Blood, Animal Sacrifice, and the Hope of Immortality

This reconstructed horned altar at Beersheba would have been familiar to Abraham the Hebrew.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

William W. Hallo, former Yale professor, considers ancient Mesopotamia to be the point of origin of animal sacrifice. Hallo writes, "Here we have not only, as in Israel, the canonical (literary) formulations of how sacrificial rites are to be performed, but also economic texts providing accounts of events after the ritual and objectively recorded, detailing the expenses of each step in the ritual against the possibility of a future audit by a higher authority. These records leave no doubt that in Mesopotamia, animal sacrifice, though ostensibly a mechanism for feeding the deity, was at best a thinly disguised method for sanctifying and justifying meat consumption by human beings—a privilege routinely accorded to priesthood, aristocracy and royalty, and sporadically, notably on holidays and holy days, to the masses of the population."

Hallo is correct that blood sacrifice was performed on behalf of chiefs, rulers and high kings. However, to understand the history of animal sacrifice, we must go farther back in human history. We must explore the connection between blood and the hope for immortality. The connection between animal sacrifice and the hope of life after death is evident in the practice of sacrificed animals that were buried with their masters. 

For at least 100,000 years humans buried their high-ranking persons in red ocher powder, a symbolic blood covering. For those people this ore was as valuable as gold is for us today. In some burial sites a pet or sacrificed animal is also found with a covering of red ocher.

Why only the clan chief or spiritual head? It seems that early humans believed that their whole group would follow their leader should he or she rise from the grave. Paul, referring to Psalm 68:18, speaks of this in Ephesians 4:8 - "When He ascended on high, He led captives in his train..."

Among meat eaters, the blood of hunted animals was not wasted. It would replace the costly red ocher. Eventually, sacrificial rituals developed around the bloodletting. The French historian Jean-Pierre Vernant believed the distribution and consumption of sacrificial food was a way to bound a community together, with each member of the community consuming an equal portion of meat. However, it is also possible that the chief, as a representative of the High God on earth, received a more substantial or better portion of the meat.

Among the early Hebrew (c. 5000-2000 BC) animal sacrifice was performed only in cases of extremely grave offenses. Cattle and sheep were their source of wealth, so they did not sacrifice them often. It is possible also that animal sacrifices were offered at times of crisis or when a leader needed a sign from the High God. This appears to be the case with Abraham on Mount Moriah. There he was given the sign of the Ram which for him was a Messianic promise.

In the Axial Age (900-200 BC) Jewish and Hindu priests were paid to offer sacrifices. Greed among corrupt priests led to the slaughter of enormous numbers of animals. Blood flowed in the temples and through the drainage ditches. Buddha rejected animal sacrifice. Buddhism is an attempt to reform this feature of Hinduism.

Animal Sacrifice and Worship

At First Things, Peter Leithart wrote, "What are the chances that someone sometime in nearly every ancient culture decided that killing animals was a good way to worship their gods? What are the chances that this would be a near-universal practice without any tradition, any traditio/handing-over, of sacrificial rites? Aren’t the facts much better explained if we assume that there was mutual interaction, cross-fertilization, borrowing and mimicry, perhaps an Ur-sacrifice and an Ur-sacrificer?"

It seems that initially animal sacrifice was not about worship. It was about a yearning for a greater life, or for immortality. The notion that animals were feed to the deities may be true among the Greeks for whom propitiation meant satisfying hungry gods. It does not appear to be the case among the early Hebrew, however. 

Consider Psalm 50. Here the LORD says, "I will accept no bull from your house, nor he-goat from your folds..." and "If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world and all that is in it is mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" (vv. 9-13)

For the Hebrew ruler-priest caste animal sacrifice was an act of atonement. (An extraordinary and unique perspective in the ancient world.) The ruler-priest Job is said to have made atonement for the sins of his entire household daily. If this is true, Job, the Horite Hebrew, was a very rich man. It is safe to assume that the sacrifices were offered with prayer.

The oldest known site of Hebrew worship is at Nekhen on the Nile. Proto-Saharan nobles were buried with red ochre at Nekhen (3800 BC). It appears also that there may have been a preference for sacrificial animals from the Nile. Some animals imported from the Nile Valley were sacrificed in Canaan during the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BC). Analysis of a sacrificial donkey found in the foundations of a house in ancient Gath reveals that it was born and bred in the Nile. There is a suggestion that some living in Canaan may have preferred sacrificial animals bred by the Nilotic Hebrew.

Leithart's recognition of the widespread practice of animal sacrifice in the Ancient Near East may be explained by the early dispersion of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. Well before Abraham's time they had dispersed from the Nile Valley into Arabia, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and parts of the Zagros Mountains. 

Among the early Hebrew, animal sacrifice had less to do with worship than with atonement, the bounding of their community, and the ratification of treaties. 

