Chapter Three

The Peace Offering

Leviticus 3:1. If his offering is a peace offering, and he brings from large cattle, whether male or female, let him bring it to the Lord without blemish, The peace offering or offering of salvation (LXX: θυσία σωτηρίας) along with the burnt offering (olah) was a further, pre-law offering which, for example, some see in the offering (zebach) of Jacob when parting with Laban (Gen 31:54), since the offering here was connected with a feast, as was customary with the peace offering; likewise Jethro, even before the giving of the law, brings together with the Hebrews both a burnt offering and a peace offering. This long-standing knowledge of both offerings explains the brevity of their ordinances in the legislation. However, besides Lev 3, the lawgiver returns again several times to the subject of the shlamim offering (Lev 7:11-21), whereby three kinds of peace offering appear: 1) the offering of praise (z. todah schlamim, Lev 7:13), brought from motives of gratitude to Jehovah for His benefits and glorification, 2) the offering of a vow (zebach neder), and 3) the free-will offering (z. nedabah, Lev 7:16; Lev 22:18-21). The etymology of the term schlamim is twofold: from schalom – peace, or from the verb schalem – to be whole, to fulfill, to repay; in the first case is given the idea of complete peace of the offerer with God, in the second – the idea of gratitude to God for a benefit. The main distinction of the ritual of this offering from the burnt offering – that in the former the sex of the animal was a matter of indifference, only the requirement of blamelessness remained in force here also. Birds are not mentioned in the peace offering as material: the customary division of the sacrificial meat in the peace offering into 3 parts: for burning to Jehovah, for the priests, and for the offerers, made it impossible to use a small bird in this sacrifice.

Leviticus 3:2. and he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the door of the tent of meeting; and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood on the altar on all sides; Leviticus 3:3. and from the peace offering he shall bring an offering to the Lord: the fat that covers the internal organs, and all the fat that is on the internal organs, Leviticus 3:4. and both kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the liver lobe; with the kidneys he shall remove it; Leviticus 3:5. and the sons of Aaron shall burn it on the altar together with the burnt offering that is on the wood on the fire: this is an offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. (cf.Lev 3:6-10). The operations in bringing the peace offering up to and including the sprinkling of blood are similar to the acts in the burnt offering, and only in the use of the sacrificial meat do characteristic differences between the two kinds of offering appear. In the peace offering not all the meat of the animal was burned, but only certain special sacrificial parts, namely: the fat on the internal organs and all the fat in general, the liver lobe, both kidneys, and in sheep also the fat tail – in the East sheep (ovis laticaudata) have a very large tail (Lev 3:9). These fatty parts (fat itself is not consumed in Hebrew food, Lev 3:17) were burned “on the altar together with the burnt offering that is on the wood on the fire” (Lev 3:5). In symbolic sense this could mean “the passions of lust, which ought to be mortified for the glory of God” (N. Grotius). Then, the best parts of meat, the breast (chaze, chaseh) and the right shoulder (schok, schoq), were set aside for the serving priest, the breast being first offered to Jehovah. Through the symbolic rite of “waving” (“tenufah”, tenuphah, – Lev 7:30), consisting of the breast being placed in the hands of the offerer, and the priest, putting his hands under the offerer’s hands, waved them back and forth, ducebat et reducebat (Mishnah, Menachot 5:6) – a rite evidently reminiscent of the Orthodox Church’s offering of the holy gifts. Then the breast was given to the priest, who with his family, having roasted or boiled the meat, ate it in a clean place (Lev 7:30). The remainder of the meat went to the offerer, who held a feast (Deut 27:7), with participation in it of members of his family and others invited – clean in the Levitic sense.

Leviticus 3:17. This is an eternal statute throughout your generations, in all your dwellings; you shall eat no fat and no blood. The consumption of internal fat and blood is forbidden to the Hebrews partly on hygienic grounds: in hot Palestine fat and blood easily spoil, partly for moral and religious reasons: with the aim of fostering and maintaining in the Hebrews respect for life, the seat of which is in the blood (Lev 17:11), and also to protect them from being swept away by the idolatrous and superstitious use of blood in pagan cults. A special, namely atoning, significance of blood at the Old Testament altar is indicated in Lev 17:11.