Atonement, The Day of

VIEW:16 DATA:01-04-2020
Atonement, The Day of. I. The great day of national humiliation, and the only one commanded in the Mosaic law. See Fasts. The mode of its observance is described in Leviticus 16, and the conduct of the people is emphatically enjoined in Lev_23:26-32.
II. Time. — It was kept on the tenth day of Tisri, that is, from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth of that month, five days before the Feast of Tabernacles. Tisri corresponds to our September-October, so that the 10th of Tisri would be about the first of October. See Festivals.
III. How observed. — It was kept by the people as a high solemn Sabbath. On this occasion only, the high priest was permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies. Having bathed his person and dressed himself entirely in the holy white linen garments, he brought forward a young bullock for a Sin Offering, purchased at his own cost, on account of himself and his family, and two young goats for a Sin Offering, with a ram for a Burnt Offering, which were paid for out of the public treasury, on account of the people.
He then presented the two goats before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle and cast lots upon them. On one lot, "For Jehovah" was inscribed, and on the other, "For Azazel". A phrase of unusual difficulty. The best modern scholars agree that it designates the personal being to whom the goat was sent, probably Satan. This goat was called the scapegoat.
After various sacrifices and ceremonies, the goat upon which the lot "For Jehovah" had fallen was slain and the high priest sprinkled its blood before the Mercy-Seat in the same manner as he had done that of the bullock. Going out from the Holy of Holies, he purified the Holy Place, sprinkling some of the blood of both the victims on the Altar of Incense.
At this time, no one besides the high priest was suffered to be present in the Holy Place. The purification of the Holy of Holies and of the Holy Place being thus completed, the high priest laid his hands upon the head of the goat on which the lot "For Azazel" had fallen and confessed over it all the sins of the people.
The goat was then led, by a man chosen for the purpose, into the wilderness, into "a land not inhabited," and was there let loose. The high priest after this, returned into the Holy Place, bathed himself again, put on his usual garments of office, and offered the two rams as Burnt Offerings, one for himself and one for the people.
IV. Significance. — In considering the meaning of the particular rites of the day, three points appear to be of a very distinctive character.
1) The white garments of the high priest.
2) His entrance into the Holy of Holies.
3) The scapegoat.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb_9:7-25, teaches us to apply the first two particulars. The high priest himself, with his person cleansed and dressed in white garments, was the best outward type which a living man could present in his own person, of that pure and holy One who was to purify his people and to cleanse them from their sins.
But respecting the meaning of the scapegoat, we have no such light to guide us, and the subject is one of great doubt and difficulty. It has been generally considered that it was dismissed to signify the carrying away of the sins of the people, as it were, out of the sight of Jehovah. If we keep in view that the two goats are spoken of as parts of one and the same Sin Offering, we shall not have much difficulty in seeing that they form together but one symbolical expression; the slain goat setting forth the act of sacrifice, in giving up its own life for others "to Jehovah;" and the goat which carried off its load of sin "for complete removal" signifying the cleansing influence of faith in that sacrifice.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


Atonement, The Day of
Modern Observance of. In the treatise Hilchoth Tshuvah, c. 1, 2, we read, "At this time, when there is no temple and we have no altar, there is no atonement but repentance. Repentance atones for all sins; yea, though a man be wicked all his days, and repent at last, none of his wickedness is mentioned to him (Eze_33:12). The Day of Atonement itself also atones for them that repent (Lev_16:30)." Without considering the contradiction contained in this statement, we will mention the fact that the rabbins, in spite of repentance and the Day of Atonement, have felt the need of something more, which would a little better resemble real sacrificial atonement; and hence has arisen the custom of sacrificing a cock on the eve of that solemn day. The following account of this custom is given in the קהלת שלמה: "Order of the Atonements. On the eve of the Day of Atonement the custom is to make atonements. A cock is taken for a man, and a hen for a woman; and for a pregnant woman a hen and also f cock, on account of the child. The father of the family first makes the atonement for himself-for the high-priest first atoned for himself-then for his family, and afterwards for all Israel." The order is as follows: He takes the cock in his hand and says these words:
"The children of men that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands asunder. Fools, because of their transgession, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sendeth his word and healeth them, and delivereth them from their destructions. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men (Psalms 17)! If there be for him an angel, an intercessor, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness, then he is gracious unto him, and saith Deliver him from going down to the pit; 1 have found a ransom" (Job_30:23). While moving the atonement round his head, he says,
"This is my substitute. This is my commutation. This cock goeth to death, but may I be gathered and enter into a long and happy life, and into peace." He then begins again at the words, "The children of men," and so he does three times. Then follow the various alterations that are to be made, when the atonement is for a woman or another person, etc., and there is added "as soon as one has performed the order of the atonement, he should lay his hands on it, as the hands used to be laid on the sacrifices, and immediately after give it to be slaughtered." At the synagogue the usual service commences with the so-called Kol-Nidre (q.v.). The ritual for that day contains a series of confessions of sin to be made, which are frequently repeated. Besides these confessions and other prayers, the historical record of the manner in which the highpriest discharged the duties of his office before the destruction of the second Temple is read and heard. For the four collects which the high-priest offered on that day, SEE POETRY, HEBREW (Post-Biblical), § i. The other parts of this historical record are fully given in the treatise Yoma. When the concluding prayer is finished, the ram's horn is blown as a signal that the duties of the day are over, and the ceremonies of the day close with the words "Next year we shall be in Jerusalem." (B. P.)



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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