preference, and slain in unlimited numbers, to prove the offerer's readiness and self-abnegation. In this sonse their spiritual character was vindicated by Rabbinical writers, who set forth the canon, "the holocaust is offered only for the cogitations of the heart", and explained that the victims wore burnt "to atono for the thoughts that rise in the mind." 5 7 2. ITS HISTORY. 1 2 3 As burnt-offerings were probably the most ancient sacrifices, they are, in the Book of Genosis, fitly attributed to some of the earliest patriarchs to Abel, the first breeder of cattle, anxious to mark his gratitude for the increase of his flocks; to Noah who had been delivered by the special intervention of the Divine power, together with the germs of a new animal creation, over which his descendants were thenceforth to have unlimited dominion; and to Abraham, when he had received back his son Isaac from the hand of God. They are reported, later, in the time of Moses, when Jethro desired to manifest his reverence for God's greatness shown in the redemption of Israel from Egypt, when the Hebrews solemnly received the "Book of the Covenant", when they recklessly inaugurated the worship of the golden calf, and when Aaron and his sons were consecrated for their holy offices; in the time of Joshua, when this general engraved the precepts of the Law on Mount Ebal;" in the epoch of the Judges, when Gideon destroyed the altar of Baal to secure the worship of God alone; 10 during the leadership of Samuel, when the Ark of the Covenant was conveyed from the Philistine territory to Beth-shemesh, 11 when a war with the Philistines was imminent, 12 and when Saul was anointed as king; 13 in all periods of the Hebrew monarchy, 14 and at its restoration after the exile. 15 Most of the events just alluded to clearly imply the characteristic ideas of holocausts the humble and contrite acknowledgment of the Divine sovereignty: but as an occurrence may at the same time mark the successful attainment of some desired end, holocausts were not unfrequently coupled with joy-offerings; and as the general confession of sinfulness may be qualified 8 by an anxiety of expiating a particular trespass, holocausts were often combined with sin-offorings. 17 Yet the notion of internal atonoment was a growth of a lator time; it formed a distinctive feature of the theology of the Pentateuch, and was developed gradually, in the course of centuries, and after many struggles and fluctuations. 18 We are, therefore, compelled to suppose that the expiatory character which the burnt-offerings manifestly bear in the Levitical law, was stamped upon them by the subsequent compilers of this code, and was then superadded to their original meaning as offerings of awe and propitiation, a meaning which they had long shared with the sacrifices of other religious systems of antiquity. 3. THE MODE OF SACRIFICING. 1. If the holocaust was a bullock, a sheep, or a goat, the offerer, after the usual preparation, took the animal to the Court of the Sanctuary before the brazen altar, and there placed his right hand on its head, after which he killed it at the northern side of the altar. A priest received the blood, and another sprinkled it round the sides of the altar, 19 while a third, or a Levite who assisted at the menial duties of the service, flayed the victim and reserved the hide as a perquisite of the priest "who offered up the burnt-offering", that is, who sprinkled the blood.20 The same minister cut the animal "into its pieces" or its natural limbs, carefully washed the bowels and legs with water, and salted all pieces. Priests then placed wood on tho firo which was porpetually kept on the altar of burnt-offerings, laid upon the wood the head, the bowels, and the legs, together with the other parts and the fat that had been taken out of the flesh and the entrails, so that the entire animal, except the skin, was consumed on the altar as "a sweet odour to the Lord", 21 of course accompanied by the legally prescribed cereal and drink-offerings. 22 It is of the nature of the holocaust to suppose that, primitively, the hide also was delivered up to the flames, as was done with some kinds of sin-offering; but the lattor were burnt without the camp, the holocausts on the altar; and as the XXVII. 7; Josh. VIII. 31; Judg. XX. 26; 17 Lev. V. 7; VIII. 14, 18; IX. 3; Num. VI. 11, 14; XXVIII. 11, 15, 19, 22, 27, 30, etc. 18 See Sect. XV. 19 Lev. I. 5. 11; VIII. 19; IX. 12; Ex. XXIX. 16; comp. 2 Ki. XVI. 15. 20 Lev. I. 6; VII. 8; comp. vers. 7, 14, 33. 21 Sec Lev. I. 3—9; VIII. 18-21; IX. 12-14; Exod. XXIX. 15-18; and the explanation of the ceremonies in Sect. X. 22 Seclt. XI. XII. M smell thus caused within the hallowed precincts must have been too offensivo to admit ovon figuratively of the designation of "sweet odour", the hide was subsequently excepted from the general destruction, but was indirectly dedicated to God through His representatives, the priests. When the holocaust was a turtle-dove or a pigeon, the following ceromonios, exclusively performed by the priest, were observed: the priest brought it to the altar, wrung off its head, and in doing so pressed out the blood on the side of the altar. He then salted the head and put it on the altar into the flames. Next removing the crop with its excrements and casting it on the eastern side of the altar, to the place of the ashes, he cleft the wings with his hand, without, however, broaking them off, and then burnt on the altar what remained of the bird. XIV. THE THANK-OFFERING. 1. ITS GENERAL CHARACTER AND HISTORY. SACRIFICES intended as an acknowledgmont for some temporal boon, woro naturally associated with olomonts of joy and homeliness excluded from the severer classes of offering; the solemnity was tempered by cheerfulness; the diviner aspirations were mingled with human feelings and cravings. God, the Master and Judge, was merged in God, the Benefactor and Rescuer. The holocaust and the sinoffering roprosented the life and person of the worshipper; the thankoffering was pre-eminently his gift or a part of his property; the former typified self-sacrifico, the latter grateful reciprocity of benefits; the former were prompted by a feeling of disturbed harmony with God, the latter was presonted in a state of virtual union with Him. Hence the shelamim may well be explained as safety-offerings; for they were connected with wants deemed essential to happiness and a secure existence. 