Sacrifices in the Bible: The Strange World of Old Testament Worship

Sacrifices in the Old Testament can seem strange, even repulsive: animal death, blood splashed on altars, covenant salt, ritual uncleanliness. Yet the sacrificial language of Leviticus matters, and not only for Israel’s worship. These offerings underlie the biblical logic of Christ’s atoning death, and Christians have long discussed exactly how they do so.

My goal in this article is to lay out the structure of sacrifice and offering in Leviticus 1–5 to help readers understand the underlying theology of sacrifice. Along the way, I will also reference the Passover and Yom Kippur. While these two rites stand outside Leviticus 1–5, the New Testament draws on these texts to show how Jesus fulfills these sacrifices.

What are sacrifices?

Sacrifice lies near the center of Israelite worship. While God ultimately desires obedience and faithfulness (e.g., 1 Sam 15:22; Hos 6:6), ritual sacrifices offered an important pathway to know and enjoy God. As Andrew Hill and John Walton explain, “The ritual sacrifice was but one way the Hebrew people could gain access to their God YHWH, the Holy One of Israel.”¹ Indeed, sacrifice predates the law of Moses. According to Genesis 4, Cain and Abel sacrificed to God.

Although sacrifice was normal in the ancient world, Hill and Walton point out that “the Hebrew sacrificial system was distinctive in that it was divinely revealed and was directed toward the goal of personal and community holiness necessary for relationship with God.”² In other words, God instituted Israel’s sacrificial system in order to facilitate a relationship between himself and his people.

What are Levitical sacrifices?

Leviticus 1–5 describes five kinds of offerings: burnt, grain, peace, sin, and guilt offerings. They represent a sort of baseline for understanding Levitical sacrifices, all of which are given by the mouth of God at the entrance of the newly created tabernacle (Exod 40; Lev 1:1). 

Sometimes scholars designate these different offerings using different terms. For example, Tremper Longman III and Raymond Dillard call the sin offering a purification offering.³ They also speak of the peace offering as a fellowship offering and the meal offering as a grain offering.⁴ These disparities mostly amount to disagreements on which English terms are best to translate or describe the underlying Hebrew words.

Use Logos’s Bible Sense Lexicon to explore the different terms designating types of sacrifices. Try it for free!

The text does not tell us why just these five sacrifices are given in Leviticus 1–5. We can assume they represent important ritual acts of worship that allowed both individuals and groups to draw near to God. One answer given by Jacob Milgrom underscores how each of these sacrifices responds to a deep religious need: “Their common denominator is that they arise in answer to an unpredictable religious or emotional need, and are thereby set off from the sacrifices of the public feasts and fasts that are fixed by the calendar (chaps. 9, 16, 23; cf. Num 28–29).”⁵ If so, then God gave these sacrifices to help his people to draw near to him and to each other, as a way to love God and neighbor, since, as the below will show, these sacrifices involved worshiping God and/or fellowshipping with other worshipers.

According to the Jewish historian Josephus, these sacrifices split into two groups: sacrifices for private persons and sacrifices for the people in general.⁶ He further subdivides sacrifices into those where “what is slain” is burnt and those where what is offered becomes a feast; in other words, the latter is a thank offering which “is designed for feasting [with] those that sacrifice.”⁷ Ancient rabbis would also distinguish between voluntary (Lev 1–3) and mandatory sacrifices (Lev 4–5).

These categories help us to get a handle on the sacrificial system of ancient Israel. In the following, I will explain each of the five sacrifices in Leviticus 1–5 in simplified ways.