As a caste, the Hebrew did not eat with those outside their caste except to ratify treaties. Communal meals encourage conversation, increase familiarity, and can lead to marriages outside the caste. Since the Hebrew married only within their caste (endogamy) eating with non-Hebrew was discouraged. 

The Hebrew handled blood with great care because it was viewed as having power. The Hebrew Scriptures speak of the blood of Abel calling to God from the ground (Gen. 4:10). The shedding of blood was a serious matter. It could bring curses on those responsible for the shedding of blood. Blood guilt and blood pollution were to be avoided. The early Hebrew priests were renown in the ancient world for their lives of purity. Even the animal to be sacrificed was to be inspected and approved as pure. Herodotus reported that "for one who sacrifices a beast not sealed the penalty appointed is death."

The Hebrew priests who flayed the carcasses of sacrificial animals were to carefully follow prescribed procedures. The Hebrew tanner was called "Tahash". One of Abraham's nephews was a Tahash.

Related reading: On Blood and the Impulse to Immortality; Artifacts of Great Antiquity; Funerary Rites and the Hope of Resurrection; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; The Shrine City of Nekhen; The Priesthood is About the Blood; Margaret Barker, Atonement: The Rite of Healing

The Male Priesthood Has Deep Roots

 

Alice C. Linsley

Every tribal society studied by anthropologists regards blood as having power. This "primitive" belief is evident in Genesis 4:10. Shed blood was regarded as potentially dangerous or potentially curative. There were rituals appropriate for women after childbirth and for hunters after the kill. The blood of those killed in combat was to be washed off as soon as possible, and the blood guilt of warriors was to be addressed. Melchizedek, Priest of the Most High God, ministered to Abraham after combat, and the ceremony involved bread and wine (Gen. 14).

Based on evidence of 100,000+ years of red ochre burial, a symbolic blood covering, it is apparent that blood was linked to the hope for life after death, or immortality.

Very early in human history the offices of shaman and priest emerged to address blood anxiety and blood guilt. These are the earliest known religious offices, and both serve as mediators between the natural and supernatural. However, their practices are very different, in that priests are forbidden to engage spirits. 

The blood shed in war and hunting was not taken lightly by early populations. Nor was the blood shed by women in childbirth and their monthly cycle. All blood was to be accounted for by rituals, prayers, and offerings. This was the work of the priest and shaman. 

There were women shamans, but the taboo about mixing male-female bloods or having both present at the same place (as at the altar) meant that there were never any women priests. The so-called "priestesses" of the ancient world were shamans, not sacrificing priests. They served in temples as oracles who delivered messages in trance states, which is characteristic of shamans, not priests.

When early man took life in the hunt, the spiritual leader offered prayers and performed rituals to protect the community from blood guilt. The blood of the hunted animals was accounted for according to sacred law. Shamans rarely offer blood sacrifice. However, as early as 7000 years ago, priests at Catal Huyuk sacrificed animals, and 6000 years Nilotic priests offered blood sacrifice for the most grave offenses. 

Anthropological study of the origins of the priesthood indicate that the male priest stands as a symbol of prayer, sacrifice to cover blood guilt, and sacred law. This observed and documented reality stands behind the Church’s tradition of the male priesthood. It is a central feature of the received Messianic Tradition, and the Church alone has the honor of preserving it.

Related reading: Why Women Were Never Priests; Ten Objections to Women Priests; The Church's Consensus on the Priesthood; Blood and Gender Distinctions; On Blood and the Impulse to Immortality; The Priesthood in Anthropological Perspective; Jesus' Blood is Restorative

The Golden Calf in Anthropological Context

The celestial bull calf on an ancient Egyptian coffin; 

a symbol of the hope for life after death.

Alice C. Linsley

A detailed study of the biblical information about Aaron is revealing. He was a Hebrew priest who fashioned a golden bull calf, a Horite symbol of God's son, Horus (HR meaning "most High One" in Ancient Egyptian). The bull was a celestial symbol for God. In fact, the English word God likely comes from the anceint Akkadian word for bull, which is gud. This would explain why in Iceland, þjór' (thor) means bull and is the name of the High God of the Nordic pantheon, later displaced by Odin.

The Danish word for bull is tyr. In the Swedish language bull is tjur. Bull in Latin is taurus. These share the root TR which suggests a connection to blood, purity, radiance, the Sun, copper, gold, and holiness. The TR root is very old and it reflects the polysemic feature of the oldest known lexicons.

The terms for ritual purity in Sumerian, Akkadian, biblical Hebrew, Hittite, and Ugaritic are related to the idea of radiance. (See The Semantics of Purity in the Ancient Near East, p. 5.) The ancient Nilotes associated purity with the radiance of the sun, the emblem of the High God.

The Proto-Dravidian word tor refers to blood. In Hausa, toro means clean, and in Tamil tiru means holy. There is a relationship between tor and the Hebrew thr which means "to be pure." The people were made pure when the High Priest sacrificed the bull and made atonement with the blood of the sin offering (Ex. 30:1-10). In ancient Nilotic mythology, the deceased king must eat the celestial bull to achieve immortality.

Aaron's golden bull calf was a sacred symbol among the Horite Hebrew before Judaism. A late Jewish hand on Exodus suggests that this was an idol, and yet the bull was the central image at the shrines of Bethel and Dan. It represents the son's sacrifice that atones for the sins of the people. Judaism rejects the Horite Hebrew belief in God Father and God Son.

The sacrificial bull calf was shown overshadowed by the sun, a sign of divine appointment for the Horite Hebrew. This is a Messianic image. Aaron is not criticized for making this image. However, the people are criticized for worshiping the image. Here a distinction must be made between the symbolism of the golden bull calf and the actions of the people. To express this for people today, we make the distinction between worship of the cross and worship of the Messiah who died on the cross.

Related reading: Sky Bull Eaten to Gain Immortality; The Sky Bull as a Messianic Image; The Afro-Asiatic Conception of Purity; The Messianic Symbolism of the Horned Altar

The Red Heifer

Alice C. Linsley

The Biblical priesthood appears to have originated among the peoples of the Nile Valley when the green Sahara was able to sustain herds of long horned cattle. Cattle were first domesticated in the Upper Nile Valley about 15,000 years ago. The term for cow nag (Wolog, Fulani), nagge (Hausa), ning (Angas, Ankwe) and ninge (Susu) corresponds to the Egyptian ng.

The words edom, odum and adam are derived from the same root dm and originally referred to the red clay that washed down to the Upper Nile from the Ethiopian highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic cambisols have a strong red brown color. Abraham's Horite people were known to have a distinctive red skin tone. Esau and David are described as red. As a descendant of these red ancestors, Jesus likely had a red skin tone.

Red and black Nubian cattle herders

This is the original context from which the priesthood spread into southern Europe, India, and the ancient Near East. The red Nubians, some of whom were Abraham's ancestors, believed that life is in the blood. In their creation stories, the first man was made from the red soil of the Upper Nile. He is Adam or Ha-dam, meaning "the Blood." Blood was not only the substance of life, it was also the substance by which the people received cleansing through the ministry of their priests. This is why the red calf was the preferred sacrifice for purity.

Aaron created the Golden Calf, a representation of Horus, the divine "son" of the Creator. The image incorporated the sun and would have been a representation of the divine overshadowing or appointment of the Calf of God. Below is picture of what it would have looked like.

The calf is suggestive of Horus as a child. Horus' anthropomorphic form is either as a adult male or more usually as a boy wearing the sidelock typical of royal Egyptian youth. Horus as a boy is often shown on cippi dominating crocodiles and serpents. Consider this in light of the Woman, the Child, and the Dragon in Revelation 12.

Consider the red heifer (Numbers 19:9) that stands as a perpetual sacrifice. The red heifer is sacrificed and burned outside the camp and the ashes used for "water of lustration."  Lustration means to purify by a propitiatory offering or other sacred ceremony. After the completion of the Second Temple, the ashes of the red heifer were available for people who came to the temple. At the entrance to the Women's Court, there was a stone vessel called the kelal which held ashes of the red heifer. The ashes were mixed with water and used for purification ceremonies.

The association of blood and purity

The Hebrew root meaning pure is thr and it corresponds to the Hausa/Hahm word for clean: toro, and to the Tamil word for holy: tiru. All are related to the proto-Dravidian word fro blood: tor. The sacrificing priesthood was found among all these peoples.

The color red represented blood and life among the ancient Nilotes. The Horite priests regarded the red heifer as a representation of Horus, the "son" of the Creator, born miraculously of Hathor. She is shown with cow horns cradling the sun. This indicates overshadowing by the Creator, whose emblem was the Sun. Hathor's totem was the cow and she is shown in Nilotic shrines holding her infant in a stable. Hathor and Horus are expressions of the earliest Messianic expectation among Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors.

The perpetual sacrifice of the red heifer is older than the Levitical priesthood. It pertains to Abraham's Nilo-Saharan cattle-herding ancestors and speaks of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:11-14)

Unfortunately, there are Christians who fail to recognize that Jesus' crucifixion and glorious resurrection have fulfilled all the archetypes of the Old Testament. The Reverend Clyde Lott, a Pentecostal cattle breeder from Mississippi, is breeding red heifers to export to Israel to establish a breeding line of red heifers in the hope that this will prepare the way for the construction of the Third Temple and ultimately the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  

Related reading: The Red Heifer in Levitical Times; The Scarlet Cord Woven Through the Bible; Why Cows Were Sacred in the Ancient World; Blood and Water; The Edomites and the Color Red; The Red Heifer by Rabbi Chaim Richman