Finlan (Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors) wants to distinguish sharply between sacrifice and the removal ritual of the day of atonement. He is not persuasive. He claims that “Hebrew sacrifice must be performed in the temple, and it is used to cleanse the temple, which is the center and symbol of the community. The scapegoat concept has nothing to do with the temple, but with expulsion of sin beyond the borders of the community” (82), but Leviticus 16 indicates otherwise. Both... Read more
Finlan (Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors) wants to distinguish sharply between sacrifice and the removal ritual of the day of atonement. He is not persuasive. He claims that “Hebrew sacrifice must be performed in the temple, and it is used to cleanse the temple, which is the center and symbol of the community. The scapegoat concept has nothing to do with the temple, but with expulsion of sin beyond the borders of the community” (82), but Leviticus 16 indicates otherwise. Both... Read more
Jacob Milgrom argued that the notion that Yahweh was appeased by sacrificial aromas is rare, and that the notion that Yahweh fed on sacrificial food was found only in “rare linguistic fossils” (Leviticus 1-16, 250). Finlan (Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors, 30) rightly protests: “Forty-two instances of God (or gods) being soothed by the smoke of burning flesh, constitutes a standard Pentateuchal usage, not a rare one. Despite Milgrom insisting that ‘provid[ing] food for the god . . . . [is]... Read more
Stephen Finlan (The Background and Contents of Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors) thinks that Paul mixes his metaphors: “Paul indicates that salvation is not free: ‘you were bought with a price’ (1 Cor 6:20; 7:23). Here, the Christian gets a new owner: Christ. The death of Jesus functioned as legal tender to make this purchase. In Rom 3:24–25 we have justification, redemption, and place of atonement—a conflation of judicial, economic, and sacrificial imagery. Paul will move from one metaphor to the other, but always there is... Read more
“Being lonely is a lot more worrying for your health than obesity,” writes Philippa Perry. She draws on research by John Cacioppo that shows that for the elderly “Feeling isolated from others can disrupt sleep, raise blood pressure, lower immunity, increase depression, lower overall subjective wellbeing and increase the stress hormone cortisol (at sustained high levels, cortisol gradually wears your body down).” A 2010 report from The Mental Health Foundation found that mental health is also linked to friendships and social... Read more
John Steven explains at Slate why the ceasefire in South Sudan, like many ceasefires, could well backfire” “The cease-fire is making it worse. Indeed, this uncomfortable truth isn’t even unique to South Sudan. Cease-fires almost always make a conflict worse, delaying political deals, prolonging the killing, and ensuring that the fighting continues long after it has begun. The international community is laudable in its concern for civilian lives in South Sudan. However, in new countries, the medicine of cease-fires and peace processes are... Read more
In his treatise On Abstinence from Killing Animals, Porphyry states a principle of philosophical sacrifice: Different strokes for different deities. For “intelligible gods,” the best worship is “hymn-singing in words,” since “sacrifice is an offering to each god from what he has given, with which he sustains us and maintains our essence in being” (2.34.4). Gods in heaven, whether wandering or fixed, are rightly offered grain and vegetable offerings: “we should kindle fire which is already kin to them, and we... Read more
Jonathan Klawans asserts in an essay in Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice that “symbolic action was an undeniably central feature of ancient Israelite culture” (114). As evidence, he points to passages in the Hebrew Bible that highlight the memorial function of rituals. Passover, Sukkot, Sabbath, circumcision, phylacteries are all presents as communicative acts that served “as public reinforcements of communal memory.” This is precisely the significance of the designation of these rites as “signs” (otot). In short, “a good number of rituals have... Read more
In a contribution to Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice, David Frankfurter analyzes several contexts of Egyptian religion on the way to a critique of the whole category of “sacrifice.” In some of these contexts, no animals were slaughtered; no violence done. In some contexts, though, animals were killed. He elaborates on “the ritual incineration of certain animals” which “were meant in one capacity to please the gods with the aroma of barbecue, but also, more importantly, to ward off chaos through the ritual... Read more
Many classicists suggest that Greek sacrifice was mechanical and automatic. One of the burdens of Naiden’s Smoke Signals for the Gods is to show otherwise. Sacrifices were only acceptable to the gods if the worshiper was ritually and morally pure. Naiden quoted Antiphon: “Many people with unclean hands or some other pollution board ships and travel alongside those who in their souls are hosioi in relation to the gods. Some people didn’t die this way, but ran great risks because of... Read more
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