Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/515

467 ;

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

467 on the seventli day of

tlie festival

of Tabernacles,

when the people made a circuit around it seven times, and addressed it on depiirtiiiir: "To thee belonjreth beauty, O Altar! To Him. the Lord, and to thee,

"

Altar!

(Suk.

iv.

.')).

Tlie belief

was

that

th<-

Altar

ou Jlount Moriah was the same that Xoah built, and that .Vdam had already broujihl his first sjicriticc to this identical spot H. Ishniael. in I'irke H. El. xxxi. For "upon sacTar}r. Yer. Gen. viii. 20; ..ii. !. rificial worship rests the world " (Ab. i. 3; All. K. X. (

(.1) iv.

27*



(I}) V.



Yer., Ta'auit, iv. 6»((Bab., Ta'anit,

yivg. 31A). Still this regard for the Altar was not universal amonjr the Jews. Aversion to it was manifested not so much by the Hasidim (Esscnes). whose ojiposition was directed ratlier against the illegally apjiointed high priests than against Siicrifices in general, as by the cry was the priests themselves, amcmg raised by Miriam, the <lauglilir of liilgah (who be:

whom

came an apostate

in the time of the Syrian invasion of the Temple): "O thou wolf who swallowest all the wealth of Israel, and yet failest to give relief in time of need! " (Suk. oG/*; Yer. .Suk. end;Tosef.. Suk. iv. 28). But this very expression " wolf," applied to the Altar, came into later pojiular use without any Targ. allusicm to its voraciousness (Gen. i. xcix.

and Jerome on Gen.

Of

the

two

xlix. 27).

Altai's in the

Temple, the golden one is sjiid to symbolize

Altar

death (according to the Talmudic legend, in Hadrian's time, and not in that of Antiochus Epiplianes),

"O my sons, go forth and tell Abraham your ancestor (supposed to sit at the Gate of Gan tden): 'Thou didst build one altar whereon to offer thy son as sacrifice: I have built seven altars! " (Gi^. 57//). In IV Mace. vi. 29, xvii. 22, we also read that the blood of these sjiintly martyrs (the seven sons) was an atonement for Israel's sins: an idea often repeated in the Talmud (M. K. 2N(. The death of the righteous has the same atoning power as the Red cried out;

'

Heifer. On this idea rests Paul's doctrine of the atoning power of Jesus' death (Rom. iii. 25, and elsewhere) and the identification of Jesus with the Altar in Heb. xiii. 10. The Altar with its sacrifices on earth has. according to the ancient Gnostic viev, its archetype in heaven: >Iichael, the archangel, as Its Arche- high priest offering (the souls of the type in saints) upon that Altar (Hag. 124, Zeb. Heaven. (i2(/. Men. 110«; Seder Gan Eden, and Midr. 'Aserctha-Dibberotin .Jellinek's "B. II." iii. 137). The same heavenly Altar is referred to constantly in the Church liturgy. Under this heavenly Altar the saints rest after death (Ab. R. X. (.1) xxvi. and xii. ). Similarly the souls of those slain for the word of God are said in Rev. vi. 9, viii. 9, to rest under the hcavenlj- Altar. K.

for the incense

Altars in the Temple. (Midr.

devotion

the

of

the

soul,

whose

nourishment is of a finer nature; the bronze Altar for animal sacrifice, that iif the body, which is fed ou flesh

Tadsheh

xi.).

When

theilestruction of the Temple with its Altar filled the [leople with alarm as they thought of their unatoned sins. Joliaiiaii Inn Zakkai comfort<'d Ihrin sjjying: "You have aiiollier means of atonement as powerful as the altar, and that is the work of char" I desired mercy and not sjicritice ity, for it is Siiid (Hosea, vi. (i and he referred to Daniel x. 11 "the man of desirable virtues" U'li ffdimnlut, translated also by the Septuagint, tTirte/i/ur, "the merciful one"), who served Go<l bv almsgiving an<l prayer (Ab. '

'



.

