A threefold time is referred [to it] by three [authorities]. The first: when Jacob said (Gen. 48, v. 5): “Thy two sons (O Joseph), who were born to thee in the land of Egypt before I came hither to thee, are mine. Ephraim and Manasses, like Ruben and Simeon, shall be reckoned to me.” The second: when, in the following ch. 49, the same Jacob said: “Cursed [be] their fury (of Simeon and Levi), because [it was] obstinate; and their indignation, because [it was] hard: I will divide them in Jacob, and disperse them in Israel.” So thinks Masius (on this ch. 13, and bk. 1 On Clerics, ch. 26). [And] Bellarmine: “Jacob,” he says, “disinherited his son Levi on account of his sin, as is plain (Gen. 49): ‘I will divide,’ etc.” The third time: when the Lord said (Num. 18, v. 20): “In their land (of the children of Israel) you shall possess nothing (O Aaron), nor shall you have a part among them.” And this is Abulensis’s opinion (on that ch. 18, question 20, and here ch. 14, question 4), to which one must subscribe. For since, first, by adoption new sons are admitted into the number of the prior and legitimate sons, the inheritance is not taken from the prior and legitimate [sons] — as is plain from the laws of adoptions — although, on account of the multiplication of sons, each one’s portion is diminished somewhat. Secondly: but grant [that] the inheritance is taken from the prior children by the adoption of the latter [ones] — [is it taken] from all the prior [ones]? or only from some? If from all, no portion of land should have been ascribed to the other tribes, just as none [was ascribed] to the Levitical. If [only] from some — [from] as many as the new sons ascribed? Two tribes, therefore, would have had to be repelled from the inheritance. But only the Levitical was repelled. Thirdly: whether two, or only one, had to be repelled, why the Levitical rather than some [other] of the others? Fourthly: in the foregoing question I have already said [that Levi was excluded] on account of the sin, and the injury inflicted on the Shechemites — [but] not deprived of the inheritance, because the same words of Jacob (Gen. 49) are borne against Simeon also, and yet he was not deprived of his portion. How, then, would [Levi] have been deprived
(col. 1111)
Levi? By an equal penalty an equal fault is punished; and the force of the same sentence, pronounced against both, was in Simeon [the same] as [it was] in Levi. [So the Gen. 49 curse cannot be the peculiar ground of Levi’s exclusion; hence it dates to Num. 18:20.]