The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 30

TM bloodless offerings. In these, as their name minchoth implies, the fact of presen- tation is alone emphasized. They were gifts to God simply; they were not a means of atonement. The whole ritual of their offering was adapted to express that they were presentations alone. Their further significance varied with their material. They oonsisted always of the products of labour; they were therefore objective representations of so much self-sacrifice; and it is interesting to see how these pure gHts might be made from all the branches of human activity-agriculture, stock-farming, arbori- culture, merchandise, luxuries, even the spoils of battle and the titles of property. The several blood sacrifices. These conveyed both the leading elements of Jewish worship. They were at once gifts and means of atonement. 'l'he ritual enjoined accentuated both features of blood manipulation and presentation. Further, whilst every blood sacrifice made both the aspects of sacrifice prominent, the materials ordered and the ritual enjoined adapted these fundamental facts to varying states of mind and inclination. The burnt offerings, and sin offerings, and trespass offerings, and peace offerings, were all means of adoring God, and covering sin as well ; but in each species there was a special adaptation to the more vivid expression and satisfaction of some religious state. The burnt offering is most nearly allied to the bloodless sacrifices. As its ritual shows most clearly, and as its name of holocaust implies, presentation is its leading characteristic; so far from the blood manipulation constituting a prominent feature, it seems to be, what it is in fact, a mere means to an end, a recognition of sinfulness lest the gift of man be despised. The variation too in the victims allowed points to the same fact--to the relative value of gifts, and is a kind of Old Testament proclamation of the duty of proportionate giving; the poor man's handful of meal, or pigeon, tells the same story as the widow's mite. On the other hand, the swinging of the blood collected by the priest against the altar is the least emphatic manner of procedure in atone- ment, whereas the burning of the whole carcase pointed most conclusively to the animal as a presentation to God. Jn the ain offering, on the contrary, it is just the blood manipulation which is strongly emphasized. If the burnt offering was an atonement that it might be a gift, the sin offering was a gift that it might be an atonement. This inference is suggested by the name as well as the ritual. A sin offering was an offering for sin-for sin of an accurately defined nature, sin bishgagah, sin of error, and not deliberate sin. As for the ritual, there is as distinct an accentuation of the blood manipulation as there is an evident withdrawal into the background of the ritual of gift, the carcase simply falling to the priest, or being unostentatiously burnt without the camp, as a thing which has performed its purpose elsewhere. Further, in connection with the ritual of the making a substitute for sin, it is important to notice the increase in the value of the substitute as the status of the offerer rose. There is a well-marked gradation in the victims commanded, from the comparatively worthless she-goat of the common Israelite to the more valuable he-goat of the ruler, and thence to the ox for the priest or the congregation. Again, be it observed that the sin offerings '.of individuals were not presentable for any sin, but ·only for the so-called sins of ignorance, error, weakness, whichever word may be most suitably employed for the frequent lapses of sanctified but depraved human nature. Sharply defined, therefore, sin offerings were gifts which were made for atonement of sins of ignorance, sins of ignorance, according to the Levitical conception, being any sins which did not wilfully contravene the dictates of Jehovah. Similarly, the significance of the trespa88 offerings may be inferred from the ritual and the law of their presentation. From the former it ls manifest that neither the  THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES LITERALLY CONSIDERED. xix