) ;

R. K. (.l)iv. after' Dan. x. 11). The Altar being called, also, the "table h<'fore the Lord " (Ezek. xli. 22; Mai. i. 7. 12), the Altar of incense placed before the ark of the covenant is said to be only the symbol of the study of the Law by the wise, while.the Altar of sacrifice represents the charity offered by the rich, who spread their bounties for the poor ou the table in front of their houses (Targ. Yer.. Ex. xl. n, 6; Compare Ab. iii. ;i; Men. XWn; Ber. TiTin; Hag. 27i( Paul apiiliid the same idea of the Altar Y<piiia 7bO. ns the table of the l.onl to the ('onimiinioii meal (I And while among the rabbis indiCor. X. lH-21). gent and uon-rcsiih'ut students of the Law were the chief ones chosen as partakers of the meal in order to render it a " table of the Lord " (see Ber. lOA), according to the Apostolic Constitutions (ii. 26, iv. 8). widows and orphans were calli'd "the altars of the Lord." the widows reprcsiiiting the Altar of burnt -olTering. and the virgins the Altar of incense. Even the law concerning the exclusion of impure gifts from the .Vltarof (od(Di'UI. xxiii. 1!») was ajiIn striking eontra-st to plied to the Church charity. the Church view of the superior merit of virginity. Tan. (Wayishlah. <>) says: "The pious wife, remaining modestly within her domestic circle, is like the altar, in that she is an atoning power for her house-

hold."

But the Altar was also taken

a.s

symbolic of the

cause of Go<i. The celebrated mother w Im saw her si'Ven sous die a martyr's sacrifice of one's life in the

Critical 'View on Forms and Origin: A glance at the above material makes it clear that in form the simplest Altar was a natural rock or stone. A stone with a large flat top. in which were natural depres.sions for receiving the lilood and natural channels to act as conduits for it, was usually selected. Several such have been identified (see " Biblical World." ix. 229 it siy/.). The first advance toward complexity was the substitution of a heap of earth or of stones for the simjile rock. This heap yas sometimes surrounded by a trench (I Kings, xviii. 3'2), evidently for the purpose of carrying off water and blood, as was the case with the .iihabghab in the sanctuary at Mecca (Wellhausen. "Reste des Arabisilien Heidenthums." p. 105). A great departure from this is found in the Altar of Sohuiion's Temple and The foraier was of the Altar of the Tabernacle. bronze and of Phenician workmanship. Its form is The Chronicler (II Chron. iv. 1) makes in doubt. it an enormous square ten cubits in height, but there is no mention of it among the utensils of the Temple in I Kings, vii. It is mentioned in I Kings, viii. 04 (a late insertion, see Kittel in X'owack's "Hand Ivoiuiiieiitar"). Wellhausen ("Proleg." 5th ed., p. -15). and Stade ("Gesch." i. 333) hold'that it %vas omitted by a late redactor, who thought that the bronze -Vltar of the Tabernacle must have Iwen moved into the Temple by Solomon. Robertson Smith ("Religion of the Semites." 2d ed., p. 4><7) objects that no separate bronze Altar is mentioned as having been carried away by Xebuchadiuzzar (II Kings. XXV.), and .seeks to show that the pillars Jachin and Boaz had (iiiiU or fire-pans in them, in which fire was kept burning by fat of the sjicrifice. Thus they became huge Forms of Altar, candlesticks or cres.s«>ts (compare also Toy, "Ezekiel," in Haupts "S. B. O. T." p. 186, who accepts this viewV If this be s<i. the two iiriilf of Moab which Benaiah smote (II Sam.

Were similar

pillars iH'fore a .shrine S." i»2si. for a eippus on which pillearn lars or posts before a shrine are figured). from the inscriptiim of .Mesha (lines 11, 12, 17 et ftt/.). that an iirirl was a structure which couhl be carried off. .Most siliolurs, ho%vever, hold that the Altar of xxiii.

"20,

(compare

Jfih.) " C. I.

We