For careful information on the origin and theory of sacrifice the reader should consult the very full article ' Sacrifice' by \V. P. Paterson in HDB, which favours the suhstitutionary theory, and tliat in EDi by O. F. Moore, which opposes it ; also Sinend'a discussion of tlie development of the sacrificial system in Israel in his Altteist. lieliffionsgeschichle ; G. H. Stevens out- lines the sacrificial system in Christian Doctrine of Salvation, pt. i. oh. i.
2. Modifications of the inherited sacrificial system presented in apostolic teaching and in the practiceof the Apostolic Church. — The best method of expounding the ajiostolic views of sacrifice is to notice in what directions and to what extent the writers in the primitive Church modified the sacri- ficial ideas they carried with them in their passage from Judaism to Christianity. These were tlio ideas from which controversies and party divisions in the Apostolic Church largely sprang. Jewish and Gentile Christians possessed a dill'erent herit-
434
SACRIFICE
SACRIFICE
af;e of sacrificial practices ; the apostolic literature has reference to both, but the references to the Jewish iimueasurably preponderate. The starting- point for tlie apostolic inodilications is found in tlie Sj'noptic account of the attitude of Jesus towards the current sacriliiial system, (a) He recognized the authority of the sacrilicial law as practised in His time by observing it, Iceeping tlie Passover and other feasts, worshipping in the Temple, where sacrifice was the central act ; by commending its observance to others, e.g. the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing (Mt 8^ : cf. Mk 1"). (4) He constantly favoured the prophetic rather tlian the priestly view of sacrilice. lie quoted Hos G" ' I desire mercy and not sacrifice ' (Alt 9'^ 12'), and commended the judgment that love is more than all burnt-oU'erin^ (Mk 12*'); He declared that sacrifice is worthless with unrepented sin (Mt 5*^). (c) He referred to His own death as sacrificial, comparing it especially with theCovenantsacrifice with whicli the Mosaic system was instituted, ' My blood of the new covenant, wliich is shed for many unto remission of sins' (Mt 26-', Lk 22-» ; cf. 1 Co 11"). If we may take the ' new ' of the Lucan and Pauline versions as our Lord's, we may draw the inference that in the establishing of the ' new' the 'old' Covenant was abrogated, and with it the sacrifices that had initiated it and given it historical continuity in Israel. How long it was after the institution of the New Covenant before the Apos- tolic Church appreciated all its implications it is not easy to determine. The Petrine attitude, which favoured a policy of continuity or at least compromise towards important parts of the Jewish sacrificial cultus, is e.\liibited in early, strenu- ous conHicts of judgment recorded in the Apostolic Church. St. Paul quickly seized the central prin- ciple in the changed situation which was to mark the development of Christian thought and usage in reference to the Jewish sacrificial system, but he succeeded only gradually in applying it. The full inferences of the abrogation of the ancient .sacri- fices are first drawn by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The use made by the apostolic wit- nesses of the elaborate and technical terminology of the Jewish sacrificial system must be briefly reviewed. The ' proof-text ' method of working over this material in fragmentary textual corre- spondences and coincidences between the old and new is not satisfactory, and has yielded place to the co-ordinated testimonies of typical apostolic teachers. The ditterences and signs of developing doctrine in this group of writers must be separately considered as constituting together —
3. The apostolic teaching. — The records of the apostolic preacliing in the Acts reveal the primary fact that ' Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures' (I Co 15^) was an article of common tradition in the Apostolic Church. The death of Christ appears to have been regarded at a very early period as expiatory ; the idea of expiation was closely associated with that of sacrifice ; it was natural, therefore, that the death of Christ should be looked upon as a sacrifice and spoken of under sacrificial figures. This sacrificial interpreta- tion of His death is embedded in subsequent tj'pes of apostolic teaching (A. Kitschl, Eechtfertigunri und Versohnung, Bonn, 1870-74, ii. 161 ; A. Cave, Scriptural Doctrine of Sacrifice, p. 280 fl".). No direct mention of the sacrifice of Christ is made by James or Jude ; but their silence may be ac- counted for by the fact that the subject was foreign to the purpose for which they wrote.
(a) Petrine. — In the Epistles of Peter the sacri- ficial references are clear and interesting ; ' sprin k- ling of the blood of Jesus' (1 P P ; cf. Ex 24») ; ' ye were redeemed . . . with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the
blood of Christ' (I'S); cf. also Is 53"f- with its clear echo in 1 P 2-'"", where the sacrificial idea of vicarious suH'ering is too obvious to need comment. The characteristic feature of the Petrine references is their close sympathy with OT ideas and usage.
(6) Pauline. — In the Pauline references the con- trast between the Jewish and Christian aspects of sacrifice is more jironounced. St. Paul's direct references to Levitical sacrifice are not numerous. Their scarcity, however, does not warrant Bruce's suggestion that his ideas were coU)ure<l more by the analogy of human sacrifice, with whicli Greek and Koman story makes us familiar, than by that of the Levitical system (cf. St. Paul's (Jonceptioii of Chrixtianiti/, Edinburgh, IS94, p. 169). Whilst St. Paul does allude to pagan ideas of communion through sacrifice (1 Co lO"-'*), he was intimately acquainted with the minutiseof the Levitical .system and even definitely as.sociated himself with its ob- servance (Ac 21-" 24"-"'-), though some find it difficult to believe that his action in the Temple could have been so contrary to his clearly expressed precept (cf. Gal 4"). It should also be noted that St. Paul, unlike the writer to the Hebrews, does not e.xplicitly declare that the sacrifices of the Law came to an end with the death of Chri.st. Whilst it cannot be denied that St. Paul clearly regards the death of Christ as substitutionary, he expounds this conception so much less in terms of the .sacrifi- cial system than might have been expected from him that it has been possible for some expositors to maintain with some plausibility that he did not regard Christ's death as a sacrifice (cf. Pfleiderer, Der Paulinismus", Leipzig, 1890, p. 144). This is an exaggerated position ; for in addition to many traces of sacrificial ideas which he used as sugges- tive illustrations of the meaning of Christ's death, he speaks definitely of the Death as a sacrifice, ' He gave himself up for us, an oflering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell' (Eph 5-) ; ' Our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ (1 Co 5'). References to the blood of Christ as the ground of the benefits conferred by His death (Ro 3-» b\ 1 Co 10'«, Eph 2") are not satisfied by regarding the ' blood ' as merely an allusion to His violent death ; it seems clear from the tenor of St. Paul's teaching that he means 'sacrificial blood' (cf. Ro 8'^ Gal 2»>, Col 1» Eph 1'). It may be maintained, however, that if he ' has not especially brought out this idea [the interpretation of Christ's death] in connection with his allusions to sacrifice, he has done so in other ways, and the inference that this was his conception of Christ's death, viewed as a sacrifice, is quite inevitable ' (Stevens, Christian Doctrine of Salvation, p. 63).