How do offering type and cleanness determine who may eat the sacrifice and when?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The chapter assigns priestly portions, requires thanksgiving flesh to be eaten the same day, and allows vow or voluntary flesh through the next day. Third-day leftovers and contaminated flesh must be burned; eating while defiled and eating prohibited fat or blood carry stated consequences.

Chapter breakdown

The sacrifice for a trespass is most holy.

Challoner says that the trespasses requiring these offerings were lesser offenses than those for which sin offerings were appointed. This comparison is the edition’s note.

The trespass victim is killed where burnt offerings are killed, and its blood is poured around the altar. The rump, fat covering the entrails, two little kidneys, fat by the flanks and liver covering with the little kidneys are offered. The priest burns them on the altar as the Lord’s burnt sacrifice for a trespass. Every male of the priestly family eats the flesh in a holy place because it is most holy. The same law applies to sin and trespass sacrifices; the sacrifice belongs to the priest who offers it.

The priest who offers a burnt-offering victim receives its skin. A flour sacrifice baked in the oven or prepared on the gridiron or in the fryingpan belongs to the priest who offers it. Whether mixed with oil or dry, all Aaron’s sons are to have equal shares.

For a peace offering of thanksgiving, the people offer unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers coated with oil, fried fine flour and cakes mixed with oil. Leavened loaves accompany the thanksgiving peace offering too. One of these is offered to the Lord as firstfruits and belongs to the priest who pours out the victim’s blood. The flesh is eaten the same day, with none left until morning.

A sacrifice offered by vow or of a person’s own accord is likewise eaten the same day, but any remaining flesh may lawfully be eaten the next day. What remains on the third day must be burned. If anyone eats peace-offering flesh on the third day, the offering is of no effect and does not benefit the offerer; the person defiled by eating it is guilty of transgression.

Flesh that touches anything unclean must not be eaten, but burned. A clean person may eat the offering. A defiled person who eats the Lord’s peace-offering flesh is cut off from the people. The same consequence applies to someone who touches human or animal uncleanness, or anything that can defile, and then eats this flesh.

The Lord tells Moses to instruct Israel not to eat the fat of sheep, oxen or goats. Fat from a carcass that died of itself or an animal caught by another beast may be used for various purposes. A person who eats the fat that should be offered as the Lord’s burnt sacrifice perishes out of the people. Blood of any creature, whether bird or beast, must not be eaten. Anyone who eats blood perishes from among the people.

The Lord tells Moses that a person offering a peace victim must also offer its libations. The person holds the victim’s fat and breast in his hands, offers and consecrates both to the Lord, and delivers them to the priest. The priest burns the fat on the altar; the breast belongs to Aaron and his sons. The right shoulder goes to the priest as firstfruits: the son of Aaron who offers the blood and fat receives it as his portion. The Lord says he has taken the elevated breast and separated shoulder from Israel’s peace victims and given them to Aaron the priest and his sons by a law forever, from all Israel.

These are the provisions connected with the anointing of Aaron and his sons in the Lord’s ceremonies, on the day Moses presented them to carry out the priestly office, and the things the Lord commanded Israel to give them by perpetual observance through their generations. The closing summary names the laws for burnt offerings, sin, trespass, consecration and peace victims. The Lord appointed them to Moses on Mount Sinai when he commanded Israel to offer its gifts to the Lord in the desert of Sinai.

The story inside

The chapter organizes sacrifice through portions, time limits and cleanness. The trespass rite names altar portions and priestly eating. Skin and flour rules assign gifts, with equal shares also stated for Aaron’s sons. Thanksgiving peace offerings include several bread preparations and same-day eating; vow or voluntary offerings allow the next day, while third-day remnants must be burned. The consequences differ: third-day eating makes the offering ineffective and the eater guilty, while eating peace flesh when defiled brings being cut off from the people. The fat and blood rules also state their consequences and permit various uses of certain carcass fat. Finally, the libations, breast and right shoulder are assigned, and the chapter connects the laws with Moses on Mount Sinai. No added labor-compensation theory, hoarding motive or invented executed choice is needed to explain these distinctions.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Offering type determines the eating deadline. Thanksgiving flesh must be eaten the same day with nothing kept until morning. Vow or voluntary flesh may be eaten the next day, but third-day leftovers must be burned. Eating them then makes the offering ineffective and the eater guilty.
2
Both flesh and eater must meet the cleanness rules. Contaminated flesh is burned, while a clean person may eat the offering. A defiled eater of peace flesh is cut off from the people. The text states this consequence without specifying an added legal mechanism.
3
The portions have named recipients. The fat is burned, the breast belongs to Aaron and his sons, and the right shoulder belongs to the priest who offers the blood and fat. Required libations accompany the peace victim; the chapter also separately assigns the burnt-offering skin and flour gifts.

