It was also natural that the idea of the merits of the righteous, especially of pious sull'erers, should continue to gain in siomificance and em- phasis. The destruction of Jerusalem compre. nended an unparalleled tale of horrors, and involved in suffering and death many innocent and right
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eous persons ; and it might well be believed that this was a consummated sjicrilice whereby full atone- ment had been made for national sin (Weber, p. 32:* f.).
B. TOE SACRtFIClAL DOCTRINE OF NT.
It 13 open to question whether in an undisturbed course of development sacritice would have main- tained its place in the religion either of the Jewish or of the (jrra?co-K()man world. On tlie one hand, it possessed many features which justilied its posi- tion as the central relij^ious rite — it lent itself to imposing ceremonial, it was peculiarly fitted to thrill the physical nature of the worshippers, it satisfied tlie instinct which prompts men to give to God what costs them something, it supplied an external ground of confidence, and it was hal- lowed by its immemorial antiquity. I5ut, on the other hand, it was menaced oy more than one factor in the higher civilization of the ancient world. On the aesthetic side there must have been some considerable feeling to the effect that the public slaughter of cattle, especially with such accompaniments as were observed at Koman festivals, could not be retained in a period of advamiug refinement as the appropriate form of worship. Still more, the conceptions of God prevalent in the Stoic and I'latonic schools raised the question as to whether animal offerings were really acceptable to God, while the scepticism of others turned upon the system the shafts of ridicule. The Jewish Church, in its turn, con- tained within it, in the prophetical teaching, a Bet of principles which at least involved the con- clusion that sacrifice was unnecessary, from which it was no long step to the position that it should be discontinued. But, whatever the issue might have been in the natural progress of refinement and theological reflexion, the question was settled both for the Jewish and the Gentile world by two extraordinary events. The destruction of Jeru- salem, as we have seen, brought about the aboli- tion of sacrifice in one way, and in another Christianity destroyed tie system in the name of a higher fulfilment.
f. NT Api'Rrciation of thii OT Sacrifices. — The teachinpr of Jt'HUs on thin subject, as recordt-ti in the Synoptic report, haa two outstanding feuturea : (1) the recof^iltion of the Divine ■ tithority of the sacrificial law, and of its bindinjf character upon the Jews ; (2) the accentuation of the prophetic doctrine of the pre-eminence of the moral over the ceremonial, lie anumes that His hearers offer sacriflce (Ml b"^), and He enjoins a recovered leper to make the ofTerln^f required in the Law i^*). I>id He Himself Join in the sacrificial worship? He whose presentation as an infant was accompanied by a liurnt- offerin^, whose death was preceded by the celebration of the Passover, and who made it a maxim to conform to llie laws of the Jewish Church even when knowing Himself unbound by them, certainly did not hold aloof from the temple-worship of wliich sacrifice was the central act. With equal certainty we may assuriic that it was only as an element of collective worMhip that sacrifice was use<l by Him. But, while at this statre sanc- tioning sacrifice. He adopts the sayinu of Hoses that ' Ood will have mercy ana not sacrifice' <Mt 9'^ 127), and accounts the scribe who gives a similar valuation as not far from the king- dom of Ood (Mk 12'0). The second prophetic axiom, that sncrl- flco Is worthless with unrepented sin in the background, finds utterance in .Mt VO. u. Had this been all the evidence, it could have been held, and witli greater conlidence than in the case of the prophets, that Jesus contemjilated the continuance of aicrillce as a sutiordinato element in the religious life. The alK)lltion Is Involved in theonnouncenientof theentahlishmentof a new covenant (Mt 2Sa, Mk 14^, l.k 22»), with the implication of the disappearance of the old economy and all its sacrifices.
The rlirect references of St. Paul to the subject are not numerous. Thoobsorvanceof the sacritlclal law was still iiiain- t.aini'<I to some extent among the Jewish Christians, and the apostle on one occasion associated himself with four men who went through a purification ending in ofTcnng (Ac 212"). In ] Co inis he speaks as if the purjiose aii'l signiflcjince of one kind of sacrifice were well understood - i* >-ns dpstgned to esmlJisb communion or fellowship with Uod, It might be wTin ncmoiis, and of the worshippers one with anollicr, through the medium of the sacrificial meal. The principal aspect in which the OT sacriflres pr«sent4*d themselves to him was the tvpical. In theuisulves they belonge<l to the beggarly elements, but they pointed forward to a satisfying and oudurimr ground of recon- ciliation with Ood.
The Epistle to the Hebrews contains an express and full discussion of OT sacrifice. As kinds it distinguishes gifts and sacrifices — ue. unbloody and bloody offerings, and regards the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement as the crown of the Byateui. The purpose was deliverance from sin (51). the beiieDciaries were priests and people, but the contemplated end was not fully attained. That they were ineffectual for the purpose in hand was proved from the restricted scope of their claim ('sins of ignorance," 9"), from the imperfections and burdened consciences of the worshippers (102- :*), from the necessity of the repetition of the offerings (v.2), and from explicit declarations of God (V.*). The conclusion is that they accoiiiplislied only a bodily orceremonial purification (9'^), and that, as merely tvpical of a real salvation, they were a transitory provision (lOi"). In so far OS blessing Howea from them in the olrl dispensation it was attached to the faith accompanying them (11-*X