Sinir, in Norse mj'thology, was one of the asa- horses.
Sinis, two characters in Grecian mythology,
1. The son of Polypemon, Pemon, or Poseidon, by Sylea, who was sumamed Pityocampes (fir- bender), or Procrustes. He dwelt on the isthmus of Corinth as a robber, and destroyed the travellers who fell into his power by fastening them to the tops of two fir-trees which he had bent down, and which he then permitted to spring back to their upright condition. He was himself killed by Theseus in the same manner.
2. A son of Neptune and Anaxo, and brother to Cer- cj'on. His mother dwelt in TrcBzen. Theseus mur- dered her sons and defloured her daughters, in accord- ance with the custom of victors at that day. — VoUmer, Wdrterh. il Mythol. s. v.
Si'nite (Heb. collectively with the art. has-Sini',
"^pSil, probably of local etymology ; Sept. ' katwaloQ ; Vulg. Sinceus), a tribe of Canaanites (Gen. x, 17; 1 Chron. i, 15) whose position is to be sought for in the northern part of the Lebanon district. Various locali- ties in that district bear a certain amount of resem- blance to the name, particularly Sinna, a mountain for- tress mentioned by Strabo (xvi, 755) ; Sinum or Sini, the ruins of wliich existed in the time of Jerome (Qiicest. Gen. loc. cit.); Syn, a village mentioned in the 15th century as near the River Area (Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 948) ; and Dunniyeh, a district near Tripoli (Robinson, Researches, ii, 494). The Targums of Onkelos and Jon- athan give Orihosia, a town on the coast to the north- east of Tripolis. — Smith. See Canaanite.
Sinlessness of Christ. See Christ, Sinless-
NESS OF.
Sinoe, in Greek mj'thology, was an Arcadian nymph who brought up the god Pan, and from whom he was named Sinoeis.
Sin-offering (nX^pO, chattcith; Sept. ajiapria, to Tiig afiapTtac, irtpl ctfiapriaQ ; Vulg. pi-o 2}eccato). The sin-offering among the Jews was the sacrifice in which the ideas of propitiation and of atonement for sin were most distinctly marked. It is first directly enjoined in Lev. iv, whereas in ch. i-iii the burnt-offering, meat- offering, and peace-offering are taken for granted, and the object of the law is to regulate, not to enjoin, the presentation of them to the Lord. Nor is the word chattdth applied to any sacrifice in ante-Mosaic times. Its technical use in Gen. iv, 7 is asserted, and supported by high authority. But the word here probably means (as in the Vulgate and the A.V.) "sin." The fact that it is never used in application to any other sacrifice in Genesis or Exodus alone makes the translation "sin- offering" here very improbable. It is therefore pecul- iarly a sacrifice of the law, agreeing with the clear defi- nition of good and evil, and the stress laid on the " sin- fulness of sin," which were the main objects of the law in itself. The idea of propitiation was, no doubt, latent in earlier sacrifices, but it was taught clearly and dis- tinctly in the Levitical sin-offering. The ceremonial of the sin-offering is described in Lev. iv and vi. The animal — a young bullock for the priest or the congrega- tion, a male kid or lamb for a ruler, a female kid or lamb for a private person, in all cases without blemish — was brought by the sacrificer to the altar of sacrifice ; his hand was laid upon its head (with, as we learn from later Jewish authorities, a confession of sin, and a prayer that the victim might be its expiation) ; of the blood of the slain victim some was then sprinkled seven times before the veil of the sanctuary, some put on the horns of the altar of incense, and the rest poured at the foot of the altar of sacrifice. The fat (as the choicest part of the flesh) was then burned on the altar as a burnt-offer- ing; the remainder of the bodj', if the sin-offering were that of the priest himself or of the whole congregation, was carried out of the camp or city to a " clean place" and there burned ; but, if the offering were that of an in- dividual, the flesh might be eaten by the priests alone in the holy place, as being " most holy."
The "trespass-offering" (DllJX; ■jrKi^Hj.ifkua, to ttjq irXtji-ifuXeiag ; pro delicto) is closely connected with the sin-offering in Leviticus, but at the same time clearly distinguished from it, being in some cases offered with it as a distinct part of the same sacrifice, as, for exam- ple, in the cleansing of the leper (ch. xiv). The victim was in each case to be a ram. At the time of offering, in all cases of damage done to any holy thing, or to any man, restitution was made with the addition of a fifth part to the principal; the blood was sprinkled round about upon the altar, as in the burnt-offering, the fat burned, and the flesh disposed of as in the sin-offering. The distinction of ceremonial clearly indicates a differ- ence in the idea of the two sacrifices. The nature of that difference is still a subject of great controversy. Look-
SIN-OFFERING
Y78
SIN-OFFERING
ing first to the derivation of the two words, we find that rxun is derived from S-H, which is, properly, to "miss" a mark, or to '"err" from a way, and, secondarily, to "sin," or to incur "penalty;" that ~wX is derived from the root n'^j'X, which is, properly, to "fail," having for its " primary idea neijlirjence, especially in gait" (Ge- senius). It is clear that, so far as derivation goes, there appears to be more of reference to general and actual sin in the former, to special cases of negligence in the latter. Turning next to the description, in the book of Leviticus, of the circumstances under which each should be ottered, we find one imjiortant passage (Lev. V, 1-13) in which the sacrifice is called first a " trespass- offering" (ver. ()), and then a " sin-offering" (ver. 7, 9, 1 1, 12). But the nature of the victims in ver. G agrees with the ceremonial of the latter, not of the former; the ap- plication oi the latter name is more emphatic and reit- erated; and there is at ver. 1-1 a formal introduction of the law of the trespass-offering, exactly as of the law of the sin-uttering in iv, 1. It is therefore safe to con- clude that the word C\Z,'^t is not here used in its techni- cal sense, and that the passage is to be referred to the sin-offering only. See Tkkspass-ofkehing. We find, then, that the sin-offerings were —