Sacrafices

The greatest expression of one's religion and worship is found in sacrifice. Sacrifice is defined as "man's intimate relationship with Almighty God (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 786)." Sacrifice in the Old Testament was the most important act a man could perform to show his love for God. Sacrifice consists of this, that man must take an important part of his life, such as an animals, or food, and offer it as a gift to God and at the same time make it a victim in place of himself to acknowledge God's absolute majesty (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia 786). Man gives a fraction of his personal goods to God in a sacrifice. This surrender of his property occurs when the gift is removed from its future usefulness to him. In a word, sacrifices served to make man show his love and loyalty to God (Dictionary of the Bible, 755).

The Old Testament has two different types of sacrifices, bloody and unbloody. Unbloody sacrifices consisted of any type of garden produce, such as grain, fruit, wine, and oils. Bloody sacrifices consisted of animals, such as sheep, goats, and cattle. Sacrifices could be either male or female. However some special occasions require it to be one or the other. Normally herd animals had to be at least 8 years old to be accepted for sacrifice. The sacrifice had to be perfect, it could have no blemishes and show no weaknesses. Any animal that could not be eaten as food was not suitable for sacrifice. Humans were not accepted as sacrifice and sacrificing them was forbidden by the law with the most severe punishment. Every sacrifice required a certain ritual that must be performed (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 787).

Rituals for the bloody sacrifices consisted of five principle actions. First the offerer had to bring the animal to the tabernacle or temple. There it was looked over by the priest for any imperfections. The "imposition of hands (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 787)" followed. During the imposition of hands the offerer had to lay his hands on the animal's head to transfer his own sins to the animal. Then the victim was killed on the north side of the altar. Following the killing, the priest took the blood of the animal and sprinkled it on either side of the altar. Thus God permitted Himself to be satisfied with the sacrificial animal's life and blood (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 787). The last act was the "burning of the flesh (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 787)" of the animal after it had been skinned and cut to pieces.

Another type of offering were the burnt offerings. In the burnt offerings the entire victim was burned and not just the skin. Also, in contrast to the bloody sacrifice ceremony, the blood was poured all the way around the altar instead of just in certain spots. This sacrifice was to be uninterrupted. Two times a day, in the morning and evening, a lamb had to offered. The fire on this altar was never to be put out. With every burnt offering there was an unbloody addition, for instance a meal and drink offering. (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 788)

There was also the sin offerings (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 778). Sin offerings had to be offered by individual people to remove certain legal uncleanness, or to compensate for personal sins committed unintentionally and indeliberately. The victim in sin offerings varied according to the offerers wealth, and the sin to be compensated for by the offerer. In