On a review of the regulations which have thue been sketched, it appears that the following dis- tinctions may be drawn : — (1) In respect of destina- tion, the Peace-oiiering stands by itself as a sacri- licial meal, while the remaining tnree are conveyed entire to (iod or to God and His ministers. (2) Jn respect of ritual, certain acts are common to all — the imposition of hands, the sprinkling of blood on the altar, the burning of the fat portions, but the other portions are either burned on the altar (Burnt-offering) or outside the sanctuary (Sin- offering and Guilt-offering). (3) In respect of occa- sion, two were elements of normal public wor- ship (Btimt-offering and Peace-offering), two pre- supposed exceptional relations between God on the one hand and the community or the individual on the other (Sin-offering and Guilt-offering). It is indeed too much to say that in connexion with the former the sacriHcer always stood upon the ground of salvation, in connexion with the latter he had fallen from a state of grace. The use of the Sin-offering in the matter ot the consecration of temple buildings and furniture does not suggest the rupture of covenant relations, nor does it appear that the sacrificer of a Guilt-offering had fallen from a state of grace more surely than any ordinary member of the community. He was probably a man of unusual sanctity and tender- ness of conscience, and the point was, not that his sin was particularly heinous, but only that it was particularly definite. Moreover, it was only on the assumption that he was still * in a state of grace ' that he was allowed to sacrifice at all : for the sins which led God to cast men off no sacrifice was accepted. The view, in short, that there were two classes of sacrifices contemplating re- spectively the pardoned and the unpardoned is much less tenable than the view that all four were at one in contemplating the community as being in a state of guilt, and requiring to be constantly reconciled to God. They have, ic fact, become — not excepting the Peace-offering in its later interpretation — piacular sacrifices which dispose God to mercy, procure the forgiveness of sin, and avert punishment. Behind this lies the question as to the ground of its efficacy, or the viodu^ operandi, which in view of its importance will be treated in a separate section.
(ii.) Vegetable offerings consisted of the produce of the tilled field and of the vineyard, but not of garden-herbs or the fruits of the orchard. They were sometimes an accompaniment of the bloody sacrifice, sometimes independent.
The Meal- (AV Meat-) offering (vol. iii. p. 309) (nijp of P, LXX huffia) was a preparation of flour and other ingredients. lo the older practite tlie quantities probably varied, and features of the later pniclioe which have been noted are the fixing of the measure (Ezk 4tl5- 7- n. U)^ the prohibition of leavened bread and honey (Lv 2i')i t^nd the substitution for ordinary meal of a fine sort of flour(Wellh. i.c.p. 441). (I) Among the iiulepejuient Meal-offerinqs we place the list in Lv 2, although it haa been strongly contended, chiefly on dogmatic grounds, that a bleeding sacrifice is presupposed as a basis (see ^e^iew of opinions in Kurtz, p. 304 ff.). (a) VnHetifs are distinguished according to the different processes used in preparing the flour, viz. kneading it with oil, baking it in an oven, a baking- pan, or a frying-pan, and bruising ears of com. ('*) Other ingredients added were, in all cases salt (2^'X in most case* oil, in one case incense (v.l*). Under stress of poverty a cereal oblation might also be presented as a Sin-offering, but with- out oil or incense (5"^ )- (c) The ritual resembled that of the Sin-offering so far as consistent with the difference of material — a portion being consumed by Are on the altar, while the remainder fell to the priests (Lv"614b). (rf) The effects of cover- ing sin, and delivering from its consequences, are .ascribed to it in common with the Sin-offering (5i3, but see Prohtiatios, 5 11 g). Special effects which are attributed to it are such ai the insurance of the reliability of the trial by ordeal (Nu 6n'''.X where oil anri incense are excluded.
(2) As a. enncomit ant oftheanimnl sacrifice* the Meal-offering had a prominent place in the sacrificial sjTtem. It was indeed laid down that no Burnt-offering or Peace-offering was legitimate without the cereal oblation (Nu 15. 2S. 29). In the public worship of common days and festivals it bore a stated proper*
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SACRIFICE
SACRIFICE
339
tlon to me number and material of the hiirnt'Offerinps (Nu )5iffV Occasions where the material and the ritual undergo Uiodiflcation are the consecration of the priests (Lv b'-*), the pre^t-ritation of a thank-off eriut; (7^^), and the Bocriflccs of the NiiziritefNuGlT).
The Shewbread Is regulated by a minute ritual (Lv 24'"'"), specifyini: the material, the number and size of the cakes, Uie manner of their arrangement on the table, and the use of incense (v."). The sacrosanct character of the offeriuij, of wiiich part foil to the priests, is emphasised, and it seems to have the epecial signiflcanc^ of recalling toUod the terms of His covenant (v.7). See, (urth ^, art. Shkwbrbao.
(iii.) DrinJc-oJferings and Incense-offerings. — The libation (t;?;, LXX (nrovS^) appears at tliis stage only as an accompaniment or element of another kind of ottering.