A guilt offering ( he, אשם, ’āšām, translation=guilt, trespass; plural ), also referred to as a trespass offering (
KJV
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...
, 1611), was a type of
Biblical sacrifice, specifically a sacrifice made as a
compensation payment for unintentional and certain intentional transgressions. It was distinct from the Biblical
sin offering
A sin offering ( he, קָרְבַּן חַטָּאת, ''korban ḥatat'', , lit: "purification offering") is a sacrificial offering described and commanded in the Torah (Lev. 4.1-35); it could be fine flour or a proper animal.Leviticus 5:11 A sin ...
.
Hebrew Bible
Guilt offerings or trespass offerings were mandated in
Leviticus, chapters 5 to 7, where references are made to the offering "for sin" or "for sins". In the Greek
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
, the phrase used is the offering ''peri tes plemmeleias'' (περὶ τῆς πλημμελείας).
The transgressor furnished an unblemished ram for sacrifice at the
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusa ...
, as well as (in cases of sins against holy items, theft, commission of fraud or false oaths) monetary compensation to the victim for their loss, plus a mark-up of 20% of the value to cover the priest's earnings. Monetary restitution had to be given in the
pre-exile version of the currency (the ''
shekel
Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became c ...
of the sanctuary''), rather than the currency of the time, giving rise to a need for currency exchange in the Temple (hence the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
narrative of
Jesus and the Money Changers
The cleansing of the Temple narrative tells of Jesus expelling the merchants and the money changers from the Second Temple, Temple, and is recounted in all four canonical gospels of the New Testament. The scene is a common motif in Christian art ...
).
Such compensation payments were given on occasion of:
[ "The final offering is the guilt offering, also called the restitution or reparation offering. ... Three cases are given in which a person had to offer a guilt offering: sinning against a holy item, committing an unknown sin, and swearing falsely in a matter concerning money."]
*infringing the rights of
the priests
The Priests are a classical musical group, made up of three Roman Catholic priests from the Diocese of Down and Connor in Northern Ireland. Fr. Eugene and his brother Fr. Martin O'Hagan are originally from the village of Claudy, County Londond ...
to portions of other sacrifices (referred to in the text as ''God's holy things'')
*committing an unknown sin - as these infringements were uncertain and possibly had not occurred at all, this was voluntary (''just in case'') and there was no restitution element
*swearing falsely in a matter concerning money
This was also given as part of the
purification process for ''tzaraath''.
Guilt offerings are mentioned in . The Philistines are told by priests and fortune-tellers to make an offerings of five golden mice and five golden hemorrhoids in hopes of ending the mice and hemorrhoids that had plagued them since taking the ark of God from Israel. The images of golden mice and golden hemorrhoids are used in the offering.
English Translations
Translations of the Old Testament which use the phrase 'Guilt Offering' include the
English Standard Version (ESV),
New International Version (NIV) and
Revised Standard Version (RSV). Translations which use the phrase 'Trespass Offering' include the 1599
Geneva Bible
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was used by William Shakespear ...
,
King James Version (KJV) and
New King James Version (NKJV)
The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...
, the
Wycliffe Bible
Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of English theologian John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395. These Bible translati ...
and the
American Standard Version (ASV).
The
Good News Bible (GNT) uses the phrase 'Repayment Offering'.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guilt Offering
Hebrew Bible words and phrases
Jewish sacrificial law
Law of Moses
Book of Leviticus