We have already met with oil as an ingredient of sacrificial cakes. Ezck. {Aifi*^- 46H) and P (Numb.) fix the quantity, though with variations, required in consideration of the number and quality of the victims. Neither in this case nor in that of wine (Nu 18) is anything said of the manipulation of the Prink- offering. The oil was probably used in part for kneading, in part treated as a libation. The wine was probably poured into a gutter, whence it drained into the ground.
On the Incente-ofering (rrjbp, LXX BvutiuM.^ C'3p ^'p^) •ee art. Incense ; and on other fonns which would fall to be Dociced here, see First-fruits, Titub, and art. Priksts and LlviTls, patuiin,
2. The Efficacy of the Bloody Sacrifices is of such imj>ortance, and has figured so largely in the history of theologj% as to call for separate treat- ment. Tiie questions that have to be discussed are two — (1) the nature of tlie benefits which were conceived to flow from the sacrilicial worship ; (2) tlie manner in whicli the ollerings were con- ceived to operate so as to procure the desiderated boons.
( 1 ) The Benefits procured by sacrifice. — These fall into two classes, which, to our thinking, are very clearly distinguished. In one group of cases the purpose is the cancelling of guilt, in tlie other the removal of cereuiuiiiai uncleanuess. In otlier words, sacriiice has both a moral and a physical occasion.
(rt) Tlie Expiation of guilt is the leading purpose of the Levitical sacrilices. Their olfice is to cover or make atonement for sin. The word employed to describe this specific ellect is 125. This elHcacy is connected with all four kinds of principal otl'erings : the objects of the covering are persons and sins, the covering takes place before God, and it stands in a specially close relation to the sprinkling of the blood and the burning of the sacrilicial liesh (Lv 1* etc.). The view that the main purpose of the Levitical sacrifices was the obliteration of guilt has, however, been traversed by Kitschl, who finds the necessity for the covering, not in the moral but in the natural attributes of God, not in the sinfulness but in the creaturely condition of man {Lehre von der liechtfcrtigung u. Vemoknungt Bd. iL).
193, originally to cover, then to expiate — either ae pleasing Ood by covering His table, or by hiding from His sight (cf. old Babylonian Bocritlrial term kijyjmrxt, ' to wash away, atone,' Zimmem. op. cit., Vorwort). But from what, acoonling to Rltachl, does sacrifice hide? Throughout the OT there is evi- dence for the belief that to see or meet with God involved destruction fOn 8'230 Jacob, Jg fiS nideon, 1322 Manoah), and this being BO it was necessary to take measures for self -protect ion. This was found In sacritlce. ' From the majesty of ii<Hl per m tbe destruction follows of those who come before His face as perishable creatures — provided that their life is not jireserveti of divine R-race' (p. 203 fT.)- To the common view, which makes the ancrillce an atonement for sin, Hitachi objecte that it is in- credible that God would have prescribed for His covenant people a system which presuppost-d that they were to be per- manently under Ilia wrath. Hut we have no analysis of the consciousneas of thosi; witnessing a thcophnny which makes it clear that It was the mere presence of God, nut of God as Imly that led the Israelite to expect death. In the later perifKl at all evenu. when the holiness of Ood and the prevalence and heinousnesn of sin had been so profoundly realized, It is impos- nblo to doubt that what invested the approach to Ood with its c^racter of peril was above all the consciousness of the con- trast between Divine holiness and human guilt. The strength
of this penitential feeling no doubt varied in the case of dif- ferent offerings, as well as with different worshippers, but it could never be wholly absent from the educated theocratic conscience. See, further, art. Propitiation, esp. $ 17.
[b) Purification from physical uncleanness, aa a condition of re-entering the relij^ious life of tlie community, is also an important tunction of sacri- fice. The circumstances constituting this cere- monial uncleanness are mainly three — participation in the processes of sexual life, contact with a corpse, and recovery from leprosy.
(a) As regards the first categon,', there were degrees of unclean- ness. and the major degree, which entailed a sacrificial puri- fication, attached only to morbid sexual conditions and to the position of a woman after child-bearing (Lv 15. 12*-'f"). The sacrifices prescribed for the purification of a mother were a iamb for a liurnt-offcring and a dove for a Sin-offering.
(p) The defilement diffused by a dead body was intense, long- sustained, and removed in a peculiar wav (Nu Ifli^. is sii'-*).
Tfie Sacrifice of the Red Ue\fer{^\\ lOi""-), which was appro priated to purify from this form of defilement, presents certain curiovis features of ritual. The victim is a red heifer without spot (v. 2). The use of the blood is confined to sprinkling seven times towards the sanctuary. With the Sin-offering it has a certain affinity, but in this case the whole of the carcase — skin, flesh, blood, and dung, mixed witli fragrant ingredients — is burned without the camp. The extraordinary feature of the offering, however, is that the main purpose is the procuring and resen'ation of the ashes (v.y). These gave its virtue to the holy water which was sprinkled on the third day on those contaminated by the neighbourhood of the dead, and this procured them purification on the seventh day (v,l2). por a discussion of the symbolism see Kurtz, p. 422 ff. ; for the evolutionary aspect, iiS^ pp. 351, 354, 376. See, further, art. Kgd IIkiker.