Offering

Offering (the general name for which in Hebrew is קָרבָן, korban', although several other words are so rendered) is anything presented to God as a means of conciliating his favor; which being in the Jewish, as well as in all other religions, considered as the one thing needful, has always constituted an essential part of public worship and private piety. In the treatment of this topic we bring together. the ancient information with whatever light modern research has thrown upon it.

Offerings have been divided into three kinds: 1. Impletratoria, denoting those which are designed to procure some favor or benefit; 2. Eucharistica, those which are expressive of gratitude for bounties or mercies received; 3. Piacularia, those which are meant to. atone for sins and propitiate the Deity. Porphyry also gives three reasons for making offerings to the gods (Abstinentia, 2:24) — in order to do them honor, to acknowledge a favor, or to procure a supply for human needs. Among the Hebrews we find a complex and multiform system of offerings extending through the entire circle of divine worship, and prescribing the minutest details. A leading distinction separates their offerings into unbloody (מַנחָה, minchah, προσφορά, δῶρον) and bloody (זֶבח, zebach, θυσία). Used in its widest sense, the term offering, or oblation, indicates in the Hebrew ritual a very great number of things — as the firstlings of the flock, first-fruits, tithes, incense, the shewbread, the wood for burning in the Temple (Ne 10:34). The objects offered were salt, meal, baked and roasted grain, olive-oil, clean animals, such as oxen, goats, doves, but not fish. The animals were required to be spotless (Le 22:20; Mal 1:8), and, with the exception of the doves, not under eight days old (Le 22:27), younger animals being tasteless and innutritious. The smaller beasts, such as sheep, goats, and calves, were commonly one year old (Ex 29:38; Le 9:3; Le 12:6; Le 14:10; Nu 15:27; Nu 28:9 sq.). Oxen were offered at three years of age; in Judges (Jg 6:25) one is offered which is seven years old. As to sex, an option was sometimes left to the offerer, especially in peace and sin offerings (Le 3:1,6; Le 12:5-6); at other times males were required, as in burnt sacrifices, for, contrary to classical usage, the male was considered the more perfect. In burnt-offerings and in thank-offerings the kind of animal was left to the choice of the worshipper (Le 1:3), but in trespass and sin offerings it was regulated by law (Le 4:5). If the desire of the worshipper was to express his gratitude, he offered a peace or thank offering; if to obtain forgiveness, he offered a trespass or sin offering. Burnt-offerings were of a general kind (Nu 15:3; De 12:6; Jer 17:26). Hecatombs or large numbers of cattle were sacrificed on special occasions. In 1Ki 8:5,63, Solomon is said to have "sacrificed sheep and oxen that could not be told or numbered for multitude," "two and twenty thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep" (see also 2Ch 29:32 sq.; 30:24; 35:7 sq.; comp. Herod. 7:43; Xenoph. Hellen. 6:4; Sueton. Calig. 14). Offerings were also either public or private, prescribed or free-will. Sometimes they were presented by an individual, sometimes by a family; once, or at regular and periodic intervals (1Sa 1:24; Job 1:5; Job 2 Maccabees 3:32). Foreigners were permitted to make offerings on the national altar (Nu 15:14; Nu 2 Maccabees 3:35; 13:23; Philo, Legat. p. 1014: Joseph. Apion, 2:5). Offerings were made by Jews fir heathen princes (1 Maccabees 7:33; Joseph. Ant. 12:2, 5). In the case of bloody- offerings, the possessor, after he had sanctified himself (1Sa 16:5), brought the victim, in case of.thank-offerings, with its horns gilded and with garlands, etc. (Joseph. Ant. 13:8, 2), to the altar (Le 3:1; Le 12:4; Le 14:17), where, laying his hand on the head of the animal (Le 1:4; Le 3:2; Le 4:4), he thus, in a clear and pointed way, devoted it to God. Having so done, he proceeded to slay the victim himself (Le 3:2; Le 4:4); which act might be, and in later times was done by the priests (2Ch 29:24), and probably by the Levites. (Hottinger, De Functionibus Sacerdot. circa iictinmam, Marb. 1706). The blood was taken, and, according to the kind of offering, sprinkled upon the altar, or brought into the Temple and there shed upon the ark of the covenant and smeared upon the horns of the altar of incense, and then the remainder poured forth at the foot of the altar of burnt-offerings. Having slain the animal, the offerer struck off its head (Le 1:6), which, when not burned (Le 4:11), belonged either to the priest (Le 7:8) or to the offerer (comp. Mishna, Zebach, 12:2). The victim was then cut into pieces (Le 1:6; Le 8:20), which were either all, or only the best and most tasty, set on fire on the altar by the priests or the offerer, or must be burned without the precincts of the holy city. The treatment of doves may be seen in Le 1:14 sq.; v. 8 (see Hottinger, De Sacrificiis Avium, Marb. 1706). In some sacrifices heaving (תרומה) and waving (תבוכה) were usual either before or after the slaying.

The annual expense of offerings, including those made by individuals as well as the nation, must have been considerable. It may, however, be said that the country produced on all sides in great abundance most of the required' objects, and that there were numerous forests whence. wood for use in sacrifice was procured. At later periods of the nation foreign princes, desirous of conciliating the good-will of the Jews, made large contributions both of natural objects and of money towards the support of the ceremonial of public worship (Ezr 6:9; Ezr 1 Maccabees 10:39, 2 Maccabees 3:3; 9:16; Joseph. Ant. 12:3, 3). The place where offerings were exclusively to be presented was the outer court of the national sanctuary, at first the Tabernacle, afterwards the Temple. Every offering made elsewhere was forbidden under penalty of death (Le 17:4 sq.; De 12:5 sq.; comp. 1Ki 12:27). The precise spot is laid down in Le 1:3; Le 3:2, "At the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord." According to the Mishna (Zebach, ch. 5), offerings were to be slain partly on the north side of the altar, and, if they were inconsiderable, at any part of the outer court. The object of these regulations was to prevent any secret idolatrous rites from taking place under the mask of the national ritual; and a common place of worship must have tended considerably to preserve the unity of the people, whose constant disagreements required precautions of a special kind (1Ki 12:27). The oneness, however, of the place of sacrifice was not strictly preserved in the troubled period of the Judges, nor indeed till the time of David (1Ki 3:2-3). Offerings were made in other places besides the door of the Tabernacle (1Sa 7:17; Jg 2:5). High places, which had long been used by the Canaanites, retained a certain sanctity, and were honored with offerings (Jg 6:26; Jg 13:19). Even the loyal Samuel followed this practice (1 Samuel), and David tolerated it (1Ki 3:2). After Solomon these offerings on high places still continued. In the kingdom of Israel, cut off as its subjects were from the holy city, the national temple was neglected.