In the first part of The Ritual of Sacrifices: Divine Command or Human Mandate, we saw how Levitical laws were eliminated and their meaning redefined. But if God’s Law is immutable, how is it possible that something considered “perpetual” was removed? How did sacrifices come to occupy a central place in the religion of Israel? To understand this, it is necessary to observe the evolution of the concept of sacrifice over time.
Within the people of Israel, a liturgical evolution can be traced through four stages. In the first stage, animal sacrifice was not considered a sacred ritual. The laws that would later transform it into a religious act had not yet emerged. Its primary purpose was to comply with God’s ancient command not to consume meat with blood. Essentially, it was a communal feast, and at times it was carried out to seal a commercial agreement. This period extended from Noah to some point during the era of the Judges.
In the second stage, animal sacrifice began to be regarded as a sacred act. This occurred between the time of the Judges and the monarchical period. If we accept the scribe’s chronology as reliable, the episode of Eli and his sons—who committed abuses by disregarding the rules concerning the consecration of animal fat to Yahweh—indicates that the process of turning sacrifice into a divine mandate was already underway. This example appears in 1 Samuel 2:29, which says: “Why do you scorn my sacrifices and offerings that I commanded to be presented at my dwelling? You honor your sons more than me, growing fat on the best of all the offerings of my people Israel.”
However, if we compare this statement with God’s words in Jeremiah, where He declares, “When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices,” it becomes clear that we are facing a blending of the human voice with the voice of God. Jeremiah 8:8 identifies this as falsification: “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us,’ when, in fact, the lying pen of the scribes has falsified it?” There is an inconsistency of voices and an explicit contradiction. One voice affirms or validates the ritual as coming from God in the book of Samuel, while the other denies it in Jeremiah. Whom are we to believe?
During the early years of Saul’s reign, sacrifices and burnt offerings still served a dual purpose: cooking the animal in accordance with the rule against eating it raw, and offering it as a peace offering.
The purpose of these sacrifices, as in many cultures of the time, was to “appease” or “calm” the deity. In the Pentateuch we find expressions reflecting this belief, such as in Leviticus 3:
“From the sacrifice of the peace offering he shall offer to the Lord, as a burnt offering, the fat […] The priest shall burn it on the altar as food, an offering by fire of a pleasing aroma to Yahweh.”
But God responds forcefully to this practice through the prophet Isaiah: “Hear the word of Yahweh, rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah. What do I care about your many sacrifices? says Yahweh. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. When you come to appear before me, who asked this of you—this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings…”
Here it is made clear that these sacrifices were not only unnecessary, but completely irrelevant to God. The understanding that God does not delight in sacrifices but in obedience to His voice was evident during the ministry of Samuel. Before the battle against the Amalekites, God ordered Saul to destroy the spoil completely. Saul, trusting his own judgment, chose to keep the best of the plunder. When Samuel confronted him, Saul attempted to justify himself, saying:
“The people took sheep and cattle from the spoil, the best of what was devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God at Gilgal.”
Samuel replied:
“Does Yahweh delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and stubbornness like the crime of idolatry…” (1 Samuel 15:21–23).
An important detail in this account is that Saul does not refer to Yahweh as his God, but as Samuel’s God, suggesting that he obeyed out of obligation rather than conviction. He also believed his own judgment to be superior to God’s. This attitude of rebellion against God’s voice traces back, according to the Book of the Life of Adam and Eve, to the transgressing angel, who reacted with fury when God granted Adam supreme authority over creation. According to this account, the angel—having been created before Adam—believed he deserved that position of power. His rebellion arose from rejecting God’s will, convinced that the Creator had erred and that he himself would make better decisions.
Samuel’s response to Saul not only establishes God’s position regarding sacrifices at a very early stage in Israel’s history, but also reinforces the idea that sacrifice was never a divine command. Up to that point, there is no mention in the Bible of sacrifices for the expiation of sins. During the period when Psalm 50 was written, many Israelites still believed that their sacrifices fed and gave drink to God. Yet throughout the Psalms, the belief is reflected that repentance was the true means of reconciliation.
In 1 Kings, when Solomon dedicates the temple, he repeatedly declares that forgiveness of sins is obtained through repentance:
“If they sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin), and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy… yet if they come to their senses in the land where they are held captive, and repent, and pray to you… saying, ‘We have sinned; we have done wrong; we have acted wickedly’… then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people who have sinned against you…” (1 Kings 8:33–52).
After these words, Solomon offered peace sacrifices. This makes it clear that at that time, sacrifices and burnt offerings were a ceremonial aspect of worship, but were not connected to the forgiveness of sins.
During the reign of Athaliah, the priest Jehoiada restored “the burnt offerings with rejoicing and song,” according to the ordinances of David. This indicates that sacrifices were still performed for purposes of communion. If the chronicler’s chronology is correct, it is during the reign of Hezekiah (716–687 BC) that the expiatory sacrifice appears in its most defined form (2 Chronicles 29:18–36). The chronicler, apparently a Levite, remarks in verse 35—after recounting the slaughter of 3,900 animals—“Thus the service of the house of Yahweh was restored.” Yet this was the very worship God had repeatedly rejected and which had never been part of the covenant established in the wilderness.
