Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

§ 376. THE PLACE of sacrifices.

475

were to be offered not only for individuals, but for the whole people. The expiatory sacrifices secured no expiation in a moral, but merely in a civil point of view, and were accepted of God not in his character of moral, but political ruler. Sacrifices of this kind were slain to the North of the altar, and were regarded, as most holy, . The person, who brought the sacrifice, if it were an expiatory one, had no share in it himself, Lev. 6: 18, 22. 7: 1. 10: 17. 14: 13.

The thankoffering sacrifice was slain to the South of the altar, and when the parts, which were to be burnt, were placed upon the fire, and the portions, which pertained to them, were given to the priests, the rest of the parts were allotted to the person, who brought the sacrifice; with the exception to be made in the case of the first-born of animals, which, when offered, were given wholly to the priests.

NOTE. The division of sacrifices, which was made by the old scholastic theologians, viz. into those of adoration, supplication, thanks, and expiation, is not found in the laws of Moses.

§ 376. THE PLace of Sacrifices.

Sacrifices, according to the laws of Moses, could not be offered, except by the priests; and at no other place, than on the altar of the tabernacle or the temple. Furthermore, they were not to be offered to idols, nor with any superstitious rites. See Lev. 17: 1-7. Deut. 12: 15, 16. Without these precautionary measures, the true religion would hardly have been secure.

If a different arrangement had been adopted, if the priests had been scattered about to various altars, without being subjected to the salutary restraint, which would result from a mutual observation of each other, they would no doubt some of them have willingly consented to the worship of idols, and others, in their separate situation, would not have been in a condition to resist the wishes of the multitude, had those wishes been wrong.

The necessity of sacrificing at one altar, (that of the tabernacle or temple,) is frequently and emphatically insisted on, Deut. 12: 13, 14; and all other altars are disapproved, Lev. 26: 30. comp. Josh. 22: 9-34. Notwithstanding this, it appears, that, subse

476

377. OF BLOODY SACRIFICES.

quently to the time of Moses, especially in the days of the kings, altars were multiplied, but they fell under suspicions, although some of them were perhaps sacred to the worship of the true God. It is, nevertheless, true, that prophets, whose characters were above all suspicion, sacrificed, in some instances, in other places, than the one designated by the laws, 1 Sam. 13: 8—14. 16: 1–5. 1 K. 18: 21-40.

§ 377. OF BLOODY SACRIFICES.

The victims, which alone could be offered in sacrifice, were animals of the ox-kind, sheep, and goats, 18, pen; also turtledoves and young pigeons, in, mi. Lev. 1: 2. 5: 7. 12: 6 -8. 15: 29. Num. 6: 10. In Lev. 14: 4-7, the young pigeons are spoken of under the word, which is usually applied to birds generally, viz. D

Some of these animals were sacrificed by Abraham, Gen. 15: 9; and some were worshipped, as deities, by the Egyptians, Exod. 8: 22. Lev. 17: 7. Herod. II. 41-46. Wild beasts were not to be sacrificed; a fact, which suggests an explanation of the proverbial expressions, "to eat, even as thou eatest the roebuck and hart,” Deut. 12: 15, 22.

The animals to be slain for the holocaust were males, with the exception of the turtledoves and pigeons, in respect to which there was no distinction made between males and females. In sacrifices for sin, bullocks, goats, sheep, and turtledoves or young pigeons were offered according to the ability of the person, who offered them, and the greater or less aggravation of the sin, he might have committed. In sacrifices for trespass, the same animals were employed, with the exception of bullocks.

In the eucharistical or thankoffering sacrifice, sheep, goats, and bullocks alone were slain, turtledoves, and young pigeons being excluded from them. All the victims, excepting the doves and pigeons, must not be less than eight days old, nor more than three years. The sheep and goats, which were immolated, were commonly a year old; the bullocks three years old.

All animals, that had any defect, the blind, lame, emasculated, or sick, were judged unfit to be sacrificed, because they indicated

477

$378. CEREMONIES AT THE OFFERING OF SACRIFICES.

a mind in the person, who brought them, not sufficiently reverential to God, Lev. 22: 20-24. Mal. 1: 8.

378. CEREMONIES AT THE OFfering of Sacrifices.

The ceremonies on such occasions were as follows;

1. The person, who offered the victim, presented it before God, i. e. led it before the altar in the COURT, with its head turned

הֵבִיא לִפְנֵי, הִקְרִיב לִפְנֵי יְהוָה towards the door of the sanctuary

ibas, nagaoτñoαi r de, Lev. 1: 3–9. 3: 1. 4: 14. comp. Rom. 12: 1.

II. The offerer placed his hand upon the head of the victim; a ceremony, which was practised by their rulers in behalf of the people generally, when the latter had committed any sin, which required an expiation by sacrifice. This ceremony, however, it is proper to remark, was omitted in respect to the turtledoves, and the young pigeons, Num. 27: 18, 23. Lev. 4: 15. 16: 21. comp. 2 Chron. 29: 23. The victim, by imposition of hands in this way, was substituted in the place of the person, who brought it to the altar, and suffered, (such was the symbolic meaning of the rite,) that punishment, which said person already deserved or would deserve, in case of transgression. That such was the meaning of this rite, viz. substitution, is manifest, not only in the case of him, who placed his hand upon the victim and confessed his sin, or trespass over it; not only in respect to the high priest, who transferred the sins of the people to the scape-goat by a like imposition of hands; but the ceremony evidently possessed the same significancy, when the Israelites placed their hands upon the Levites, by way of consecrating them to their sacred office.

