OFFERING (oPfer-Ing), (the general name for which in Hebrew is 1;7), kor-bawn') is any thing offered to God as a means of conciliating his favor; which being in the Jewish, as well as in all other religions, considered as the one thing needful, offerings accordingly have always consti tuted an essential part of public worship and pri vate piety.
Offerings have been divided into three kinds; those which are designed to procure some favor or benefit ; the second. those which are expres sive of gratitude for bounties or mercies received; the third. those which are meant to atone for sins and propitiate the Deity. Among the Hebrews we find a complex and multiform system of of ferings extending through the entire circle of Divine worship, and prescribing the minutest de tails. A leading distinction separates their offer ings into unbloody and bloody.
(1) Meaning and Objects Used. Uscd in its widest sense the term offering, or oblation. indi cates in the Hebrew ritual a very great number of things — as the firstlings of the flock, first fruits, tithes, incense. the shew-brcad, the wood for burning in the Temple (Neh. x:34). The objects offered were salt, meal, baked and roasted grain, olive-oil, clean animals, such as oxen, goats, doves, but not fish. The anitnals were required to be spotless (Lev. xxii:2o; Mal. i:8), and, with the exception of the doves, not under eight days old (Lev. xxii :27), younger animals being taste less and innutritious. The smaller beasts, such as sheep, goats, and calves, were commonly one year old (Exod. xxix:38; Lev. ix :3; xii :6; xiv :to; Num. xv :27; xxviii :9, sq.). Oxen were offered at three years of age; in Judges (vi :25) one is offered which is seven years old. As to sex, an option was sometimes left to the offerer,as inpeace and sin-offerings (Lev. 6; xii :5, 6) ; at other times males were required, as in burnt sacrifices, for, contrary to classical usage, the male was con sidered the more perfect. In burnt-offerings and in thank-offerings the kind of animal was left to the choice of the worshiper (Lev. i :3), but in trespass and sin-offerings it was regulated by law (Lev. iv:5). If the desire of the worshiper was to express his gratitude, he offered a peace or thank-offering; if to obtain forgiveness, he of fered a trespass or sin-offering.
(2) Burnt-Offerings. Burnt-offerings were of a general kind (Num. xv :3; Deut. xii:6; Jer.
xvii :26). Hecatombs or large numbers of cattle were sacrificed on special occasions. In Kings viii :5, 63, Solomon is said to have 'sacrificed sheep and oxen that could not be told or num bered for multitude,' 'two and twenty thousand oxen and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep' (see also 2 Chron. xxix:32, xxx:24; xxxv: 7, sq.; comp. Herod. vii :43; Xenoph. Hellen., vi:4; Sueton. Calig. 14). Offerings were also either public or private, prescribed or free-will. Sometimes they were presented by an individual, sometimes by a family ; once, or at regular and periodic intervals 0 Sam. i:24; Job i:5; 2 Mace. iii :32).
Foreigners were permitted to make offerings on the national altar (Num. xv :14; iii :35 ; xiii :23; Philo. Legal. p. to14 ; Joseph. c. Apicm. ii, 5). Offerings were made by Jews for heathen princes (i Macc. vii :33; Joseph. 4n ttq. Xii, 2, 5).
In the case of bloody offerings the possessor, after he had sanctified himself ( I Sam. xvi :5), brought the victim, in case of thank-offerings, v,,ith his horns gilded and with garlands, etc., (Jo seph. Antic,. xiii:8, 2; Winer, Real - worterb. 212, note 5) to the altar (Lev. iii :1; xii :4; xiv: 17), where laying his hand on the head of the animal (Lev. i :4; 111:2 ; iNT :4), he thus, in a clear and pointed way, devoted it to God. Having so done he proceeded to slay the victim himself (Lev. iii :2; iv:4) ; which act might be, and in later times was, done by the priests (2 Chron. xxix :24), and probably by the Levites.
The blood was taken, and, according to the kind of offering, sprinkled upon the altar, or brought into the temple and there shed upon the ark of the covenant and smeared upon the horns of the altar of incense, and then the remainder poured forth at the foot of the altar of burnt offerings. Having slain the animal, the offerer struck off its head (Lev. i :6), which when not burnt (Lev. iv:it) belonged either to the priest (Lev. vii :8), or to the offerer (comp. Mishna, Lebach. xii :2). The victim was then cut into pieces (Lev. i :6; viii :2o), which were either all, or only the best and most tasty, set on fire on the altar by the priests or the offerer, or must bc burnt outside the precincts of the holy city. The treatment of doves may be seen in Lev. i :14, sq. ; v:8. In some sacrifices heaving and waving were usual either before or after the slayings.