Lesson

#4
The 5 Great Sacrices, Redeux
(Levi&cus 6: 1 7: 38)

Sacrice, Part 2

Unlike the sweet savor oerings of Levi&cus 1: 1 3: 17 which are

spontaneous expressions of gra&tude toward God and are voluntary, the
non-sweet savor oerings of 4: 1 5: 26 address sin, the breach of Gods
Law, and they are mandatory. In the ecology of morality, an individuals
sinseven if they are inadvertentadversely aect not just the person
commiSng the sin, but all of society and, indeed, the sanctuary itself: like
a malignant cloud, sin pollutes and poisons the very dwelling place of God.
In Lesson #3 we examined the non-sweet savor oerings: the sin oering
and the guilt oering. As we saw the sweet savor oerings in Lesson #2
illuminate the person of Christ when read through a Chris&an interpreta&ve
lens, so we saw the non-sweet savor oerings in Lesson #3 illuminate the
work of Christ, of his taking our sin on himself, and by shedding his blood
on the cross taking away our sin, enabling us to stand before God pure,
righteous and holy.
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Whereas Levi&cus 1-5 addresses Gods covenant people, seSng out a

system of sacricial observance, Levi&cus 6-7 addresses Gods priests,
delinea&ng their role in the sacricial system. For the ordinary Israelite the
sacrices are divided into those that are voluntary (the sweet savor
oerings, chapters 1-3) and those that are mandatory (the non-sweet
savor oerings, chapters 4-5), reec&ng the ordinary persons day-to-day
interac&on with the rituals. The sacrices as they are presented in Levi&cus
1-3 are ordered from those that are most common in the eyes of ordinary
people to those that are least common.
From the priests perspec&ve, the sacrices are divided between those that
are most holy (the grain oering, sin oering and guilt oering) and those
that are holy (the burnt oering and peace oering). The sacrices in
chapters 6-7 are ordered according to those that are most important to the
priests and to the performance of their du&es.

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Levi&cus 6-7 shi\s focus on the 5

Great Sacrices from the people
to the priests. These two
chapters bear down upon the
mechanics of the priests role at
the altar, of their procedures.
Imbedded within these two chapters,
however, are two concepts that
become extremely important as we
progress through Scripture:
1) sanctum contagion, the idea that
whatever touches something holy
becomes holy itself, and
2) Karet [KAH-rhet], the idea of being
cut o from the community, either
in this life or throughout eternity.
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Sanctum Contagion

Jacob Milgrom points out that the idea

that a set of objects (or persons)
sanc&fy all that touch them occurs only
four &mes in Scripture:
1.

Exodus 29: 37
Seven days shall you spend in purging the altar and
in consecraFng it. Then the altar will be most sacred,
and whatever touches it will become sacred.

2.

Exodus 30: 26-29

With this sacred anoinFng oil you shall anoint the
tent of meeFng and the ark of the covenant, the table
and all its utensils, the menorah and its utensils, the
altar of incense and the altar for burnt oerings with
its utensils, and the basin with its stand. When you
have consecrated them, they shall be most sacred;
whatever touches them, they shall be most sacred.

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Sanctum Contagion

3.

Levi&cus 6: 11
Every male of Aarons descendants may eat of it [the
sin oering] perpetually throughout your generaFons
as their righSul due from the oblaFons for the Lord.
Whatever touches the oblaFons becomes holy.

4.

Levi&cus 6: 20
The priest who oers the puricaFon oering [sin
oering] shall eat of it; it shall be eaten in a sacred
place, in the court of the tent of meeFng. Whatever
touches its esh becomes holy.

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Sanctum Contagion
In all fours cases the Hebrew word
translated whatever is ambiguous.
Does it refer to things, to people or to
both?
The prophet Ezekiel clearly understands it
as applying to both:
Then he brought me through the entrance at
the side of the gateway to the chambers
reserved for the priests, which faced north.
There I saw a place at the far west end, about
which he said to me, This is the place where
the priests cook the reparaFon [guilt] oerings
and the puricaFon [sin] oerings, so they do
not have to bring them into the outer court
and so transmit holiness to the people.

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(46: 19-20)

Sanctum Contagion
Not only that, but Ezekiel
understands that even touching
the priests garments makes a
person sacred!
And when they [the priests] go out to the
people in the outer court, they shall take
o the garments in which they served and
leave them in the rooms of the sanctuary,
and put on other garments so they do not
transmit holiness to the people by their
garments.

