P'rom the period of the Exile, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and especially the sutierings of the righteous, were regarded as substitutes for material sacrifices (see art. ' Atonement ' in JE). Is 53 is the ' earliest expression of a conception [viz. the atoning value of the sufferings of pious men] which attained wide development in later times and con- stantly meets us in the teaching of the Jewish synagogues' (0. Whitehouse). One of the seven brothers, during the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, prays that ' in me and my brothers, the wrath of the Almighty may be appeased ' (2 Mac 7^). 4 Mac 6^ gives a prayer, ' Let my blood serve for purification, and as an equivalent for their life {avTlxpvxov) take my own' (cf. 4 Mac ju 924 j'j'20-22 jg4j_ These passages supply an inter- esting link between the old Leviticism and the NT doctrine of the sacrificial death of Jesus.
The doctrine of propitiation receives no support from the teaching of Jesus as given in the Synoptics. Repentance and new life are the conditions of the restoration of the Divine favour. Jesus does not appear to have ever taught that reconciliation depended upon His own death as a propitiation (see DCG, art. * Sacrifice '), although He did teach that the spiritual ministration involved sufi'ering and sacrifice, so that the death of Jesus might be figuratively regarded as a 'ransom for many' (Mk lO*^*''^). Moreover, the teaching of Jesus is not favourable to the view that legal right claims a compensation beyond repentance, before the Father will forgive. The moral of the parables of the Prodigal and the Labourers (cf. Lk 23'*^) is that forensic conceptions are altogether inappropriate in the religious sphere. Harmony witli God is a matter of attitude, not of purchase or compensation. The teaching of the Acts of the Apostles agrees with that of the Synoptics. There is no hint in the early preaching of the Church, as recorded in this work, of a propitiatory value in the death of Jesus. Jesus is, indeed, described as a 'Saviour,' but in the sense that He gives ' repentance to Israel and remission of sins' (Ac 5*'), i.e. He is able to bring about a change in the hearts of men, and, in accordance with prophetic teaching, pardon follows repentance (cf. the description of the preaching of the Baptist, as that of ' repentance unto remission of sins,' Mk 1*).
But, with the exception of the authors of the Synoptics, the Acts, and the Epistle of James, the writers of the NT are strongly influenced l)y the propitiatory theory of the deatii' of Jesus. The passage of the ' Suiiering Servant' (Is SS'*'- ""•) sug- gested, a doctrine which seemed to throw light
upon the ignominious death of Jesus upon the Cross. The ' stumbling-block ' to the Jewish mind became the Christian's boast. How the sacrifice was regarded as operating is not clear — the analogy of Levitical blood sacrifices was evidently some- times in the mind of the writers (Ro 3-^, 1 P l^*, Jn p9, etc.). St. Paul also holds the idea that the death of Jesus is a sign of His human submission to the elemental world-powers of darkness, who, since Adam, have held the world under their grievous rule (HDB, art. ' Elements ' ; also Wrede, Paul, Eng. tr., 1907, p. 95). But, being more than man. He rises from the dead. The Resur- rection is a sign that Death — one of the elemental principalities and powers, and representative of the rest — has no longer dominion over Him ( Ro 6^), or over those in ' faith ' union with Him. But these ' world-powers of darkness,' whose dues the death of Jesus was conceived as satisfying, are but a thinly disguised form of God's retribution for Adam's sin. Ultimately the propitiation is still made to God, although the emphasis is drawn from the wrath of God to the love which inspired the propitiatory action (cf. Jn 3^^, Ro 3^ 5^, etc.). From this point, St. Paul follows the anti-legal teaching of Jesus in asserting that ' justification ' — right relations with God — depends on the new attitude of ' faith,' not on ' works ' ; but legalism with St. Paul must be satisfied by the prior trans- action of Jesus on the Cross.
The difficulty in the doctrine of propitiation does not lie in the fact that no ultimate distinction can be made between the Power to whom propitiation is offered and the God of love who offers it. Inde- pendently of the interests of this particular doctrine, we must accept the paradox that the same God who works under the limitation of law ordains the law which limits Him. But we cannot accept the interpretation of the death of Jesus as an exalted Levitical blood sacrifice, or as a transaction with the ' world-powers of darkness,' nor can we be satisfied with a presentation of an angry God, who needs compensation or some mollifying gift before He will turn away the fierceness of His wrath. The sacri- fices of God are a broken spirit ; a broken and con- trite heart He will not despise (Ps 51"). It would seem more satisfactory to follow the suggestions of the Synoptics and the Acts, and find the recon- ciling work of Jesus, as directed not towards God, but towards men, bringing about in them a repent- ance which makes possible their harmonious rela- tions with the Father.