Roots of Worship (Part 4): The Sin Offering
- Timothy Harolds
- Oct 17
- 7 min read
Quick Overview
We break more commands than we realise. The Sin Offering addressed unintentional sins committed by priests, leaders, communities, or individuals. Depending on the offender, a bull, male goat, or female lamb was brought; the offerer would lay hands on it, the blood was placed on the altar, and the fat burned. For priests and the whole community, the carcass was burned outside the camp, showing how sin must be removed completely. This offering could not cover defiant rebellion. The article points us to Jesus, our compassionate High Priest, who suffered outside the gate and whose blood sanctifies us.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
According to Jewish tradition, the Old Testament counts 613 laws given by Moses to the Israelites¹ and no one besides Jesus has ever been able to keep all of them. The Burnt Offering deals with our offenses and signifies our repentance, which could question the need for a Sin Offering. However, this offering deals with the fact that a repentant individual will, in his imperfection, still fail to meet God’s holy standards by violating His commandments and thereby hurt his relationship with Him. For “if we say, ‘We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us” [1 John 1:8]. This is why God set a system in place that would pay for the sins committed by those who were already among His people. Where the Burnt Offering made up for someone’s past life, the Sin Offering concerned itself with the violation of God’s commands. It was therefore not for those still living in sin, but everyone who sinned “…unintentionally against any of the LORD’s commands and does anything prohibited by them” [Lev 4:2]. “Inadvertence is a key criterion in all expiatory sacrifice. A deliberate, brazen sinner is barred from the sanctuary (Num 15:30–31). Presumptuous sins are not expiable but are punished with kārēt—excision…”²
Regulations for the Sin Offering
The Old Testament lists the following cases requiring a Sin Offering:
Withholding testimony after witnessing or knowing something.
Touching the carcass of an unclean animal.
Touching human uncleanness.
Making a rash oath to do good or evil.
Although its overall regulations are the same, the Sin Offering works with some variations worth addressing. We will briefly go over each and dive into each rite we have not yet seen in a previous offering. A general overview is provided in Figure 1 below.
The Sin Offering, explained in Leviticus 4, is divided into four main categories, each based on who is bringing the offering. The overall sacrificial procedure is the same for each, but each category includes slight variations or omissions. These categories are:
The Priest
hakkōhēn hammāšiaḥ, the title of the high priest in preexilic times.³
The Whole Community of Israel
This variation was executed in the case of a communal sin. “How is it possible for the entire people to err simultaneously?…For example, if the high priest declares the new moon on the wrong day, festivals falling in the ensuing month will be observed by everyone on the wrong day.”⁴
A Leader
This was the leader of his clan within the tribes of Israel. Since tribes generally had more than one clan, this means that each tribe carried multiple leaders.⁵
Common People
“The term ʿam ha-ʾarets literally means 'the people of the land,' but it had diverse social and political applications in biblical society, where it served to distinguish the populace at large from such individuals as officials and priests. It did not, however, convey a lowly status by any means. In fact, ʿam ha-ʾarets often refers to the landed gentry of ancient Israel, those who elected kings.”⁶
Animal
As is the case for the other offerings, each animal had to be unblemished. The kind of animal varied depending on each category.
Each prescribed animal is based on the impact of the sin and the means of the sinner. As we already know from the Burnt Offering, “sheep and goats predominated amongst the animals that were kept, even though cattle constituted about a quarter of all the livestock reared.”⁷ This would make the bull the more costly offer. Considering the priest’s spiritual authority and the collective weight of the community’s sin, it should come as no surprise that the highest level of sacrificial requirement is assigned to these two groups. The female was “…the more valuable animal…”⁸ yet required of the common individual. The reason is most likely that “…a commoner, particularly a poor one, is likely to keep only female animals, which provide sustenance, and only if he could afford it would he retain a single male for breeding. The chieftain, by contrast, could well afford to keep several males in his flock…”⁹ The luxury value of a male animal may in for the same reason represent the leader’s role with its assigned responsibilities. The commoner that could not afford the female goat or lamb, “…may bring to the LORD two turtledoves or two young pigeons as restitution for his sin—one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering” [Lev 5:7]. “But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons, he may bring two quarts of fine flour as an offering for his sin. He must not put olive oil or frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering” [Lev 5:11], this way distinguishing it from the Grain Offering.
