How do the sanctuary’s access rules distinguish priestly responsibilities?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The shut outer east gate and differentiated Levitical service lead into rules for Sadoc’s priests, their conduct and support.

Chapter breakdown

The east-facing outer gate of the sanctuary is to remain shut because the Lord, the God of Israel, entered through it. The prince may sit there to eat bread before the Lord, entering and leaving by its porch. Brought through the north gate, Ezechiel sees the Lord's glory filling the house and falls on his face. He is told to attend with heart, eyes and ears to its laws, entrances and exits. Israel is rebuked for bringing strangers uncircumcised in heart and flesh into the sanctuary, defiling it when bread, fat and blood were offered, breaking the covenant and appointing keepers of the sanctuary's charge for themselves.

The Levites who went astray after idols must bear their iniquity. They may serve at the gates and in the house and slaughter the people's holocausts and victims, but may not approach as priests or draw near the holy things and holy of holies. They must bear the shame of their former service before idols. The Levitical priests descended from Sadoc, who kept the sanctuary's ceremonies when Israel strayed, may approach to offer fat and blood, enter the sanctuary, approach the Lord's table and keep his charge.

When entering the inner court's gates, these priests wear linen, with linen mitres and breeches and no wool or girding that causes sweat. On going out to the people, they leave their ministry garments in the store chambers and put on others, so that they do not sanctify the people with those vestments. The edition explains this as the danger of touching things reserved and sanctified. They must neither shave their heads nor grow long hair, but poll their heads; drink no wine when entering the inner court; and marry virgins of Israel or widows of priests, rather than other widows or divorced women. They teach the difference between holy and profane, clean and unclean, judge controversies according to the Lord's judgments, and keep his laws, solemnities and sabbaths.

Contact with the dead is permitted only for father, mother, son, daughter, brother or a sister who has not had another husband. After cleansing, seven days are counted; entering the inner court for ministry then requires a sin offering. The Lord is their inheritance and possession, so they receive no possession in Israel. They eat the sin and trespass victims and receive vowed things, firstfruits, firstborn and libations; the people's firstfruits of meats are given to them so that a blessing may rest on the house. They must eat no bird or beast that died of itself or was caught by a beast.

The story inside

The prince’s permitted use of the outer gate’s porch differs from passage through the shut gate. Idolatrous Levites retain house service while Sadoc’s priests approach the sanctuary and table. Priestly clothing, family rules, cleansing and provisions are specified separately.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The prince’s permitted use of the outer gate’s porch differs from passage through the shut gate.
2
Idolatrous Levites retain house service while Sadoc’s priests approach the sanctuary and table.
3
Priestly clothing, family rules, cleansing and provisions are specified separately.

Test your recall

Which relatives permit dead-contact, and when does the seven-day count begin?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 96213–96222
44:1. And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary, which looked towards the east: and it was shut. 44:2. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut 44:3. For the prince. The prince himself shall sit in it, to eat bread before the Lord: he shall enter in by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.
Lines 96250–96276
44:10. Moreover the Levites that went away far from me, when the children of Israel went astray, and have wandered from me after their idols, and have borne their iniquity: 44:11. They shall be officers in my sanctuary, and doorkeepers of the gates of the house, and ministers to the house: they shall slay the holocausts, and the victims of the people: and they shall stand in their sight, to minister to them. 44:12. Because they ministered to them before their idols, and were a stumblingblock of iniquity to the house of Israel: therefore have I lifted up my hand against them, saith the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity: 44:13. And they shall not come near to me, to do the office of priest to me, neither shall they come near to any of my holy things that are by the holy of holies: but they shall bear their shame, and their wickednesses which they have committed. 44:14. And I will make them doorkeepers of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein. 44:15. But the priests, and Levites, the sons of Sadoc, who kept the ceremonies of my sanctuary, when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me, to minister to me: and they shall stand before me, to offer me the fat, and the blood, saith the Lord God.
Lines 96281–96298
44:17. And when they shall enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments: neither shall any woollen come upon them, when they minister in the gates of the inner court and within. 44:18. They shall have linen mitres on their heads, and linen breeches on their loins, and they shall not be girded with any thing that causeth sweat. 44:19. And when they shall go forth to the outward court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them up in the store chamber of the sanctuary, and they shall clothe themselves with other garments: and they shall not sanctify the people with their vestments. Shall not sanctify the people with their vestments.... By exposing them to the danger of touching the sacred vestments, which none were to touch but they that were sanctified.