Leviticus 6

In older lingo, the guilt offering was called the trespass offering, as in, “Forgive us our trespasses” or sins. In fact, scholars can’t seem to figure out what the difference is between a “sin offering” and a “guilt offering.” One guess is that guilt offerings are more serious and often involve making restitution. Leviticus 5:14-7:7 talks about when a person needs to make a guilt offering. Leviticus 7:1-10 talks about how to make the sacrifice.

This was the most common animal sacrifice. Worshipers burned the entire animal. The officiating priest got to keep the hide (Leviticus 7:8).

See Leviticus 3. A peace offering is one of several prescribed offerings in Jewish tradition. When Jewish people wanted to give thanks to God for something, such as good health or safety, they would sacrifice a sheep, goat, cow, or bull. They would burn part of the animal, including the kidneys and fat covering the intestines. They would eat the rest in celebration, often with family and friends. It takes a fair number of hungry people to eat a cow. But people were eager to eat meat because it was rare in Bible times for common folks to eat meat, many Bible scholars say.

Grain offerings were expressions of gratitude for a harvest and for the way God takes care of the Israelites. People offered the grain in several ways: ground to fine flour, presented as baked, fried, cooked in a pot, or roasted with olive oil. See Leviticus 2.

“Share equally” is confirmed in Leviticus 7:10.

More literally in the courtyard of the Meeting Tent. There’s debate about which tent. There was a tent worship center sometimes known as the Tabernacle—a portable predecessor of what later became the only Jewish temple in the world, the Jerusalem Temple. But Moses also had what was called a Meeting Tent outside the camp, where he met with God (Exodus 33:7). This tent existed before artisans made the tent worship center. The tent here in Leviticus, though, seems more likely the tent worship center of Exodus 36-40, given the descriptions that come later, which include reference to the worship center’s altar (1:5).

A sin offering is described in Leviticus 4 as something the people of Israel brought to God after they realized they had accidentally broken one of God’s laws earlier. Some scholars say a better translation is the opposite of “sin” because the sacrifice is intended to “un-sin” people, to purify them. So those scholars call it a “purification offering”

More literally, “holy.” People were considered holy when they devoted themselves to God. Also, worship utensils such as lampstands were considered holy because they were reserved for sacred use, devoted to God. “Then take the sacred olive oil and anoint the tent worship center and everything in it. Declare it as sacred and reserved for the LORD, devoted exclusively for service to him—and for that reason, holy” (Exodus 40:9).

Whoa Nellie. Leviticus 4:8-12 says the entire animal got burned, not eaten. Some scholars speculate that there were two degrees of sin offerings. They theorize that the animal was incinerated for the most serious sins but that priests were allowed to eat parts of the animals sacrificed for less serious sins. But the sins in Leviticus 4 are accidental. Those might seem least serious, yet those animals were getting burned to ashes. There’s also debate about whether the priest doing the eating had to eat a bull, for example, by himself—or at least the part of the bull that became the priest’s share. More speculation: The priest was allowed to host other priests. Antacid wasn’t developed until 1928.

The Bible doesn’t explain why priests boiled this meat rather than roasting it over a fire. But it does explain that the meat was especially holy. Clay pots absorbed some of the meat’s juices, including some blood, so they had to be broken and destroyed after cooking. Bronze pots could be scrubbed clean and used again. The rules kept anything associated with the sacred offering from being used casually.