The apostles retained the custom of laying on hands in the consecration of ministers to the service of the church, signifying thereby the separation of such persons from the mass of the people, and their substitution in their own place.

III. The victims, which were sacrificed for the people generally, were slain by the priests and Levites; those, which were sacrificed for individuals, were slain in ancient times by the persons, who brought them, but, in more recent periods, by the Levites, Lev. 1: 5. 2 Chron. 29: 24, 34. Ezek. 46: 24. They were slain in the same place, where they stood, when hands were laid

478 378. CEREMONIES AT The offering of sacrifices.

upon them, viz. the holocaust, and the sacrifices for sin and trespass, to the North, and the others, to the South of the altar.

IV. The blood of the victim was received by the priest in a vessel for that purpose, called 2, and was scattered at the The blood of sinofferings was

foot and on the sides of the altar. likewise placed upon the horns of the altar, and if they were offered for the whole people or for the high priest, it was sprinkled towards the veil of the holy of holies, and, on the day of propitiation, on the lid of the ark, and likewise on the floor before the ark. The blood was also placed upon the horns of the altar of incense; a ceremony, which was termed by the more ancient Jews expiation, but by those of later times,, a gift, Lev. 4: 7. 8: 15, 16. Zech. 9: 15. Num. 18: 17.

V. Anciently, the person, who brought the victim, when he had slain it, proceeded further, to flay, and to cut it in pieces, but, in later times, this was done, as has been already intimated, by the priests and Levites. In the time of Josephus, there were tables of marble, and columns in the temple, expressly adapted to all the purposes of slaying and sacrificing. It should be remarked here, that the sacrifices for sin, and the holocaust for the people and the high priest, with the exception of those parts destined to be burnt upon the altar, were burnt WHOLE, ( i. e. without being cut up or the skin being taken off,) out of the city, in the place where it was permitted, and was the practice to heap ashes together.

VI. Some victims were offered to God, sometimes before and sometimes after being slain, with certain ceremonies of a singular nature, which ceremonies at times were observed also at the presentation of the sacred loaves and wafers, and other consecrated gifts. One of the ceremonies, to which we allude, was denomi

and] ; הֵנִיף תְּנוּפָה,the other maving ; הֵרִים תְּרוּמָה,nated heaving

the offerings, which were presented in this way, were, accordingly, named either heave-offerings or wave-offerings,] Exod. 29: 24, 27, 28. Lev. 7: 30, 32, 34. 8: 27. 9: 21. 10: 15. 14: 12. 23: 20. Num. 5: 25.

It is difficult to say precisely, what these ceremonies were, or whether, indeed, there was any difference at all between them, since the words, which express them, are sometimes interchang

$378. CEREMOnies at the offering of sacrifices.

479 ed with each other, Exod. 29: 24. comp. Exod. 29: 27. Exod. 29: 28. comp. Lev. 9: 21.

It is most probable, that means elevation, and that

, on the contrary, means laying down or placing on the earth. But as what was elevated must have been let down again, these words may have been reciprocally used, for that reason, in a sense so broad, as to express, each of them, at times, the same ceremony. The ceremony of heaving or waving, whatever might have been its precise nature, seems to have signified, that the gift or sacrifice was thereby presented, and was expressive likewise of a desire that it might be acceptable to God.

VII. Meanwhile the priest heaped the wood upon the altar, placed it in order, and set it on fire. Other priests presently brought, and placed upon the burning fuel, the parts of the victim, which were to be burnt, viz. the whole of the burnt offering, when it was brought by an individual, but in case it was a burnt offering for the people and the high priest, or any other sacrifice, except the one just mentioned, only the fat, which covers the intestines, y ; the fat, which is above the intestines, ; the two kidneys with the fat adher

[ocr errors]

the smaller lobe of the ;הַכְּלָיוֹת וְאֵת הָחֵלֶב אֲשֶׁר עֲלֵיהֶם,ing to them

liver, (?) by hug nonin; and the fat tail of the sheep, (?) Ex. 29: 13, 22. Lev. 3: 4, 10, 15. 4: 9. 7: 3, 4. 8: 26. 9: 9, 10, 19. All these parts of the sacrifice were prepared with pure salt, Exod. 30: 25. Lev. 2: 13. comp. Mark 9: 49.

VIII. The rest of the flesh, when the sacrifice was a thankoffering, was given back to the offerer, who was expected to make a feast of it. With this exception, however, that the right shoulder which was made a heave offering, and the breast which was made a wave offering, were assigned to the priests.

When the sacrifices were sin or trespass offerings, and were not made for the people, as a collective body, nor for the high priest, the flesh belonged to the priests, who ate it in the court of the tabernacle or temple, Num. 18: 10, 11, 18. Lev. 10: 14.

« AnteriorContinuar »