The blind priest
Leviticus 21:16-24.
What leads up to it
Leviticus 21 sets rules for the priests, Aaron's descendants, who alone could offer sacrifice. The chapter covers whom they may marry, whom they may mourn, and here, who among them may serve at the altar.
What it says
A descendant of Aaron with a lasting physical defect, and blindness heads the list, may not approach to offer the food of his God or go near the veil. But the passage is careful to add that he may still eat the holy food, the most holy as well as the holy. He remains a priest and is fed as one; he does not perform the altar service.
What it may tell us
This is the one law that limits what a blind person may do, and it is worth reading exactly. It concerns a few hundred men of one family and one duty, not blind people in general. It keeps the blind priest inside the priesthood and at its table. And the reason given is about the holiness of the sanctuary, not about the worth of the man. Many readers have still found it hard, and Brian's thoughts on it belong here more than anyone's.
From Brian
I need to know more about priestly duties. Would a blind priest accidentally touch things he should not? I have to touch things all the time to figure out what they are; would that factor in? And would trying to let the blind priest fit in have been a hindrance to the rest of the Levites?
Other voices
Open: other blind people and their families will be asked the same question, and their answers will appear here with their permission.
The place and the time
What the old books and the archaeologists can add. Each paragraph names its source.
Both Matthew Henry and Josephus make the same point about verse 22: the priest with a blemish kept his share of the offerings, including the most holy food. Henry's reason is blunt: the blemishes were ones the man could not help, "therefore, though they might not work, they must not starve," and "none must be abused for their natural infirmities." Josephus says such a priest "should have his portion indeed among the priests" but could not go up to the altar.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Leviticus 21; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation), Book III, chapter 12.
Why the rule at all? Leviticus gives none beyond the holiness of the sanctuary. Henry supplied one of his own: that the people "were apt to judge according to outward appearance," so the men who served in public had to be unblemished for the sanctuary's sake. He also noticed that the list mixes lasting conditions such as blindness with passing ones such as a rash, after which the man could serve again. Henry then adds that people with such conditions are not thereby kept from offering spiritual sacrifice, nor from ministry.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Leviticus 21.
The rule was still read literally a thousand years later. Josephus records that in the first century BC Antigonus cut off the ears of his rival, the high priest Hyrcanus, precisely so that he could never hold the office again, "while the law required that this dignity should belong to none but such as had all their members entire."
Source: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation), Book XIV, chapter 13.
Later rabbinic rules extended the idea to the priestly blessing. The 1915 encyclopedia says a priest blind even in one eye was not to pronounce it; Edersheim, describing synagogue worship, says those "so blind as not to be able to discern daylight" could not lead the prayers or the blessing, and that priests with marks on hands, face or feet were kept from the blessing "so as not to attract attention." These are rules from the centuries after Leviticus, and the sources do not agree on the details.
Source: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), entry "Benediction"; Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life (1876), chapter 17; Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883), Book III, chapter X.
Brian asked what a priest actually did with his hands. Most of it. Smith's lists the duties: keep the altar fire burning day and night, feed the lamp with oil, offer the morning and evening sacrifices, teach the law, and judge hard cases. Leviticus 1 has the priests catch and sprinkle the blood, flay and cut up the animal, lay the wood in order and set the pieces on the fire. Every morning a priest in linen took up the ashes from the altar and carried them out. The lamps were trimmed with golden snuffers. These are tasks of touch and heat, done around an open fire and sharp tools.
Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entry "Priest"; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Leviticus 1 and 6; Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), entry "Candlestick."
Other duties needed eyes. Leviticus 13 has the priest "look on" a skin disease again and again and judge whether it is deeper than the skin. Burning the incense meant standing alone in the Holy Place and, as Edersheim describes Zechariah's turn in Luke 1, waiting "until he saw the incense kindling." The blessing and the teaching, on the other hand, were spoken, and Henry calls lifting hands to bless the people "one part of the priest's work" that a blind man could do as well as any.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Leviticus 9 and 13 and Numbers 6; Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883), Book II, chapter IV; Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), entry "Incense."
On touching holy things, the rules in the text are for the Levites, not the priests. When the camp moved, Aaron's sons covered the ark and the vessels first; only then could the Kohathites carry them, "but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die," nor go in to watch the covering. Uzzah died for grabbing the ark; Nadab and Abihu for offering fire God had not commanded, not for touching. Priests themselves handled the holy things constantly, after washing hands and feet at the laver. So Brian's question has an edge the sources did not see: a priest's whole work was touching what Levites were forbidden to touch.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Numbers 4 and 18, 2 Samuel 6 and Leviticus 10; International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), entry "Priests and Levites"; Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entry "Priest"; Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), entry "Laver."
Leviticus 21 keeps the blemished priest from exactly the two places where the fire and the touching were: "he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar." The reason the text gives is that the sanctuary not be profaned. No source on the shelf says anything about accidental touching by a man who cannot see; that the rule happened to keep him clear of the hazards is our observation, not theirs. The one accommodation on record is the skin-disease rule reported by Henry: a blemished priest could still examine, with a helper's eyes, unless the blemish was in his own eye.
Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Leviticus 13 and 21.
Would one blind priest have burdened the rest? The numbers suggest not. The priests served in twenty-four courses, each on duty one week in turn, with the lot deciding order rather than who served; Zechariah, a man of at least sixty, had never before drawn the incense. Edersheim reckons about fifty priests on duty each weekday; Smith's reports Jewish writers claiming many thousands at Jerusalem and Jericho. In a body that size, a priest who ate at the table but did not serve at the altar cost his brothers little. The Mishnah adds that a bodily blemish barred a priest but not a Levite; for Levites only age counted, and only for carrying.
Source: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) and Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entries "Priest"; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on 1 Chronicles 24 and Luke 1; Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883), Book II, chapter I; Wikipedia, "Emor," revision of 14 May 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Later rabbis argued about the blind priest and the blessing. One ruled that a priest blind in one eye should not lift his hands to bless; the Talmud adds that if the townspeople were used to him, he was allowed. The stated worry was that people would stare. It is a small window onto the real question, which was never the man's ability but the congregation's eyes.
Source: Wikipedia, "Emor," revision of 14 May 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), reporting the Talmud.
The passage
Leviticus 21:16-24
16 Then the LORD said to Moses,
17 “Say to Aaron, ‘For the generations to come, none of your descendants who has a physical defect may approach to offer the food of his God.
18 No man who has any defect may approach—no man who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed;
19 no man who has a broken foot or hand,
20 or who is a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle.
21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall approach to present the food offerings to the LORD. Since he has a defect, he is not to come near to offer the food of his God.
22 He may eat the most holy food of his God as well as the holy food,
23 but because he has a defect, he must not go near the veil or approach the altar, so as not to desecrate My sanctuaries. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.’”
24 Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.