Were the Prophets Opposed to Sacrifice?
Works passage by passage through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah, and Malachi to test the widespread assumption that the prophets rejected the sacrificial cult, and concludes instead that their scorn fell on offerings brought without morality or to false gods, while each prophet anticipated restored Temple worship as the very sign of reconciliation with God.
Chinitz challenges the conventional reading that the classical prophets condemned sacrifice as such. Surveying each prophetic book in turn, he argues that the familiar denunciations target hollow ritual, social injustice, offerings to other gods, and blemished or stolen animals, rather than the institution of offerings itself. Alongside the rebukes he finds repeated expectations of renewal: Isaiah’s mountain of acceptable offerings, Jeremiah’s restored thanksgiving, Ezekiel’s detailed altar ordinances, and Joel’s lament over suspended rites. Drawing on Soncino commentary notes, he concludes that the prophets treated the resumption of proper worship as the promised emblem of reconciliation between God and Israel.
Jacob Chinitz was ordained at Yeshiva University and is a member of The Rabbinical Assembly. He has taught at several colleges and has published several hundred articles in twenty journals in the United States, Canada, and Israel. He has served as a rabbi in Philadelphia, Halifax, and most recently at Congregation Shaare Zedek in Montreal, and is the author of three books: In My Opinion, Divrei Torah for Shabbat and Chagim, and Ten Illusions about Judaism.
Cite this article
Jacob Chinitz. "Were the Prophets Opposed to Sacrifice?." Jewish Bible Quarterly 36, no. 2 (April – June 2008): 73–80.
Jacob Chinitz. "Were the Prophets Opposed to Sacrifice?." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2, 2008, pp. 73–80.