Sacrifice in the Book of Leviticus

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Sacrifice in the Book of Leviticus

• Lev 1-7, 16
• APTS-BOT620-2005

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Definition Sacrifice

• 1. Researchers in primitive and comparative
  religion distinguish four possible purposes
  behind the institution of sacrifices
• (1) to provide food for the god (Eichrodt)
• (2) to assimilate the life force of the
  sacrificial animal (James)
• (3) to effect union with the deity (Smith)
• (4) a gift to induce the aid of the deity
  (Taylor).
• The first three purposes are not to be found in
  the Bible. . . .
• Milgrom, OT Sacrifices and Offerings,
  IDBSupp, 764

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Modern Samaritan Sacrifice
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Modern Samaritan Sacrifice
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Modern Samaritan Sacrifice
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Sacrifice in Nepal
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Modern Pesach Sacrifice
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Definition Sacrifice

• 2. With sacrifice Leviticus expresses its
  doctrine of blood, of atonement, of covenant
  between God and his people. If we read the
  instructions for sacrifice and try to imagine
  them being carried out, we can see it as a form
  of philosophy by enactment. Leviticus exemplifies
  a way of being and doing based on analogies which
  prescribed the same actions in multiple
  contexts.
• Douglas, Mary, Leviticus as Literature, 67-68

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Sacrifice A Presupposition

• 3. . . . the laws of the Torah did not permit
  Israelites to expiate intentional or premeditated
  offenses by means of sacrifice. There was no
  vicarious, ritual remedy - substitution of ones
  property or wealth - for such violations, whether
  they were perpetrated against other individuals
  or against God Himself. In those cases, the law
  dealt directly with the offender, imposing real
  punishments and acting to prevent recurrences.
  The entire expiatory system ordained in the Torah
  must be understood in this light. (Levine)

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Lev 1-7 Two Collections
I II
Burnt Offerings (1.1-17) Burnt Offerings (6.8-13)
Grain offerings (2.1-16) Grain Offerings (6.14-18)
Well-being Offerings (3.1-17) Purification Offerings (6.24-30)
Purification Offerings (4.1-5.13) Guilt Offerings (7.1-10)
Guilt Offerings (5.14-6.7) Well-being Offerings (7.11-21
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Lev 1-7 in General

• In (I) we have information about sacrifice for
  Israelites in general, whereas in (II) we are
  given specialized information for the priests
  alone. (Budd)
• The use of repetition and the systematic
  structure of Lev 1-7 indicates that the text
  attempts to persuade. (Watts)
• The pericope is not a full treatment of sacrifice
  (Marx)

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Lev 1-7 in General

• "The kinds of sacrifices reviewed are those which
  the common Israelite would offer most habitually.
  The rites mentioned are those which are the most
  significant, indicative of the distinctive
  feature of each kind of sacrifice, and which thus
  give a clue as to their respective function."
  (Marx)
• Lev 1-7 views sacrifices as three-tiered those
  to Yahweh alone, those for the Priests, and those
  for the common Israelites. (Marx)

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Burnt Offering hl

• The sacrifice is completely burnt so that there
  is no benefit for the priest nor offerer.
• It is the only sacrifice offered as a regular
  daily offering the most important festival
  sacrifice.
• The main purpose is that it is pleasing to God,
  therefore honoring of God. (but see Lev 1.4)
• Can be a bull, sheep or goat, turtledove or
  pigeon.

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Burnt Offering hl

• Procedure
• Hand placed on head
• Slaughtered by offerer, before Yhwh.
• Blood offered by Priests.
• Skinned and cut up by Priests.
• Priests put fire on altar arrange wood.
• Parts, head, suet placed on wood.
• Entrails legs washed with water.

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Burnt Offering hl

• Hand placed on head
• hand or hands ? Mishna has hands
• transfer of sin - (Lev 16 problem of 3.2)
• transfer of his/her person (Noth) spiritual
  force or holiness claimed (Pedersen) (problem
  of 3.2)
• identification or ownership
• substitution (Lev 16 Kiuchi)
• insurance of merits of sacrifice (Rendtorff)

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Grain Offering hxnm

• The grain offering is a cereal offering.
• ...the cereal offering must be viewed as a
  discrete, independent sacrifice that functions to
  duplicate the manifold purposes of the burnt
  offering for the benefit of those who cannot
  afford a burnt offering of quadruped or bird . .
  . . The most likely definition for biblical hxnm
  is a present made to secure or retain good
  will. (Milgrom)

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Grain Offering hxnm

• It can be
• 1. Choice flour, with oil frankincense
• 2. Baked unleavened cakes
• 3. First fruits coarse new grain with oil
  frankincense
• 4. Salt must be added
• The sacrifice is called a memorial or pledge
• Tends to be added to other offerings

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Well-being Offering ymlv xbz

• In the Bible the term xbz is used to describe
  sacrifices that are eaten. (2 Chr 7.12 excepted)
• Division of Parts
• 1. Suet around intestines, kidneys, liver and the
  fat of a sheeps tail to God
• 2. Priest gets breast right leg
• 3. The remained to the offerer

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Well-being Offering ymlv xbz

• Special Procedure
• 1. The victim of a sacrifice of praise (hdwt)
  must be eaten on the day it is offered (Lev
  7.15)
• 2. But a victim of a voluntary or votive
  sacrifice (rdn or hbdn) can be eaten on the
  following day, though anything left over must be
  burned on the third day (Lev 7.16-17).
• 3. The hdwt sacrifice is to be accompanied by and
  offering (hxnm) of unleavened cakes and of
  leavened bread.

