Concept
SoteriologySacrifice
Life given in place of life — the principle stated in Leviticus 17:11 and carried from Eden's coats of skin to Calvary.
#atonement#levitical
- 14passages
- 114original words
- 240cross-references
- 1thread through it
The words behind it
Hebrew and Greek standing in the 14 passages listed below — not a lexicon of "sacrifice" itself. The number on each word is how often it occurs in those passages; the connecting words the languages use everywhere are set aside so the words that carry meaning can be seen.
Hebrew46
36 more hebrew words ▾
Greek68
58 more greek words ▾
The passages
Every passage this site attaches to the concept, in canon order. Each row says where it came from.
Old Testament7
- Genesis 3:21listed key text
And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
Commentary on Genesis 3:211 voice
It is said that God made those miserable garments with which the first man was clothed after he had sinned. "For God made skin tunics and clothed Adam and his wife." Therefore, those were tunics of skin taken from animals. For with such as these, it was necessary for the sinner to be dressed. It says, "with skin tunics," which are a symbol of the mortality that he received because of his skin and of his frailty that came from the corruption of the flesh.
Origen of Alexandria· HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6.2.7, 253Patristic
- Genesis 22:7thread stop
Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” “Here I am, my son,” he replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Genesis 22:71 voice
Therefore he brings his well-beloved son to be sacrificed, and offered promptly him whom he had received late; nor is he restrained by being called by the name of father, when his son called him "Father," and he replied, "My son." Dear pledges of love are these names, but the commands of God are loved still more. And so although their hearts felt for each other, their purpose remained firm.
Ambrose of Milan· On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2, Section 97, 397Patristic
- Exodus 12:3thread stop
Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Exodus 12:31 voice
"The lamb," the Lord says, "must be without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats." In another place of Holy Writ, it is prescribed that if anyone is unable to keep the Passover in the first month, he is to do so in the second. According to the regulation above, anyone who is unable to sacrifice a lamb may substitute a kid.
Jerome· HOMILY 91, 420Patristic
- Exodus 29:38thread stop
This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Exodus 29:381 voice
Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Leviticus 17:11listed key text
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
Commentary on Leviticus 17:111 voice
For the life of the flesh is in the blood,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Isaiah 53:5listed key text
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Commentary on Isaiah 53:51 voice
It did not say, "He remedied our infirmities," lest, as being external to the body and only healing it, as he has always done, he should leave people subject still to death. Rather, he carries our infirmities, and he himself bears our sins, that it might be shown that he has become human for us, and that the body that in him bore them was his own body.
Athanasius of Alexandria· Discourses Against the Arians 3.31, 373Patristic
- Isaiah 53:7thread stop
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
Commentary on Isaiah 53:71 voice
Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. This testimony is about the Ethiopian eunuch, who was riding in a chariot of Queen Candace while reading the book of Acts (Chapter 8 and following). He did not understand what he was reading, but with the help of Philip, he came to understand the passion and the name of the Savior. He was immediately baptized in the blood of the Lamb that he had been reading about and deserved to be called a man.
Jerome· Commentary on Isaiah, 420Patristic
New Testament7
- John 1:29thread stop
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Commentary on John 1:291 voice
Abel knew how to divide when he offered a sacrifice from "the firstlings of his flock," teaching that the gifts of the earth, which had degenerated in the sinner, will not please God. But those in which the grace of the divine mystery shone forth will please him. And so he prophesied that we were to be redeemed from fault through the passion of the Lord, of whom it is written: "Here is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Thus, too, he made an offering from the firstlings, that he might signify the firstborn.
Ambrose of Milan· On the Sacrament of the Incarnation of the Lord 1.4, 397Patristic
- 1 Corinthians 5:7thread stop
Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:71 voice
That he who has attained to trust, having put off the former man, ought to regard only celestial and spiritual things, and to give no heed to the world which he has already renounced... Also in the same place: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Cyprian· Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews., 258Patristic
- Hebrews 9:22listed key text
According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Commentary on Hebrews 9:222 voices
460. – Then (v. 22) he continues with other cleansings in the Law. But cleansings were of two kinds: one from bodily stain, as leprosy, the other from spiritual, namely sin. The first could pertain to inanimate things, as the leprosy of houses: and the …
Thomas Aquinas· Commentary on Hebrews, 1274Patristic
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood,.... All "except a few things", as the Arabic version renders it; for some things were cleansed by water, and others purged by fire, Num 31:23. Some join the word almost with the word purged, as if the sense was, that all things were purged by blood, but not perfectly, only almost; but the former sense is best.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)Reformed
- Hebrews 10:12listed key text
But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.
