LEVITICUS 4:1 F. GENERAL STATEMENT. These sins are committed through error (RVm), when the sinner thinks that he is doing something else, or does not know that what he is doing is wrong; _i.e._ to us, they are not sins at all. _Cf._ Leviticus 4:22; Numbers 15:24; Joshua 20:3, and contrast the phrase... [ Continue Reading ]
LEVITICUS 4:1 TO LEVITICUS 5:13. THE SIN OFFERING. This, and the guilt offering, whose ritual follows, are unknown before the Exile, save as fines (2 Kings 12:16; Amos 2:8). Ezek. mentions both, but is conscious of no difference between them. Probably the distinction between them grew up gradually ... [ Continue Reading ]
SIN OFFERING OF THE HIGH PRIEST. Inadvertences at the altar, which would, if unatoned for, have the most dangerous consequences for the whole community. The anointed priest is the High Priest (Leviticus 6:22; Leviticus 8:12; Leviticus 8:30; Leviticus 21:10). He is the representative of the whole peo... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SIN OFFERING FOR THE WHOLE CONGREGATION. The offering is the same as for the priest, but the elders, as acting for the congregation or assembly, are to lay hands on the victim. These elders are not elsewhere mentioned in P. Some of the ritual directions are here omitted (Leviticus 4:8 f., Leviti... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SIN OFFERING TOR A RULER, or tribal chief or representative. The word is also used of the one chief of the nation in post-exilic writers when the succession of kings had come to an end. It would apply to Nehemiah, or perhaps to a foreign ruler like the Persian Bagoas, governor of Jerusalem in 40... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAYMEN'S SIN OFFERING. The victim is here either a goat or a lamb the offerer could apparently choose which, and in each case a female. In other points the ritual is the same. For common people RVm is better. The phrase is used in the histories for the people as a whole or the popular party in o... [ Continue Reading ]