The Altar · The Symbolism of Scripture
The Altar
An altar is not a table and it is not a monument. It is a place where something dies so that someone may come near — and the Bible is remarkably plain about that. Then, at the end, the altar is still standing and the thing going up from it is prayer.
What It Stands For
— the place where the exchange happensThe Hebrew word is מִזְבֵּחַ mizbeach (H4196) — literally a place of slaughtering, built on the verb for killing a sacrifice. Nothing in the word is decorative. An altar is where the animal dies, and everything else about it — the horns, the fire, the ash, the ramp — is arranged around that fact.
Which makes what Scripture does with it more striking, not less. The same object that is a killing floor is also the place where God says He will come to you and bless you; the place a broken nation is told to repair; the place a prophet’s guilt is taken away by a coal; and the place that outlives the whole sacrificial system, still standing in the last book with incense on it.
- Make it of earth.The default is dirt. Nothing is required that a family could not do where it stood.
- If of stone, do not build it of cut stone.Stated in the text: if you lift a tool on it, you have polluted it.reason given
- No steps up to it.Stated in the text: so that your nakedness is not exposed on it.reason given
- In every place where I record My name, I will come to you and bless you.The location is God's choice, not the builder's — and the promise is attached to the place, not the workmanship.reason given
Why no tool, and why no steps
Both clauses guard the same thing: the altar is not a place for a man to be impressive. A dressed stone shows off the mason; a flight of steps raises the priest and exposes him. God legislates against craftsmanship and elevation at the one piece of furniture where a person comes nearest — and then, in the tabernacle, specifies a bronze-plated altar to exact dimensions. Both are His instructions. What is forbidden is not skill; it is the builder making the altar about himself.
Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone - Because they were now in a wandering state, and had as yet no fixed residence; and therefore no time should be wasted to rear costly altars, which could not be transported with them, and which they must soon leave.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Exodus 20:25
Clarke offers a practical explanation — a wandering people should not be building what they cannot carry. It is a reasonable reading and it is included because it is honest about the setting. The verse itself gives a different reason, and gives it plainly: lift a tool on it and you have polluted it.
Its Presentation Through Scripture
— fifteen stops, in canon order — and Scripture's own links markedThen Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
The first altar in the Bible is built by a man stepping off a boat onto an emptied world. Nobody told him to, and the response to it is the promise never to curse the ground again.
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Abram builds one wherever God appears to him. The altars become a map of a man's life — you can follow him across the land by them.
When they arrived at the place God had designated, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar, atop the wood.
The one altar in Genesis with a person on it — and the only one where the sacrifice is stopped. The mountain, the ram and the promise belong to the study of that day.
You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it. And you must not go up to My altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.’
The building code, given immediately after the Ten Commandments: earth, or uncut stone, and no steps. Three of its four clauses state their own reason.
“You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.
The tabernacle's altar, and now it is measured: square, bronze-plated, with a horn at each corner. It is the first thing inside the gate, before the basin and long before the veil.
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. And he shall slaughter the young bull before the LORD, and Aaron’s sons the priests are to present the blood and sprinkle it on all sides of the altar at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
The hand on the head, and then the killing. The gesture is the whole logic of the altar in one movement: this one, instead of me.
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.
The verse that explains the altar out loud — the life is in the blood, and God says He has given it upon the altar for one purpose.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people approached him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down. And Elijah took twelve stones, one for each tribe of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come and said, “Israel shall be your name.” And with the stones, Elijah built an altar in the name of the LORD. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed.
Elijah repairs a broken altar with twelve stones before he asks for fire. He rebuilds the thing that was neglected first, and the number is a statement.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And with it he touched my mouth and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.”
The only altar in Scripture something is taken FROM rather than put on. A coal off it touches a man's mouth, and his guilt is gone.
By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.
The last complaint of the Old Testament is about what is being put on the altar: the lame and the sick, offered to God by men who would not dare hand them to a governor.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Jesus interrupts the altar. Leave the gift there, go and be reconciled, then come and offer it — the one thing He tells a worshipper to walk away from mid-act.
Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Paul asks for a sacrifice that is alive — which no altar in Leviticus ever received, and which is the point of the phrase.
We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
'We have an altar.' Present tense, written to people who had watched the temple's altar in use, and it is the hinge of the whole symbol.
And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld. And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth?”
Souls under an altar, asking how long. The place where blood was poured out at the base is where they are.
Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, rose up before God from the hand of the angel.
The last altar in the Bible has no animal on it. What goes up from it is the prayers of the saints.
And Noah builded an altar - Hitherto he had done nothing without particular instructions and commands from God but altars and sacrifices being already of Divine institution, he did not stay for a particular command thus to express his thankfulness.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Genesis 8:20
There is something exceedingly beautiful and interesting to know that the first care of this devout patriarch was to return thanks for the signal instance of mercy and goodness which he and his family had experienced.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Genesis 8:20
Wesley notices something easy to walk past. Noah had spent a hundred years doing exactly what he was told, down to the cubit. The altar is the first thing he does without an instruction— and Genesis records God’s response to it as the promise that holds the world together afterwards.
A coal off the altar — the one thing taken from it rather than put on itJFB and John Damascene on Isaiah 6:6
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown keep the scene physical, which is the right instinct: unto me--The seraph had been in the temple, Isaiah outside of it. live coal--literally, "a hot stone," used, as in some countries in our days, to roast meat with, for example, the meat of the sacrifices. Fire was a symbol of purification, as it takes the dross out of metals (Mal 3:2, 3). the altar--of burnt offering, in the court of the priests before the temple.
The direction of travel is the whole point. Everywhere else in Scripture things go onto the altar. Here something comes off it and reaches a man, and what it does to him is not injury but cleansing. John Damascenepressed the image further: “Isaiah saw a live coal, and this coal was not plain wood but wood joined with fire.”
That is a reading, and a eucharistic one; it is filed as a reading below. Isaiah says only that the coal came from the altar and that the prophet’s iniquity was taken away.
The Verse That Explains It
— Leviticus 17:11 — Scripture stopping to say what the altar is forFor 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.Three clauses: where life is, who gave the blood, and what it is on the altar to do.
Symbols usually have to be argued for. This one is stated. The verse says where life resides, says that God Himself assigned the blood to the altar, and says what it is there to accomplish — and it does all three in a single sentence in a chapter about not eating blood.
the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls--God, as the sovereign author and proprietor of nature, reserved the blood to Himself and allowed men only one use of it--in the way of sacrifices.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Leviticus 17:11
Is in the blood - Depends upon the blood, is preserved and nourished by it. The blood maketh atonement - Typically, and in respect of the blood of Christ which it represented, by which the atonement is really made.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Leviticus 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood - This sentence, which contains a most important truth, had existed in the Mosaic writings for 3600 years before the attention of any philosopher was drawn to the subject.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Leviticus 17:11
Clarke’s enthusiasm about the physiology is his own, and his figure of 3,600 years is his dating rather than a settled one. The claim worth keeping is the modest one: Leviticus ties life to blood, and it says so long before anyone was arguing the point medically. What the blood does — and what the New Testament makes of it — is worked out at the Blood.
Said Outright, and Heard by Readers
— the difference between what the text claims and what readers have made of itWhat Scripture says outright
- Leviticus 17:11
God states the altar’s purpose in His own words: the blood is given upon it to make atonement.
- Hebrews 13:10
“We have an altar.” The New Testament claims the word for Christians outright, and immediately ties it to Jesus suffering outside the gate.
- Romans 12:1
Paul carries the sacrificial vocabulary over deliberately — a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable — and calls it reasonable service rather than metaphor.
- Matthew 5:23-24
Jesus ranks reconciliation above the offering, at the altar itself, mid-act. Nothing is inferred; He says leave it there.
What readers have heard in it
Readings named as readings — several are ancient and worth having.
- Hebrews 13:10
That “the altar” means the communion table. Theophylact and Oecumenius both read it that way in the Greek church. Others take it as the cross, or as Christ Himself. Hebrews does not identify it, and this page does not either.
- Revelation 6:9
That the souls are under the altar because sacrificial blood was poured out at its base (Leviticus 4:7). It is a strong and old observation; Revelation itself simply places them there.
- Exodus 27:2
That the four horns picture the four corners of the earth, or the four Gospels. Exodus gives them no meaning at all — though it does record men grabbing them for asylum, twice, in 1 Kings.
Having said that there is no need to strictly observe dietary regulations, lest it seem that our way, free from such observance, is worthy of contempt, he says that we too have an observance, only not in regard to these foods, but to the altar,
Theophylact of Ohrid· Commentary on Hebrews, 1107Eastern Orthodox
Hebrews 13:10
For both heaven and earth are called God's altar, as saith the law, commanding in the symbolical form of the truth two altars to be made,-a golden one within, and a brazen one without.
