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Bible Dictionaries
Offering
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Offering, Genesis 4:3, Oblation, Leviticus 2:7. The offerings in Jewish worship were either bloody or bloodless, or animal and vegetable. Of animals only tame ones were used, as oxen, goats, and sheep, and the dove. Leviticus 5:11, etc. From the vegetable kingdom, wine, flour, etc., were set apart. Human sacrifices or offerings were especially forbidden. Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2. The first offerings of which record is made are those of Cain and Abel. Genesis 4:3-8. The second offering is that of Noah, Genesis 8:20, after the flood. The various offerings were the burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, peace-offerings, and the sin and trespass-offerings. The burnt-offering was to be a male without blemish, of the herd and of the flock, offered voluntarily at the door of the tabernacle, the hand of the offerer being upon the head of the victim. Leviticus 1:2-4. The design of the burnt-offering was an atonement for sin. Leviticus 1:4; comp. Hebrews 10:1-3; Hebrews 10:11. It was presented every day, Exodus 29:38-42, on the Sabbath, Numbers 28:9-10, and on the great day of atonement, Leviticus 16:3, and the three great festivals. Numbers 28:11-31; Numbers 29:1-40. The meat-offering, R.V., "meal-offering," consisted of flour, or cakes, prepared with oil and frankincense. Leviticus 2:1; Leviticus 6:14-23. It was to be free from leaven and honey, but was to have salt. Leviticus 2:11; Leviticus 2:13. With this was connected the drink-offering, which was never used separately, but was an appendage of wine to some sacrifices. Exodus 29:41. A meal-offering was presented every day with the burnt-offering. Exodus 29:40-41. The first-fruits, offered at Pentecost, Leviticus 23:17-20, and at the Passover, Leviticus 23:10-14, were called wave-offerings; those offered in harvest-time, Numbers 15:20-21, heave-offerings. Peace-offerings were eucharistic in their nature, and were offered in thanksgiving or at a special dedication of something to the Lord. Leviticus 3:1-17; Leviticus 7:11-21. The animal as well as the vegetable kingdom contributed to this class of offerings. The sin and trespass-offerings were expiatory. They included an offering for the sins of ignorance. Leviticus 4:2. There are sins that are "debts" to God, more numerous, it may be, than our transgressions. The prayer the Lord taught regards sins as "debts." Matthew 6:12. Our thanksgivings now are to be offered through Christ, and the Hebrews were required to present sacrifices with their thanksgivings. Leviticus 7:15. Sin-offerings were presented by the high priest for personal offences, for national sins, and on the great day of atonement, when he confessed the sins of the whole nation with his hand on the scapegoat's head, and the goat was driven off into the wilderness. Leviticus 16:1-34, etc. These offerings all had a typical significance, and prefigured the atonement of Jesus Christ, on whom was laid the iniquity of us all, and "his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." 1 Peter 2:24.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Offering'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/o/offering.html. 1893.