1 It cannot, therefore, be difficult to understand and account for the poculiar regulations fixed by the Law with respect to thank-offerings. The victims, whether of the herd or the flock, were not required to be males; female animals were equally acceptable. The bloodless oblation added to the thank-offering, consisted, in some cases, not only of unleavened cakes and wafers, but also of leavened bread, to remind the Israelite of his ordinary life and subsistence. Not the whole animal was burnt, but some special parts only wore delivered to the Deity as 1 Comp. Lev. III. 1, 6, 12; IX. 4, 18; XXII. 21; XXIII. 19; Num. VI. 14; XV. 8; 1 Ki. VIII. 63; see p. 70. 2 2 Lev. VII. 13; comp. Am. IV. 5; Num. VI. 15; see p. 96; compare also the notes on Lev. VII. 11-21. 5 3 "an offering made by fire, a sweet odour to the Lord": two choice portions, the breast and the right shoulder, were roserved for the priests, who ate them with their wives, their children, and their servants, within the precincts of the Sanctuary, while the rest was consumed in convivial feasts, in any part of the sacred town, by the offerer himself with his family and household, together with the Levite, the poor, and the stranger, his invited guests. This social element connected with the shelamim strengthens the conclusion derived from internal reasons that this class of sacrifice, at least in its Levitical development, is of much later origin than the holocausts; for it pro-supposes a degree of legal and political organisation considerably in advance of primitive existence. Now let it be observed that all the fat, together with the members and organs to which it is chiefly attached, as the kidneys and the fat tail of certain kinds of sheep, was burnt to God on the altar; and let it be considered that the minchah which belonged to the thank-offoring, was in an unusual degree prepared with oil; for not only were the cakes and wafers mingled and anointod, but the flour itself of which they were made, was sometimes saturated with it: therefore fatness, typical of abundance and prosperity, of joy and gratitude, appears to be the loading characteristic of thank-offerings." It is hence obvious, that they did not, as has often been contended, form a mere accessory to holocausts supposed to have invariably precoded; they emanated from a frame of mind so peculiar, so important, and so beneficial for religious education that they could well be prescribed in the Law independently of any other class of sacrifice. Holocausts were indeed frequently accompanied by thank-offerings; but this combination originated in the nature of the former rather than of the latter kind; for as holocausts flowed from a general feeling of dependence and moral deficiency, and as their oblation by privato individuals was not tied to fixed times, they were often delayed till a peculiar event of a joyful nature reminded the Israelite, to his humiliation, both of God's goodness and his own unworthiness; and thon ho joined a holocaust to his thank-offering. The combination of both was indeed singularly appropriate; though according to its character, either of thom was fitly offered alone and at difforont seasons. Again, it is true that the thank-offering also possessed atoning power; its ritual with regard to the sprinkling of blood, quito generally described as an atonement of the soul,' was exactly identical with 3 Lev. III. 5, 11, 16. 4 See Sect. X. 14. 5 Lev. 11. 3-5, 9-11, 14-16; comp. IV. 26; VI. 5; 1 Ki. VIII. 64. • See pp. 92, 93. 7 Lev. XVII. 11. those ordained for holocausts. But the sprinkling formed the kernel and contro of the animal thank-offering only in so far as it marked the slaughtered beast as a victim; it characterised the category in general, but was not the specific peculiarity of the individual class, which consisted in the burning of the fat parts and in the common meals which followed the sacrifice. The thank-offering expiated because, prompted as it was by gratitude for mercies and blessings received, it naturally called forth in the pious mind not only the feeling of submission but also of defects and shortcomings, and therefore spontaneously invited to purification, moral improvement, and to earnest efforts for effecting a closer approach to God's holiness. But these were the effects of the thank-offering rather than its primary object: it originated in a state of inward peace, or from a supposed union with God: but the self-examination occasioned by the offering, necessarily proved that that union was capable of a highor intensity and power. As eucharistic offerings wore presented in gladness of heart and out of the abundance of man's property, they never consisted of vegetable oblations alone or of birds, as pigeons and turtle-doves, the less so as these would not have sufficed for the altar, the priests, and the convivial meals which formed so essential a part of the sacrifice. A legal command was not given on the subject; it was hardly required considering the strongly marked nature of the eucharistic sacrifice. 4 5 4 Now the thank-offerings, originally forming one great class, were by the Levitical code divided into two separate kinds those that were obligatory and prescribed by the Law, as the two lambs offered on the Feast of Wocks, and the ram presented by the Nazarito at the end of his term of soclusion, and those that were presented in consequence of a vow or as a voluntary gift. In the former case, they received in the Levitical legislation the distinctive name of praise-offering. They woro naturally rogarded as more solemn, and therefore surrounded with more stringent rogulations. For it appears that at first the time for tho repasts connected with thank-offerings, was the day of the sacrifico and the next following, so that what remained on the third day was to be burnt. But after the adoption of the sub-division it was deemed desirable to distinguish the praise-offerings by more rigid observances, and to restrict the time of their consumption to the very day of the sacrifice, including, however, the succeeding night up to the next morning;7 while the primitive arrangement was retained with regard to the thank1 See Sect. X. 7; comp. Lev. VII. 14, 33. 2 Comp. p. 32. 4 Num. VI. 14. 3 Lev. XXIII. 19. XXIII. 38; Num. XV. 3, 8; XXIX. 39; Deut. XII, 6, 17. 6 Lev. XIX. 5-8. 7 Lev. VII. 15; VIII. 32; XXII. 29, 30; Exod. XXIX. 34. |