(a) Sacnfloal worship wu not regarded as of pre-eminent Iniportance, but was co-ordinated, as a condition of pleasing God, with knowledge of the Law, and with the performance of good deeds. That a higher valuation of sacrifice did not ob- tam was due partly to, prophetic influence, partly to the later developments of the religious life. The temple had now its complement and competitor in the synagogue, which was the sphere of the larger part of religious activity, as being the orduiary place of woreliip ; and, as the exposition of Scripture and tradition was the most prominent element in the worship of the synagogue, the Rabbi and the scribe tended to over- shadow the priest in popular estimation. Thus a dictum ascribed to the period of the Second Temple has it that an Ignorant high priest is inferior to the wise man. even thouirh the latter be a ' bastard ' (Weber, p. 3S).
(d) Recognition is accorded to a class of acts seri-ing a function similar to animal sacrifices, hut belonging to a higher order To this category belong the merits of the forefathers. The merits of Abraham, in particular, served to cover the sins of his posterity Suffering especially had expiatory iiualitv. Ilv penal and disciplinary sufferings, and above all by death, atonement was made for sin. A much higher degree of elHcacv atUchcd to the sufferings and death of the righteous, as foreshadowed in Is 5S. The death of the righteous is expressly compared, in point of emcacy, to the Day of Atonement (Pesikta, 174ft). The trial of Abraham, the lamentations of Jeremiah, all the dolour of the prophets, and all the anguish of the martyrs, constituted a ground for the forgivenc8.s of sin in Israel. Even the penal •uffenngs inflicted by God upon the Egi-ptians and other hereditary foes of Israel have the character of a ransom for the ;hosen people (» clwr. p. S2«fl. ; cf. Uoltanaon, A'ctKssc. TheoL. t p. 64 tl,>
(c) Interpretation of sacrifice In the sense of substitution. The nse ot ideas of substitution «nth imputation of gmll and ment has been indicated in the previous section. If as is probable, these were already associated with the sacrificial system, it can be readily understood how they were extended to explain the nients and the sufferings of the fathers. If, on the other hand, they originated independently, itcannot be doubted that at this period they profoundly infiiienced the sacrificial tlieory. ]. rom the belief in the vicariousness of the death of the righteous, it was an easy, an inevitable transition, to belief in the substitution of the animal victim. The idea of penal substitution supi.lied an intelligible popular answer to the question, which could not fail to be raised, as to why and how sacnfice procured the favour of God; and although express statements of the idea are few (2 Mac 7^7, 4 Mac 6») the evi- dence points to this mode of thought having become current, bverything pressed towards the assumption that the offering or a life, substituted for sinners according to God's appoint ment, cancelled the death penalty which they had incurred, and that consequently the ottered blood of the sacrificial victims expiated sin as a surrogate for the life ot the guiltv' (Uoltz- ni.-jun, p. 68). The Philonic interpretation of sacrifice as 8\m- bolio of self-sacrifice was too philosophical and mve too littla religious assurance for general acceptance.
During the period in question, the sacrificial regulations were observed witli the utmost scrupu- losity, and with all due pomp and solemnity. But at the same time a process was going on which was loosenuig the hold of sacrifice upon the Jewish mind, and in which the conviction was already finding half-articulate expression, that it was not a complete provision, and even that it was uot vital to the communion of the people with God. Had no such loosening taken place, it is diffi- cult to conceive how faith in God could have survived the blow which at one and the same time robbed the Jews of their fatheriand and their organized national worship. A living belief in the necessity would naturally have issued, when sacrifice became impossible, in apostasy to heathenism.
Of sacrificial practice at the close of the period some glimpses are given in NT. Allusion is made to the sacrifice ot the iiiinot Buriit-oflienng at the presentation of Jesus (Lk 224), the sai-nfice of the Passover (Mk 1412), the union in sacrifice ot a Oalilisan group (Lk 13'), the ofi'ering after recovery from leprosy (Mt S-") the votive offering (Ac 2128), and money offerings (Lk 214) Josephus gives a somewhat minute account of the sacrificial system for the information of the Gentile worid (Ant. passim) lea\Tng the impression that it was thoroughly normative for con- temporary practice. The Intermission of the sacrifice offered for Cajsar's prosperity marked the beginning of the Jewish war (.BJ u. xvu. 2). The seizure by John of the store of wine and oil. used in the Burnt-offerings, and their distribution among the multitude, made the Roman conquest, he thinks only a merited counterpart of the doom ot Sodom (v. xiii. 6).
2. Readjtistment of Judaistic thought tcith the cessation of sacrifice. — To the new conditions cre- ated by the destruction of the Temple, theology accommodated itself by the theory that otlier observances were accepted as a substitute for sacrificial worship. The study of the Law took the place of the rites of the altar, and even took over the characteristic designation of the latter (.-niy). The knowledge of the Law, it was taught, was more valuable in the sight of God than the con- tinual Burnt-ofl'ering, and even than the building of the sanctuary (Megilla M, 166). In particular, it was held that the duty of offering the legal sacrifices had been superseded by the duty of studying the laws relating to the subject (Pesikla 606). The other observance which is treated aa an equivalent for the abolished serrtce is Prayer, in accordance with which a paral'elism was worked out between the order of the daily sacrifices and the order of daily prayers, and also between the varieties of sacrifice and the difi'erent kinds of prayer (Weber, p. 38 ft".).