Peter Paul Rubens, The Sacrifice of the Old Covenant, c. 1626. Public domain.
Leviticus 1 to 7 and Hebrews 7 to 10 · Doctrine · Featured Study
The Sacrificial System
Burnt, grain, peace, sin and guilt: the five offerings of Leviticus 1 to 7, each with its own rite and its own purpose.
Five offerings stood at one altar, and Hebrews reads every one of them as fulfilled in the one offering of Christ.
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.
- First taught
- Leviticus 1:4 “He is to lay his hand on the…”
- Fullest statement
- Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in…”
Five offerings stood at one altar, and Hebrews reads every one of them as fulfilled in the one offering of Christ.
Summary
Leviticus gives one reason for the blood: the life is in it, given on the altar for atonement.
- Paul and Isaiah apply the burnt, sin and guilt offerings to Christ and to the Servant of Isaiah 53.
- Scholars still divide over what the sin offering's blood cleanses and whether it turns wrath aside.
- Hebrews reads the yearly repetition of the offerings as the sign that the work was still unfinished (Hebrews 10:1 to 4).
Five offerings, one architecture
The burnt, grain and peace offerings are voluntary, and the sin and guilt offerings are required.
Leviticus opens with a manual for anyone who brings an offering to the LORD. The burnt offering comes first, in chapter 1, and the guilt offering last, ending at Leviticus 6:7.
Then chapters 6 to 7 run the whole list again as the priests' procedural handbook, each law opening with its name.
A table with one row for each offering: the Hebrew name, the purpose in a phrase, the mode, whether it centers on blood and the chapters.
| Offering | In a phrase | Mode | Centers on blood | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnt: ʿōlāh, H5930 | Everything ascends | Voluntary | Yes | Leviticus 1; 6:8 to 13 |
| Grain: minḥāh, H4503 | Tribute | Voluntary | No: bloodless | Leviticus 2; 6:14 to 23 |
| Peace: shelāmim, H8002 | Fellowship | Voluntary | Yes, and a shared meal follows | Leviticus 3; 7:11 to 34 |
| Sin: ḥaṭṭāʾth, H2403 | Purgation | Required | Yes | Leviticus 4:1 to 5:13; 6:24 to 30 |
| Guilt: ʾāshām, H817 | Reparation plus a fifth | Required | Yes | Leviticus 5:14 to 6:7; 7:1 to 7 |
Burnt: ʿōlāh“that which ascends”
What: the animal comes from the herd, the flock or the birds, graded by means, so that a worshipper who cannot bring a bull or a sheep can bring a bird.
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, you may bring as your offering an animal from the herd or the flock.How: the whole animal burns on the altar, all but the hide, which goes to the priest (Leviticus 7:8).
He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, so it can be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.Why: the worshipper gives the whole animal to God, and it is a pleasing aroma to the LORD (Leviticus 1:9). The fire on the altar must be kept burning continually (Leviticus 6:13).
Grain: minḥāh“gift, tribute”
What: the offering is fine flour with oil and frankincense, and it holds no leaven and no honey.
How: a memorial portion is burnt and the rest goes to the priests.
And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings.Why: the worshipper gives it to God as tribute and thanksgiving.
Peace: shelāmim“requital, thank-offering”
What: the worshipper brings an animal of the herd or the flock.
How: the blood is sprinkled on all sides of the altar (Leviticus 3:2) and the fat burns on it. The breast and the right thigh go to the priests (Leviticus 7:31 to 34), and the worshipper eats the rest.
Why: it is the only offering that ends in a shared meal, at the LORD's table, on the root sh-l-m: shalom.
The meat of the sacrifice of his peace offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day he offers it; none of it may be left until morning. If, however, the sacrifice he offers is a vow or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, but the remainder may be eaten on the next day.The time limit keeps the meal holy: what is left on the third day is burnt, and whoever eats it bears his iniquity (Leviticus 7:17 to 18).
Paul sets the Lord's Table beside Israel's altar meal: those who eat the sacrifices are fellow partakers in the altar (1 Corinthians 10:18).
Sin: ḥaṭṭāʾth“sin; expiation”
What: the victim is graded by office: anointed priest, whole congregation, ruler, common person (Leviticus 4:3, Leviticus 4:13, Leviticus 4:22 and Leviticus 4:27).
How: the priest puts the blood on the horns of the altar, and for the priest and the congregation he also sprinkles it before the veil (Leviticus 4:6 to 7).
Why: the priest makes atonement for the offerer, and he is forgiven (Leviticus 4:31).
And if one of the common people sins unintentionally and does what is prohibited by any of the LORD’s commandments, he incurs guilt.Guilt: ʾāshām“guilt; reparation”
What: the offender brings an unblemished ram for a wrong done in the holy things of the LORD or against a neighbour.