1. Burnt offering

The burnt offering in Hebrew is called עֹלָה, which means “to go up.” In this personal sacrifice, an offerer will bring an animal for sacrifice, and the priests will spread its blood upon the altar (Lev 1:5). The name עֹלָה implies that smoke from the burnt offering will ascend upwards. Josephus corroborates this point when he comments, “what is slain is burnt, as a whole burnt offering, whence that name is given to it.”⁸

The burnt offering requires a person to lay his hands on the animal’s head in a ritual of atonement: “He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him” (Lev 1:4; also Lev 3:2, 8, 13; 4:4, 15, 24, 29, 33). This act implies some relation between the offerer and the thing sacrificed. Only Leviticus 1:4 ties this ritual to making atonement in explicit terms, although atonement might be implied in the ritual for both peace and sin offerings. If so, the logic of substitution could be implied by the act, as it seems to be in Leviticus 16:21–22. 

The Hebrew word “if” (אִם) in Leviticus 1:3 begins this section, and, according to Milgrom, this implies the voluntary nature of the offering.⁹ Presumably, God desires a willing or cheerful gift, which may underlie both the importance of the burnt offering (it makes atonement) and its voluntary nature. The Prophet Hosea might be alluding to the burnt offerings when he records God saying: “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos 6:6). In other words, God is not desiring the offering per se, but rather the steadfast love behind the offering.

2. Grain offering

Leviticus 2:1 and 3 simply call the food or grain offering “an offering” (קָרְבָּן) or “gift” (מִנְחָה), but we infer that it is a food offering because of how the text describes: “his offering shall be of fine flour” (Lev 2:1). While some of the food is burned on the altar, the rest is eaten by the Levites (Lev 2:9–10).

Importantly, Leviticus 2:13 says, “You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt” (cf. Num 18:19). The language of salt implies a long duration because salt was (and is) a preservative. So Philo comments, “By which injunction, as I have said before, he figuratively implies a duration for ever; for salt is calculated to preserve bodies.”¹⁰

The food offering is voluntary, not mandatory. It is described as a gift, perhaps given for the sake of the priests. And lastly, one reason for the food offering may be that it allowed poor Israelites to offer out of their thankfulness to God, rather than an expensive animal, such as in the burnt offering. In other words, God does not place financial barriers on worship and enjoying communion with him.

3. Peace offering

Leviticus 3:1 describes the peace offering as a “sacrifice of peace” (זֶבַח שְׁלָמִים). Milgrom points out that the word “sacrifice” signals an animal sacrifice, while the word “peace” or “well-being” signifies the motivation for the one offering.¹¹ In other words, this offering seems to be a form of thanksgiving for experiencing peace or well-being. It is thus voluntary, like the food offering.

4. Sin offering

Leviticus 4:1, like Leviticus 1:1, indicates the beginning of a new section of text by saying, “And the Lord spoke to Moses.” Ancient rabbis noticed a transition in topics, pointing out that the sacrifices in Leviticus 1–3 concerned voluntary sacrifices, whereas the offerings in Leviticus 4–5 concerned mandatory ones.¹² The major grammatical Hebrew which suggests that the sin offering is mandatory (beyond the contextual cues) is that the major section begins with the Hebrew particle כִּי, not אִם, even though אִם appears throughout Leviticus 4.¹³

The sin offering refers to unintentional wrongdoing (שְׁגָגָה) and implies a contrast with high-handed sins done with intent (Num 15:30–31). No sacrifice in Leviticus 1–5 forgives high-handed sins, which is why the Day of Atonement plays such an important role in Israelite worship, a topic that I discuss below. But here, individuals or the community could receive forgiveness for sins, either done without knowing it or done on purpose but without knowing that it transgressed the law.¹⁴

Leviticus 5:1–13 adds further discussions on offerings that relate to sin (חטא), although it does not speak of unintentional wrongdoing. So it may be another set of sacrifices. The main point here, however, is that the text offers more affordable alternatives for the poor in Israel to offering mandatory sacrifices (Lev 5:7, 11).

5. Guilt offering

Leviticus 5:14 once again signals a new section like 1:1 and 4:1 by saying, “The Lord spoke to Moses.” Here, God names the last offering on this list: the guilt offering (אָשָׁם). The noun “guilt” refers to restitution.¹⁵ However, in the context of Leviticus 4–5, the verb “be guilty” appears frequently (אשׁם), signaling personal realization of guilt (e.g., Lev 4:22, 27; 5:2). So there appears to be a relation between realizing one’s guilt and making restitution. The guilt offering then eliminates guilt.