Commentary on Hebrews 10:122 voices
And every priest indeed standeth day by day ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins; but this man, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever set down on the right hand of God, from henceforth …
Cosmas Indicopleustes· The Christian Topography, Book 7, 550Patristic
He is seen by Stephen, at his martyrdom by stoning, still sitting at the right hand of God [Acts 7:55] where He will continue to sit, until the Father shall make His enemies His footstool. [Hebrews 10:12-13] He will come again on the clouds of heaven, just as He appeared when He ascended into heaven. [Acts 1:11]
Tertullian· Against Praxeas, Chapter 30, 220Patristic
- 1 Peter 1:19thread stop
but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot.
Commentary on 1 Peter 1:191 voice
" And, for fear you should fly to that statement for a licence to fornication, on the ground that you will be sinning against a thing which is yours, not the Lord's, he takes you away from yourself, and awards you, according to his previous disposition, to Christ: "And ye are not your own; "immediately opposing (thereto), "for bought ye are with a price"-the blood, to wit, of the Lord: "glorify and extol the Lord in your body.
Tertullian· On Modesty, 220Patristic
- Revelation 5:6thread stop
Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Commentary on Revelation 5:61 voice
John also, the Lord's disciple, when beholding the sacerdotal and glorious advent of His kingdom, says in the Apocalypse: "I turned to see the voice that spake with me.
Irenaeus· Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 4, 202Patristic
- Revelation 21:23thread stop
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Commentary on Revelation 21:231 voice
And in that he says that the sun is not necessary in the city, he shows, evidently, that the Creator as the immaculate light shines in the midst of it, whose brightness no mind has been able to conceive, nor tongue to tell.
Victorinus of Pettau· Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, 304Patristic
Voices on these passages
Commentary matched to the verses above, each named with its source — the full pool sits on each verse page.
It is said that God made those miserable garments with which the first man was clothed after he had sinned. "For God made skin tunics and clothed Adam and his wife." Therefore, those were tunics of skin taken from animals. For with such as these, it was necessary for the sinner to be dressed. It says, "with skin tunics," which are a symbol of the mortality that he received because of his skin and of his frailty that came from the corruption of the flesh.
Origen of Alexandria· HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6.2.7Patristic
Genesis 3:21
Therefore he brings his well-beloved son to be sacrificed, and offered promptly him whom he had received late; nor is he restrained by being called by the name of father, when his son called him "Father," and he replied, "My son." Dear pledges of love are these names, but the commands of God are loved still more. And so although their hearts felt for each other, their purpose remained firm.
Ambrose of Milan· On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2, Section 97Patristic
Genesis 22:7
"The lamb," the Lord says, "must be without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats." In another place of Holy Writ, it is prescribed that if anyone is unable to keep the Passover in the first month, he is to do so in the second. According to the regulation above, anyone who is unable to sacrifice a lamb may substitute a kid.
Jerome· HOMILY 91Patristic
Exodus 12:3
Study it deeper
6 moves a student can make from here. Every one opens a tool on this site.
Trace one word to every place it stands
A word page lists every verse that word occurs in, with its definition and its range of meaning. Start with the roots that occur most under the passages above.
Walk out from the passages
The passages above carry 240 cross-references between them — links from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, the great 1830s reference work, together with the reader-voted index at OpenBible.info. The most-linked destinations:
Read it in both testaments
Set the earliest passage beside the New Testament one and ask what changed and what did not — the shape of sacrifice before Christ and after him.
Read the whole chapter around it
A verse quoted alone can mean almost anything. Open Genesis 3 in the reader, where the Hebrew or Greek sits under every line.
See everywhere else it appears
The search page is a doorway: it returns verses, word studies, people, places and studies for one term at once.
Walk it stop by stop
A thread takes the passages in order and stops at each one with commentary, so the idea unfolds instead of arriving all at once.
Where this comes from
"The life of the flesh is in the blood… it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11). Substitution is the logic of the whole sacrificial system: an innocent life is accepted in place of a guilty one.
The repetition is the argument. "Those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year" (Hebrews 10:3) — until one offering ends the schedule and the priest sits down.