1 Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy.If this chapter were a Talking Heads album, it would be "More Psalms About Burnings and Food," he says not knowing what a psalm is but well convinced that this continued, repetitive iteration of absurd sacrificial rituals is a load of tripe (hmm, do you burn the tripe or chuck it by the side of the altar?).
2 In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering: and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar.
3 And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof; the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards,
4 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away:
5 And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a trespass offering.
6 Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy.
7 As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it.
8 And the priest that offereth any man's burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered.
9 And all the meat offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest's that offereth it.
10 And every meat offering, mingled with oil, and dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much as another.
11 And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the LORD.
12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.
13 Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings.
14 And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the LORD, and it shall be the priest's that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings.
15 And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.
16 But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:
17 But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire.
18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity.
19 And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof.
20 But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
21 Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
22 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
23 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.
24 And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it.
25 For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people.
26 Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
27 Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
28 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
29 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the LORD shall bring his oblation unto the LORD of the sacrifice of his peace offerings.
30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the LORD.
31 And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'.
32 And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings.
33 He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part.
34 For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel.
35 This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the LORD in the priest's office;
36 Which the LORD commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute for ever throughout their generations.
37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings;
38 Which the LORD commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.
One thing that's at least a little different is the notion of "thanksgiving" and "voluntary"offerings (not sure if these are one and the same).
The topic of unclean things continues — don't touch 'em or eat anything that's touched 'em, else you'll be cut off from your people — though what those unclean things are is still left to the imagination. Other things will get you struck off, as well, such as eating the peace offering, which belongs to YHWH. Never fuck with the boss man.
Beyond that, don't leaven your cakes, don't eat blood, fat, or three-day-old meat, and do leave the breast meat for the priests. Never fuck with the boss man's made men.
I'm sure we all feel more moral after having read this and the last several chapters.
6 comments:
I do.
One clue to the "unclean things" prohibition, particularly as it applied to pork: The Israelites didn't know what trichinosis was called, but they knew that something in that hog could kill you.
FA,
Glad this is working out for you!
Dr. S.,
Pigs, one imagines, would have been included in the list of "unclean beasts." But past that probability and poop being generally recognized as stinky, I'm not sure what to surmise. Oh, and bacon tastes good...
"thanksgiving" here again is the "sacrifice of peace offering" ie. the SLAUGHTER-OFFERING. SLAUGHTER OFFERINGS were originally just the killing of an animal for food purposes, but as the religion became more centralised it became more abstract. When it became more abstract, artificial categories were invented to explain the circumstances of it like "on the occasion of unexpected good fortune" ("thank offerings"), and "on other occasions" ("voluntary offerings").
Its not "anyone who is unclean, OR eats the peace offering, shall be cut off". Its "anyone who is 'unclean' AND THEN eats the 'peace offering', shall be 'cut off'". It was a taboo to eat a meal 'with' [any] deity without being ritually pure; thus to be eat the slaughter offering while being ritually impure was a breach of the taboo.
Its easy to see the joins between the documents that this chapter was originally compiled from. Verses 22 and 28, which sit over abrupt changes in subject, mark the boundaries. Several originally independent written documents, containing laws advocated by one political faction - the Aaronids - were compiled together by one of the Priestly Source's later editors; the compiled document in this case being Leviticus 6:9-7:38. The original priestly source text was later modified by the inclusion of this compilation.
A different, more bureaucratic, writer from the Priestly Source group drew up a different document on the same subjects (leviticus 1:1-6:7), containing a different focus and subtly different regulations, and edited that into the priestly source too.
Verse 38 is one of the more interesting. Its clearly an attempt to assert that the laws in question were given by God to Moses, and therefore were extremely legitimate. But, if they were part of the rest of the Sinai narrative, then surely there would be no need to make such a claim, as the narrative context would make it obvious. The only reason there might be a need to assert that was if the laws in question were originally in a separate document without the context; ie. that they were later additions to the biblical text to the text.
Trichinosis is as dangerous as salmonella; if you cook meat properly , and wash your hands before you eat, you're unlikely to get it. And since the Israelites don't have any qualms about eating certain birds, like quail, I hardly think scientific knowledge of common food-poisoning diseases was responsible for their concerns over pork.
Anon,
I'm just speculating here, but a crude sort of "scientific knowledge" could have occurred if, say, a lot of people got sick after eating a certain sort of food. Not saying it did, but it seems plausible enough. Ditto for people who ate meat that had been sitting out for three days in Middle Eastern heat.
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