Levites counted from a month old; the Kohathites' charge

Cyril: …sons of Gershon by their clans: Libni and Shimei. And the sons of Kohath by their clans: Amram and Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. And the sons of Merari by their clans: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites by their fathers’ houses.’ (Numbers 3:18–20) Now look, Palladius, at this point above all the rest, for it needs careful attention. The common people were enrolled from twenty years old and upward (Numbers 1:3), because the exactness of the law did not, I think, consider what was still feeble and powerless worthy to be written in God’s book. For what is vigorous and already in its spiritual prime would rightly be admitted to the lists of the saints. So the law makes bodily age an apt sketch of spiritual age: it set down as chosen those in their prime, passing over the beardless, the weak and the still boyish, and not entering them in the sacred book. But for the Levites the enrollment was from a month old (Numbers 3:15). For the Master of all very gladly accepts the childlikeness in Christ of those he has chosen, just as, of course, he accepts good sense. For to excel in both, I mean in understanding and in the simplicity that is in Christ, is exceptional. Indeed, the inspired Paul says: ‘Brothers, do not be children in your thinking; be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature’ (1 Corinthians 14:20). And Christ himself says somewhere: ‘Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’ (Matthew 10:16). So the simplicity of the saints is acceptable. And the numbering was by name, and also by clans and fathers’ houses. For God grants his own watchful care to those whom he chooses to honor, one by one, as a multitude, and by family. And the Savior himself makes plain how exact this is, when he says to the holy apostles: ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father who is in heaven. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered’ (Matthew 10:29–30).

Palladius: Well said.

Cyril: In addition to this he laid down by law that a second enrollment of the Levitical people should be made, and that each must be assigned the ministry fitting for him, saying: ‘Take the count of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty-five years old and upward to fifty years, everyone who enters to minister, to do all the work in the tent of witness. And this is the work of the sons of Kohath in the tent of witness: the Holy of holies. And Aaron and his sons shall go in when the camp sets out, and they shall take down the screening veil and cover the ark of witness with it. And they shall put on it a covering of skin dyed blue, and spread over it from above a cloth entirely of blue, and put in the carrying poles. And on the table of presentation they shall spread a cloth all of purple, along with the dishes, the incense cups, the ladles and the bowls with which they pour libations; and the loaves that are always on it shall… (Numbers 4:2–7)