"16 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 17 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. 18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, 19 Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, 20 Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; 21 No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. 22 He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. 23 Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them. 24 And Moses told it unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel." — Leviticus 21:16-24 KJV.
The arduous labours demanded of the priests required that they should be able-bodied men. Moreover, it was necessary that there should be a correspondence between the perfect physique of the priests and the unblemished victims offered to the perfect God. The incongruity of a blind man, a dwarf, or a cripple, figuring in the solemn and majestic ritual of the altar, would have exposed the service to ridicule. Since the service of the altar was minutely prescribed, neither genius nor high intellectual qualities were requisite, but an unblemished form with mind enough to follow the directions of the law. Thus it is found that ceremonial religions always repress genius, while those forms of religion which depend more upon the inculcation and intellectual and spiritual apprehension of the truth give scope to the development of mental power in the office of the prophet, the teacher, and the preacher.