Offering	Hebrew	Type	Purpose	Key Detail
Burnt offering	עולה	Voluntary	Atonement; ascending gift to God	Whole animal burned; offerer lays hands on head (Lev 1:4)
Grain offering	מנחה	Voluntary	Gift/thanksgiving; provision for Levites	Fine flour with salt; affordable alternative for the poor
Peace offering	זבח שלמים	Voluntary	Thanksgiving for peace or well-being	Animal sacrifice motivated by gratitude
Sin offering	חטאת	Mandatory	Forgiveness of unintentional sins	Does not cover high-handed sins; affordable options for poor (Lev 5:7, 11)
Guilt offering	אשם	Mandatory	Restitution upon realization of guilt	Linked to awareness of guilt and making amends

Are sacrifices always for sin? Is uncleanness sin?

Only Leviticus 5:2 and 3 speak about becoming unclean, and here it relates to sin (Lev 5:5). In this case, however, sin approximates unintentional wrongdoing rather than high-handed sin (Lev 5:3). Further, the Pentateuch does not always tie uncleanness to sin. Moses commands that Israelites should bury dead criminals (Deut 21:22–23), yet doing so makes one unclean (Num 19:11–13). Sometimes, then, obeying the command of God requires becoming unclean! After all, childbirth made women unclean (Lev 12:1–8), something that the Torah commends as not only good but part of our creative purpose (Gen 1:28).

We should therefore be careful in our judgments about the need for sacrifice when one becomes unclean. Hill and Walton explain, “Uncleanness could be caused by disease, contamination, infection, or sin; it could be cleansed only by ritual washing and sacrifice, hence the importance of the instructions regarding sacrifices in Leviticus.”¹⁶

Additionally, being common and holy can both be states of moral goodness. While God commands all of his people to be holy (Lev 19:2), God dedicates certain people (e.g., priests) to holy status (e.g., Lev 20:8; 21:8). So a person can be common, not holy, yet sinless and obedient. In short, Levitical sacrifices do not necessarily make one holy, and sometimes sin offerings are needed to move someone from an unclean state to a common state. 

Logos’s Factbook, where you can jump start your study on the Bible’s sacrifices and offerings.

How do sacrifices achieve atonement or restitution?

While the burnt, peace, and sin offerings imply a relation between the offered animal and the one who offers, because the latter lays his hand on the former before the priest makes atonement (Lev 1:4; 3:2, 8, 13; 4:4, 15, 24, 29, 33), other sacrifices imply only a satisfaction or expiation. For example, the guilt offering speaks of sacrifices as restitution (e.g., Lev 5:16). Such a restitution would satisfy the demand of either damaged property or damaged relations with others through sinful acts.

How or if these sacrifices primarily propitiate, satisfy, or purify is unclear. The hand-laying ritual in Leviticus 1:4 may imply substitution and perhaps then propitiation, since it could be seen to avert divine wrath. But that is not explicitly stated in the context. The more obvious implication is that the various ritual sacrifices made a way to enjoy communion with God (nos. 1–3) and forgave unintentional wrongdoing and/or guilt (nos. 4–5), the latter including satisfaction (restitution). Interestingly, the notion that the first three sacrifices purify does not seem obvious in the context, and only the sin offering in two cases implies restoration from uncleanliness (Lev 5:2, 3).

The sacrifices listed above raise many important questions, but they do not give us all the answers we desire.

What is the Day of Atonement in the Bible?

The most important question that remains unanswered is: How can someone be forgiven of an intentional or high-handed sin? That is where the Day of Atonement comes in.

