Temple, Sacrifice and purity
Temple sacrifice and the purity laws around it fill much of the Torah, and they are some of the most misread pages in the Bible. Tap the plan of the Tabernacle below to walk from the courtyard to the Most Holy Place, then hear what three scholars say about the worship that happened there.
- Size100 x 50 cubits
- Who enteredWorshipers, priests, Levites
- TextExodus 27:9 to 19
A linen-walled enclosure with its gate on the east. This is where an Israelite brought an animal and laid a hand on it. Dr. Nathan MacDonald asks what that gesture may have actually meant, and why sacrifice felt ordinary in a world where meat never came neatly packaged.
- Size5 x 5 x 3 cubits
- Made ofWood overlaid with bronze
- TextExodus 27:1 to 8
The first thing past the gate, and the place where offerings were burned. Dr. Jonathan Klawans describes sacrifice as imitatio Dei, the imitation of God, from the careful shepherding of unblemished animals to the priest examining the kidneys and heart.
- WhatBronze washing basin
- Who used itPriests
- TextExodus 30:17 to 21
Priests washed their hands and feet here before entering the tent or serving at the altar. It sits between the altar and the tent because every step inward demanded more care, which is the logic of the purity system as a whole.
- Size20 x 10 cubits
- Who enteredPriests only
- InsideLampstand, table, incense altar
The outer room of the tent, holding the lampstand, the table with the bread of the presence and the altar of incense. Dr. MacDonald traces how Aaron's family rose from cultic servants to the most powerful men in the nation, and the rivalry between priests and Levites buried in the text.
- Size10 x 10 cubits
- Who enteredHigh priest, once a year
- InsideThe ark of the covenant
Behind the veil, the ark, and the presence of God in the middle of the camp. Dr. MacDonald explains why that presence was both a gift and a danger, and what the deaths of Nadab, Abihu and Uzzah reveal about holiness. Entry came on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16.
Impure is not
the same as sinful.
Most Christians hear "impurity" and think sin. Dr. Jonathan Klawans, Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Boston University, argues that the Hebrew Bible runs two separate systems, and that collapsing them into one has distorted how readers understand the Bible for centuries.
Hosea has God desiring mercy, not sacrifice, and other prophets sound just as sharp. Dr. Klawans argues the prophets were not rejecting sacrifice as such. They were calling out worshipers who brought offerings while practicing theft and injustice. Dr. Nathan MacDonald takes up the same tension and asks why the prophets seem to reject the very sacrifices the Torah commands.
Dr. Klawans shows how both Christian and Jewish traditions have laid later theological frameworks over the ancient sources, and what that costs. He also asks what Jesus was actually doing when he dealt with purity and the Temple. Watch The Purity System We Never Understood, then follow the Temple's story to AD 70 on our Revelation and the fall of Jerusalem page.
Did God ever
want sacrifice?
A nation of former slaves builds a tent in the desert, and the Bible gives it more space than the creation of the universe. Dr. Nathan MacDonald walks into that tent and asks what the altar at its entrance was for.
What Israel's neighbors believed sacrifice accomplished and how Israel's view differed, the two names of the Tabernacle, the types of sacrifice, and how the family of Aaron quietly came to rule.
The Tabernacle carries two names in Hebrew, mishkan, the dwelling, and ohel mo'ed, the tent of meeting, and Dr. MacDonald shows how each one opens up what the tent was for. At its center is a claim that still startles: the God of heaven chooses to live in the middle of a camp. That nearness is why holiness mattered so much, and why the stories of Nadab, Abihu and Uzzah are in the Bible at all.
Dr. Klawans adds a second angle. He reads sacrifice as a way of attracting and keeping God's presence, and as imitatio Dei, people imitating God through the whole process. For Christian readers, these questions lead straight to the cross. The Dig In reads that story through Jesus, who reveals what God was after all along.
- Burnt offeringעֹלָהOlah, Leviticus 1
The whole animal goes up in smoke on the altar.
- Grain offeringמִנְחָהMinchah, Leviticus 2
Flour, oil and frankincense, with a portion burned and the rest given to the priests.
- Well-being offeringשְׁלָמִיםShelamim, Leviticus 3
A shared meal. The fat is burned and the worshipers eat the meat.
- Purification offeringחַטָּאתChatat, Leviticus 4
Often translated sin offering. Its blood cleanses the sanctuary.
- Reparation offeringאָשָׁםAsham, Leviticus 5
Often translated guilt offering. It comes with restitution for the wrong done.
- Day of Atonementיוֹם כִּפֻּרִיםYom Kippur, Leviticus 16
Once a year the high priest enters the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary and the people.
Not take.
Carry.
The third commandment sits in the same world as the Tabernacle: a holy God, a people set apart, and a high priest who wore the tribes' names on his body. Dr. Carmen Joy Imes reads it in that light.
- LoYou shall not
- TissaCarry, bear, lift
- Common EnglishTake the Lord's name in vain
Dr. Imes, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Biola University's Talbot School of Theology, argues the command was never about how you say God's name. The verb is carry. Israel was stamped with God's name and sent out as God's representatives, so the question is how the name is worn, not how it is spoken.
She ties it to the high priest, who wore the names of the twelve tribes on his shoulders and over his heart, and to the ancient practice of branding slaves as belonging to a master, an invisible tattoo marking a people as God's own. From there she follows the exile as a crisis for God's reputation among the nations, and Jesus as the one who bears the name perfectly.
Watch Taking God's Name in Vain Has Nothing to Do With CursingTemple and sacrifice, asked and answered
Short answers drawn from the three episodes and the text of the Torah. For the garden as a picture of the sanctuary, see Genesis and creation.
The portable sanctuary Israel built in the wilderness, described in Exodus 25 to 40. A linen courtyard held the altar and the laver, and a tent at the west end held the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place with the ark. Hebrew calls it the mishkan, the dwelling, and the ohel mo'ed, the tent of meeting.
Dr. Jonathan Klawans argues they are two separate systems. Ritual impurity comes from things like childbirth, menstruation and touching a corpse, and it is not sin. Moral impurity comes from idolatry, sexual transgression and bloodshed, and it defiles the land and the sanctuary and, left unaddressed, drives out God's presence.
Lines like God desiring mercy, not sacrifice, sound that way. Dr. Klawans argues the prophets were calling out theft and injustice among people who kept offering sacrifices, not rejecting sacrifice itself. Dr. Nathan MacDonald explores the same tension in his episode on whether God ever wanted sacrifice.
Dr. Carmen Joy Imes argues the Hebrew verb in Exodus 20:7 means carry or bear, not take. The command is about Israel bearing God's name as God's representatives and doing it in a way that does not empty the name of meaning. It is not mainly about cursing.
The Bible gives the tent more space than the creation of the universe. Dr. MacDonald connects that to its central claim: the God of heaven chooses to dwell in the middle of the camp, which makes the presence of God both a gift and a danger.
Rome destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70, and sacrifice there ended. Dr. Klawans discusses what really happened to Judaism afterward, and warns against reading later Christian or Jewish frameworks back into the ancient sources.
Step inside
the text.
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