493 sq.), and perhaps the sacrifice of animals may have led to the burning of the sacrifices on altars. (See in general (iedicke, Verm. Schri/t. p. 229 sq.; Wolf, Vei-m. Schri/t. u. Aii/s. [Halle, 1802], p. 243 sq. ; Saubert, Be Sacrific. Vet. Collectanea [Jen. 1C59] ; Meiner, Krit. Gesch. der Reliyion, ii, 1 sq. ; Baur, Symbol, u. Mythol. II, ii, 284 sq.) It is commonly supposed that the first offerings were of immediate divine appointment (Dey- ling, Observat. ii, 53 sq.), but this is not affirmed in the Mosaic histor}' (comp. Wolf, Homines Mose Vetustiores Sponte Sacra fecisse, etc. [Lips. 1782]), and is rejected by some as anthropopathism. The views of those who seek definite dogmatic relations in the first sacrifices, as Tholuck {2te Beil. zum Br. a. d. Hebr. p. 69), do not belong to historical criticism, but to dogmatic theology (see also the Zeitschr.f.wissensch. Theol. 1863, iii).
On the ritual of sacrifice among the Hebrews in gen- eral, see Lightfoot, De Minislerio Templi, in his Works, and in Ugolino, vol. ix, ch. viii ; Carpzov, App. p. 699 sq. ; Outram, De Sacrif. Lib. (Lond. 1677), vol. ii (only the first book relates to the Jewish sacrifices) ; Reland, .4 ntiq. Sacr. iii, 1 ; Bauer, Gottesdienst- Verfass. i, 80 sq. ; Rosenmiiller, Excursus i, ad Lev. ; Gramberg, Relir/.- Ideen, i, 94 sq. : Scholl, in the Wiirtemberg. Stud. I. ii, 152 sq.; IV, i, 3 sq.; Y, i, 108 sq.; Biihr, Symbol, ii, 189 sq.; Kurtz, Z'rtS ?«o.<. C>;)/e/' (Mitau, 1842). The Jewish views of the ritual of sacrifice are especially set forth in the tracts Sebachim, Menachoth, and Temura, in the fifth part of the Mishna. From these and the rabbins extracts are given by Otho, Lex. Talm. p. 621 sq. The entire Babylonish Gemara to the tract Sebachim, and the Tosiphta to the same tract, are found in Hebrew and Latin in Ugolini Thesaur. vol. xix. IMany parallels and explanations are found in the Phccnician table of offerings discovered some years since in jNIarseilles, and published, with a commentary, by IMovers (Breslau, 1847). (On the offerings of other Eastern and Western nations, see Fliigel, Volkel, and Wachter, in the Hall. Encyhl. iii, § iv, p. 77 sq.)
The law adopted as a model the sacrifices already long in use, and gives exact directions as to the kinds of sacrifices and the ceremonies of offering. (We can- not here discuss tlie question of how much of this law was Mosaic. In answer to the view of De Wette, Yon Bohlen, George, and others that the greater part had a still later origin, see Bleek, in the Stud. ii. Krit. 1831, iii, 491 sq.; Biihr, Symbol, ii, 192 sq.) This law of of- ferings may be summed up thus:
1. The subjects to be sacrificed, in the proper sense of the word, which were laid, that is, on the burning altar of Jehovah, must be borrowed as well out of the vegetable as the animal kingdom. (In the wider sense of off'erinf/, even tithes, first-fruits, and incense are included. Comp. the offering of wood, Neh. x, 35.) Hence there is a distinction between offerings without blood (rinj'^C, menachoth, Trporrrpopai, Swpa) and offerings with blood (C^nnT, zebachim, ^vaiai). See 1 Sam. ii, 29; iii, 14, Psa. xl, 7; Heb. viii, 3. The latter were considered the more important. But salt, a mineral, was added to every distinct sacrifice of either kind. The vegetable products offered were both solid and fluid ; of the for- mer, roasted grain. Hour, cakes with olive-oil (the cakes always without leaven or honey), and incense as an ac- companiment, formed the meat-offerings (the nnj^, mivchdh, in the proper sense) ; of the latter, wine formed the drink-offerings ("03, nesek). The animals offered must be clean, and sucii as were fit for food (Josepluis, Ant. xii, 5, 4; comp. (Jen. viii, 20), and must be tame beasts, as cattle (Bochart, Hieroz. i, 326 sq.), goats, sheep, and sometimes turtle-doves and young pigeons, but never fishes. They must be altogether free from deformity {spotless, perfect, aj'oi'^oc. rsXfioc, Lev. xxii, 20 sq.; comp. Mai. i, 8, 14; Herod, ii, 38; Plutarch, Omc. />/:p.49; Ovid, .1/^/. XV, 130; Yirgil,.i;«. iv, 57 ; Pliny, viii, 70; Athen. xv, 674; TertuU. Apol. c. 14; with the
