SACRIFICE (salc'ef-fiz). Several words are used in Scripture for sacrifice, among them are the following: 1. Al in-k haw' (Heb. something given, a gift (Gen. xxxii:13, 18, 20, 21; xliii:i t, etc.); tribute (2 Sam. viii:2, 6 ; 2 Kings xvii:4); an offering to God (i Citron. xvi:29; Is. i:t 1); spoken especially of a bloodless offering.
2. Kor-bawn' (Heb. 1;7.), something brought near, an offering as a symbol of communion or covenant between man and God (Lev.
3. Zeh'bakh (Heb. from rq, zaw-bakh', to slay) refers emphatically to a bloody sacrifice, in which the shedding of blood is the essential idea. Thus it is opposed to min-khaw' (Ps. x1:6) and to o-law', the whole burnt offering (Exod. x:25; xviii: 12, etc.).
4. Aw-saw' (Heb. J, to do, to prepare, and so, if for God, to sacrifice (Lev. only, but several times rendered offer).
5. Thoo-see'ah (Gr Otia(a) denotes both the vic tim offered and the act of sacrifice, whether literal or figurative; pros-for-ale (irpovpopti), present; in the New Testament a sacrifice (A. V. "offering," Acts xxi:26; xxiv:i7; Eph. v:2; Heb. x:5, etc.); hoi-ok-ow'to-malt (OX0Kairuwa), wholly consumed (Lat. holocaustum), a whole burnt offering, i. c. a victim all of which is burned (Mark. xii:33; Heb. x:6, 8). (See Mc. & Str. Bib. Cyc.).
The sacrifices and other offerings required by the Hebrew ritual have been enumerated under OFFERING (which see), and in this place it is only requisite to briefly consider the great and much controverted questions—Whether sacrifice was in its origin a human invention, or a divine institution; and whether any of the sacrifices be fore the law, or under the law, were sacrifices of expiation.
(1) Early Origin. From the universality of sacrifice, it is obvious that the rite arose either from a common source, or from a common senti ment among nations widely dispersed, and very differently constituted. Remembering that Noah, the common ancestor of the post-diluvian nations, offered sacrifice, we are enabled to trace back the custom through all nations to him; and he doubt less derived it through the antediluvian fathers, from the sacrifices which the first men celebrated, of which we have an example in that of Abel.
The question concerning the divine or human origin of sacrifices, therefore, centers upon the conclusions which we may be able to draw from the circumstances and preliminaries of that trans action. Abel brought for sacrifice one of the lambs of his flock, for he was a shepherd; and with his offering God was well pleased ; Cain brought of the fruits of the ground, for he was a husbandman; and with his offering God was not well pleased. We are told by the Apostle (Heb. xi :4) that it was 'by faith' that Abel offered the more acceptable sacrifice.
That this was not the first sacrifice is held by many to be proved by the fact, that 'unto Adam and his wife the Lord made coats of skin, and clothed them' (Gen. iii :21) ; for, it is urged, that as animal food does not appear to have been used before the deluge, it is not easy to understand whence these skins came, probably before any ani mal had died naturally, unless from beasts offered in sacrifice. And if the first sacrifices had been offered by Adam, the arguments for the divine in stitution of the rite are of the greater force, seeing that it was less likely to occur spontaneously to Adam than to Abel, who was a keeper of sheep. Further, if the command was given to Adam, and his sons had been trained in observance of the rite, we can the better understand the merit of Abel and the demerit of Cain, without further ex planation. Apart from any considerations arising out of the skin-vestures of Adam and his wife, it would seem that if sacrifice was a divine insti tution, and, especially, if the rite bore an expiatory significance, it would have been at once prescribed to Adam, after sin had entered the world, and death by sin, and not have been postponed till his sons had reached manhood.