The sacrificial process shares some commonalities with some offerings we have already covered. For starters, the offerer lays a single hand on his sacrificial animal. In the case of a communal sin, the elders of the community act on its behalf. Then the animal is slaughtered at the place of the Burnt Offering, the entrance of the tent of meeting. The High Priest performs the remaining steps for himself and on behalf of the other categories, since "he alone is permitted to officiate within the tent-shrine…”¹⁰ Only during the process for the High Priest and the Community, some of the blood is sprinkled seven times before the veil and the blood applied on the horns of the incense altar; for the other two groups, the blood is applied on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. In all cases, the remainder of the blood is poured out at the base of the altar of burnt offering and all the fat of the animal is removed and burned on the altar. The remainder of the animal is eaten by the officiating priests [Lev 6:26], unless the offering was for the High Priest or the community. In those cases, “all the rest of the bull—he must bring to a ceremonially clean place outside the camp to the ash heap, and must burn it on a wood fire. It is to be burned at the ash heap” [Lev 4:12].
Significance & Meaning
Based on the knowledge gained from the previous offerings, we can unravel most of the spiritual and allegorical meaning of the steps of this procedure. We see how the offerer identifies the sacrifice as his by laying his hand on the animal. From Leviticus 16:15–16, concerning the Day of Atonement, we can draw the conclusion that the sprinkling of blood purifies the sprinkled object or area. The spiritual position of the High Priest and the greatness of the community might explain why some shared variations are assigned to them. Another example is where the rest of the bull is taken to a ceremonially clean place outside the camp to be burned at the ash heap. This is where the part of the animal, ceremonially speaking, carrying the sin, is not offered up to God, but completely done away with. “Among Israel’s neighbors (e.g., Hittites, Mesopotamians), substances that absorb impurity are themselves lethally dangerous. In Israel, however, the only part of the purification offering that acts as the ritual detergent is the blood. The flesh of the ordinary purification offering is actually eaten by the officiating priest (6:19, 22), and the purification offering for severe impurities is incinerated outside the camp only because the fear of its lethal properties has survived…”¹¹ Although the Fellowship Offering on its own is not mandatory, the Sin Offering demonstrates the necessity of fat-burning when a sin has been committed. This time not out of freewill, but because the sinner is restored by moving his vision back to the things of God.
New Testament Fulfillment
The Sin Offering is only meant for those who sin unintentionally, “but the person who acts defiantly, whether native or foreign resident, blasphemes the LORD. That person is to be cut off from his people” [Num 15:30]. This could make us wonder how this plays out under the New Testament. Mankind usually sins out of active rebellion, ignorance, or weakness. An individual could knowingly go after his own desires and reject God, be unaware of their sin and the weight thereof, or fall into temptation. The difference is that the latter two might still fear God, while the former does not; his true relationship with God can therefore be questioned. The worst-case scenario is when someone, being aware of God’s Word and power, chooses to reject Him. An example is when the scribes declared that Jesus was acting with demonic powers [Mark 3:22]. Jesus’ answer was that “… whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” [Mark 3:29]. Although the scribes knew God’s Word and could recognize the revelation of the Messiah in Him, they chose to rebel. This sin carries significantly more weight than those committed unintentionally or out of weakness; these are the sins Jesus has died for.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust. Psalm 103:13–14
God meets us in our weakness. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin” [Heb 4:15]. Those who fear Him lay their hands on Jesus Christ, declaring it to be the sacrifice for their sins. “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that He might sanctify the people by His own blood” [Heb 13:11–12].
Footnotes
Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b:18. https://www.sefaria.org/Makkot.23b.18?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3 of The Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008), 228.
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 231.
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 242.
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 246–247.
Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 25.
Volkmar Fritz, The City in Ancient Israel (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 161.
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 252.
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 252.
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 232–233.
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 239.
Bible translation: The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009).