Test your recall

Why does knowing whether a peace offering is for thanksgiving or a vow change the eating deadline? What happens to third-day leftovers and to flesh that has become unclean?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 11183–11189
Leviticus Chapter 7 Of sacrifices for trespasses and thanks offerings. No fat nor blood is to be eaten. 7:1. This also is the law of the sacrifice for a trespass: it is most holy.
Lines 11191–11193
Trespass.... Trespasses, for which these offerings were to be made, were lesser offences than those for which the sin offerings were appointed.
Lines 11195–11213
7:2. Therefore where the holocaust is immolated, the victim also for a trespass shall be slain: the blood thereof shall be poured round about the altar. 7:3. They shall offer thereof the rump and the fat that covereth the entrails: 7:4. The two little kidneys, and the fat which is by the flanks, and the caul of the liver with the little kidneys. 7:5. And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the burnt sacrifice of the Lord for a trespass. 7:6. Every male of the priestly race, shall eat this flesh in a holy place, because it is most holy. 7:7. As the sacrifice for sin is offered, so is also that for a trespass: the same shall be the law of both these sacrifices. It shall belong to the priest that offereth it.
Lines 11215–11223
7:8. The priest that offereth the victim of holocaust, shall have the skin thereof. 7:9. And every sacrifice of flour that is baked in the oven, and whatsoever is dressed on the gridiron, or in the fryingpan, shall be the priest’s that offereth it. 7:10. Whether they be tempered with oil, or dry, all the sons of Aaron shall have one as much as another.
Lines 11225–11239
7:11. This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings that is offered to the Lord. 7:12. If the oblation be for thanksgiving, they shall offer loaves without leaven tempered with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and fine flour fried, and cakes tempered and mingled with oil. 7:13. Moreover loaves of leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanks, which is offered for peace offerings: 7:14. Of which one shall be offered to the Lord for firstfruits, and shall be the priest’s that shall pour out the blood of the victim. 7:15. And the flesh of it shall be eaten the same day: neither shall any of it remain until the morning.
Lines 11241–11251
7:16. If any man by vow, or of his own accord offer a sacrifice, it shall in like manner be eaten the same day. And if any of it remain until the morrow, it is lawful to eat it. 7:17. But whatsoever shall be found on the third day shall be consumed with fire. 7:18. If any man eat of the flesh of the victim of peace offerings on the third day, the oblation shall be of no effect: neither shall it profit the offerer. Yea rather, whatsoever soul shall defile itself with such meat, shall be guilty of transgression.
Lines 11253–11262
7:19. The flesh that hath touched any unclean thing, shall not be eaten: but shall be burnt with fire. He that is clean shall eat of it. 7:20. If any one that is defiled shall eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which is offered to the Lord, he shall be cut off from his people. 7:21. And he that hath touched the uncleanness of man, or of beast, or of any thing that can defile, and shall eat of such kind of flesh: shall be cut off from his people.
Lines 11264–11278
7:22. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 7:23. Say to the children of Israel: The fat of a sheep, and of an ox, and of a goat you shall not eat. 7:24. The fat of a carcass that hath died of itself, and of a beast that was caught by another beast, you shall have for divers uses. 7:25. If any man eat the fat that should be offered for the burnt sacrifice of the Lord, he shall perish out of his people. 7:26. Moreover you shall not eat the blood of any creature whatsoever, whether of birds or beasts. 7:27. Every one that eateth blood, shall perish from among the people.
Lines 11280–11302
7:28. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 7:29. Speak to the children of Israel, saying: He that offereth a victim of peace offerings to the Lord, let him offer therewith a sacrifice also, that is, the libations thereof. 7:30. He shall hold in his hands the fat of the victim, and the breast. And when he hath offered and consecrated both to the Lord, he shall deliver them to the priest, 7:31. Who shall burn the fat upon the altar. But the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. 7:32. The right shoulder also of the victim, of peace offerings shall fall to the priest for firstfruits. 7:33. He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood, and the fat: he shall have the right shoulder also for his portion. 7:34. For the breast that is elevated and the shoulder that is separated I have taken of the children of Israel, from off their victims of peace offerings: and have given them to Aaron the priest, and to his sons, by a law for ever, from all the people of Israel.
Lines 11304–11316
7:35. This is the anointing of Aaron and his sons, in the ceremonies of the Lord, in the day when Moses offered them, that they might do the office of priesthood, 7:36. And the things that the Lord commanded to be given them by the children of Israel, by a perpetual observance in their generations. 7:37. This is the law of holocaust, and of the sacrifice for sin, and for trespass, and for consecration, and the victims of peace offerings: 7:38. Which the Lord appointed to Moses in mount Sinai, when he commanded the children of Israel, that they should offer their oblations to the Lord in the desert of Sinai.