Ritual and Metaphor—Sacrifice in the Bible

The sanctuary and rituals that formed the heart of ancient Judaism ceased to exist a long time ago, yet their images and concepts, especially that of “sacrifice,” have remained essential to the rhetoric of politics, religion, and secular culture. Pervasive sacrificial metaphors range from religious foundations for human ethics to attempts to glorify victims of military operations or natural disasters to much-debated ideas of vicarious atonement within Christianity. The essays in this volume deal with central aspects of sacrificial rituals and processes of metaphor development and spiritualization in Judaism and Christianity. The contributors include Christian A. Eberhart, Goran Eidevall, Stephen Finlan, George P. Heyman, Dominika Kurek-Chomycz, Jeffrey S. Siker, Jason Tatlock, Timothy Wardle, and James W. Watts.

Christian A. Eberhart is Professor of New Testament Studies at Lutheran Theological Seminary Saskatoon and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Religion and Culture at the University of Saskatchewan. He is the author of Studien zur Bedeutung der Opfer im Alten Testament: Die Signifikanz von Blut- und Verbrennungsriten im kultischen Rahmen (Neukirchener) and The Sacrifice of Jesus: Understanding Atonement Biblically (Fortress). Eberhart is chair of the “Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement” Annual Conference Program Unit of the Society of Biblical Literature.