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(44: 19)

Sanctum Contagion
We see this idea mirrored in the
Gospels :
A woman suering hemorrhages for
twelve years came up behind him [Jesus]
and touched the tassel on his cloak. She
said to herself, If only I can touch his
cloak, I shall be cured. Jesus turned
around and saw her, and said, Courage,
daughter! Your faith has saved you. And
from that hour the woman was cured.

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(Malhew 9: 20-22)

Jesus heals the bleeding woman (fresco), 4th century.

Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, Rome.

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Sanctum Contagion
If Ezekiel is correct in
understanding that people can be
sanc&ed by touching sacred
objects, then any criminal who
ees to the bronze altar in the
courtyard can nd sanctuary at the
Tabernacle, where he is exempt
from capture!

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Dr. C. seeking sanctuary at the horns of the altar in Beersheva, Israel.

Photography by Ana Maria Vargas

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It didnt work. They dragged him o and tossed him into the dungeon!
Photography by Ana Maria Vargas

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He deserved it!

I like him.

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When David appoints Solomon as

his successor ahead of his older
son Adonijah, Davids commanding
general, Joab, who supported
Adonijah as king, knows that his
days are numbered, and he ees to
the altar for sanctuary, believing
he will be safe there:
When news came to Joab, since he had
sided with Adonijah, though not with
Absalom [who rebelled against David], he
ed to the tent of the Lord and clung to
the horns of the altar.




(1 Kings 2: 28)

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It doesnt work for Joab either:

King Solomon was told, Joab has ed to
the tent of the Lord and is by the altar.
He sent Benaijah, son of Jehoiada, with
the order, Go, strike him down.

(1 Kings 2: 28)

Not suering fools gladly, Solomon

had lille pa&ence for such a ploy!

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Jacob Milgrom argues that the

Solomon story reects heated debate
among the Rabbis that a liberal reading
of sanctum contagion is unworkable.
Anyone could avoid jus&ce simply by
eeing to the altar for sanctuary.

Sanctuary ring on the door of the Portal of the

Virgin on the western faade of Notre-Dame de
Paris, France.

Indeed, in England the right of

sanctuary dated as far back as A.D. 600.
Common law guaranteed that anyone,
including felons, could ee to a church
for protec&on. They had 40 days to
surrender to secular authori&es and
stand trial or to confess their guilt and
be exiled. Anyone who returned
without the kings permission would be
excommunicated by the Church and/or
executed by the king.

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In the Torah, before the Israelites have

conquered the land of Canaan, God
provides for six sanctuary ci&es
The Lord spoke to Moses: Speak to the
Israelites and say to them: When you go
across the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
select for yourselves ciFes to serve as ciFes
of asylum, where a homicide who has killed
someone inadvertently may ee. These
ciFes will serve you as places of asylum
from the avenger of blood, so that a
homicide will not be put to death unFl tried
before the community. As for the ciFes you
assign, you will have six ciFes of asylum:
you will designate three ciFes beyond the
Jordan, and you will designate three ciFes
in the land of Canaan.

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(Numbers 35: 9-14)

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Importantly, a person does not

ee to a sanctuary city to escape
jus&ce; rather, he ees to a
sanctuary city to ensure jus&ce,
avoiding blood vengeance.
A\er arriving at a sanctuary city,
if a person is found guilty of a
crime, he is punished according
to the law.

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But sanctum contagion was a

double-edged sword. Holiness is
lethal to all but the consecrated
priests who themselves have
become holy; only they have the
right to handle the sacred
objects. Unauthorized persons
are forbidden from touching
such objects, even if their
inten&ons are pure.

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When David has the ark of the

covenant brought up to Jerusalem
a\er he becomes king . . .
Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding
the cart, with Ahio walking before it, while David
and all the house of Israel danced before the Lord
with all their might, with singing, and with lyres,
harps, tambourines, sistrums, and symbols. As
they reached the threshing oor of Nodan Uzzah
stretched out his hand to the ark of God and
steadied it, for the oxen were Fpping it. Then the
Lord became angry with Uzzah; God struck him on
that spot, and he died there in Gods presence.

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(2 Samuel 6: 3-7)

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Wow! That
was rather
harsh!
The dude
was toast!

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Giulio Quagilo the Younger. Uzzah and the Ark (fresco), 1704.
St. Nicholas Cathedral, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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We all know what happened to the evil Nazi Major Arnold Tolt when he ordered that the
Ark of the Covenant be opened in the 1982 lm Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark!

