Leviticus 9:7-8

9:7 Moses then said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and make your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement on behalf of yourself and on behalf of the people; ¹  and also make the people’s offering and make atonement on behalf of them just as the Lord has commanded.”

The Sin Offering for the Priests

9:8 So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the sin offering calf which was for himself.

Leviticus 4:3

For the Priest

4:3 “‘If the high priest ²  sins so that the people are guilty, ³  on account of the sin he has committed he must present a flawless young bull to the Lord ⁴  for a sin offering. ⁵ 

Leviticus 8:14

Consecration Offerings

8:14 Then he brought near the sin offering bull ⁶  and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the sin offering bull,

Exodus 29:1-2

The Consecration of Aaron and His Sons

29:1 ⁷ “Now this is what ⁸  you are to do for them to consecrate them so that they may minister as my priests. Take a young ⁹  bull and two rams without blemish; ¹⁰  29:2 and ¹¹  bread made without yeast, and perforated cakes without yeast mixed with oil, and wafers without yeast spread ¹²  with oil – you are to make them using ¹³  fine wheat flour.

Colossians 1:21

Paul’s Goal in Ministry

1:21 And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your ¹⁴  minds ¹⁵  as expressed through ¹⁶  your evil deeds,

Hebrews 5:3

5:3 and for this reason he is obligated to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.

Hebrews 7:27

7:27 He has no need to do every day what those priests do, to offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people, since he did this in offering himself once for all.

Hebrews 10:10-14

10:10 By his will ¹⁷  we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 10:11 And every priest stands day after day ¹⁸  serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again – sacrifices that can never take away sins. 10:12 But when this priest ¹⁹  had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand ²⁰  of God, 10:13 where he is now waiting ²¹  until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. ²²  10:14 For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy.

[9:7]  ¹ tn Instead of “on behalf of the people,” the LXX has “on behalf of your house” as in the Hebrew text of Lev 16:6, 11, 17. Many commentaries follow the LXX here (e.g., J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:578; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 118) as do a few English versions (e.g., NAB), but others argue that, as on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16), the offerings of the priests also effected the people, even though there was still the need to have special offerings made on behalf of the people as reflected in the second half of the verse (e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 56).

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “the anointed priest” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This refers to the high priest (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “to the guilt of the people”; NRSV “thus bringing guilt on the people.”

[4:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he shall offer on his sin which he sinned, a bull, a son of the herd, flawless.”

[4:3]  ⁵ sn The word for “sin offering” (sometimes translated “purification offering”) is the same as the word for “sin” earlier in the verse. One can tell which rendering is intended only by the context. The primary purpose of the “sin offering” (חַטָּאת, khatta’t) was to “purge” (כִּפֶּר, kipper, “to make atonement,” see 4:20, 26, 31, 35, and the notes on Lev 1:4 and esp. Lev 16:20, 33) the sanctuary or its furniture in order to cleanse it from any impurities and/or (re)consecrate it for holy purposes (see, e.g., Lev 8:15; 16:19). By making this atonement the impurities of the person or community were cleansed and the people became clean. See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:93-103.

[8:14]  ⁶ sn See Lev 4:3-12 above for the sin offering of the priests. In this case, however, the blood manipulation is different because Moses, not Aaron (and his sons), is functioning as the priest. On the one hand, Aaron and his sons are, in a sense, treated as if they were commoners so that the blood manipulation took place at the burnt offering altar in the court of the tabernacle (see v. 15 below), not at the incense altar inside the tabernacle tent itself (contrast Lev 4:5-7 and compare 4:30). On the other hand, since it was a sin offering for the priests, therefore, the priests themselves could not eat its flesh (Lev 4:11-12; 6:30 [23 HT]), which was the normal priestly practice for sin offerings of commoners (Lev 6:26[19], 29[22]).

[29:1]  ⁷ sn Chap. 29 is a rather long, involved discussion of the consecration of Aaron the priest. It is similar to the ordination service in Lev 8. In fact, the execution of what is instructed here is narrated there. But these instructions must have been formulated after or in conjunction with Lev 1-7, for they presuppose a knowledge of the sacrifices. The bulk of the chapter is the consecration of the priests: 1-35. It has the preparation (1-3), washing (4), investiture and anointing (5-9), sin offering (10-14), burnt offering (15-18), installation peace offering (19-26, 31-34), other offerings’ rulings (27-30), and the duration of the ritual (35). Then there is the consecration of the altar (36-37), and the oblations (38-46). There are many possibilities for the study and exposition of this material. The whole chapter is the consecration of tabernacle, altar, people, and most of all the priests. God was beginning the holy operations with sacral ritual. So the overall message would be: Everyone who ministers, everyone who worships, and everything they use in the presence of Yahweh, must be set apart to God by the cleansing, enabling, and sanctifying work of God.

[29:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “the thing.”

[29:1]  ⁹ tn Literally: “take one bull, a ‘son’ of the herd.”

[29:1]  ¹⁰ tn The word תָּמִים (tamim) means “perfect.” The animals could not have diseases or be crippled or blind (see Mal 1). The requirement was designed to ensure that the people would give the best they had to Yahweh. The typology pointed to the sinless Messiah who would fulfill all these sacrifices in his one sacrifice on the cross.

[29:2]  ¹¹ sn This will be for the minkhah (מִנְחָה) offering (Lev 2), which was to accompany the animal sacrifices.

[29:2]  ¹² tn Or “anointed” (KJV, ASV).

[29:2]  ¹³ tn The “fine flour” is here an adverbial accusative, explaining the material from which these items were made. The flour is to be finely sifted, and from the wheat, not the barley, which was often the material used by the poor. Fine flour, no leaven, and perfect animals, without blemishes, were to be gathered for this service.

[1:21]  ¹⁴ tn The article τῇ (th) has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[1:21]  ¹⁵ tn Although διανοία (dianoia) is singular in Greek, the previous plural noun ἐχθρούς (ecqrous) indicates that all those from Colossae are in view here.

[1:21]  ¹⁶ tn The dative ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς (en toi" ergoi" toi" ponhroi") is taken as means, indicating the avenue through which hostility in the mind is revealed and made known.

[10:10]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “by which will.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[10:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “daily,” “every day.”

[10:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “this one.” This pronoun refers to Jesus, but “this priest” was used in the translation to make the contrast between the Jewish priests in v. 11 and Jesus as a priest clearer in English.

[10:12]  ²⁰ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.

[10:13]  ²¹ tn Grk “from then on waiting.”

[10:13]  ²² sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.