LlTERATUBE.— Art. ' Dav,' by H. A. White in Hastings' DB, by Karl Marti in Encvc BlU., and by F. W. Farrar in Smith's D£2; also 'Tag' in Biehm's EWB; esp. Swete's Com. on St. Mark, and Hummer's Com. on St. Luke, ad loe. ; and cf. the artt. Time, Nioht, EscHATOLoaT.
Geoege L. Robinson.
DAY OF ATONEMENT (Dnsan dv [ons? "'], V^pa [toO] i^CKaaixoS). — The eliief OT passages bearing on it are Lv 16. 23=''-2-, but some further details are given in Ex 30'", Lv 25**, Nu 29'"". An earlier and simpler form of the ceremony is prescribed in Ezk 45i8-2o_ The day is not mentioned in the Gospels, but it is referred to as •^ v-qaTela in Ac 27^ (also Ep. Barn. V-*, Jos. Ant. XVII. vi. 4).
1. It is not necessary in the present article to describe fully the ritual and worship of the day ; only the salient features are here touched upon which offer some analogy with the Christian Atonement. The more important parts of the ceremony were, briefly, as follows : —
(a) The high priest procured and brought before the Tent a bullock as a sin-oft'ering for himself, and two goats upon which lots were cast, one being destined as a sin-offering for the people, and the other to be ' for Azazel.' He sacrificed the bullock, and carried its blood into the Holy of Holies, where, after enveloping the mercy-seat with a cloud of burning incense, he sprinkled the blood before it. He then came out and sacrificed the goat for the people, and, re-entering the Holy of Holies, sprinkled its blood before the mercy-seat. He next sprinkled the blood of each animal on the altar of incense in tlie Holy Place ; and, lastly, he sprinkled the mingled blood of bullock and goat on the brazen altar in the outer court. Thus the blood (the life) of the animals, representing the life of priest and people, was oH'ered before God ; and they, and the three parts of the Tent polluted by their presence during the preceding year, were cleansed, and atonement was made for them.
(6) The goat for Azazel was then brought near. The sins of the people were confessed over it, and it was led into the wilderness. The two goats were intended figuratively to represent one and the same being, who, though sacrificed, was yet living, and able to carry away the sins of the people. In the Mishna {YCnmt vi. 1, cf. Ep. Barn. 7°) this thought was afterwards emphasized by the regula- tion that the goats must resemble each other as closely as possible.
(c) The high priest oflered two rams as a burnt- oflering for himself and the people, signifying the complete ofl'ering up of the worshippers' lives and persons to God.
(d) The skin, flesh, and dung of the bullock and the goat, whose blooil had made atonement, were burnt outside the camp.
2. The great spiritual truths typified by this ceremony are to a certain extent drawn out in He 9'-»- =i-"-8 lO"--.
(a) The high priest entered ' into the second [part of the Tent] once a year ' (iJTra^ toO iviavroxi, i.e. on one day in the year), 9'. But Christ entered into 'the Holies' once for all {i(pa.irai, v.'^) ; and see V.-"- 10"'. Thus His blood— i.e. His life freed for eternal uses by death — is perpetually presented before God.
(6) The earthly ' holies' are ' made with hands,' ' types corresponding to the real ones ' (iiyTlTvira Turn i\Tj0ivuy). But Christ entered into ' lieaven itself,' 9=*.
(c) The high priest entered 'in the blood of another ' (9='')—' witli the accompaniment of [by means of, 5id] the blood of goats and calves': Christ, witli His own blood, 9'-. And the Tent, 'the copies {vToo^lyixaTci.) of the things in tlie
heavens,' must be purified with the former : but the heavenly things with better sacrifices than these, 9"'. With regard to the meaning of this, Westcott says : ' It may be said that even " heavenly things," so far as they embody the conditions of man's future life, contracted by the Fall something which required cleansing. Man is, according to the revelation in Scripture, so bound up with the whole finite order, that the consequences of his actions extend througli crea- tion in some way which we are unable to deline.'
{d) The sacrifices of the Day of Atonement (and other sacrifices — 'the ashes of an heifer,' see Nu 19) can effect only the purifying of the flesh ; i.e. outward ceremonial cleansing. But if they can ett'ect that, a fortiori the blood of Christ can purify our consciences from the defiling contact of dead works, 9'^'*.
(c) The high priest entered alone ; which fact signified that while the first Tent continued to have a standing among men (^x'"^"^'!' (rriatv), the way for all men into ' the Holies ' was not yet manifested, 9'*-. But now ' we have confidence which leads us to enter into the Holies in the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us, through the veil, that is to say [the way] of His flesh,' 10'^'-.
The main truths, then, at which the writer of the Epistle arrives by direct reference to the Day of Atonement are : that Christ is both Priest and Victim ; that His sacrifice is eternally efficacious, and that it is being eternally presented by Him in Heaven ; that its effects are not ceremonial but spiritual ; and that we now have free access to the Father.