How: for a wrong against a neighbour he repays the one he wronged on the day he admits his guilt, and only then brings his ram (Leviticus 6:5 to 6).
Regarding any holy thing he has harmed, he must make restitution by adding a fifth of its value to it and giving it to the priest, who will make atonement on his behalf with the ram as a guilt offering, and he will be forgiven.Why: it makes reparation, and the wrong is made materially right.
Hebrews answers the offerings and the priesthood
Six texts of the Old Testament, each beside the line of Hebrews that answers it.
Hebrews 7 to 10 reads the entire system back as the canon's own commentary on Leviticus. It ends where sins have been forgiven and an offering for sin is no longer needed (Hebrews 10:18).
Six numbered cards joined by arrows, from Leviticus 17:11 to Leviticus 4:12 and Leviticus 16:27, paired as the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain) pairs them.
1Leviticus 17:11: the blood makes atonement for the soul.
- Hebrews' receipt
- Hebrews 9:22: without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
2Leviticus 1 to 7: the offerings are brought again for every sin and every day.
- Hebrews' receipt
- Hebrews 10:1: the law is only a shadow of the good things to come.
3Psalm 110:4: a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
- Hebrews' receipt
- Hebrews 7:16: a priest by the power of an indestructible life.
4Leviticus 16:34: the Day of Atonement repeated once a year, a permanent statute.
- Hebrews' receipt
- Hebrews 10:10: sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
5Leviticus 16:15: the goat for the sin offering, its blood brought behind the veil.
- Hebrews' receipt
- Hebrews 9:11 to 12: He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle and entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood.
6Leviticus 4:12 and Leviticus 16:27: the sin-offering carcasses burned outside the camp.
- Hebrews' receipt
- Hebrews 13:11 to 12: the bodies are burned outside the camp, and so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate.
The hinge: blood and life
Three words carry the system from Leviticus to Romans.
The verb is kāphar, to cover, to atone, to ransom, the working verb of the book, as in Leviticus 1:4 and Leviticus 16:30. The mercy seat where blood was sprinkled is the kappōreth, the Day of Atonement's own furniture, housed in the Tabernacle. The Greek Old Testament renders it hilastērion, the word Paul uses of Christ in Romans 3:25.
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.God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.Where the offerings surface in the prophets and the apostles
Three offerings carried forward by name or by echo, and one prophet's ranking of them.
and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.Paul applies the burnt offering's formula of Leviticus 1:9 to the death of Christ.
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,“An offering for sin” renders peri hamartias: the Septuagint's fixed formula for the sin offering of Leviticus 4 to 5.
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.The Hebrew is ʾāshām: the guilt offering's technical term, applied to the Servant himself.
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.Jesus quotes this verse twice to those who judged by ritual (Matthew 9:13 and Matthew 12:7).
Isaiah 53:10, Hosea 6:6
The World Behind the Offerings
Two settings: the mountain where the laws were given, and the words of prayer and praise set in place of the offerings.
Sinai, the settingLeviticus 7:37 to 38
This is the law of the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the ordination offering, and the peace offering, which the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai on the day He commanded the Israelites to present their offerings to the LORD in the Wilderness of Sinai.Words in place of bullsHosea 14:2 · Rashi, eleventh century · the Babylonian Talmud
Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.Rashi, the eleventh-century French rabbi whose commentary is read with the Hebrew Bible, reads the verse after its Hebrew, where the Berean text's “the fruit of our lips” stands for “the bulls of our lips”. In his reading Israel renders with its words the bulls it should have sacrificed. The Babylonian Talmud records the teaching that the daily prayers were set in the place of the daily offerings (Berakhot 26b).
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.What the Cross Does: the Streams
The church has taught six accounts of the atonement, each with named holders.
A table of six rows, one for each stream, oldest first.
| Stream | What the cross does | Holders and works |
|---|---|---|
| Recapitulation | Christ recapitulates Adam, undoing the fall at every point. | Irenaeus, Against Heresies (c. 180, ANF vol. 1) |
| Ransom, and victory over the powers | The cross is ransom and victory over the powers: the patristic majority metaphor of the first millennium. | Origen, Commentary on Matthew 16.8; Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism; Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor (ET 1931) |
| Satisfaction | Sin robs God of due honor, and only the God-man can satisfy the debt. | Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo (1098) |
| Moral influence | The cross is the supreme demonstration of divine love that kindles answering love. | Peter Abelard, Commentary on Romans (c. 1135) |
| Penal substitution | Christ bore the curse in our place: the substitute under penalty, propitiating wrath. Its holders read the ransom and victory streams as layers within it. | John Calvin (Institutes II.16, 1559), Charles Hodge (Systematic Theology, volume 2, 1872), J. I. Packer ("What Did the Cross Achieve?", 1974), John Stott (The Cross of Christ, 1986), John Piper (Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, 2006) and R. C. Sproul (The Truth of the Cross, 2007) |
| Governmental | The cross upholds God's moral government so that he can forgive without collapsing justice. | Hugo Grotius, an Arminian, De satisfactione Christi (1617); John Miley, a Methodist, The Atonement in Christ (1879) |
C. S. Lewis and the deeper magicThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950); Mere Christianity (1952)
C. S. Lewis calls the punishment theory, on the face of it, "a very silly theory" in Mere Christianity, and then writes that it no longer seems to him as silly as it once did. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe he tells the cross as a "Deeper Magic" by which death itself works backward, closer to the ransom and victory readings.
