Leviticus (6:8 - 7:38)
Jehovah then availed upon Moses to convey to Aaron and his sons these instructions: "This the procedure for conducting the burnt offering: The burnt offering should remain upon the Sacrificial Altar all night, and the fire should be kept burning till morning. At that time, the priest, robed in the sacred linen garments (and linen undergarments) of the priesthood, should clean the ashes of the burnt offering from the top of the altar and deposit them to the side of the altar. Then, after he has divested himself of his priestly garments and changed into everyday clothes, the priest should carry the ashes to a place outside the camp that is ritually pure. The altar fire must always be tended so that it will never go out. Every morning the officiating priest should put more wood on the fire and prepare the burnt offering upon the altar. Then, the fat of the sacrificial animal is to be burnt as a peace offering. (And remember: the altar fire must be kept burning at all times and must not be allowed to go out.)
"This is the procedure for conducting the cereal offering: Aaron and his sons are to present this offering to Jehovah in front of the Sacrificial Altar. The officiating priest should take a handful of the finest flour moistened with oil and seasoned with frankincense and burn a token portion of it upon the altar. It will create an aroma most pleasing to Jehovah. The priests, Aaron and his sons, may eat what remains of the flour, but it must be baked into unleavened cakes and eaten in the Sanctum or in the courtyard of the Tabernacle. (Remember: it must not be prepared with yeast.) I have allowed the priests this, their share of the sacrifice, as a reward for their services to me, for it is most holy, like the sin offering and the guilt offering. Any male descendant of Aaron is entitled to partake of it; that will remain their perpetual right down through the generations. But it must not be touched by anyone or anything that is not holy.
"On the day that Aaron and his sons are anointed as priests, they must present to Jehovah an ordination offering of a one tenth of an ephah of the finest flour, sacrificing half of it in the morning, half in the evening. The flour should be prepared as cakes, well soaked in oil and cooked on a griddle. The cakes should be broken into pieces and presented as a sacrifice to Jehovah; it will create an aroma very pleasing to him. In every generation, Aaron's successor must perform this same sacrifice. This cereal offering will, by everlasting law, belong to Jehovah and, therefore, must be entirely burned on the altar; none of it should be eaten.
"This is the procedure for conducting the sin offering: The animal to be sacrificed as a sin offering should be slaughtered before the Sanctum where burnt offerings are made. This is a sacred ritual. The priest who makes this offering should partake of it in the Sanctum or in the courtyard of the Tabernacle. It must not be touched by anyone or anything that is not holy. If blood from the sacrificed animal splatters on someone's clothes, the stained garment must be washed in a sacred place. If an earthen pot is used to boil the sacrificial meat, then it must afterwards be broken. If the pot is of bronze, then it should be scoured and thoroughly rinsed with water. As it is holy, the meat of the sacrificed animal may be eaten by any male member of the priest's family. However, the sin offering may not be eaten if its blood was used in an atonement ritual in the Sanctum. In such case, the entire carcass must be incinerated on the altar.
"This is the procedure for conducting the guilt offering, a very holy ritual: The animal to be sacrificed as a guilt offering should be slaughtered before the Sanctum where burnt offerings are made. Its blood should be splattered on all sides of the altar. All the fat should be presented as a sacrifice, as well as the broad tail, the fat surrounding the internal organs, the two kidneys and the fat around them in the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which is to be removed with the kidneys. They should be burned by the priest as a sacrifice to Jehovah. This is the guilt offering. Any male member of the priest's family may eat the flesh of the sacrificed animal, but must do so in the confines of the Tabernacle, for it is holy.
"The same rules apply to both the guilt and the sin offering. The sacrificial animals belong the priest who is making atonement with Jehovah through them. And so the priest who makes a burnt offering will own the hide of the sacrificed animal. Any cereal offering, whether baked in an oven or cooked in a pan or on a griddle, belongs to the officiating priest. Uncooked cereal offerings, whether dry or soaked in oil, however, belong equally to all the Tabernacle priests, (who are descendants of Aaron).
"This is the procedure for conducting peace offerings that one may make to Jehovah: If you are making an offering of thanksgiving, the customary animal sacrifice must be accompanied by offerings of unleavened bread -- thin cakes of flour mixed with cooking oil, wafers upon which oil is spread, and cakes of the finest flour soaked in oil, all made without yeast. Loaves of unleavened bread must accompany the peace offering of thanksgiving. A sample of each type of bread should be offered as a sacrifice to Jehovah. It will then belong to the officiating priest, the one who will splatter the blood of the peace offering against the altar.
“Meat from the thanksgiving offering must be eaten on the day of the sacrifice; nothing should remain by the morning of the next day. If, however, the sacrifice is a votive or voluntary offering, then, while the meat may be consumed on the day of the offering, left-overs may be eaten on the following day. Whatever remains, though, should be thoroughly burned on the third day. If any meat from the peace offering is eaten on the third day, then the person making the offering will be rejected by Jehovah: he will receive no credit for his sacrifice, the meat will become ritually impure, and anyone who eats it will be guilty of a sin.