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Well-being Offering ymlv xbz

• Purpose The peace offering is eaten by a
  community which can consist of the family (1 Sam
  1.4, 21), the clan, a group of pilgrims or a
  larger circle of the tribal confederacy. The idea
  and expectation that the meal eaten together will
  create communio is basic to this sacrifice. He
  who eats with another person becomes united with
  him and proclaims that they are closely bound
  together. . . . The communio is . . . twofold,
  the communion among themselves of those who eat
  together, and the communion of these same people
  with the deus praesens. (Kraus)

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Purification Offering tajx

• Procedure
• The process begins like the burnt and well-being
  sacrifices, but shifts at the point where the
  priest sprinkles/pour the blood.
• The ritual for these sacrifices is distinguished
  from that used in other sacrifices by two things,
  the use to which the blood is put, and the way in
  which the victims flesh is disposed of. (de
  Vaux)

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Purification Offering tajx

• The purging of the sanctuary takes place in three
  stages
• 1. When an individual commits an inadvertency or
  contracts a severe impurity, the tajx blood is
  daubed on the horns of the outer altar (Lev 4.25
  9.9 14.19).
• 2. When the entire community (even through its
  anointed priest 4.3) commits an inadvertency,
  the blood is brought inside the Holy Place where
  it is sprinkled before the veil and daubed on the
  horns of the inner altar (Lev 4.5-7 9.9 14.19).
• 3. For presumptuous sins, of the individual or
  the group, the blood is brought inside the Holy
  of Holies where it is sprinkled before and upon
  the ark, followed by the ritual of the previous
  two stages in reverse order. (Milgrom)

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Purification Offering tajx

• The Purification offering is to purge the
  sanctuary not the offerer.
• The tajx presumes that impurity is a dynamic
  force that attacks the sanctuary.
• People can pollute the sanctuary by their
  physical and moral impurities and thereby drive
  out God from their midst.
• This sacrifice is only for inadvertent offense
  that is recognized and repented of .
• Lev 16 is for the unrecognized offense

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Reparation Offering va

• The root va has four cultic meanings
• 1. as a noun, reparation (Lev 5.6)
• 2. and preparation offering
• 3. as a verb, incur liability to someone (Lev
  5.19)
• 4. and, if it has no personal object, to feel
  guilty (Lev 5.5, 17 6.4 5.23).
• The meaning reparation offering can be adduced
  from the unique accompanying verbs bvh,
  restore and Lv, repay (Lev 6.5), implying
  the indemnities, as well as from the fact that
  the va is the only sacrifice that is
  communicable into currency (Lev 5.15, 18 6.6).
  (Milgrom)

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Reparation Offering va

• Procedure
• 1. This sacrifice . . . was offered only on
  behalf of private individuals, and as a result,
  the blood was never taken into Holy Place, and
  the victim was never burned away form the
  sanctuary.
• 2. Secondly, the only victim referred to is a
  ram.
• 3. Thirdly, in certain cases the sacrifice was to
  be accompanied by the payment of a fine (Lev
  5.14-16, 21-26 Num 5.5-8) if the rights of God
  or of a man had been infringed in a way which
  could be estimated in terms of money, then the
  guilty person had to offer a ram for reparation,
  and to restore to the priest (as representatives
  of Yahweh) or to the person whom he had wronged
  the monetary equivalent of the damages, plus the
  one-fifth.
• It should be stressed, however, that this
  restitution did not form part of the sacrifice.
  (de Vaux)

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• The main purpose of the day of atonement
  ceremonies is to cleanse the sanctuary from the
  pollutions introduced into it by the unclean
  worshippers (cf. 1616, 19). Without a purpose
  such as this there would have been little point
  in the high priest putting his life at risk by
  entering into the holy of holies. The aim of
  these rituals is to make possible Gods continued
  presence among his people. (Wenham)

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Lev 16 Day of Atonement

• Lev 16.1-2 Introduction
• Prohibition of entering anytime, or else death.
• Because for I appear in the cloud upon the
  kapporeth.
• Lev 16.3-5 Animals and priestly dress needed for
  the ceremonies
• Young bull for a purification offering and a ram
  for a burnt offering
• Priestly clothing bathing
• Two male goats for a purification offering and
  one ram for a burnt offering

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Lev 16 Day of Atonement

• Lev 16.6-10 Outline of Ceremony
• . . . cast lots on the two goats, one lot for
  the Yhwh and the other lot for Azazel.
• . . . goat on which the lot fell for the Yhwh,
  and offer it as a purification offering
• . . . the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented
  alive before the Yhwh to make atonement over it,
  that it may be sent away into the wilderness to
  Azazel.

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Lev 16 Day of Atonement

• Lev 16.11-28 Detailed description of the
  Ceremonies
• Vv. 11-19 The Blood-sprinkling Rites
• v11 mentions "shall make atonement."
• While the complex "sprinkling" is indicated in
  v14, and v15. The sprinkling idea is found in Lev
  4 where it is used for purification, although
  here the location is different. Num 19 also
  contains a sprinkling idea that suggests making
  one who is defiled, pure.
• Noteworthy is the kapporeth being identified with
  the covenant in 16.13.
• Vv. 20-22 The Scapegoat
• Lev 16.20 indicates a general atoning of the holy
  place and tent of meeting and altar . . . .

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Lev 16 Day of Atonement

• Vv. 20-22 The Scapegoat
• Lev 16.20 indicates a general atoning of the holy
  place and tent of meeting and altar . . . .
• iniquities transgressions uncleanness
• Vv. 23-28 Cleansing of the Participants
• Lev 16.29-34 The Peoples Duty
• No work
• . . . to cleanse you from all your sins you
  shall be clean before the Yhwh.
• He shall make atonement for the sanctuary, and
  he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting
  and for the altar, and he shall make atonement
  for the priests and for all the people of the
  assembly.
• Everlasting statute