SACRIFICE
SACRIFICE
341
On the prophetic view, indeed, as has been main- tained, theie were only two possible modes of Divine reaction against sin — viz. the execution of the destroying purpose, or forgiveness on tlie ground of repentance and reformation. But there was a third possible development of thought. The Bacrilicial system was maintained, and even grew in honour, and it was an obvious reflexion that, in place of the consummated sacrifice of destruction spoken of by the prophets, Uod accepted as a surrogate the sacritice of animal victim.s. That the idea of substitution was already familiar appears from Gn 22'^ (ottering of a ram in place of Isaac), and at a late stage the vicarious idea is used to explain the sufferings of the righteous Ser^'antof Jehovah (Is 53). And given the doctrine that sin entailed death, and that one being might sutler in room of another, it was a highly natural, if not an inevitable step, to go on to 8up])0se that the rite of sacritice combined the two ideas, and that the slain victim bore the penalty due to the sinner, (ii.) The Prnijer-thtory may serve to designate the group of interpretations which rest on the fundamental idea that the eilicacy attached to sacrifice was due to the fact that it symbolized the religious sentiments which are the cumlition of ac- ceptance with God. While on the former view the victim is held to take the place of the otTerer in bearing the doom which he has merited, on this view it is held to be the mere vehicle for the expression of his devout sentiments and longings. The purpose of the sacritice, as with pra\ er, is to serve as an index of what is in the wor.sliipper's heart, and its virtue is exhausted in bringing this before God. Further, as prayer is of various kinds, so ditrerent ^Titers have given to sacritice varj'ing interpreta- tions corresponding to these kinds : by Philo, e.g., it is construed as chiefly expressive of spiritual aspiration, corresponding to the prayer of supplica- tion ; for Biihr it has tiie function of expressing hatred of sin and self-surrender to God, correspond- ing to the praj-er of confession and supplication ; while Maurice also emphasizes the note which oorrespoiids to the prayer of adoration.
The vtewBof Biihr. though he adopte a different rubric, belong to this t}!)*. lie tln'is the lit y of ttic nysteni in IjV 171* — • the soul plocinj; itself at the disposal of tJod in order to receive the ^ft of true life in BunctiQcutioo ' ^p. 211). From this point of view the ritual undiT^'oes a new interpretation. A valual>le and un- blemished victim is selected a^ a^ mbolical of the excellence and purity to which theofTereraspires; thedeath is necessary only in order to procure a life which may be offered to God ; the sprink- ling of tne altar is the presentation of the life, still resident in the bloo<J, to God. A simpler version of the theory is jciven by Oehlcr. who emphasizes the vital point in sayinp that * the self- ■urrcnder of the pcrw)n sacriflcinp waa accomplished vicariously in ttie otTerin^'' (p. G32) ; and the discuaaiona of .Maurice centre round the same idea (p. G7 ft., ' The l^gal Sacrifices '). Schultz holds that the Priestly Code wa« strongly dominated by tbo teaching of the prophetJi, and that the signillcance of all kinds of ofleritiKB was simply that which belonKS to genuine worship. The Uurnt-oflcrinj.'s and the Pcace-olTerings were a mode of adoration, while * the ground of purification in the Sin-offering (and the Guilt-ofTerintj) is that Ood accepta the sacrifice, ana that man in this ofTering. enjoined by God as the embodied prater of a penitent, expresses his confession, his regret, hia petition for forgiveness' (Amtr. Joum. Theol. 1900, p. 810X
The exegetical arguments by which this view has been supported are of no great cogency. Lv 17", on whicli Biihr places such reliance, is at the most a contribution, though this doubtfully, to the view that the atoning element was the pure life which was ottered, not the death through which it pa-ssed. In any case it does not give ex- prc8.sion to the characteristic idea of the symboli- cal theory. * It is never said in any manner of circumlocution that the blood of the animal slain atones for the otl'erer by symbolically representing the soul of the otVerer ' (Cave, p. 250). The inarticu- late evidence of the ritual is no more favourable. It is true that it can be so interpreted as to fall
in with the theory, but no part of the rites or appended commentary speaks so strongly for the theory as do the sacrifices of atonement for the idea of vicarious punishment. A further objection which has been pressed by Kurtz and others is, that it is alien to the spirit of revealed religion as the religion of grace, inasmuch as it grounds the acceptance of the sinner upon his own worthiness, or at least on the worth of his sentiments and resolutions. This, however, is indecisive : to sa.j that prayer alone is efficacious is not to say that it is meritorious. Weightier is the objection, that on the Prayer-theory correct ritual could not i laim the paramount importance which it possesses in the Priestly Code. Further, the view could never be popular that sacrifice had no etlicacy other than that of a vehicle for the expression of the spirit of worship ; and the Priestly Code, which lias all the character of a popular religion, may well be supposed to have taken account of the common need, and to have supplemented the spiritual- ized thought of the prophets on the subject of sacritice with a theory which made the otlering an objective, an independent, and as such a deeply efficacious ground of obtaining or preserving the favour of God.