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the individual who desired forgiveness (vv. 27-35). There were specific offerings which individuals had to offer for certain kinds of sins which were called trespass offerings (Lev 5 to 6. 7).

The ritual of these sacrifices was distinguished by a specially solemn treatment of the blood, which was not merely poured out, but was put on the horns of the altar, and in some cases sprinkled before the veil of the Holy of holies. The fat was burned, as in the older sacrifices, and the flesh was eaten only by the priests.

While these sin offerings were the medium of forgiveness for the wrongdoing that transpired from time to time, there was one great annual sacrifice designed to remove every trace of national sin. The ceremonial of this greatest fast day in the Jewish system is given in Leviticus, ch. 16, and should be carefully examined. It includes the entrance of the high priest into the Holy of holies, the only occasion when this most sacred place was ever seen by mortal eyes. It includes also the strange ceremony of the scapegoat, in which the priest with hands upon the head of a goat confessed the national sins, and then sent the animal away into the desert symbolically to carry the sins out of sight. The solemnity of this Day of Atonement has continued to the present time so far as the changed circumstances of Judaism will permit; and the day is still designated by the Jews as Yoma, "The Day."

It is difficult to determine what the writers of the Priest Code intended to imply as to the efficacy of the piacular sacrifices. It is not likely that they thought that the animal died as a substitute for the sinner. Certainly, such noble spirits as Ezra and many godly priests who were concerned in the preparation and elucidation of the law, did not imagine that the sacrifice itself secured divine forgiveness. They would probably have gladly echoed the prophetic protest against any crass sacramentalism. But they believed that the sacrifices had been ordained, and therefore were neces

sary. It was not for man to discuss those divine requirements. Jehovah had prescribed the method of securing his forgiveness, and it was for man with humble and contrite heart to obey. Thus often a later sophisticated age accepts primitive customs as if they had permanent significance. The postexilic psalms abundantly indicate how compatible true repentance and ethical motive may be with sacrificial observance.

Yet the influence of the sacrifices was no more wholesome in the postexilic period than in the earlier times. The butchery of so many animals in the temple could minister to spiritual religion only for those fine minds that could see through the symbol to the reality. When we realize that, according to Numbers, chs. 28f., there were offered annually one hundred and fifteen young bullocks, eleven hundred lambs, thirty-eight rams, thirty-two he-goats, together with the concomitant offerings which each of these required, and that these were only the officially prescribed offerings to which must be added all the sacrifices inspired by private religious interests, it is evident that the grosser elements in Judaism were made exceedingly prominent.

When sacrifice was a family or clan matter, performed in the high place near the village, to which every one could easily resort, it entered into the people's life, although it was not much conducive to ethical development. But when it became centralized at Jerusalem, and given over entirely to the priestly class, it was formalized, removed from popular interest and played a decreasingly significant part in popular religion. The Jews were very insistent that the official sacrifices should be carried on, but their own religion centered not in the temple but in the synagogue, where the law as it affected their own conduct was carefully elucidated by the scribes.

The scribes themselves had become quite definitely separated from the priests and regarded their own work as very much more significant than that which was accomplished at

the temple. The conduct of the priests had not tended to give them a high place in popular estimation, still less in that of the scribes. The latter were obliged, of course, by their theory of the law to accept the whole ritual as a necessary part of their religion. But the practical emphasis was upon those aspects of religion which could be observed by the people in the common practice of life. These were minute and legalistic enough, relating to the punctilious keeping of the Sabbath, the regular hours of prayer, and the many ritual obligations which the law laid upon the individual. But the sacrificial ritual just because it belonged to the priests, to Jerusalem, and to the temple, was less strictly emphasized, and came to be more and more external to the life of the nation.

83. FIRSTFRUITS, TITHES, AND GIFTS

As the slaughter of the animal for the festal meal and the burning of the victim in the dedicated holocaust were the appropriate offerings of a pastoral people, so the presentation of the first fruits of the ground were those of an agricultural people. The Hebrews added these latter to their earlier offerings. We have noted that in the development of the sacerdotal system these agricultural offerings became a special tax on the land and were given to the priests for their support. The tithes, which were probably in addition to the first fruits, were also levied on all the agricultural products for the benefit of the priests. The various other gifts which were of a religious character, and were allotted to the sacerdotal order, have been discussed in connection with the priestly revenues (see pages 127f.).

There were other offerings, however, which Jewish piety prompted and which were reserved for the expenses of the sanctuary. Every male of twenty years old and upward, whether rich or poor, was expected to pay annually one half shekel for the temple service (Exod 30. 11-16). We have interesting evidence that this usage existed in the time of

Christ (Matt 17. 24; compare Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII, ix, 1). This money, collected from the Jews all over the world, was employed for the daily burnt offerings and the other public sacrifices, which, of course, entailed heavy expenditure.

In addition to this tax there were the freewill offerings. Thirteen trumpet-shaped boxes were placed in the temple court, into which the faithful might put what their hearts prompted them for the service of the temple. Jesus was looking at this public offering when he saw the poor widow drop in her two mites and spoke his encomium of her great devotion (Mark 12. 41-44; Luke 21. 1-4).

DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Read judg 13. What kind of offering is there described and for what purpose was it offered?

2. Read 1 Sam 16. 1-5. What kind of offering is there described and for what purpose was it to be offered?

3. Read Lev 1. Consider how each element of this ritual arose. 4. Read Lev 3. What was the significance of each element in this ritual of the peace offering?

5. Read Lev 4. 1-12. Consider why the sin offering was developed? 6. Read Lev 5. What was the meaning of each item in the ceremonial of the trespass offering?

7. What was the origin of human sacrifice? Why was it discontinued among the Hebrews? How do you explain Exod 22. 29?

8. Compare the Hebrew sacrifices with those of Greece and Rome. 9. Read Pss 40 and 51. What attitude toward sacrifice do they express?

10. What religious values did such great souls as Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Judas Maccabeus derive from the sacrifices? Why did the prophets speak so often against sacrifice? What does sacramentalism mean in modern religion?

CHAPTER XVI

THE SABBATH AND THE FESTIVALS

SI. THE SABBATH REST

ONE of the most distinctive social institutions of the Hebrews is the Sabbath. Even to-day, living in the midst of Christian or of Moslem peoples, who observe other sacred days, they continue to be loyally attached to its observance in spite of much difficulty, financial loss, and occasional persecution.

The Sabbath was not in its origin a Hebrew institution. The seventh day was observed among the Babylonians; the Hebrew people probably brought it with them in their western migration. It is probable that at the first it was a lunar festival occurring on the seventh, the fourteenth, the twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the lunar month, while the new moon, which was later separated from the Sabbath, originally occurred on a Sabbath day. The first observance of the day is lost in antiquity, and it can only be conjectured that the mysterious phases of the moon in some way gave to it a mysterious holiness, using the term in the physical sense. Certain common acts could not be performed upon that day. It thus corresponded to the dies nefasti of the Romans.

The first Hebrew legislation knows the Sabbath as a day of humaneness: "Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest, that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the sojourner, may be refreshed" (Exod 23. 12). There is

thing said in the early law about religious observance. e Sabbath was to be a cessation from the constant toil

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