Victorinus of Pettau· Commentary on the Apocalypse, 304Earliest Latin commentator
Revelation 6:9
The One Interruption
— the only time Scripture tells a worshipper to stopSo if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.Note who is at fault. It is not that you have something against your brother — it is that he has something against you.
A man is standing in the temple court with an animal. The altar is in front of him and the priest is waiting. Jesus tells him to put the gift down and go. It is the most practical thing said about the altar in the New Testament and the hardest to obey, and the early church took it extremely seriously.
That we may not be as far from the ears of God as we are from His precepts, the memory of His precepts paves for our prayers a way unto heaven; of which precepts the chief is, that we go not up unto God's altar before we compose whatever of discord or offence we have contracted with our brethren.
Tertullian· On Prayer, 220Latin, second century
Matthew 5:23
One will avert punishment, however, who tends to the feelings of another who has been wounded. But one who does not love his brother does not love the Lord. Hence it is fitting that whoever bears hard feelings toward his brother is not accepted, since he does not approach the Lord in truth.
Cyril of Alexandria· Fragment 50.24, 444Alexandrian
Matthew 5:23
Therefore if thou bring thy gift - Evil must be nipped in the bud. An unkind thought of another may be the foundation of that which leads to actual murder. A Christian, properly speaking, cannot be an enemy to any man; nor is he to consider any man his enemy, without the fullest evidence
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
Matthew 5:23
The Voices
— named, with the work to go and readThe altar has drawn two kinds of commentary and both are represented here. The first is exegetical and unglamorous: Clarke and JFB on the Hebrew of Leviticus 17, JFB refusing to spiritualise Isaiah’s coal before describing what a hot stone actually was, Wesley on why Noah’s unprompted altar matters. The second is liturgical: Tertullian in the second century treating Matthew 5:23 as the chief of Christ’s precepts about prayer, Victorinus — the earliest Latin commentator on Revelation — reading heaven and earth as the two altars, and Theophylact defending the Christian altar against the charge of having nothing to observe.
Noah's clean animals, and a note on what was offeredAugustine, Letters 108
Augustinenotices a detail in the ark narrative that the altar makes sense of: “[The clean and the unclean] were together in the ark, but they were not equally pleasing to the Lord as a savor of sacrifice, for after the deluge Noah offered sacrifice to God of the clean, not of the unclean.”
The clean-and-unclean distinction is in Genesis 7 before Leviticus exists, and the reason becomes visible at Genesis 8:20 — the extra clean animals were taken aboard because there was going to be an altar on the other side.
The altar in Revelation, and where the symbol landsWesley on the fifth seal
John Wesley, mapping the seals: These all refer to the invisible world; the fifth, to the happy dead, particularly the martyrs; the sixth, to the unhappy; the seventh, to the angels, especially those to whom the trumpets are given.
What matters for this symbol is the shape of the ending. The altar does not disappear when the sacrifices stop. In Revelation 6 it has people under it; in Revelation 8 the smoke going up from it is named as the prayers of the saints. The last thing offered on the Bible’s last altar is asking.
Where Marcus Lands
Unshaped stone and no steps; a hand laid on a head; a coal that came off it instead of onto it; a gift left lying there while a man went to find his brother — and an altar we are told, in the present tense, that we have.
Where to Go Next
— grouped, because a pile of titles is not a hand-offThe altar, and the studies around it
Where an altar is the whole scene
- The Binding of IsaacThe altar on Moriah, the ram God provided, and the promise made there.
- Elijah at CarmelA broken altar repaired with twelve stones before anyone asked for fire.
- Noah's ArkThe voyage that ends at the Bible's first altar.
- IsaiahThe throne room, the seraph and the coal, in the prophet's own book.
Where the sacrifice is the question
Where the picture goes on
- The Royal PriesthoodWho offers now, and what Peter says the sacrifices are.
- The Lord's SupperThe table Hebrews 13:10 has been read as, with the readings named.
- WorshipWhere Matthew 5:23-24 becomes a practice rather than a verse.
- The Symbolism of ScriptureThe whole index — every picture the Bible thinks in, in one place.
Its neighbours in the index
The Symbolism of Scripture gathers every picture the Bible thinks in. This one sits with: