This circumstance
is an additional proof of our thesis. The ritual of the simple
offering has three acts:
(1.) the presentation of the living animal before Jehovah,
and the laying on of hands as a token of manumission on the part
of the offerer;
(2.) the slaughtering and the sprinkling of the blood on the altar;
(3.) the real or seeming gift of the sacrificial portions to the Deity,
and the meal of the human guests.
In the case of the burnt-offering the meal in the third act disappears,
and the slaughtering in the second comes into prominence as significant
and sacred, inasmuch as (what is always expressly stated) it must
take place in the presence of Jehovah, at the north side of the altar.
In the case of the sin and trespass offering the third act is dropped
entirely, and accordingly the whole significance of the rite attaches
to the slaughtering, which of course also takes place before the altar,
and to the sprinkling of the blood, which has become peculiarly
developed here. It is obvious how the metamorphosis of the gift
and the meal into a bloody atonement advances and reaches its
acme in this last sacrificial act.
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