Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CEREAL OFFERING

Also translated “grain offering” (and, misleadingly, KJV “meat offering”). Heb. minḥâ means “gift” or “tribute” and often refers to payments to suzerains which are obligated by vassal treaties; as Israel’s Lord, God also received a minḥâ. The religious concept minḥâ might have once included animal sacrifices as well as grain offerings. In Gen. 4:4 Abel’s offering of the firstlings of his flock is called a minḥâ, and in 1 Sam. 2:17 Eli’s sons’ demand for a larger portion of sacrificial meat is said to show contempt for God’s minḥâ. However, all other biblical evidence of the cultic use of this word clearly refers to offerings of cereal, and there is no reliable basis upon which to assume that minḥâ as cereal offering is a late or postexilic linguistic development — the preexilic Phoenician equivalent also referred to cereal offerings. Regardless of its actual etymology, this word undoubtedly brought to mind thoughts of the covenant with God. It is not insignificant that Lev. 2:13 warns that the salt of the Lord’s covenant should never be omitted from the cereal offering.

Three types of cultic minḥâ are attested: (1) cereal offerings accompanying burnt offerings, (2) cereal offerings in lieu of burnt offerings, and (3) offerings of the firstfruits of grain and its products. Those of the third type are either minḥaṯ bikkûrîm, firstfruits of the harvest (crushed, parched grain from new ears), a portion of which was burned, or rēʾšiṯ, the firsts of processed products, which were never burned. Presumably, the firstfruits offerings would apply to any grain, though one most often thinks of the barley harvest and the grain offering associated with the Festival of Weeks. The independent and accompanying cereal offerings were to be of wheat flour, which as twice as expensive as barley flour (2 Kgs. 7:16), but within reach of the common person’s budget. Offered uncooked, it was to be accompanied by frankincense, a fairly expensive spice. As an alternative, it could be offered without the frankincense if it were cooked in any of four different ways (Lev. 2:4-7). The cereal offering was always unleavened, mixed with oil, and offered with salt. The prescriptions for the sin offering (Lev. 5:7, 11) make it clear that the cereal offering was an acceptable substitute for a burnt offering if the person making the offering could not afford even a pair of birds. The cereal offering is thus often called the offering of the poor and was common as such throughout the ancient Near East.

Because it could substitute for the burnt offerings, the cereal offering served the same wide range of purposes and occasions as did the burnt offerings. Unlike the burnt offerings, however, only a token portion of the priestly cereal offering was burnt. The rest was contributed to the priests. Non-Priestly sources (e.g., 2 Kgs. 16:15) suggest that the cereal offering was completely burnt. However, it is likely that divergent practices were common. One might infer this from the account of Eli’s sons (1 Sam. 2) and from 2 Kgs. 23:9, which points out that the priests of the high places “ate unleavened bread (i.e., their share of cereal offerings) among their kindred.” Cereal offerings, even in the postexilic period, could be offered at locations where burnt offerings would have been unthinkable (e.g., Elephantine). After the destruction of Solomon’s temple, devout worshippers continued to leave cereal offerings at the temple site, even though no altar remained (Jer. 41:5). Cereal offerings were common in other ancient Near Eastern religions, and were even to be found in Judah in connection with worship of the queen of heaven (Jer. 44:19).

Bibliography. J. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16. AB 3 (New York, 1991), 177-202.

William R. Scott

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CEREAL OFFERING

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)