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And when the Philis&nes capture the

ark of the covenant, bad things
happen to them, as well:
On seeing how majers stood, the people of
Ashdod decided, The ark of the God of Israel must
not remain with us, for his hand weighs heavily on
us and Dagon our god. So they summoned all the
PhilisFne leaders and inquired of them, What shall
we do with the ark of the God of Israel? The
people of Gath replied, Let them move the ark of
the God of Israel to us. So they moved the ark of
the God of Israel to Gath. But amer it had been
brought there, the hand of the Lord was against
the city, resulFng in ujer turmoil: the Lord
aicted its inhabitants, young and old, and
[hemorrhoids] broke out on them.

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(1 Samuel 4: 7-9)

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It seems
that God has
a sense of
humor!
Ha, ha!

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Nicholas Poussin. The Plague at Ashdod (oil on canvas), 1630.

Louvre Museum, Paris.

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The second important concept

imbedded within Levi&cus 6-7 is
karet, the idea of being excluded
from the covenant community,
either in this life or for all
eternity.
Jacob Milgrom points out that there
are eighteen cases of karet in the
Torah, and they t within ve
categories of oenses against God:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Sacred &me
Sacred substance
Purica&on rituals
Illicit worship
Illicit sex

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Karet can take two forms:

1. The oenders family line is terminated.
In biblical cultureand indeed in Middle Eastern

culture even todaythe family past, present and

future, is the essence of ones iden&ty. Each
individual is part of a con&nuum: ancestorsself
descendants. In Scripture there is no greater earthly
punishment than to ex&nguish ones family line.

2. A\er death the oender is not permiled

to join his ancestors in the a\erlife.
In the Hebrew Scriptures when one dies, one is

gathered to his people and buried (e.g., Abraham in

Genesis 25: 7-11); this implies that we retain our
individual iden&&es in the next world. There is no
greater horror than to be cut o and ex&nguished for
all eternity, not joining ones ancestors in the a\erlife,
but simply vanishing.

In its fullest sense karet means that you have

no descendants in this world and no life in
the next.
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The story of king Ahab illustrates the

1st form of karet.
Ahab said to Elijah [the prophet], Have you found
me out, my enemy? He said, I have found you.
Because you have given yourself up to doing evil in
the Lords sight, I am bringing evil upon you: I will
consume you and will cut o every male belonging
to Ahab, whether bond or free, in Israel. I will
make your house like that of Jeroboam, son of
Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, son of Ahijah,
because you have provoked me by leading Israel
into sin.

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(1 Kings 21: 20-22)

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Psalm 88 expresses the 2nd

form of karet, the horror at
being ex&nguished in the
grave, of not being gathered
to your people.

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Psalm 88
Lord my God, I call for help by day;
I cry at night before you.
Let my prayer come into your presence;
O turn your ear to my cry,
for my soul is filled with evils.
My life is on the brink of the grave;
I am reckoned as one in the tomb.
I have reached the end of my strength.
like one alone among the dead,
like the slain lying in their graves,
like those you remember no more,
cut off, as they are, from your hand.

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Psalm 88 (cont.)
You have laid me in the depths of the tomb,
in places that are dark, in the depths.
Your anger weighs down upon me;
I am drowned beneath your waves.
You have taken away my friends
and made me hateful in their sight.
Imprisoned, I cannot escape;
my eyes are sunken with grief.
I call to you, Lord, all day long;
to you I stretch out my hands.
Will you work your wonders for the dead?
Will the shades stand and praise you?

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Psalm 88 (cont.)
Will your love be told in the grave
or your faithfulness among the dead?
Will your wonders be known in the dark
or your justice in the land of oblivion?
As for me, Lord, I call to you for help;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Lord, why do you reject me?
Why do you hide your face?
Wretched, close to death from my youth,
I have borne your trials; I am numb.

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Psalm 88 (cont.)
Your fury has swept down upon me;
your terrors have utterly destroyed me.
They surround me all the day like a flood;
they assail me all together.
Friend and neighbor you have taken away;
my one companion is darkness.

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Now, lets turn to our text

and examine Levi&cus 6-7.

LeviFcus 6-7 from the 1st ediFon of the King

James translaFon, 1611.

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Levi&cus 6-7 can be divided into nine

sec&ons, each sec&on beginning with
The Lord [YHWH] spoke to
Moses (6: 1, 12, 17; 7: 22, 28) or This
is the teaching [torah] (6: 2, 7, 18; 7:
1, 11, 37). Twice, both phrases are
used together (6: 1-2, 17-18).

