Even if his mind fails, be considerate with him...For kindness to a father will not be forgotten, it will serve as a
sin offering." (Sir.
Sometimes if somebody committed a sin and wanted to get right with God, they would bring what was called a
sin offering. What you were doing was trying in a way to reset your relationship with God once you had broken it.
The idea of unintentional sin, and the means of purification from it, occurs also in Leviticus 4:3-12, which describes the sacrifice to be offered by a priest (a bull as a burnt offering), verses13-21 the sacrifice for the unintentional sin of the whole congregation of Israel (a bull as a burnt offering), verses 22-26 for the sins of a ruler (a spotless male goat as a
sin offering), and verses 27-35 for the sins of ordinary people (a female goat or sheep as a
sin offering).
Burnt offering and
sin offering you have not required" (Psalm 40:6).
Gilders does not clearly indicate where purity falls within his research plan, and his attention to the topic is sporadic; his discussion of the
sin offering provides the only concerted discussion of significant detail (p.
Now that the
sin offering, the Italian Rocco Buttiglione, has thrown in the towel, all eyes are turned to the sole left-leaning Commissioner-designate who managed to create some unease: none other than Mr Kovacs himself.
As late as the time of the New Testament, the idea of the efficacy of child sacrifice survives; God sacrifices his only begotten son to save mankind from sin -- in other words, as a
sin offering.
Auden's "Vespers," like the evening hour of the Divine Office, bears the memory of this death, this dying on this Good Friday when we are compelled to acknowledge the "
Sin Offering" of "our victim" the second Adam who remains unnamed throughout the poem (484).
And what then of the forgiveness pronounced/experienced through
sin offering and Day of Atonement (on behalf of the people!) in the Jerusalem Temple during Jesus' ministry?
Israel Knohl, in "The
Sin Offering Law in the "Holiness School," (Numbers 15:22-31)," discusses the relationship between this code and the provisions of Leviticus 4.
Then Moses inquired about the goat of
sin offering, and it had already been burned!
Their blood was poured and the body cooked or fully charred as
sin offering. Blood was sacred because blood was the symbol of life.