The Day of Atonement describes an annual rite whereby the high priest enters into the Most Holy Place to make atonement for his sin and the sins of the people. One purpose of this day, Yom Kippur, is to forgive presumptuous sins. So Milgrom insightfully argues that the Day of Atonement atones for presumptuous sins. He comments, “This is precisely the reason that such sinners are represented by the high priest: they themselves are barred from the sanctuary.”¹⁷ In other words, presumptuous sins bar one from the sanctuary, and thus the high priest must make atonement for the people.

While the details of the Day of Atonement would require a full article to lay out, here I only want to draw attention to two important ones.

1. The high priest casts lots to decide which of two goats will be sacrificed as a sin offering and which will be sent to Azazel (Lev 16:8–10). Likely, Azazel refers to a goat demon, given the context of Leviticus 17:7.
2. The high priest kills the goat of the sin offering to make atonement for the place and the people:

Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. (Lev 16:15–16)

At this point, the high priest lays the sin on the goat destined for Azazel and releases it into the wilderness:

And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. (Lev 16:21–22)

In summary, one goat goes to Azazel. This goat carries the iniquities of the people into the wilderness (i.e., the “scapegoat”), while the other goat makes atonement for the place and people in the Most Holy Place. The logic here implies both substitution and purification. It may also imply propitiation since it is evident that the scapegoat carries away sin into the wilderness, sin that would otherwise incur the wrath of God.

What is the Passover in the Bible?

During the Passover, Israelites sacrificed a lamb and spread its blood “on the two doorposts and the lintel” (Exod 12:7). This act prevented the “Destroyer” from slaying a family’s firstborn son (Exod 12:23).

To oversimplify matters, Israelites could look back to this event, along with the exodus, as a major salvation event. It precedes and is assumed by all the Levitical sacrifices. We might say that the Passover constitutes Israel’s salvation event, while the Levitical sacrifices show how they maintained their relationship with God and each other.

We must leave fuller explanation of the Passover for another article. However, it is important to recognize, as I will discuss below, that the New Testament draws on the Passover as one of the key sacrifices that Jesus fulfills. Thus, it fills out the picture of how Christians have approached Old Testament sacrifices.

How does Jesus fulfill the Bible’s sacrifices?

Jesus fulfills the Levitical sacrifices by way of accomplishing what they do, but in a better and more permanent way since he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, not Levi. Secondly, Christ becomes the sacrificial animal, that is, the Passover lamb who takes away not just the sins of the people, but the sins of the world.

A superior priesthood

Hebrews claims that when there is a change in priesthood, there is also a change in law (Heb 7:12). And Christ brings a new priesthood and law as a Melchizedekian priest (Gen 14). Christ’s priesthood thus precedes the Levitical; and the Levites, through Abraham, honored his priesthood (Heb 7:1–10). 

While the Levites ministered under a copy of the heavenly tabernacle, the tabernacle remained a copy (Heb 8:5). By contrast, Christ ministers in the real thing (Heb 8:2; 9:11). His blood purifies the real holy place, a better Yom Kippur (Heb 9:11–14, 23–26). Specifically, it is better because Christ’s sacrifice is once for all, eternal, and thereby unlike the repeated Levitical offerings (Heb 7:27; 9:12). 

Further, Jesus himself is the true tabernacle, since his flesh is torn like the curtain to make a new and living way to God (Heb 10:19–20).

The spatial logic of Yom Kippur also finds its fulfillment in Christ’s atonement: Just as the bodies of the Day of Atonement animals were burned outside the camp, so Jesus suffered outside the city gate (Heb 13:11–13; Lev 16:27).

Related to this new priesthood and eternal sacrifice, Christ’s death also inaugurates a new covenant, echoing the blood of the covenant in Exodus 24:8 (Heb 9:15–22).

The sacrifices articulated in Leviticus remain good but temporary. Israel’s sacrifices kept them in communion with God. Then Christ came to inaugurate a new and better covenant as the new high priest. His once-and-for-all sacrifice atones for sins forever. It is permanent and thus builds a new and living way through the flesh of Christ to commune with our Father by the Holy Spirit.

