Whole offering
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A whole offering (Hebrew: olah), also referred to as burnt offering, is a type of Biblical sacrifice, specifically an animal sacrifice in which the entire sacrifice is completely burnt, consumed totally by fire. The term burnt offering derives from the Septuagint translation, itself deriving from the Biblical phrase an offering made by fire, which occurs in the description[1] of the offering.[2] This form of sacrifice, in which no meat was leftover for anyone, was seen as the greatest form of sacrifice,[3] and was the form of sacrifice permitted by Judaism to be given at the Temple by non-Jews.[4] Biblical scholars regard the Moloch offering, which involved human immolation, as being related to the whole offering.[5]
Contents |
[edit] Occasions
Whole offerings were made on occasion of
- each morning and evening - the sacrificial animal was required to be a lamb or year-old goat
- each Shabbat -
- Rosh Chodesh (each new moon) -
- Rosh Hashanah (each new year) -
- Passover -
- Shavuot -
- Yom Kippur -
- Sukkot -
- Certain sin offerings:
- on the appointment of a priest -
- on the termination of a Nazirite's vow -
- after recovery from Tzaraas (often translated leprosy, following the Septuagint's translation as lepra) -
- shortly after childbirth -
- after Niddah (temporary marital separation due to menstruation) or recovery from zivah (abnormal bodily discharges) -
- voluntary occasion - the sacrificial animal could be young bulls, rams, year-old goats, turtle doves, or pidgeons
[edit] Ritual
The animals, having first been checked to ensure they were free from disease and unblemished (a requirement of the sacrifice), were brought to the north side of the altar, and killed (by either the offerer, or a priest). The animal's blood was carefully collected by the priests and then sprinkled around the altar. Unless the animal was a bird, its corpse was flayed, the skin given to the priest (who was permitted to keep it); in later times more powerful priests forcibly took possession of the skins from the lesser priests, and so it became decreed that the skins should be sold with the proceeds being given to the Temple in Jerusalem.[6] The flesh of the animal was divided according to detailed instructions given by the Talmud,[7] and would then be placed on the wood on the altar (which was constantly on fire due the large number of sacrifices carried out daily), and slowly burnt. After the flesh (including any horns and goat's beards) had been reduced to ashes, usually the following morning, the ashes were taken by the priest to a ritually clean location outside the sanctuary, and dumped there.[8]
[edit] Origin
In classical rabbinical literature, there are several different etymologies given for the term olah,[9] though all agree that it literally translates as (that which) goes up, as do modern linguists. Some classical rabbis argued that the term referred to ascent of the mind after making the sacrifice, implying that the sacrifice was for atonement for evil thoughts, while others argued that it was a sacrifice to the highest, because it was entirely given over to the deity.[10] Modern scholars, however, argue that it simply refers to the burning process, as the meat goes up in flames.[11]
The whole offering is believed to have evolved as an extreme form of the slaughter offering, wherby the portion allocated to the deity increased to all of it.[12] In slaughter offerings, the portion allocated to the deity was mainly the fat, the part which can most easily be burnt (fat is quite combustible); scholars believe it was felt that the deity, being aethereal, would appreciate aethereal food more than solid food - the burning of the fatty parts of animals being to produce smoke as a sweet savour for the deity.[13] Some passages in the Book of Judges, dated by textual scholars to periods earlier than the Priestly Code, appear to show the development of the principle and practise of whole offerings;[14] in the story of Gideon, a slaughter offering of a young goat and unleavened bread is destroyed when fire sent from heaven consumes it; in the story of Samson's birth, his father, who was intending to make a slaughter offering so that he could give a meal to an angel, is told by the angel to burn it completely instead.
Most biblical scholars now agree that the intricate details of the whole offering, particularly the types and number of animals on occasion of various feast days, given by the Torah, were of a late origin, as were the intricate directions given in the Talmud.[15] Whole offerings were quite rare in early times, but as the ritual became more fixed and statutory, and the concentration of sacrifice into a single sanctuary (particularly after Josiah's reform) made sacrifices quite distinct from simply killing animals for food, whole offerings gradually rose to great prominence.[16]
