Chapter Two

1–13. The bloodless offering: bread material and additions: oil, frankincense, salt. 14–16. The offering of the firstfruits of the first fruits.

Leviticus 2:1. If any person brings to the Lord a grain offering, let him bring wheat flour, and pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it, In distinction from the bloody offerings zebachim (from the verb zabach to slaughter, mostly for ritual purposes), the bloodless or vegetable offering is called minchah, or, as here, qorban minchah; according to the LXX: δῶρον θυσία (also προσφορὰ, μάννα, σεμίδαλις), Vulgate: oblatio sacrificil. In turn, from the vegetable offering of solid products, minchah, is distinguished the liquid vegetable offering, the drink offering, nesech, LXX: σπονδεῖον, σπονδή, Vulgate: libamen, libamentum. In pre-law times minchah had the general meaning of a gift (Gen 32:21-22) and even meant bloody sacrifices, for example, the offering of Abel is called minchah, as is the offering of Cain (Gen 4:3-5). In Mosaic legislation, however, minchah means properly the bloodless offering, which in its chief products – flour, oil, and wine – represented in the worship of God the agriculture of Israel, as the bloody offering – animal husbandry; both main branches of ancient Hebrew industry were to provide their products to the altar of God of Israel. The bloodless offering could be and was twofold: 1) independent, separate from the bloody offering (such is described in Lev 2), and 2) additional to the bloody offering, to the burnt offering or the peace offering. Against the denial by some Biblicists (Bähr, Herbach and other Protestants) of the independent existence of the bloodless offering in the Old Testament, the latter undoubtedly existed, as shown by the offerings of Cain (Gen 4), Melchizedek (Gen 14), and Gideon (Judg 6:18). Independent bloodless offerings were, for example, the loaves of presentation in the sanctuary. According to the teaching of the Fathers and teachers of the Church (John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Eusebius, Jerome the Blessed), the bloodless offering of the Old Testament prefigured the New Testament offering of the Eucharist.

Leviticus 2:2. and he shall bring it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and he shall take a handful of the flour with oil and all the frankincense, and the priest shall burn this as a memorial on the altar: this is a sacrifice, a pleasing aroma to the Lord; Leviticus 2:3. and the remainder of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons: this is a most holy thing of the offerings to the Lord. The first kind of grain offering consists in flour poured with oil (not prepared by boiling or baking). Besides the part (a handful of flour) burned on the altar, the remaining quantity of flour was given to the “sons of Aaron”, the priests (the direct descendants of Aaron and families of priests related to him). There is no mention of the participant’s share in the consumption of part of the offering: hence – the name “most holy thing” (qodesch qodaschim) for the grain offering. “Most holy things” were called offerings from which the offerer did not eat, but gave entirely to the Lord, and He already gave the offering to His priests; moreover, the priests could consume them only upon entering the tabernacle. By contrast, “holy thing” (qodesch) was called an offering connected with a feast, in which the offerer also participated; such feasts could be eaten in any clean place (cf. Lev 6:17-18, Num 18:17). The bloodless offering was raised “as a memorial”, Hebrew azkarah, Greek μνημόσυνον (cf. Acts 10:4), Vulgate: memoriale – a kind of offering chosen preferentially before bloody offerings.

Leviticus 2:4. But if you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it shall be unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Leviticus 2:5. If your offering is a grain offering on a griddle, it shall be of wheat flour mixed with oil, unleavened; Leviticus 2:6. break it in pieces and pour oil on it: it is a grain offering [to the Lord]. Leviticus 2:7. If your offering is a grain offering in a pot, it shall be made of wheat flour with oil, Three kinds of grain offering made from products cooked on fire are named: a) baked in an oven (tannur, – during Israel’s wandering they had portable ovens, and after settling in Canaan – dug in the ground and lined with bricks with vaults and pipes) unleavened cakes and wafers with oil; b) baking, also unleavened, of wheat flour with oil, toasted on a griddle (machabat, Vulgate: sartago) or, finally, c) baking in a pot (marcheschet, Vulgate: craticula, Slavonic: “fire-pit” – probably a clay pot-shaped oven, where baking occurred on the heated walls, as still with Arabs today), also seasoned with oil.

Leviticus 2:8. and bring the offering which is made from these to the Lord; present it to the priest, and he shall bring it to the altar; Leviticus 2:9. and the priest shall take a portion of the grain offering in remembrance and burn it on the altar: this is a sacrifice, a pleasing aroma to the Lord; Leviticus 2:10. and the remainder of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons: this is a most holy thing of the offerings to the Lord. These verses describe the ritual of offering this minchah or azkarah – similar to the preceding (Lev 2:2-3).

Leviticus 2:11. No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with yeast, for no yeast or honey is to be burned as an offering to the Lord; Leviticus 2:12. as an offering of firstfruits bring them to the Lord, but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing aroma. Grain offering must be free from all yeast (chomez), namely in its two forms: sour dough or sour bread (seor) and honey (debasch, according to the rabbis, fruit honey); neither should be burned on the altar of Jehovah, although both substances were used in human food. This prohibition, concerning bloodless offerings, corresponds to the requirement of the blamelessness of material – in the ordinances concerning bloody sacrifices. Yeast produces fermentation, and fermentation was regarded as related to decay, and therefore appeared as an image of moral corruption, sin (jezer hara, yetzer-hara in the rabbis – original sin, passion; cf. the Gospel sayings about the “leaven of the Pharisees” – hypocrisy, Luke 12:1; Matt 16:6; 1 Cor 5:6-8). Honey, especially fruit honey, according to Pliny, also easily acidifies and serves to obtain yeast (hence in the rabbis the verb hidbisch sweetens, spoils), besides, according to Abarbanel, indicates insufficient activity of reason, and in worship all powers of the spirit were to be collected and preserved for service to God. According to the Blessed Theodoret, by the name of yeast is understood the oldness of evil, and by the name of honey is forbidden gluttony (question 1 on the Book of Leviticus).

Leviticus 2:13. Every grain offering of yours you shall salt with salt, and you shall not let the salt of the covenant of your God be lacking from your grain offering: with every offering you shall bring [to the Lord your God] salt. By contrast, an indispensable element of any offering – both bloodless (according to this passage) and bloody (Ezek 43:24), in general in all sacrifices (Mark 9:49), is salt. The significance of salt is determined by two moments: it 1) symbolizes moral health, spiritual purification (in Mark 9:49, the cleansing power of salt is compared with the cleansing power of fire) and 2) is a type of permanence, firmness, for example, the unshakability of the covenant established by God with Israel (Num 18:19; 2 Chr 13:5). Among the Arabs even now when concluding an alliance both parties taste salt. In both respects salt is typologically opposed to fermentation, decay. In the Gospel (Matt 5:18) the salt of the earth is called the elect preachers of the Gospel, who are to heal the world with its salt.

Leviticus 2:14. If you bring to the Lord a grain offering of the first produce, bring fresh ears roasted in the fire, coarsely ground grain, Leviticus 2:15. and you shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it: this is a grain offering; Leviticus 2:16. and the priest shall burn as a memorial some of the coarse grain and oil with all the frankincense: this is an offering to the Lord. The offering of the first produce of the earth (bikkurim) to Jehovah – is a new kind of minchah offering, namely: the grain of freshly ripened ears (geres karmel, LXX: χίδρα ἐρικτά, Vulgate: de spicis adhuc virentibus). The ritual does not differ from that indicated in Lev 2:2. The firstfruits of the fruits of the earth the Hebrews could offer even during their wandering, so there is no need for the assumption of some that the mention of them, Lev 2:14-16, was inserted into the original text only after Israel’s entry [into the land].