Gift offering
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| Priesthood in Judaism |
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Kohen · Recognition of priestly descent Priestly covenant |
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Aaron · Eleazar · Phinehas · Eli · Ahimelech · Abiathar (First Temple) · Zadok · Shallum · Hilkiah · Jehoiada (Second Temple) Joshua the High Priest Simeon the Just Yishmael Ben Elisha Yehoshua ben Gamla Pinchus Ben Shmuel |
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The ten gifts given in the Temple 1. Sin offering · 2. Guilt offering 3. Communal peace offering 4. Fowl sin offering · 5. Leftovers from the suspensive guilt offering 6. Oil from the offering for the leper 7. Bread from First Fruits · 8. Showbread 9. Leftovers of the meal offering 10. Leftovers of the First Sheaf.
15. Heave offering 16. Heave offering of the Levite's tithe 17. Dough offering 18. First shearing of the sheep 19. Shoulder, cheeks and maw 20. Coins for redemption of the first born son · 21. Redemption of a donkey · 22. Dedication of property to a priest · 23. Field not redeemed in a Jubilee year · 24. The property of the foreigner with no heir. |
A meal offering, grain offering, or gift offering (Hebrew: minkhah מנחה), is a type of Biblical sacrifice, specifically a sacrifice that did not include meat. In older English it is sometimes called an oblation, from Latin.
Etymology
The Hebrew noun minkhah (מִנְחָה) is used 211 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible with the first instances being the minkhah offered by both Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. It is also used of Jacob's "present" to Esau in Genesis 32 and again of the "present" to the Egyptian ruler (in fact Joseph his son) in Genesis 43. In the King James Version of 1611 this was rendered as "meat offerings," since at the time the King James Version was written, meat referred to food in general rather than the flesh of animals in particular.
Hebrew Bible
Gift offerings were often made on their own, but also accompanied the burnt offering. Scholars believe that the term "gift offering" originally referred to all voluntary sacrifices, but that it later came to just refer to non-meat offerings.
The quintessential gift offering was one of grain (not just high quality flour), frankincense, and oil. The grain could either be raw and mixed with oil, or mixed with oil and cooked into unleavened bread, or cooked into wafers and spread with oil. According to tradition ten such cakes of bread had to be made for each offering. A portion of this was then burnt on the altar, along with the frankincense, while the remainder was allocated to the priests, who were to eat it within the sanctuary.