"Meat that has come into contact with anything ritually impure should not be eaten, but must be burned. As for meat that has not been made impure, anyone ritually pure may eat it. But anyone who is not ritually pure that eats the meat from the peace offering meant for Jehovah, that person should be ostracized by the community. Anyone who touches something impure, whether it be human waste, or an impure animal or insect and then eats the meat of the peace offering meant for Jehovah, should also be ostracized.
"Also instruct the people of Israel that they must never eat fat, whether it comes from cattle, sheep, or goats. The fat of animals killed or predated by wild animals should not be eaten, though it can be used in other ways. Anyone who eats fat from an animal sacrificed as a burnt offering to Jehovah, should be ostracized by the community. Even at home (wherever it may be) you should never consume blood of any sort, whether from birds or animals, and anyone who does so should be ostracized.
"And tell them that when they present a peace offering to Jehovah, they should bring part of it themselves as a sacrifice to Jehovah. With their own hands they should make an offering of food to Jehovah, bringing the fat and the breast, which they should lift up and wave as an offering before the altar of Jehovah. The fat will be burned upon the altar, while the breast will belong to Aaron and his sons. You should give the right thigh to the priests as a contribution. It must always be given to the officiating priest who presents as a sacrifice the blood and fat of the peace offering. The breast, the waved offering, and the right thigh of the sacrifice are always to be set aside for Aaron and his priestly descendants. The right of the priests to claim a part of the sacrifice has been established at the time that they were chosen to serve Jehovah. On the day they were anointed, Jehovah demanded that the priests always be given these portions of the sacrifices and it should remain so down through the ages."
These were the instructions for the burnt offering, the cereal offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, as well as the ordination offering and the peace offering, that Jehovah conveyed to Moses on Mount Sinai when he commanded the Israelites to make sacrifices to him in the desert of Sinai.
Notes
1. Apparently an important rule is that the fire beneath the Sacrificial Altar should always be tended so that it may never go out. It is a very widespread custom, from all parts of the globe and among many religions and cults, that sacred flames must never be extinguished, symbolizing as they do eternal devotion. The altar fire may also be said to embody the spirit of the deity that consumes the burnt sacrifice.
2. The prerogatives of Aaron, his family, and descendants, the sole claimants to the office of Jehovan high priest, are emphasized and forcefully reiterated. One suspects that the priesthood was defensive in justifying these prerogatives, no doubt against criticism and challenge. By asserting that these prerogatives are demands and commands of their god, the priests have the final word in the argument. The rituals detailed in the Torah promote the interests of the priestly class and one gains the impression that much of the text is self-serving propaganda of the priest/authors.
3. Worshipers of Jehovah can give nothing to their god save earthly food. It is all a people on a primitive level of civilization could give. Food was sustenance, and offering it to others represented generosity and hospitality. (It would be in a later time that food would suggest gluttony and indulgence.) In Christianity, the sacrifice is replaced by prayers of thanksgiving and praise, a commitment to good works, and, one supposes, the erection of magnificent houses of worship.
4. The prohibition against eating fat is curious, but arises from the custom that the fat of sacrificial animals belongs to Jehovah. It is well established that lean meat is more healthy than fatty meat, but a certain amount of fat exists in all meat. How strictly enforced the prohibition against the consumption of animal fat could be is a matter of conjecture.
5. One tenth of an ephah is equivalent to two quarts or two pounds.
6. Peace offerings may be of three types, thanksgiving, for blessings received from Jehovah, votive, in fulfillment of an oath to Jehovah, or voluntary, offerings made from choice and not because of any specific obligation.
7. One who is guilty of offenses such as eating fat or blood, or eating sacrificial meat when ritually impure is, literally, to be “cut off (karet or karath in Hebrew) from his people.” But what does this mean? What is the specific punishment referred to? The term seems to have been used in somewhat different ways throughout the biblical text, so it’s impossible to come to a definite conclusion as to the precise meaning. Some translations cop out and leave the wording as is, totally unclear to the reader. Karet can mean anything from a forcible separation from the body of the religious community to a divine sentence of premature death, extirpation of the family line, and eternal damnation. It has also been suggested that it means as well the denial of an afterlife (but at this point in the Bible there has been no specific reference to any kind of afterlife, except vague ones about joining one’s ancestors). Although karet is asserted to be a punishment inflicted only by Jehovah and not by men, in this context it seems likely that the religious authorities, acting in the place of Jehovah, would exact some punishment upon violators. That punishment would most likely have been ostracism or banishment. Therefore, I have concluded the best translation here is ostracized by the community, although I have previously used banished from the community in other contexts. Perhaps I am incorrectly softening the text, but it seems preposterous that even the ancient Hebrews would think that someone should die and be eternally damned merely because he was caught munching on a piece of fat, or insist on stringing somebody up because his steak was too rare.
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