SACRIFICE AND OFFERING

verb zabach, originally to slaughter generally, then specially to immolate the sacrificial victim, to sacrifice — hence also the word for 'altar,' mizbdach, lit. the place of slaughter (for sacrifice). The complement of zebach in this sense of animal sacrifice is mincMh, in the later specialized sense of cereal offering (see, further, for both terms, § 2), so that 'sacrifice and offering' came to denote the whole category of altar offerings (Ps 40', 1 S 2", Am 5^ — also Is 192' 'sacrifice and oblation'). In this sense, also, they are to be understood in the title of this article. The results now reached may be thus summed up: 'sacrifice' is used as a convenient term for both kinds of OT altar-offerings, but in the EV, and in strict usage, it corresponds to the Heb. zebach, which is always used of animal sacrifice, while 'offering' is used in three different senses — for all sacred gifts (gor&fln), for such gifts only as 'came up' upon the altar, and, finally, in the special sense of cereal offering.

2, Terminology op sacrifice. — (6) Special. To the foregoing study of the more general terms may now be added a brief review of the more specific renderings of the names of the principal altar-offerings, reserving for later sections the examination of their characteristic features. Following the order of the manual of sacri-fice, Lv 1-5, we have (1) the burnt offering, — so RV uniformly, AV also 'burnt sacrifice' — Heb. 'Siah, lit. 'that which goes up' (on the altar). The name is supposed to point to the feature by which the 'Slah was distinguished from all other sacrifices, viz., the burning of the whole victim as a holocaust upon the altar. This characteristic is more explicitly brought out by the rare designation (2) MIU. the 'whole burnt oSering' of Dt 33'° RV (AV 'whole burnt sacrifice') and Ps 51". 'Whole offering' would be a more exact equivalent of (1) and (2).

(3) Meal offering (RV) and meat offering (AV) are the equivalents of minchah in its restricted sense of cereal or vegetable offering, as already explained. The Heb. word ' does not express the neutral idea of a gift, but denotes a present made to secure or retain good-will' (Driver, art. 'Offering.' in Hastings' DB iii. 587), such as Jacob's 'present' to Esau (Gn 32i»- "), and the 'presents' which subjects were expected to offer to their sovereigns (1 S 10"). From the latter usage there is but a step to the further sense of an ' offering ' to the Divine sovereign. In the older literature, minchSh, as a present or offering to J", includes both animal and cereal offerings, as in the case of the ' offer-ing' brought by Abel and Cain respectively (Gn i^^) In the later Priests' Code, however, minchah is re-stricted to the cereal offering. For this the 'meal offering' of RV is better than the older rendering, 'meat' being now obsolete in the sense intended, but is still not sufficiently comprehensive; hence cereal oSering or cereal oblation is the rendering now gener-ally preferred. With the cereal offering may be taJcen (4) the drink oSering, first met with in Gn 35".

(5) Peace offering (RVm thank offering). — The meaning of the special name of this sacrifice (.shelem Am 5^, elsewhere always plural sfMSmlm) is still uncertain, — a fact reflected in the alternatives of RV. Most scholars, following the LXX, connect the word with shBXdm, 'peace,' as reflecting the harmonious relations of worshipper and worshipped brought about by the sacrifice. Others, with greater probability, would derive the name from another meaning of the same root— 'to recompense, repay, pay one's vows' (see Pr 7"). On this view, recompense offering is perhaps as good a rendering as any, and leaves (6) thank oSering (2 Ch 2g>', tsdhah, lit. 'thanksgiving,' hence the expression 'a sacrifice of thanksgiving,' Am 45, Ps 50"- ss RV) for an important variety of the recompense offering (cf. Lv 7" RV 'the saoriflce of his peace offerings for thanksgiving'). Other two varieties, named together Lv 7", Nu 15' etc., are

SACRIFICE AND OFFERING

(7) the votive offering (EV 'vow'), defined in the latter passage as 'a sacrifice to accomplish a vow," and (8) the freewill oSering (RV), which explains itself.

The probable meaning of the difficult terms ren-dered (9) sin offering, and (10) trespass (AV) or guilt (RV) offering will be more profitably discussed when the precise nature and object of these offerings are under consideration (§ 14 f.). All the various offerings (1) to (10) are explicitly or implicitly included in a favourite term of the Priestly legislation, namely (11) 'ishsheh, fire offering, in EV 'the offering (or sacrifice) made by fire.' The fire offering is also mentioned in Dt 18' and 1 S V (a Deuteronomic passage).

Two other significant terms may be taken together, namely, the heave offering and the wave oSering. The former is the rendering, in this connexion, of (12) {erUmah, which etymologically signifies not something 'heaved up' (so Ex 29"), but rather 'what is lifted ofl a larger mass, or separated from it for sacred purposes.' The Heb. word is used in a variety of applications — gifts of agricultural produce, of the spoils of war, etc., and in these cases is rendered 'offering' or 'oblation' (see Driver, DB iii. 588, and Com. on Devi. 142, who considers 'that "contribution" is perhaps the English word which . . . best suggests the ideas expressed by the Heb. CerumOk'). In connexion with sacrifice, how-ever, it denotes certain portions 'taken or lifted off' from the rest and assigned to the priests as their due, in particular the 'heave thigh' (Lv 7" RV), or 'the thigh of the heave offering' (Ex 29"'). 'Heave offering' accordingly in the sacrificial terminology is the equiva-lent of 'priest's portion' (cf. Lv 6", where, however, a different word is used).

(13) With the terumah is closely associated the dnHphah or wave oSering. The Heb. word denotes a movement to and fro, swinging, 'waving,' the priest lifting his share of the victim and moving it to and fro in the direction of the altar, thus symbolizing the pres-entation of the part of J", and J""s return of it to the priest. It is applied specially to the breast of the sacrificial victim, hence termed ' the breast of the wave offering' (Ex 29'"-), or more tersely 'the wave breast' (Lv 7^ 10'"). Further, like terumah, tenUphah is also used in the more general sense of ' offering ' (Ex SS"*; cf. Nu 8"- " of the Levites, where the change from 'offering' (AV) to 'wave offering' (RV) is not an Improvement).

(14) The last entry in this vocabulary of OT sacrifice is reserved for the obscure term 'azkdroh, memorial oSering, applied especially to the handful ofHhe cereal offering burnt by the priest upon the altar (Lv Z'- '■ '» etc., EV 'memorial'). According to the usual, but uncertain, derivation of the term izllkar 'remember'), the 'azkOrah is understood as an offering designed to bring the offerer to J"'s remembrance.

3. Sacrifice and offering in the pre-exilic PERIOD. — The history of OT sacrifice, like the history of the religion of Israel of which it is the most character-istic expression, falls into two main divisions, the first embracing the period from Moses to the end of the monarchy (b.c. 586), the second the period from the Babylonian exile to the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. For the latter period we have the advantage of the more or less systematic presentation of the subject in the various strata of the complex legislation of P (esp. Lv 1-7) ; for the former we must have recourse to the numerous references to sacrifice in the non-Priestly sources of the Pentateuch, in the early narratives of the historical books, and in the writings of the pre-exilic prophets.

Now, according to J, sacrifice as an institution is as old as the human race itself (Gn 42"). In this significant narrative, sacrifice appears as the spontaneous expression of man's need of God, who ' made of one every nation of men . . . that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him' (Ac IT"- RV).

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