The Meaning of Meaning

George Caird in his Language and Imagery of the Bible has these interesting comments on atonement, which he notes “occurs most frequently in the Priestly Code and gives characteristic flavor to its sacrificial regulations”:

“The priests who drew up the Code had no very clear idea of what they meant by atonement or how it worked. The nearest they ever came to a definition was: ‘it is the blood, that is life, that makes expiation ‘ (Lev. 17:11). They were heirs to three centuries of criticism from prophets who had protested that sacrifices does not atone, and that it was not what God required; yet they maintained and elaborated the ritual because they felt the need for atonement.”

Religion