Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement in Early Judaism and Christianity: Constituents and Critique ed. by Henrietta L. Wiley and Christian A. Eberhart

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Reviewed by: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement in Early Judaism and Christianity: Constituents and Critique ed. by Henrietta L. Wiley and Christian A. Eberhart Stephen Finlan henrietta l. wiley and christian a. eberhart (eds.), Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement in Early Judaism and Christianity: Constituents and Critique (RBS 85; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017). Pp. 431 + xviii. $46.81. This is an important collection of papers presented in the Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement section at Annual Meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature. The papers are aimed at specialists and are not appropriate for seminary or undergraduate students. The overall quality of the papers is very high. (I wish to disclose that I was on the steering committee of this program unit throughout its existence; SBL closed this section after the 2015 Annual Meeting.) "Introduction: Constituents and Critique of Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement in Early Judaism and Christianity," by Christian A. Eberhart, is a substantial paper in its own right, providing a helpful review of scholarly interpretations of sacrifice and (to a lesser degree) of atonement since the time of Thomas Aquinas. Eberhart shows that the term "sacrifice" is ambivalent and complex (p. 24). In "The Purgation of Persons through the Purification Offering," Joshua M. Vis, critiques some perceived weak points in Jacob Milgrom's view of purification. Vis argues that Leviticus 4–5 presents the purification of persons, not of temple sancta. Speaking of the expressions kipper al and kipper et, Vis effectively demonstrates "that are functionally equivalent" (p. 41). [End Page 367] Dorothea Erbele-Küster ("'She Shall Remain in [Accordance to] Her Blood-of-Purification': Ritual Dynamics of Defilement and Purification in Leviticus 12") shows that, while a woman's blood at first renders her ritually unclean, it purifies her after the required waiting period: "she is ritually pure 'from out of' the flow, that is, as a result of it" (p. 67; quoting Lev 12:7). In "Accessing Holiness via Ritual Ablutions in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature," Hannah Harrington shows that ritual ablutions may be for purification and also for acquiring holiness and readiness to receive revelation. For John and for some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, "baptism was considered … an invitation to God's spirit to enter and perform his work of inner purification" (p. 89). In "A Reexamination of the Ancient Israelite Gesture of Hand Placement," David Calabro rejects the near-consensus that there were two different kinds of hand-placement (one-handed and two-handed). Calabro insists that most of the texts that mention hand-placement refer to the use of both hands. Even texts like Lev 1:4; 3:2, 8; 4:4, which use the singular "hand," actually have a "defective writing of the dual" (p. 116). I was unconvinced by that argument, although I appreciated his point that the gesture can have different functions in different passages (pp. 120-22). Aaron Glaim ("'I Will Not Accept Them': Sacrifice and Reciprocity in the Prophetic Literature") insists that none of the prophets "criticizes the offering of sacrifices as a mode of religious practice; rather … Yahweh rejects Israelite and Judean sacrifices because he is angry" (p. 135), but Yhwh accepts sacrifices when there are "amicable relations" (p. 148). Glaim's views find support in Isa 19:21 and Jer 17:26; 33:18, but I find his argument unconvincing as regards the more radical passages. He fails to notice when the sacrificial concept itself is scorned (Hos 4:8; 8:11; Amos 5:25; Mic 6:6–8). He offers a helpful focus on reciprocity, but he certainly overreaches when he argues that the prophetic critique "functions rather as an apology for the cultus" (p. 131). Göran Eidevall's argument in "Prophetic Cult-Criticism in Support of Sacrificial Worship? The Case of Jeremiah" is similar to Glaim's. The Book of Jeremiah, although redacted over time, has "a rather high degree of coherence" and shows "a basically positive attitude toward the sacrificial cult" (pp. 154-55). Passages such as 6:20 and 33:18 display different outlooks "since they refer to different historical situations" (p. 166). Ma. Maricel S. Ibita ("'What to Me Is the Multitude of Your Sacrifices?' Exploring the Critique...