r into a state of forgiveness and divine favor. The sin-offerings
had reference (1) to sin generally, as when Aaron and his sons were
consecrated and the people sanctified, and when, on the annual day of
atonement, expiation was made for the sins of the past year; (2) to
specific offences (Lev. chaps. 4, 5), The exact distinction between the
sin-offering and the _trespass-offering_ is of difficult determination.
Both were alike expiatory, were in fact subdivisions of the same class
of offerings. A comparison of the passages in which trespass-offerings
are prescribed (Lev. 5:1; 6:1-7; Numb. 5:6-8) seems to indicate that
they belonged especially to trespasses for which restitution could be
made.

Next in the order of sacrifices, though first in dignity, came the
_burnt-offering_, also called _holocaust_ (Heb. _kalil_) that is, _whole
burnt-offering_, the characteristic mark of which was the consuming of
the whole by fire (Lev. chap. 1). It is conceded by all that this was a
_symbol of completeness_; but in what respect is a question that has
been answered in different ways. Some refer the completeness to the
offering itself, as that form of sacrifice which embraces in itself all
others (Rosenmueller on Deut. 33:10); or, as the most perfect offering,
inasmuch as it exhibits the idea of offering in its completeness and
generality, and so concentrates in itself all worship. Baehr, Symbolik,
vol. 2, p. 362. But we cannot separate, in the intention of God, the
completeness of the form from the state of the offerer's mind. The
burnt-offering was indeed, in its outward form, the most perfect of all
sacrifices, for which reason it excluded female victims, as relatively
inferior to the male sex. But because of this its completeness and
generality it signified the _entire self-consecration of the offerer to
God_. Winer and others after Philo. But this, let it be carefully
remembered, was a self-consecration that could be made only _through the
blood of expiation_, to indicate which, the blood of the burnt-offering
was sprinkled by the priest "round about upon the altar;" or, in the
case of a bird, where the quantity was too small to be thus sprinkled,
was "wrung out at the side of the altar."

The _peace-offering_ (more literally, _offering of renditions_; that is,
offering in which the offerer rendered to God the tribute of praise and
thanksgiving which was his due) was in all its different
subdivisions--thank-offering, votive of