Instructions Concerning Sin Offerings

(Leviticus 5:1 - 5:13)

"If you are aware of a public inquiry into a crime that you’re a witness to or possess knowledge of and you fail to come forward to give testimony, you are guilty of a crime and are liable to punishment.

"If you are unaware that you’ve exposed yourself to anything ritually impure (whether it be the carcass of an impure wild animal or beast of the field, or even an insect), you have nevertheless become impure and have acquired guilt.  Similarly persons are impure and tainted by guilt if they have exposed themselves unwittingly to human impurity.  And if a person utters a oath thoughtlessly or rashly, whether the purpose be good or bad -- regardless of what the person swears the oath about -- that person is also guilty of a sin.  In all of these cases, the offending person must, when he becomes aware of his guilt, make atonement for the sin he has committed.  This can be done by bringing to the altar of Jehovah a female of the flock, either a goat or a lamb, as a sin offering through which the priest can make atonement for you.

"If you cannot afford a lamb, you may bring to the altar instead two doves or young pigeons to atone for the sin that has been committed -- one for a sin offering, the other for a burnt offering.  You should bring them to the priest, who will present the first as a sin offering.  He will wring the bird's neck, but without severing the head from its body.  He will sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering against the side of the Sacrificial Altar and then pour out the remainder of the blood at the base of the altar.  This will be the sin offering.  The second, sacrificed according to proper procedure, will comprise the burnt offering.  In this way the priest will atone for you, and you will be forgiven for the sin you have committed.

"If you cannot afford the two doves or young pigeons, you may bring instead a tenth of a ephah of the finest flour to serve as a sacrifice.  Since this is to be a sin offering, do not put oil or frankincense on it.  You should bring it to the priest, who will scoop out a token amount of flour and place it upon the altar to be burnt with the food offerings made to Jehovah.  This will be a sin offering.  In this way the priest will atone for you, and you will be forgiven for the sin you have committed.  (The remainder of the flour will belong to the priest, as is customary with cereal offerings.)"

Notes
1.  In the first sin/crime mentioned here, the obligation to testify, a compelling moral question is touched upon.  Unfortunately, the text is somewhat ambiguous: it can be read two ways.  (Most translations, being of little help, leave the precise meaning vague.)   In the first rendering, a person that has been called to testify is obligated to tell what he knows about the crime being investigated or judged.  Or, secondly, a person is obligated to come forward, that is, without being summoned, to tell what he knows.  The difference is not insignificant.  I have concluded the latter, more strict interpretation is valid,  that someone witnessing or having knowledge of a crime should not remain silent, but should report all he knows to the authorities.   It is refreshing, amid so much ritualistic nonsense, that the text presents a sound and universally applicable moral principle, even if it seems to place little emphasis on it.

2.  The sinfulness of rash oaths is curious.  One who makes an oath and does not fulfill it is not here condemned, but only one who makes an oath imprudently or inadvertently, perhaps a promise that cannot be fulfilled, a frivolous vow -- it's not clear what is meant.

3.  However inexplicable it may be to moderns, the concept of ritualistic purity seemed to have been quite important to the ancients generally and to practitioners of most primitive religions.  Slaughtering an animal upon an altar in order to make one clean after you've touched a dead animal doesn't derive from sense or logic.  Why not wash your hands instead?

4.  It seems to have been in the interest of the Jehovan religion to create as many sins as possible, so that the priests can be ever busy making sacrifices, keeping the congregation dependent upon their services, and collecting their share of the food offerings.  The abundance and complexity of Jehovan law is calculated less to make worshipers righteous in their behavior than in creating a large number of sinners who will need to seek atonement from a priestly class that is thereby able to maintain a considerable control over the population and maintain an enhanced stature in society.

5.  An ephah is a dry measurement equal to 9 gallons.  One tenth of an ephah, therefore, would be a little less than a gallon --  one heck of a lot of flour.  How much would be burned upon the altar is an open question, but one imagines the priests would want to save for themselves as much of the flour as they could get away with.