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Here is an outline
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Daily Burnt Offering (6: 1-6)

Grain Offering (6: 7-11)
High Priests Daily Grain Offering (6: 12-16)
Sin [Purification] Offering (6: 17-23)
Guilt [Reparation] Offering (7: 1-10)
Peace [Communion] Offerings (7: 11-21)
Prohibition against Blood and Fat (7: 23-27)
Priests Portions from the Peace Offering
(7: 29-36)
Summary (7: 37-38)

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Daily Burnt Offering (6: 1-6)

The Lord said to Moses: Give Aaron and his sons the following
command: This is the ritual for the burnt offeringthe burnt
offering that is to remain on the hearth of the altar all night
until the next morning, while the fire is kept burning on the
altar. The priest, clothed in his linen robe and wearing linen
pants underneath, shall take away the ashes to which the fire
has reduced the burnt offering on the altar, and lay them at
the side of the altar. Then, having taken off these garments
and put on other garments, he shall carry the ashes to a
clean place outside the camp. The fire on the altar is to be
kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest
shall put firewood on it. On this he shall lay out the burnt
offering and burn the fat of the communion [peace] offering.
The fire is to be kept burning continuously on the altar; it
must not go out.

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Lets examine this oering closely.

Audience addressed. No&ce that the en&re text
addresses the interests of the priests, not of those
who oer the sacrice.
This is the ritual . . . Teaching is the primary
meaning of torah, although in the par&cular context
of Levi&cus 6-7 ritual, procedure, regula&on or
other synonyms may rightly be implied and used.
The repe&&ve use of torah (teaching) throughout
Levi&cus emphasizes how Levi&cus diers from
Genesis/Exodus, Numbers/Deuteronomy in that
Levi&cus sits at the heart of the Torah, and it is
primarily a book of teaching or instrucFon.
Burnt Oering. The burnt oering men&oned here
is the korban olah, the one oered twice daily at the
Tabernacle, morning and evening (Numbers 28: 3-8).

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Altar ashes. Removing the altar ashes is a 2-stage process:

1st removing them to the side of the altar; 2nd removing
them outside the camp. The 2-stage removal is pragma&c:
at the sacred place of the altar the priest must wear his
vestments to minister there; at the non-sacred place
outside the sanctuary he must not wear his vestments.
Recall, too, that touching the priests vestments transfers
holiness through sanctum contagion . . . or it brings
disaster!
Put rewood on it . . . Any type of wood may be used on
the altar, except the grapevine and the olive tree, since
these plants are used for sacred purposes inside the Holy
Place and the Holy of Holies. Nehemiah 10: 35 tells us that
who brings the wood is decided by lot among the priests,
Levites and people.
The re is to be kept burning . . . When the 1st burnt
oering sacrice is made in Levi&cus 9: 24, re came forth
from the Lords presence and consumed the burnt oering
and the fat on the altar (9: 24). It is this divine re given
by God that is to be kept burning in perpetuity, an eternal
ame.
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In 6: 2the burnt oering that is to remain on the

hearth of the altar all night un&l the next
morning . . . As Robert Alter points out, the word
hearth is altogether too domes&c for a sacricial
seSng. A beler transla&on is ame, which
captures the ery imagery that dominates the en&re
passage, as if to focus on the sacred re that burns
perpetually. The Hebrew word for burnt oering is
olah, derived from the verb to go up, not from the
verb to burn. The burnt oering going up in re
and smoke recalls God speaking to Moses in the
burning bush and descending on Mt. Sinai in re and
smoke. The re and smoke imagery weaves an
intricate web of correspondences between heaven,
Mt. Sinai and the Tabernacle, as Mary Douglas so
insighxully observes in LeviFcus as Literature.

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Our close look at the burnt

oering in Levi&cus 6: 1-6
illustrates the careful
cra\smanship of our authors and
redactors in chapters 6-7. Every
element in the six verses is
woven with its corresponding
elements, crea&ng a &ghtly knit,
cohesive fabric.
We need not examine all nine
units in this sec&on to get the
point, as we move on to Levi&cus
8, The Ordina&on of Aaron and
His Sons.

And he said . . .

43

1. We see imbedded within Levi&cus 6-7 the concept of

sanctum contagion, the idea that anything that
touches a holy object or person becomes holy as a
result. Can you think of any examples of sanctum
contagion today?
2. Also imbedded within Levi&cus 6-7 is the concept of
karet, to cut o. In the &me and culture of Levi&cus,
what would be the consequences of karet?
3. Can you think of examples in modern &mes when the
concept of karet inuences behavior?
4. How does the re imagery create textual cohesion in
Exodus/Levi&cus?
5. The priesthood is essen&al in the sacricial system of
Levi&cus, and indeed the priesthood func&oned for
over 1,500 years in Judaism. Is there a parallel in
Chris&anity today?

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Copyright 2015 by William C. Creasy

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