done by a cash payment of five shekels apiece. Of this payment
the same phrase is used: it is "redemption-money"--the money wherewith
the odd number of them is redeemed (Num. iii. 44-51).

The question at present is not whether modern taste approves of all
this, or resents it: we are simply inquiring whether an ancient Jew was
taught to think of the lamb as offered in his stead.

And now let it be observed that this idea has sunk deep into all the
literature of Palestine. The Jews are not so much the beloved of Jehovah
as His redeemed--"Thy people whom Thou hast redeemed" (1 Chron. xvii.
21). In fresh troubles the prayer is, "Redeem Israel, O Lord" (Ps. xxv.
22), and the same word is often used where we have ignored the allusion
and rendered it "_Deliver_ me because of mine enemies ... _deliver_ me
from the oppression of men" (Ps. lxix. 18, cxix. 134). And the future
troubles are to end in a deliverance of the same kind: "The _ransomed_
of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion" (Isa. xxxv.
10, li. 11); and at the last "I will _ransom_ them from the power of the
grave" (Hos. xiii. 14). In all these places, the word is the same as in
this narrative.

It is not too much to say that if modern theology were not affected by
this ancient problem, if we regarded the creed of the Hebrews simply as
we look at the mythologies of other peoples, there would be no more
doubt that the early Jews believed in propitiatory sacrifice than that
Phoenicians did. We should simply admire the purity, the absence of
cruel and degrading accessories, with which this most perilous and yet
humbling and admonitory doctrine was held in Israel.

The Christian applications of this doctrine must be considered along
with the whole question of the typical character of the history. But it
is not now premature to add, that even in the Old Testament there is
abundant evidence that the types were semi-transparent, and behind them
something greater was discerned, so that after it was written "Bring no
more vain oblations," Isaiah could exclaim, "The Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. When Thou
shalt make His soul a trespass-offering He shall see His seed" (Isa. i.
13, liii. 6, 7, 10). And the full power of this last verse will only be
felt when we remember the statement made elsewhere of the principle
which underlay the sacrifices: "the life (_or_ soul) of the flesh is in
the blood, and I ha