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Five questions the offerings raise that Scripture leaves open.
Where the theories beginLeviticus 17:11
Leviticus 17:11 states why the blood is given and stops there: it never says how the blood atones. Every theory of the atonement in the streams above answers a question that verse leaves open.
Which offering pictures ChristAndrew Jukes, The Law of the Offerings (1847)
The text of Leviticus calls no offering a picture of Christ. Jukes reads each of the five as one aspect of Christ's work, and that reading is his.
Offerings for sin done knowinglyLeviticus 6:1 to 7 · Numbers 15:30 to 31
The guilt offering covers some wrongs done knowingly, such as a lie under oath about a neighbour's goods (Leviticus 6:2 to 5). For a sin done defiantly Numbers 15:30 to 31 names no offering, and Scripture does not say where the one ends and the other begins.
Who or what Azazel isLeviticus 16:8 · Mishnah, Yoma 4:2
Then he is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their iniquities into a solitary place, and the man will release it into the wilderness.Leviticus 16:8 casts lots over two goats, one for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat, where the Hebrew reads Azazel. Azazel is read in three ways. 1 Enoch 10:4 to 8 names Azazel as a fallen angel bound in the desert. Rashi on Leviticus 16:8 reads a rugged place, after the Talmud (Yoma 67b). The Greek Old Testament reads the goat that goes away, the reading behind William Tyndale's word scapegoat of 1530. The Mishnah, the code of Jewish law set down about AD 200, records a strip of crimson wool tied to the goat sent away (Yoma 4:2).
Made to be sin, or a sin offering2 Corinthians 5:21
Paul writes that God made Christ to be sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Augustine (Enchiridion 41) reads the word as sin offering, after the Hebrew ḥaṭṭāʾth, which means both; and the text does not settle it.
How the Voices Read the Offerings
Five works by seven teachers, from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth.
1509 to 1564 · John Calvin
Commentaries
The quotation1 quotation
“What we must first observe here is, that the priest must be sprinkled with blood, in order that he may conciliate the favor of God towards himself for the purpose of intercession. Thus the priesthood of Christ was dedicated with blood, so that it might be efficacious to reconcile God with us.”
John Calvin · Commentaries · on Exodus 29:16Reformed
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Leviticus 17:11
The quotation1 quotation
“…because it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul; and therefore it was appointed to make atonement with, because the life of the flesh is the blood.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Leviticus 17:11Puritan
1703 to 1791 · John Wesley
Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament
The quotation1 quotation
“And although burnt-offerings were commonly offered by way of thanksgiving; yet they were sometimes offered by way of atonement for sin, that is, for sins in general, as appears from Job i, 5, but for particular sins there were special sacrifices.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament · on Leviticus 1:4Evangelical
1834 to 1892 · Charles Spurgeon
The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 95: “The Day of Atonement” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)
The quotation1 quotation
“The Jews had many striking ceremonies which marvellously set forth the death of Jesus Christ as the great expiation of our guilt and the salvation of our souls. One of the chief of these was the day of atonement, which I believe was pre-eminently intended to typify that great day of vengeance of our God, which was also the great day of acceptance of our souls, when Jesus Christ ‘died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.’”
Charles Spurgeon · The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 95: “The Day of Atonement” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · on Leviticus 16:34
1802 to 1910 · Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“The Greek ‘diathece’ means both ‘testament’ and ‘covenant’: the term ‘covenant’ better suits the old dispensation, though the idea testament is included, for the old was one in its typical relation to the new dispensation, to which the term ‘testament’ is better suited. Christ has sealed the testament with His blood, of which the Lord's Supper is the sacramental sign.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible · on Hebrews 9:20Reformed
John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Purgation, Expiation or Propitiation
Milgrom and Calvin on the sin offering, Dodd and Morris on the hilastērion words, and the critics of the penal reading.
