Do you not know that they who minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? The priests and Levites partake of the victims offered, and the tithes and firstfruits. The Greek for "minister" is "labour." The office of the priest was to labour at killing, cutting up, skinning, boiling, and burning the victims, all of which are laborious, and under other circumstances would be the work of butchers.
And they which wait at the altar. He does not say, says S. Chrysostom, the priests, but they which wait at the altar, that we may see that constant attendance of sacred things is required from the ministers of the temple of Christ, who partake of the good things of the Temple. On the other hand, now-a-days, none are less often at the altar than some who derive the greatest profit from the altar and from tithes. These are condemned by the Council of Trent.
The case of the apostles was much stronger than that of the priests. The priesthood was an honor, but the apostles were exposed to dangers, slaughters and violent deaths. In saying “We have seen spiritual good among you” he points to the storms, the dangers, the snares, the unspeakable evils endured in preaching. But Paul was unwilling to despise the things of the old law or to exalt what belonged to him. He even provided his own possessions. He reckoned their value not from the dangers but from the greatness of God’s gift. He did not say “if we have exposed ourselves to danger” but “if we have sown spiritual things among you.”
He takes great care to show that the receiving was not forbidden. Whereupon having said so much before, he was not content but proceeds also to the Law, furnishing an example closer to the point than the former. For it was not the same thing to bring forward the oxen and to adduce the law expressly given concerning priests.
But consider, I pray, in this also the wisdom of Paul, how he mentions the matter in a way to give it dignity. For he did not say, They which minister about sacred things receive of those who offer them. But what? They eat of the temple: so that neither they who receive may be blamed nor they who give may be lifted up. Wherefore also what follows he has set down in the same way.
For neither did he say, They which wait upon the altar receive of them which sacrifice, but, have their portion with the altar. For the things offered now no longer belonged to those who offered them, but to the temple and the altar. And he said not, They receive the holy things, but, ...
