Blood Manipulation and Priestly Consumption of Meat as Atonements in Rabbinic Literature

While the role of atonement in sacrifice within biblical studies has seen extensive treatment, such cannot be said about the topic of sacrificial atonement in rabbinic literature. Given that sacrifice and atonement take up significant space within rabbinic literature, it is surprising that next to no book-length treatments exist on rabbinic sacrifice. As part of a broader project studying rabbinic treatment of sacrifice, this paper will treat the precise position and nature of atonement within sacrifice as envisioned by the rabbis. More specifically, this paper will cover the question of possible atonement through priestly consumption of flesh (כהנים אכלים ובעלים מתכפרים).

In rabbinic literature, there appears to be a dispute as to which stages of sacrifice hold expiatory power. For example, Sifra (Nedava 4:10), “there is no atonement but with blood.” (See a parallel in Hebrews 9:22.) However, in apparent contradiction, other sources write that “the priests eat [the flesh] and the owners are expiated” (Sifra Shemini 2:4). I will explore these divergent sources and paint a broader picture of their development.

The methodology of the paper will include the consideration of diachronic shifts between the biblical and rabbinic material, as well as between rabbinic texts and strata, in order to pin down the trajectory of this conceptual development. In doing so, I will locate all the relevant textual evidence, utilizing text critical methods, and identify where the crux of a historical shift might be presumed. Parallels in ambient culture will be engaged, as well, to assist this analysis.