The Israelites never struggled with the temple or sacrifices; what they found difficult was obeying the commandments given in the wilderness, which excluded sacrificial ritual. After the Babylonian exile, we again see the continuation of burnt offerings (Ezra 3:2). Ezra is described as an expert in “the law of Moses,” which undoubtedly included the expiatory sacrificial rite (Ezra 6:17). Although it is presented as though Yahweh had given this law to Moses, the original Book of the Covenant is never mentioned. By then, the entire religious structure revolved around the temple and sacrifices.
Yet in Nehemiah 9, we again see that the expiation of sins was accomplished through repentance. Ezra and Nehemiah were contemporaries and worked together to rebuild the temple. Here again we see Israel’s uncertainty regarding the true Law of God:
“The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners. Standing in their places, they confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors… They confessed and worshiped Yahweh their God.”
This confirms that even after the exile, two opposing doctrinal streams coexisted in Israel: expiation through animal sacrifice—of pagan origin—and expiation through repentance, which was the means of forgiveness established by God.
Despite repeated prophetic declarations—from Samuel onward—that sacrifices and burnt offerings were unnecessary for cleansing the soul, both beliefs ran parallel in Israel until the time of Jesus.
The prophet Micah, who ministered during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, made God’s will regarding sacrifices unmistakably clear:
“With what shall I come before Yahweh? Shall I bow before the God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what Yahweh requires of you: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:7–8)
From this declaration, we know that in the time of these kings, sacrifices were already practiced as a means of expiation for sin, and there was even a belief that the firstborn could substitute for the guilty in a human sacrifice. Yet long before this, during the reign of Amaziah, God had already established the principle of individual responsibility for sin.
It is clear that Yahweh would never accept the sacrifice of a firstborn child for the expiation of sin, because it is an act of injustice. The only means God established—and continues to establish—for cleansing the soul is heartfelt repentance. However, this is not what some New Testament authors taught. We are told that God, in His goodness, gave His own Son to atone for the sins of all humanity, thereby nullifying the very principle of justice He Himself had established.
If God taught that no one can pay for another’s sin, how can He then give His Son to pay for the sins of all? This would turn God into a lawgiver who imposes rules on humanity that He Himself does not follow. But Yahweh is not like human beings, who say, “Once the law is made, find the loophole.” His commandments are immutable because they are principles of justice.
Human norms change because human beings are imperfect. This includes religious regulations, which are nothing more than cultural customs and not expressions of divine will.
The sacrifice of firstborn children was not only common in pagan contexts; it was also recorded in Israel at certain times. In 1 Kings 16:34, we are told that during the reign of Ahab, a man named Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho “at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram for its foundations, and at the cost of his youngest son Segub for its gates.” This type of ritual, known as a foundation sacrifice, was an ancient practice in many Near Eastern cultures. In Sumeria, for example, instead of offering human sacrifices, figurines were placed beneath building thresholds as a symbolic form of protection and consecration.
In the fourth stage of ritual evolution, the idea emerged that Jesus was the definitive replacement for sacrifices. With the destruction of the temple and the end of these rituals, certain New Testament authors presented His death as a unique and final expiation. This belief developed after His death and remains in effect today.
Hebrew ritual began with altars—stone mounds where the patriarchs invoked the name of Yahweh—and evolved into an institutionalized sacrificial system. The biblical narrative suggests that this ritual was brought from Sumeria by Abraham and his family. The practice of marking a place of divine appearance with an altar has a geomantic and pagan origin. However, ritual laws were not consolidated into a legislative code until Israel arrived in Canaan.
The Jerusalem Bible confirms that “in its present form, Leviticus represents the sacrificial code of the Second Temple.” Moreover, there is no historical evidence that Israelites practiced expiatory sacrifices in the wilderness, and the Jerusalem Bible itself notes that there is no proof that the sacrifices described in Leviticus were performed in the time of Moses. The oldest texts barely mention specific rituals, apart from the Passover sacrifice, which was a commemorative meal celebrating deliverance from Egypt:
“This day shall be a memorial for you, and you shall celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh throughout your generations; you shall observe it as a perpetual statute.” (Exodus 12:14)
In the New Testament, however, this meaning is transformed:
“For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:7)
Here the original purpose of Passover is altered—from a commemorative act to a supposed expiation for sin.
As in Sumeria, the Hebrew religious system was created by human beings, not by God. It was structured around the temple and sacrifices, a practice common in the ancient world. Israel proclaimed monotheism with words, but in practice reflected a latent polytheism.
When the temple was destroyed, Israel was forced to abandon its sacrifices and sacred meats. In Christianity, however, the ritual took on a new form: the replacement of the animal with a human being.