If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
Ver. 12. If one bear holy flesh in the skirt, &c.] Problems and parables are notable helps to the bolting out of the truth, and conviction of the gainsayers. For problems see Matthew 13:10,15; Matthew 21:25; Matthew 22:42. For parables see Judges 9:7,15, that of Jotham, of Nathan, 2 Samuel 12:1,4, of the woman of Tekoah, 2 Samuel 14:5,7, of our Saviour concerning the two brethren sent into the vineyard, the wedding of the king's son, the sower. See Trapp on " Hag 2:10 "
And the priests answered and said, No] Roundly and readily; without hacking and hewing, without doubling and dissembling; as those perverse priests, those self-condemned hierophants, a Matthew 21:27, that, against their consciences, "answered Jesus and said, We cannot tell." The wit of graceless persons will better serve them to falter and fumble, deny, or devise a thousand shifts to evade and elude the truth, than their malice will suffer them to yield to it, or profess it. This is to detain the truth in unrighteousness, Romans 1:18, as Plato, who had the knowledge of one God, yet he dared not to communicate it to the common people; and as some of the chief champions of Popery, who held justification by faith alone, but refused to say so, lest their Dagon should down, their Diana be despised. Let every spiritual man (but especially ministers) be ready, as to every good work, so to this of comparing spiritual things with spiritual, that he may judge or discern of all things, 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 2:15, according to the analogy of faith, Romans 12:6, the tenor of the Scriptures, his sure cynosura; and laying up all in his heart, Luke 2:18, he may have a treasure there of new and old, a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge too, 1 Corinthians 12:8, both as a teacher and as a pastor, to bring forth for common benefit.
a Antiq. An official expounder of sacred mysteries or religious ceremonies, esp. in ancient Greece; an initiating or presiding priest. ŒD