Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Sunday 22 August 2004 03:55, Patrina wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 23:14:47 -0600, "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
> said:
> "....Historic Christian understanding of events such as Yom Kippur is
> that they were prefigurements, looking forward to the coming and the
> sacrifice of Christ, which events fulfilled these foreshadowings.
>
> >From that POV, the forgiveness given at Yom Kippur was based, not on
>
> the Day of Atonement itself, but on the coming One who would pay the
> ultimate penalty that brought about forgiveness of sins."
>
> The problem with that view of course is that YHWH does NOT accept human
> sacrifice and forbids it, no matter how willing the victim.  The idea
> of an innocent substitute being sacrificed to remove guilt was common
> in the ANE. It wasn't always an animal but was often a firstborn child!
> However, in Jeremiah YHWH states that human sacrifice never even entered
> his mind (Jer 7:31).  In Torah terms a human sacrifice for atonement is
> simply not valid, and was a practice that was bitterly opposed by
> Jeremiah, since it was still being practised at the Tophets.  The very
> idea of YHWH yielding his innocent "firstborn son" like worshippers
> of Baal Hamon - who brought their innocent firstborn sons to the Tophet
> as
> whole burnt offerings - is totally absurd, and to be honest, as a former
> Christian I never thought deeply enough on this issue.

This reflects a drastic misunderstanding of the theology behind the central 
event of Christianity.  It includes not only Jesus' death, but resurrection 
as well.  Equating it with "human sacrifice," and particularly with Canaanite 
practices, misconstrues the whole idea, but as this topic is very far afield 
from list purposes, that's as much as I'll say.  Harold has already addressed 
most of it much more eloquently than I can anyway.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No good.  Hit on head."   -Gronk