ain color, generally free from impurities
and defects, and sometimes it was necessary that it should show itself
willing to be sacrificed.[1869] These details do not at all affect the
essence of the sacrifice. They are all the result of the ordinary human
tendency to organization, to precise determination of particulars, and
while certain general features are easily understood (those, for
example, relating to the perfectness of the victim) others are the
result of considerations which are unknown to us. It would be a mistake
to seek for the origin of sacrifice in such ritualistic details.

THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF SACRIFICE

+1037+. Up to a very recent time the institution of sacrifice was
generally accepted either as a natural human custom, due to reverence
for the gods, or as of divine prescription. In very early documents, as,
for example, in the Iliad and in certain parts of the Old Testament, it
is assumed that the material of sacrifice is the food of the gods--a
fact of interest in the discussion of the origin of sacrifice, never,
however, in ancient times formulated as a theory. In the Graeco-Roman and
later Jewish periods sacrifices seem to have been conceived of in a
general way as a mark of respect to the deity and fell more and more
into disuse as the ethical feeling became distincter. In the New
Testament there is a trace of the view that the victim is a substitute
for the offerer: in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said that the blood
of bulls and goats could never effect the remission of sin--a nobler
victim was necessary.[1870] A similar conception is found in the later
Greek and Roman literature, but there is still no distinct theory. In
the third century of our era Porphyry, who was greatly interested in
religious matters and, doubtless, represents a considerable body of
thoughtful current opinion, says simply that sacrifices are offered to
do honor to a deity or to give thanks or to procure favors.[1871] The
early Christian writers make no attempt to explain the origin of the
custom, nor do we find any such attempt in the European philosophy of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was not until the spirit of
historical inquiry had entered the sphere of religious investigation
that the question as to the historical beginning and the significance of
sacrifice was fairly put.

+1038+. In discussions of this question a distinction is sometimes made
between bloody and unbloody offerings--they