Sacrificial economy

Sacrificial economy December 9, 2014

In Sacrifice and the Body, John Dunnill makes the simple observation that most of what ancient Israelites sacrificed was food. This means that “the elements of thanksgiving and tribute, which are always implicitly present in such meal offerings, not only attribute the harvest to God, and return a small gift in recognition of the greater gift: in doing so they include God in the economy of bodily goods.. God becomes a beneficiary of the harvest too” (36).

Sacrifice is not only food but cooked food. Cereal offerings are always ground and baked, or at least roasted grains. “Other items, like sheep and cattle, are presented raw and processed in the sacrificial rite itself, killed and made an ‘offering by fire’ to Yahweh or by some other means cooked for consumption in a sacred feast” (36).

As Dunnill says, this puts the lie to the common notion that sacrifice arises among violent hunting societies. On the contrary, “it is characteristic of pastoral-agricultural societies at the point of closest connection with the means of production and supply. Cows, cereals and olives all occur ‘in nature,’ but the production of fattened calves, threshed grain, and crushed oil implies considerable achievements of human social organization and technological development. The presentation of these items in cooked form makes the point even more strongly, implying access to the technology, not only for making and using fire, but also for the production of pots and knives; the organization of time, space and energy needed for ploughing and reaping, seedtime and harvest, clearance of land and distribution of labour; traditions of human knowledge, skill, values and customs” (37).

In short, what is represented in these offerings is not merely the individual worshiper, but an entire economy, “nothing less than the totality of human sociality, all that separates humanity from animals, and celebrates human skill and culture as well as physical totality” (37). Every sacrifice offers the world up to God, including Him in the exchange of goods, presenting all human action and skill for His pleasure.


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