Why does sprinkling blood on the alter and burning fat create a “sweet savor” for Yahweh?
Because – in the ancient Hebrew mind – blood and the suet were thought to be somehow one in the same with the creature’s life/soul… and a good greasefat fire in the open actually does smell pretty good. In the ritual it is a legally significant act (like signing your name, giving an engagement ring, or walking down the aisle), and betokens a two-way comittment (a contract, with offer, acceptance, and consideration), a transaction, and a willing and mutual (though not equal) relationship. By sacrificing the animal in this way, the life of the animal is physically and legally (as the Hebrews saw it) given to God, and (as the Hebrew literally reads) “turned into smoke”, and rises into heaven to be recieved by God. The life (and death) of the animal makes atonement for the sinner offering it, and so appeases God’s wrath against him, so that he can once again enter into fellowship with God in the Tabernacle/Temple. In the Christian interpretation of this, the whole Levitical sacrifical sy
Re. comment: >>No, I’m wondering why any Deity would find the burning of fat to be a sweet savor and forgive someone because they killed something and burned it.<< Because of what it signified/meant to the person seeking forgiveness and to his society. If you study the Bible you discover that God and his prophets mostly act things out, engaging in a kind of performance art, rather than just telling people a bunch of platitudes. [God even has his prophet Hosea marry a prostitute (who compulsively/addictively turns tricks all the time) as a way of telling Israel – God’s bride – that she’s a wanton whore.] That's why so much of the Bible is made up of stories, not instructions. And in Hebrew ritual, the people of God were supposed to do the same, acting things out on the basis of their own symbolic vocabulary: like dance, it was unspoken poetry … BUT YOU HAVE UNDERSTAND WHAT THE SYMBOLS SIGNIFY. In any case, God is arguably just using their own language and their own symbols as they under
