The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 15

playing thereby the salient a.nd instructive characteristics of the Levitical sacrificial cultue. Let the writer sto.te, however, once for a.II, that where ho ho.s expressed any -details of that cultus in a.s fitting a.nd a.ccura.te language a.s he is capable of in his earlier work, he ha.s not gone a.bout to seek a. new dress for old facts, but has freely used his .previous materials. Where, therefore, passages occur in inverted commas, without the mention of the no.me of a.n author, it will be understood that the writer quotes from bis .earlier work. A. Tm: CLA.SBIFIOATIO:N 01' THE LEVITIOAL SACRIFICES. At the outset it is necessary to classify the numeroue sacrificial rites of the old oovenant with some accura.cy. An indispensable preliminary to such a classification is a precise definition of "sacrifice." According to the usage of the Old Testament, the most general term for sacrifice is ,zarban. This word was employed in the Law to describe the genus of which sacrifices of all kinds were species. It is expressly predicated of the burnt offering, the peace offering, the thank offering and the votive offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the Passover, the sacrifice of the Naze.rite on the i!Xpiry or breach of his vow, the whole range of national sacrifices, the firstfruits, and even offerings made to Jehovah of the spoils of battle. Qorban is manifestly the generic Hebrew term, equivalent to our English term saerifir.e. The important thing, therefore, in defining "sacrifice" in a scriptural sense is to ascertain the customary Biblical significance of this term. Not to delay upon philological considerations, which may be studied by the curious in the Appendix to the writer's previously mentioned work, suffice it to say that this Hebrew word is expressly used and translated by an unequivocal Greek word in a passage in the seventh chapter of St. Mark's Gospel. That passage runs thus: '"Ea.v d"1111.v6ponros T,ji rczTpl f) Tp 1'1/Tpl· Kop/3ii "• 1l lCTT1v Bii',pov, a Ja.v lf lµov &.,p,11.116ps:" " If a man shall say to his father or his mother, Qarban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me" (Mark vii. 11). This ",cop/3iiv, 3 4CTT111 7iwpov" settles the meaning of the Hebrew sacrificial technicality once for all, at the samA time as the insertion of the Hebrew word throws light upon the unfilial pleading alluded to. Qorban, the equivalent of the English word sacrifice iu :general, is a gift to God. The usage of the LXX. is identical. A sacrifice in the Levitical sense was a gift, or offering, or preseutation made to Jehovah. Ewald was, therefore, perfectly at liberty to call abstinence from labour upon the sabbath a sacri- .fice of rest ; nor would it be inconsistent with the usage of the Pentateuch to call •obedience to the legal injunctions concerning the seventh year and the year of jubilee by the name of sacrifice, or to regard a scrupulous adherence to tho Levitical laws of food a self-denial of the nature of a sacrifice. In the large majority of cases, however, n. ~istinction was perceptible. A sacrifice, in the legal sense, was, it is true, a presentation ~ Jehovah. But in the stricter sense of the word a presentation could not be iLdis- ~rimina.tely made either as regards time or place. Especially is emphasis la.id in the Law upon the place of presentation. It is at the place where Jehovah consents to record his Name, at the one appointed place for Divine worship, that sacrifices in the stricter sense can alone be made. Whilst, therefore, Ewald is etymologically correct, it is doubted by many whether he is not inconsistent with the usage of the La\v when he -designates those offeriogs sac1 i.fices which were not presented at the one appointed place where man might meet with his Maker. It is true that the usage for which Ewald contends, according to which prayers, and.charity, aud abstinence, and obedience, may be termed sacii.fices, is commDn to the books of the prophets and of the New Testament, whereas, on the other hand, the legal application of sacrifice seems to be almost restricted to offerings associated with the courts of the Lord. Kurtz avoids the difficulty by iv THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES LITERALLY CONSIDERED.