cheenc03a.pdf

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SACRIFICE
explained that he held that in this respect the Day of
Atonement wu like death, of which also he taughtcontrary
to ,lie genera1 opinion-that it expiates sin
even without repentance.' The prevailing view, however.
was that repentance ir the condilco sine gun non
of eroiarion and the foreivenesj of sins, ar is laid down
I:. !. I : . I I . I I . . a,.: rtcn
tnxc ;,".3. They asked God, and he answered:
Lr, him repent (.>lo" am".). ~"d it shall be fvraivcn him.
he nature of repeniance is we11 defined. U%O is a
truly repentant nlnn? it is asked. One, the reply is,
who. havine sinned arrd reoented, doe. not vield Lo the
same temp&tion ngain (?;mi 86b). ~en$ne repentance
is a resolute turning from sin ; a man who
commits a sin, and confesses it. but doea not turn from
it, is like a man who holds some cmivling vermin ( ~ d )
in hla hand ; though he were to bathe in all the waters
in the world it would avail hi," nothinrr
n.
: hut if he
~ ~~~
throw it away, a bath of forty reahs suffices to make
him clean, for it is said, He who confesses and for.
sakes his trvnrgrerrionr shall obtain mercy (Pro". 281),
T,i'inifh 164 : cp Philo, De ,id g 11, 2a47 Mangey).
The ethical distinction is clearly made between the
repentance that springs from love to God and the
counterfeit of it which is only the expression of frnr
inspired by chartisenlent ( Y8mZ 86n A).
Fur u wrong done to a fellow-man, we have seen
that neither repentance nor the great expiation of the Day
of Atonement avail to obtain of God remission, until
the offender has propitiated the injured party (.M Yinio
89, above). This propitiation includes the reparation of
the material injury. the confession of wrongdoing and
sorrow. and the obtaining of forgiveness (cp Mt. 5 q f ).
If forgiveness be not granted at the first seeking, the
penitent "lust return with other ",embers of the community.
and in their presence confess his fault and
beseech pardon (Jer Y8md88)."
An expiatory character is attrihted to suffering,
regarded as the chastisement of God ; whence R. 'Akibi
taueht that a man should maire God not "leiel" in
chastisenrent butfor it, srnce through it his sins are
atoned for (cp I Cor. Ills) ; and K. Eleaznr hen Jacob
ouofed: '\Thorn the Lord loverh he correcteth, even
i s a father the son in whom he delightelh' (pro". 3 r2.
cp Heh. 126). Death in a state of penitence also
rxpiares sin (.K Y8mZ88); or. in the more detailed
exposition of K. Ishmael, death finally wipes out (pm)
the remainder of guilt which, in certain -eat sins.
neither rewntance nor the bincuta of the Dav of Atonement
nor the chzstirements of this life ruffice wholly to
atone for. Hence, for example, acriminal sentenced to
SACRIFICE
death was exhorted to make a penitent's confession: only
then will his death ix: an expiation for all his crimes.
The sufferings, and especially the death, of righteous
men atone for the sins of others. Is. SSIZ is interpreted
of hloses, who 'poured out his soul unto death (Ex.
3233) ;md war numbered with the transgressors (the
generation that died in the wilderness) and hare the sin
of inany' that he might atone for the sin of the golden
I f ( t i a ) . Eickici suffered 'that he might
wipe out the transgressions of Israel' (Sanhcdm sgo).
The general formulation of the doctrine is, 'the death
of the riehteour maker atonement' iM8'zd htiotdn s8n.
(;) The oniy explicit answer to the question how
sacrifice rxoiates in the Tewirh amhoritirs of our oeriod
is that of Lev. 17x1 (see above, 8 461 ; what atones in
63, How
erpiate(
wc>fice is the blood (Siflni on Lev.
LC. CP Yamti ga, Zgbnhirn 6n). The
question. How has the blood this
efficacy? is nor raised : and the specu-
lations
~ ~~~
to which Lev. 171. seems to invite bv its
association ofthe blood-with the life, and in Ghich
Christian theology has been prolific, appear not to
have been started.' The theoiy that the victim's
life is put in place of the owner's is nowhere hinted
at, perhaps becanre the Jewish doctors understood
better rilan our theologians what sin offerings and
trespass offerings rrere, and what they were for. Sor
is there any dircusiion of the mode in which the blood
of sacrifice operates expiation. The rerh b9per and its
derivatives are used, precisely as in the 0'1'. in the
senre, ' nlake pr0pi1iation. expintion, procure remission,'
without recoukreto etynlolaiy and Cmagined .primary
meaningr: Hence we hear "0thi.g about the 'covering'
of the sin or the sinner, or the 'wiping off'-or
'out'-of guilt.z The ancient etymological midmrh
attaches its~.lf not to the verb hN5cr but to the noun
'Iamb.' The daily morning and evening holocaust
war a Lamb (ke'hei); the school of Shammai said: It
' fiamoler down ' lhadii~i rhe sins of Israel lco , . Mic. Goi ,, :
the r&ool of ~iliri re;lied : What is trampled down
comer up again ; sacrifice 'washes' (oze, hib6er) Israel
free from sin (Peiiktd, ed. Buber, 616).
Outride the ritual sphere-in the ethical sphere of
religion, that is-it is repentance that atones : it is the
zondition of God's forgiveness ; and the ultimate ground
2f forgiveness is God's lore; lave covereth all trans-
:rerrianr (Pror. lorz), for God lover Israel ( &V-ayvi&i
K, c. 7 begin.). A5 a motive, the merits of the
rarefather:, are often rcfcrred to. See also, on the
nature of repentance and its relvtlon to God's furgiremar,
the fine parrnge in Philo, De exiecraiiotiibur, g 8 1
It doer not fall aithin the scope of the present article
to describe or discuss later theories of the nature and
zffect of sacrifice. such as the prna uicer;o. or the
iacramental theory, further than to say. us the result of
the whole preceding investigation, that they are not
lerived from the OT but imported into it.
IV. SACRIFICE IN NT
It is assumed in the Gospels that Jesur throughout
his life observed in the matter of sacrifice, as in other
respects, the Jewish law as it was
6C Jewish
: commonly practised in his time. Lk.
the Oospels, relater that his mother offered in due
tlme the sacrifice of purification after
:hiidbirth orercribed for the . ooor 1Lk. Zz2 t. EU iO.
, ~ . . -,.
Lev. 121468) ; rl the age of trrelre he first wellt xith
is parents to Jerusalem to the Passover (Lk. 241s).
He kept the Passover with his disciples the night before
... !.:--.
I Philo, indeed calls the hlmd *fir -us