Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

Peter_Kirk AT sil.org wrote:

Unfortunately I don't have these available either - the best BH
library here in Baku is probably my personal one. Averbeck's article
in VanGemeren on xa++f)t quotes Milgrom enough to get me interested;
although (from his conservative Christian standpoint) he does not
agree with Milgrom, he accepts that xa++f)t deals with physical (e.g.
Lev 12:6,8) as well as moral defilement. (But is this distinction
anachronistic?) So perhaps someone else can check out what Milgrom and
others have to say on this.

Do any recognised translations translate xa++f)t by anything other
than "sin offering"?

I thought only the first and eighth days of Sukkot which were supposed
to be days of rest - Leviticus 23:35,36,39. But then I am sure your
librarians have earned their break.
 

Dear Peter,Luckily, the College and the library are open half-day this
year during the intermediate days of Sukkot (all schools are closed and
academic institutions in any case don't start class until after Sukkot),
so I found the following:

hatt'ath is interpreted as "purification offering by Gary Anderson, "Sacrifice and Sacrificial Offerings", Anchor Bible Dictionary 5, pp. 870-886, esp. p. 879, following Milgrom's 1983 study, Studies in Cultic Theology and Terminology, Leiden.

On the other hand, Koehler-Baumgartner's HAL, p. 306, def. 2, has "expiation, sin-offering"; def. 1 is merely "sin". HAL translated het' as "offence"; and the pi'el of hata' (p. 305, def. 20  as "cleanse from sin, purify".

I get the impression that "cleanse from sin" and "purify" are not far apart, and this leads to the question of the Priestly theology of all kinds of het' - physical, moral, spiritual, ritual, etc. as causing ritual impurity which must be expiated by means of a special sacrifice.
Does this help, or merely confuse?
Yours,
Jonathan

----
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel