Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of your descendants in their generations that has any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
Read Chapter 21
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
A blemish. These corporal defects or deformities, which disqualified the priests from officiating in the old law, were figures of the vices which priests are to beware of in the new law. (St. Gregory, Cura pastorum.) (Challoner)
The Rabbins reckon 140 blemishes on which the Sanhedrim had to pass sentence. They also require in the high priest superior beauty, strength, riches, and wisdom.
I know also that not even bodily blemishes in either priests or victims passed without notice, but that it was required by the law that perfect sacrifices must be offered by perfect men—a symbol, I take it, of integrity of soul. Oration (In Defense of His Flight to Pontus)
