Old Testament

Leviticus 1

The Burnt Offering

4 passages

Overview

God calls Moses from the Tent of Meeting and instructs him in the rites of the burnt offering — drawn from the herd, the flock, or birds — establishing Israel's sacrificial worship as rooted in divine initiative, demanding wholeness and ritual purity, and accessible to every rank of society, while the Catholic tradition reads these offerings as typological anticipations of Christ's complete self-oblation on the Cross.

Passages

1–2Divine Invitation to Offer Sacrifice 3–9The Unblemished Offering: Sacrifice, Atonement, and the Foreshadowing of Christ 10–13The Flock's Pure Oblation: Type of the Perfect Sacrifice 14–17The Humble Flame: The Bird Offering and the Sacrifice of the Poor

Study Resources

Leviticus 1

¹Yahweh called to Moses, and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying, ²“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When anyone of you offers an offering to Yahweh, you shall offer your offering of the livestock, from the herd and from the flock.

³“‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without defect. He shall offer it at the door of the Tent of Meeting, that he may be accepted before Yahweh. ⁴He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. ⁵He shall kill the bull before Yahweh. Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall present the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar that is at the door of the Tent of Meeting. ⁶He shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. ⁷The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay wood in order on the fire; ⁸and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall lay the pieces, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar; ⁹but he shall wash its innards and its legs with water. The priest shall burn all of it on the altar, for a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

¹⁰“‘If his offering is from the flock, from the sheep or from the goats, for a burnt offering, he shall offer a male without defect. ¹¹He shall kill it on the north side of the altar before Yahweh. Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle its blood around on the altar. ¹²He shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat. The priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar, ¹³but the innards and the legs he shall wash with water. The priest shall offer the whole, and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

¹⁴“‘If his offering to Yahweh is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall offer his offering from turtledoves or of young pigeons. ¹⁵The priest shall bring it to the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar; ¹⁶and he shall take away its crop and its feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, in the place of the ashes. ¹⁷He shall tear it by its wings, but shall not divide it apart. The priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

Leviticus 2