Offence may be either active or passive. We may give offence by our conduct, or we may receive offence from the conduct of others. The original word (okuv- SaXiZio), in our version usually rendered " offend," liter- ally signifies to cause to stumble, and by an easy meta- phor, to occasion a fall into sin (iMatt. v, 29). It may, therefore, apply to ourselves as well as to others (JIatt. xviii, 6-14). Hence the noun aKdv5a\ov signifies not only " an offence," in our common use of that word, but also a stumbling-stone, a trap, a snare, or whatever im- pedes our path to heaven (Matt, xviii, 17 ; Rom. xiv, 13; 1 Cor. x, 32). Sometimes offence is taken un- reasonably ; men, as Peter says, " stumble at the word, being disobedient." Hence we read of " the offence of the cross" (Gal. v, 11; vi, 12). To positive truth or duty we must adhere, even at the hazard of giving ofience ; but a woe is on us if we give it unnecessarily
OFFENHAUSEN
312
OFFERING
(Rom. xiv, 13-21 ; 1 Cor. viii, 9-13). "We should be very careful to avoid giving just cause of offence, lest ve prove impediments to others in their reception of the truth, in their progress in sanctification, in their peace of mind, or in their general course towards heaven. We should abridge or deny ourselves in some things, rather tlian, by exercising our liberty to the utmost, give uneasiness to Christians weaker in mind or weaker in the faith than ourselves (1 Cor. x, 32). On the other hand, we should not take offence without ample cause, but endeavor by our exercise of charity, and perhaps by our increase of knowledge, to think favorably of what is dubious, as well as honorably of what is laudable.
It was foretold of the Messiah that he should be " a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence" (Isa. viii, 14 ; Kom. ix, 32, 33 ; 1 Pet. ii, 8). Perhaps predictions of this kind are among the most valuable which Providence has preserved to us, as we see by them that we ought not to be discouraged because the Jews, the natural people of the Messiah, rejected him, and still reject him ; since the very offence they take at his humiliation, death, etc., is in perfect conformity to and fulfilment of those prophecies which foretold that, however they might profess to wish for the great Deliverer, yet when he came they would overlook him, and stumble at him.
OFFENCE, Ecclesiastical. SeePE^•A^•CE; Pol- ity; Keconx'iliation; Trial.
Offenhauseii, Salomon Zebi, a polemic who lived about tlie beginning of the 16th century. We know notliiiig of him beyond the fact that he wrote an apolo- getical work against the Jewish convert S. Fr. Brenz, and his work, Jiidischer uhf/cstreiftei- Schlamjenhahj (Nuremberg, 1614), entitled Cil^in^n ">"!:£ (Hanover, 1615), written in Judieo-German and in rabbinical letters, which was translated into Latin by Jo. Wulfer, under the title Theriaca ad examen I'evvcata (Nurem- berg, 1681), of which some excerpts are found in Eisen- menger's Neuentdecktes Jvdenihum, i, 134 sq. See Furst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 46 ; Wolf, Bill Hehr. i, 358 ; iii, 245; Steinschneider, JfWJ^/t LUei-atvre, p. 213; Jcicher, Allgenieines Gelehrten-Lexikon, iv, 2194 sq. ; De Rossi, Dizionario storico degli autori Ebrei, p. 250 sq. (Germ, transl. by Hamberger) ; b}^ the same author, Bihliothecu Judaica Antichristiuna, p. 126 (Parma, 1800); Eisen- menger, Neuentdecktes Judcnthum, vol. i (index of the Germano-Hebrew books referred to in his work) ; Fabri- cius. Delectus argumentorum et sylluhus Scripiorum, etc. (Hamburg, 1725, p. 588 sq.). (B.P.)
Offering (the general name for which in Hebrew is ■p^p, korhaii', although several other words are so ren- dered) is anything presented to God as a means of con- ciliating his favor; which being in the Jewish, as well as in all other religions, considered as the one tiling needful, has ahvays constituted an essential part of public worship and private piety. In the treatment of this topic we adopt the article in Kitto's Cyclopeedia, which is substantially an abridgment of Winer's " Op- fer" in liis Realwurferbuch, ii, 176 sq.
Offerings have been divided into three kinds : 1. Impel rat oi-ia, denoting those which are designed to procure some favor or benefit; 2. Eucharistica, those which are expressive of gratitude for bounties or mer- cies received; 3. Piacutaria, those which are meant to atone for sins and propitiate the Deity. Porphyry also gives three reasons for making offerings to the gods {Abstinentia, ii, 24) — in order to do them honor, to ac- knowledge a favor, or to procure a supply for human needs. Among the Hebrews we find a complex and multiform system of offerings extending through the en- tire circle of divine worship, and prescribing tlie minut- est details. A leading distinction separates their offer- ings into unbloody (ilH3T3, minchuh, Trponcpofjci, £u>pop) and bloody (n2T, zebach, l^vaia). Used in its widest sense, the term offering, or oblation, indicates in the Hebrew ritual a very great number of things— as the