle ceremonial, which David and Solomon augmented into the Temple service, which the Jews introduced into the synagogue, and all these Christ fulfilled, finished and changed into the Eucharistic Sacrifice at the Last Supper.
In these ceremonies and prophecies, most minute details of the Incarnation, the life of Christ, the history of his sufferings and death, were written by the finger of God, that the Apostles might know him, and that the nations might enter his Church.
In the infancy of our race God taught our fathers as you would teach a child. Words were few, writing was not known. But religious truths might be seen in surrounding objects.
Whether God revealed the nature of sacrifice to Adam or if he knew it in his state of innocence we know not. But in the infancy of our race, they offered animals and first-fruits to God, to whom all belong, in place of their own life. The father priest might tell his children the story of creation, of the fall, of the foretold Seed of the woman, who was to come and restore mankind to innocence lost in Eden, but the words would be soon forgotten.
The father chose a lamb as the chief sacrifice, representative of the Redeemer in his passion and death, 6 that the gentle innocence and purity of the animal might foretell the same in Christ. Whence down the pages of the Old Testament, and in the Temple sacrifices, the lamb immolated morning and evening was the chief sacrifice—all others were only accessory.
What more impressive scene and prophetic type could have been given, than the young lamb, sinless, mute, chosen from the flock and condemned to die ? The father, head and priest of the family, leads the victim to the altar, while round gather in prayer, wife, children, servants. Its feet are tied, it is thrown on the ground, its throat is cut, its warm blood flows, its skin taken off, its body roasted on the fire, its flesh is eaten while flame and prayer ascend up before the Lord. There was a prophecy of Christ's arrest, flagellation, crucifixion. 7 It was a sacred poem, written not in cold words, but by the Holy Ghost in acts, signs, symbols, and mystic movements, teaching in striking ceremony truth to minds of men when the world was young.
But people say. Who were these children of Adam? For the Bible mentions only his two sons, Cain and Abel. Jewish writers tell us that thirty-two times Eve brought forth twins, a boy and girl at each birth, and the twins married. The names of only two are given, for these related to Christ. They say Cain " Acquisition," married his twin sister Ripha " The Wanderer," 8 and that Abel " Passing away," born without a sister never married. These statements of Jewish writers are to be taken with great care, but we give them and let the reader judge for himself.
How often Adam and his sons sacrificed we know not. 9 But in the year 129 or 130 after the fall. Holy Writ says Abel, a shepherd, offered the firstlings of his flocks, the lambs, for he was liberal and generous with his Creator. Cain, a farmer, was close and stingy, and loving worldly things, he offered the poorest and the most worthless of his farm products. For these reasons God received Abel's sacrifices and rejected Cain's.
Jealousy, the fiercest passion, human or demoniac, rose in Cain's soul, and he killed his brother. Talmudic writers say, that filled with frenzy, he hacked his brother all over, covering him with wounds, in his ignorance trying to make a hole through which, his soul might pass out of his body.
Abel the innocent priest lying dead, covered with wounds after his sacrifice, was an image of Christ 10 dead after his sacrifice of the cross, all wounded by the scourges. Condemned for the murder of his brother, Cain with Ripha, his wife, wandered over the world with a mark on him, lest his brothers might kill him. 11

