1 KINGS viii. 62-66, ix. 25.
"I have chosen this house to Myself for an house of sacrifice."--2 Chron. vii. 12.
"Gifts and sacrifices, that cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect, being only ... carnal ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation."--Heb. ix. 9, 10.
The whole sacrificial system with which our thoughts of Judaism are perhaps erroneously, and much too exclusively identified, furnishes us with many problems.
Whether it was originally of Divine origin, or whether it was only an instinctive expression, now of the gratitude, and now of the guilt and fear, of the human heart, we are not told. Nor is the basal idea on which it was founded ever explained to us. Were the ideas of "atonement" or propitiation (_Kippurim_) really connected with those of substitution and vicarious punishment? Or was the main conception that of _self_-sacrifice, which was certainly most prominent in the burnt offerings? Doubtless the views alike of priests and worshippers were to a great extent indefinite. We are not told what led Cain and Abel to present their sacrifices to God; nor did Moses--if he were its founder--furnish any theories to explain the elaborate system laid down in the Book of Leviticus. The large majority of the Jews probably sacrificed simply because to do so had become a part of their religious observances, and because in doing so they believed themselves to be obeying a Divine command. Others, doubtless, had as many divergent theories as Christians have when they attempt to explain the Atonement. The "_substitution_" theory of the "sin offering" finds little or no support from the Old Testament; not only is it never stated, but there is not a single clear allusion to it. It is emphatically asserted by later Jewish authorities, such as Rashi, Aben Ezra, Moses ben-Nachman, and Maimonides, and is enshrined in the Jewish liturgy. Yet Dr. Edersheim writes: "The common idea that the burning, either of part or the whole of the sacrifice, pointed to its destruction, and symbolised the wrath of God and the punishment due to sin, does not seem to accord with the statements of Scripture."[329]
Sacrifices were of two kinds, bloody (_Zebach_; LXX., θυσία), or unbloody (_minchah_, _korban_; LXX., δῶρον, προσφορά). The latter were oblations. Such were the cakes of shewbread, the meal and drink offerings, the first sheaf at Passover, the two loaves at Pentecost. In almost every instance the _minchah_ accompanied the offering of a sacrificial victim.
The two general rules about all victims for sacrifice were, (1) that they should be without blemish and without spot, as types of perfectness; and (2) that every sacrifice should be salted with salt, as an antiseptic, and therefore a type of incorruption.[330]
Sacrificial victims could only be chosen from oxen, sheep, goats, turtle doves, and young pigeons--the latter being the offering of the poor who could not afford the costlier victims.
Sacrifices were also divided generally (1) into free, or obligatory; (2) public, or private; and (3) most holy or less holy, of which the latter were slain at the north and the former at the east side of the altar.[331] The offerer, according to the Rabbis, had to do five things--to lay on hands, slay, skin, dissect, and wash the inwards. The priest had also to do five things at the altar itself--to catch the blood, sprinkle it, light the fire, bring up the pieces, and complete the sacrifices.
Sacrifices are chiefly dwelt upon in the Priestly Code; but nowhere in the Old Testament is their significance formally explained, nor for many centuries was the Levitic ritual much regarded.[332]
The sacrifices commanded in the Pentateuch fall under four heads. (1) The burnt offering (_Olah_, _Kalil_),[333] which typified complete self-dedication, and which even the heathen might offer; (2) the sin offering (_Chattath_),[334] which made atonement for the offender; (3) the trespass offering (_Ashâm_),[335] which atones for some special offence, whether doubtful or certain, committed through ignorance; and (4) the thank offering, eucharistic peace offering (_Shelem_),[336] or "offering of completion," which followed the other sacrifices, and of which the flesh was eaten by the priest and the worshippers.[337]