The ultimate paschal lamb

As Jesus’s priesthood precedes and is superior to the Levitical priesthood, so also his sacrifice (himself) precedes and is superior to the Levitical sacrifices. One reason why his sacrifice is superior is that it finds its roots in the Passover of Exodus 12, an event that prefigures his later large-scale salvific sacrifice on the cross.

But in fact, Christians would also think of the Passover in similar ways in their celebration of the Pascha, with Christ being our Passover lamb. 

Reference	Description
John 1:29	“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
John 1:36	John the Baptist again says, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
1 Cor 5:7	“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
Acts 8:32–35	Philip explains Isa 53:7 (“like a lamb that is led to the slaughter”) as referring to Jesus.
1 Pet 1:18–19	“You were ransomed … with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
Revelation	Revelation regularly calls Christ our lamb (Rev 5:6; 5:8–13; 6:1, 16; 7:10, 14, 17; 12:11; 13:8; 14:1, 4, 10; 15:3; 17:14; 19:7–9; 21:9, 14, 22–23, 27; 22:1, 3).

Therefore, as both the sacrificer and the sacrificed, Christ fulfills, improves, and betters the old covenant priestly sacrificial system because he, as our high priest of the new covenant, serves in the true tent, makes atonement once and forever, and is the paschal lamb who takes away the sins not just of the people of Israel, but of the whole world.

From the earliest records we have, second-century Christians (and likely first-century Christians too) celebrated Pascha (i.e., Passover) as a celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection. While English-speaking countries call it Easter, most other languages still call it some variation of Pascha, in line with early Christian practice. 

Because of Christ, Christians now offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving (Heb 13:15–16; cf. Rom 12:1; 1 Pet 2:5; Phil 2:17; 4:18; 2 Tim 4:6; Rev 5:8; 8:3–4), not of bulls or goats. We are permanently forgiven. Christ’s offering is so complete, there is nothing left for us to offer but thanks.

Conclusion

The logic of sacrifice in the Old Testament explains how we can approach and have fellowship with God and his people.

While we might wish to have more details about the Levitical sacrifices, we know enough to understand their basic function from Leviticus. The Day of Atonement uniquely points out how one might be forgiven for high-handed sins, demonstrating a wide scope of grace within the covenant. The whole system of rites presupposes the Passover, where God rescued his people from Egypt to bring them into the promised land.

Christians saw Jesus as fulfilling all these sacrifices, particularly as a mediator and high priest of a better covenant, whose sacrifice would put an end to sin forever and bring us near to God in fellowship with one another.

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Wyatt Graham’s recommended resources

Related content

• Heaven Invades Earth: Understanding the Symbolism & Purpose of the Tabernacle
• Favor by Fire: Burnt Offerings and the Bible
• Defiled Defined: What “Defiled” Means in the Old Testament
• The Ark of the Covenant: Its Construction, Purpose & Disappearance
• Why Worship Is Better Under the New Covenant (Heb 10:19–22)

1. Andrew Hill and John Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, 4th ed. (Zondervan, 2009), 85.
2. Hill and Walton, Survey, 86.
3. Raymond B. Dillard and Tremper Longman III, An Introduction to the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Zondervan, 2007), 88.
4. Dillard and Longman, Introduction, 87.
5. Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, Anchor Yale Bible Commentary (Yale, 1991), 3:134.
6. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, trans. Louis H. Feldman (Brill, 2000), 3.224.
7. Josephus, Antiquities 3.225.
8. Josephus, Antiquities 3.225.
9. Milgrom, Leviticus, 3:144.
10. Philo of Alexandria, The Special Laws, trans. F. H. Colson (Harvard, 1953), 1.289.
11. Milgrom, Leviticus, 3:204.
12. Milgrom, Leviticus, 3:228.
13. Milgrom, Leviticus, 3:228.
14. Milgrom, Leviticus, 3:228.
15. HALOT, 96.
16. Hill and Walton, Survey, 85
17. Milgrom, Leviticus, 3:228.