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passage in Plutarch may be compared Pollue. Onom. i, 1, 29; SchoL ad Aristoph. A ami. p. 785; on the expres- sions in Lev. xxii, 20 sq., see Bochart, tlieroz. i, 594 sq. ; comp. Baklinger, prses. Hottinger, De Victim. Integriiate et Mysterio [Heidelb. 1731]). Except the doves, they must be at least eight days old, because younger tiesh is unfit for food (Kxod. xxii, 30; Lev. xxii, 27), the smaller cattle being usually yearlings (sheep, goats, calves, Exod. xxix, 38; Lev. ix, 3; xii, 6; xiv, 10; xxiii, 12, 18 sq. ; Numb, xv, 27 ; xxviii, 9 sq.), while the larger were young, perhaps usually three years old (yet Judg. vi, 25 mentions a bidl of seven years as a sacrifice; comp. Pliny, viii, 77; Herod, ii, 38). The sex of four-footed beasts for sacrifice was sometimes in- different (as in thank- and sin-offerings; comp. Lev. iii, 1, 6; yet in all public offerings the Mishna recpiires males, Temura, ii, 1), and sometimes males were re- quired, as in burnt-offerings ; for the male sex was con- sidered the superior. The choice of the kind of beast was free in the burnt -offerings and thank-offerings (Lev. i, 2; iii, 1, 6), but was determined by law in the trespass- and sin-offerings (iv, 3). Human sacrifices, as heathenish (xviii, 21; xx, 2 sq. ; Dent, xii, 31), were avoided by the pious Israelites (Psa. cvi, 37), although their sacred history contained an example of the pur- posed sacrifice of a son by his father (Gen. xxii), and in the unsettled days of the judges a daughter fell under the sacrificial knife of her superstitious father (Judg. xi). On the human sacrifices of other nations, see Baur, Mythologtj, H, ii, 293 stp ; Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterth. ii, 549 sq. ; and on those of the apostate Israel- ites, see Moloch. The slanderous statement that the •Jews slaughtered strangers and drank their blood arose about, the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (see Josephus, Apion, ii, 8 ; Ghillanv, Die Meiuchenopfer der ultcn Neb. [Nuremberg, 1842] { Hall. Lit. Zcit. 1844, No. 220-223). The legal and regular circle of sacrificial beasts is ex- plicable from the agricultural pursuits of the Israelites: oxen, goats, and sheep were the usual stock of farmers, and corn, oil, and wine were the chief productions of the soil for the commonest wants of life. The addition of doves springs from the fact that scarcely any creatures with life suitable for sacrifice could be found save among birds, and doves were the most common domestic birds. But why not chickens ; and why, according to the rabbins, could not chickens be kept in the holy city? (comp. Eskuche, De Gallis et Gallinis ad A ram Jovee «ow /'uc/is [Pint. 1741]). See Fatted Fowl. Each person was required to furnish his own sacrifices, and those who lived near enough drove them from their own herds. But later there arose in Jerusalem traders in beasts for sacrifice {victimarii iiegotiatores ; Pliny, H. N. vii, 10; Mishna, Shekal. vii, 2), and at the time of Jesus a regular market for this purpose stood in the vicinity of the Temple (q. v.).