Leviticus 1 Footnotes

1:4 The laying on of hands was a symbolic act in which an animal was to stand in the offender’s place as a substitute. In Nm 8:10,12; 27:18,23 and Dt 34:9, it appears that the purpose of the laying on of hands was to transfer the spiritual qualities of the performer to a person or an animal. One may regard the sacrificial animal either as dying in the worshiper’s place or as receiving the death penalty because of the sin transferred to it by the laying on of hands.

1:5 The Israelites understood the close connection between blood and life. The flowing away of one’s blood is equivalent to the departure of life and the cessation of existence. The blood is the most holy element of the sacrifice and, as the means of atonement (see 17:11), could be handled only by the priest.

1:14-17 The five kinds of animals specified for the burnt offering—bull, sheep, goat, turtledove, and pigeon—are exactly the five animals Abraham offered to God in Gn 15:9. As in that passage the birds were not split because they were much smaller animals.

1:17 The burnt offering foreshadows the sacrifice of Christ on the cross (Heb 13:15-16; see Php 4:18; 1Pt 2:5). Paul had the burnt offering in mind in Rm 12:1-2—the believer is to present himself entirely just as the burnt offering was entirely consumed on the altar.