Sacrifice

I've been reading (actually just finished) Roy Gane's Cult and Character for the last few weeks. Fascinating book! I'm going to post a few excerpts over the next week, but this book isn't the kind that lends itself easily to small excerpts. If you are at all interested in the theoretical workings of sacrifice in the Bible, this is a must-read, although highly technical, book. Here's the first excerpt:

“Slaughtering an animal, putting its blood on various parts of a dwelling and its furniture, and then burning the suet and carcass (Lev 16:11–28) do not accomplish any kind of cleansing in physical terms. To the contrary, these activities create a mess and are impractical and wasteful, transforming a live, valuable animal into bloodstains, smoke, and ashes, none of which are put to practical use. Nevertheless, the text informs us that the goal of another transformation is achieved at a higher level: nonphysical pollution, consisting of ritual impurities and moral faults, is purged from the sanctuary of supramundane YHWH on behalf of the Israelites (vv. 16, 18–19, 33). While the activities themselves do not produce this goal through physical cause and effect, as they would be expected to in ordinary life, they serve as a vehicle for transformation that takes place on the level of symbolic meaning.”—Cult and Character, page 17

<idle musing>
This is a recurring theme in the book: ritual works on a different level from the visible. Gane argues that this is also true of pollution (moral and physical); I think he is correct.
</idle musing>