Because they killed their brother, Christ, the Hebrews have been an outcast people, living in cities, engaged in trade, never farming, for the earth yields not its harvests to them. Shunned by all people, they wander among the nations with a mark on them : " He is a Jew." Now they fulfil the prophesy God uttered in the case of their famous prototype Cain. 12
" The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the earth. Therefore, cursed shall thou be upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive the blood of thy brother at thy hand. When thou shall till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, that whosoever found him should not kill him. And Cain went forth from the face of the Lord and dwelled as a fugitive on the earth." 13 The names and history of the other sixty-two children of Adam are not given, because they did not relate to Christ.
Sacrifice was revealed to acknowledge God, as Creator and Master of life and death, to recall blessings on their fathers, to excite their devotion, to keep the people from idolatry, and to foretell the future sacrifice of Christ. Its historic meaning was the creation, its literal meaning the worship of God, and its typical meaning the death of Christ. 14
Every offering of the Hebrew religion foretold Calvary and the Eucharistic sacrifice, as St. Paul says: " Every priest standeth daily ministering the same sacrifice, which can never take away sin. But he, Christ, offering one sacrifice, forever sitteth on the right hand of God." 15 "Christ was offered in a lamb to show his innocence, in a calf because of the merits of his cross, in a ram to foretell his government, in a goat for he bore our sins, in a pigeon and dove because of his two natures, or in a pigeon because of purity, and in a dove because of his love of man."
The lamb with bread and wine were sacrificed from remotest history, all other offerings were secondary—one foretold the crucifixion, the other the Eucharist; they were always intermingled, mixed in mystic ceremony foretelling Christ's one sacrifice, of Calvary and the Mass which form not two, but one act of divine worship. Before he came they foretold his coming in the future. After he came the Eucharistic sacrifice points back to him. One majestic sacrificial ceremonial went before him in patriarchal, tabernacle, and Temple worship, telling that at a future age he would come to fulfil their meaning. Another still more magnificent ceremonial, the Liturgy of the Church, coming from the Last Supper, shows that He came. One pointed in the future, the other to the past, to the Tragedy of Calvary. Let us see what is a sacrifice.
The word comes from the Latin words sacra faciens : " doing a holy act." In a wide sense any religious act, as prayer, loss, suffering for God's sake, ourself, or for others, is a sacrifice. But strictly speaking sacrifice is the destruction of a valued sensible thing, which a priest offers to God in worship, to show forth His almighty power. It is the highest act of adoration, and must be only offered to the Deity. Reason demands the worship of God, but tells not the time, place or ceremonial—only revelation could determine these.16
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob built altars, offered sacrifices with the bread and wine of the Passover worship. Jacob with his sons went down into Egypt, became slaves in the Nile land, dwelled there till God, in the form of the Shekina, called Moses from the burning bush to be their deliverer. For forty years he led them through the vast deserts of Arabia, "The Sandy." Amid the fearful thunder and lightning of Sinai, while the earth quaked and the Shekina covered the mount, God gave the Ten Commandments, foundations of all laws of civilized countries. The Lord then developed the patriarchal Passover into the elaborate ceremonial of the tabernacle and Hebrew religion.
The tabernacle and its ceremonial came from God himself. " And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I shall dwell "—in the original it is " I shall shekina "—" in the midst of them, according to all the likeness of the tabernacle, which I will show thee." 17
Down to the days of Moses the father was the priest and offered sacrifices for the family. Thus, in patriarchal days, fathers, heads of tribes, princes, kings, revered, feared and loved of subjects, offered sacrifices that their personality might excite reverence, devotion and religion in their subjects. Thus monuments of Assyria, Persia and ancient nations show us the priest-king in sacerdotal vestments offering sacrifices for the nations they ruled.
But when the Hebrews became a nation, a more special priesthood of the family of Aaron " The Enlightened", and ministers descending from Levi " Joined", were chosen to offer the sacrifices of the Hebrew nation, for these were later to kill the foretold Christ. 18
Only beasts of the " clean " species, as the sheep, cow, and goat, with birds not younger than eight days, nor older than three years, without blemish, were sacrificed; the sick, castrated, lame, blind, etc., being rejected, for they foretold their great Antitype, the sinless Christ sacrificed in the fulness of his mild and gentle manhood.
Day by day at nine in the morning, and at three in the afternoon, the chief sacrifice was a lamb 19 offered with holy Psalms, canticles and prayers, sung by a choir of 500 priests and another choir of Levites—a magnificent ceremonial, image of a pontifical High Mass. The high priest pontificated, served by the Segan as assistant priest, with twelve priests, six each side of the pontiff, Aaron's heir, like the bishop or Pope in our days. They robed in the most costly and magnificent vestments the world could furnish. 20
On great feasts after the sacrifice of the lamb countless animals were immolated, the blood of each splashed on the four " horns" of the great altar. The Temple was a vast shambles, a great slaughter-house of innocent victims, to shadow forth the awful, terrific sufferings of the Victim of Calvary. The blood was poured at the base of the altar, and flowed down through an underground passage into the Cedron " the Black Valley," thus named because of the blood.
While the bloody sacrifices foretold the crucifixion, the unbloody offerings, the Jews call " flour" and " drink offerings," pointed to the Mass, where in an unbloody manner from the rising to the setting of the sun he is offered now among the nations. Wheat, barley, flour, chalices of wine, cakes of unleaven bread, azymous "thin," were offered with every sacrifice.

1 Edersheim, Temple, 32, 83.

2 Mach. i. 22.

3 Edersheim, Temple, 33; Talmud, etc.

4 Gen. iii. IS.

5 Edersheim, Temple, 97.

6 S. Thomas, Sum. 3, q. 23.

7 S. Augustine, Sermo. xxxi  De Pasch. 1 11, 111, xxxii. etc.

8 Dutripon, Concordantia, S. Scripturӕ, word Cain, who quotes S. Chrysostom.

9 S. Thomas Sum. Theo., 2. 2 q. 85, 1 ad 2.

10 S. Augustine, De civit. Dei., L. xv., c. vii., L. xviii, xvii.

11 S. Augustine, contra Faustum, L. xii. n. ix. x. etc.

12 S. Augustine, Enar. Ps. xxxix, n. xiii., Ps. Iviii. ; Ser. ii. n. xxi.; Ps. ixxxii. n. xxii. ; De civitate Dei, 1. xv. c. xiii.

13 Gen. iv. 10-16.

14 See Migne, S. Scripturӕ, ii. 1329 to 1346, etc.

15 Heb. x. 11,12.

16 See Goldhagen, De Religione, Hebreorum Dissert. Prop. iii.; Migne Cursus Comp. S. Scripturӕ, ii. 1041 to 1348; vi. 609; xii. 177 to 181. etc.

17  Exod. xxv. 8, 9.

18 See Migne, iii. 845 to 847, etc. See S. Thomas, Sum. i, 2, q. 102-4; iii. 983, etc.

19 S. Thomas, Sum. iii. q. 22.3.5, etc.

20 Edersheim Temple, passim.