Jacob Milgrom (Leviticus 1 to 16, Anchor Yale Bible, 1991) reads the ḥaṭṭāʾth as a purification offering whose blood purges the sanctuary, rather than a transfer of guilt onto the victim. John Calvin (Institutes II.16, 1559) reads the offering as removing the offerer's sin, and the verse below stands with him: the rite reaches the person as well as the sanctuary.
C. H. Dodd (The Bible and the Greeks, 1935) argued that hilastērion means expiation, the cult purging contamination. Leon Morris (The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 1955) answered with the landmark word study: the hilaskomai word group includes propitiation, the turning away of divine wrath, as well as the wiping away of sin.
He must burn all its fat on the altar, like the fat of the peace offerings; thus the priest will make atonement for that man’s sin, and he will be forgiven.The critics, and the scapegoat readingChalke and Mann; Wright; Girard
Steve Chalke and Alan Mann (The Lost Message of Jesus, 2003) criticize crude penal models, and N. T. Wright (The Day the Revolution Began, 2016) criticizes accounts that strip the cross of its Jewish setting. René Girard (I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, 2001) reads sacrifice through the scapegoat mechanism, a mimetic account that stands apart from all the others.
Books to Read Next
From Anselm in 1098 to Milgrom in 1991, oldest first.
Cur Deus Homo
Anselm of Canterbury · 1098
Anselm writes it as a dialogue with his pupil Boso on why God became man.
The Temple: Its Ministry and Services
Alfred Edersheim · 1874
Edersheim describes how the offerings were carried out in the temple of the first century.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
James Orr, editor · 1915
Its articles Sacrifice, Atonement and Offerings set out the older evangelical scholarship on the system.
Christus Victor
Gustaf Aulén · 1931 (English translation)
Aulén names the fathers' reading the classic view and sets it against Anselm's satisfaction.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross
Leon Morris · 1955
Morris traces redemption, covenant, blood, propitiation, reconciliation and justification through the Greek Bible.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
Leviticus 1 to 16 (Anchor Yale Bible)
Jacob Milgrom · 1991
Milgrom sets each rite of Leviticus 1 to 16 beside the ancient Near Eastern evidence and the rabbinic readings.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
The Lamb Who Was Slain
John the Baptist and the book of Revelation call the one sacrifice the Lamb.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!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.A burnt offering for the three friends
The book of Job sets a burnt offering at its beginning and at its end.
William Blake, Job's Sacrifice, about 1805 to 1806, watercolour, from the set painted for Thomas Butts. Public domain.
Blake sets Job before the altar with his arms raised in prayer while the flame rises behind him.
So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.”The LORD joins the friends' burnt offering to Job's prayer for them, and it is the prayer he says he will accept.
Job offers burnt offerings himself, with no priest and no tabernacle: he rises early in the morning to offer them for his children, in case they have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. The Berean text calls it his regular practice (Job 1:5).
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEPBible lexicon floor (CC BY), entries H5930, H4503, H8002, H2403, H817, H3722, H3727, G2435.
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Leviticus 17:11.
- John Calvin, Commentaries, on Exodus 29:16.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on Leviticus 1:4.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871), on Hebrews 9:20.
- Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 95, The Day of Atonement (1856)
- Augustine, Enchiridion 41.
- Andrew Jukes, The Law of the Offerings (1847)
- Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 26b.
- C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950); Mere Christianity (1952), book 2, chapter 4.
- Rashi on Hosea 14:3:3 (Hosea 14:2 in English numbering), The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, trans. A. J. Rosenberg.
- The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (1915)
- Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1 to 16, Anchor Yale Bible (1991)
- Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (1955)
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion II.16 (1559)
- J. I. Packer, "What Did the Cross Achieve?", Tyndale Bulletin 25 (1974)
- Rashi on Leviticus 16:8, after the Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 67b.
- 1 Enoch 10:4 to 8, a Second Temple book outside the biblical canon.
- Mishnah, Yoma 4:2.
- William Tyndale, the Pentateuch (1530), Leviticus 16.
- Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor (ET 1931)
Keep Studying
Studies6
- The Burnt Offering: ʿōlāh, that which ascends, the offering wholly given
- The Grain and Peace Offerings: the tribute and the meal
- The Sin and Guilt Offerings: purgation graded by office, reparation with a fifth added
- Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving
- How the Cross Saves: The Views of the Atonement
- Jephthah's vow
Places2
Symbols12
Doctrines27
- The Day of Atonement: Leviticus 16, the one day the sin offering's blood goes within the veil, and the second goat carries iniquity away
- The Suffering Servant: the soul made an offering
- The Covenants: the covenant the offerings served
- Chesed, the Loyalty No Law Compels
- Cut Off from Among His People
- The Fall Feasts
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Values1