Altar of Burnt Offering

Biblical Text

Instructions for making the altar of burnt offering first appear in Exodus 27:1-8. In Exodus 38:1-7, Bezalel builds the altar according to those instructions. The altar was a square, hollow structure made of shittim wood (acacia) and overlaid with bronze. It was five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. Horns were attached at its four corners, a bronze grating was fitted to it, and poles were inserted so that it could be carried. The altar was placed in the courtyard of the tabernacle, before the door of the tent of meeting (Exodus 40:6).

The various offerings described in Leviticus 1–7 were presented on this altar. Leviticus 6:12-13 commands that the fire on the altar never be allowed to go out. Leviticus 9:24 records that when Aaron first offered sacrifice, fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the offering. The blood of the sin offering was put on the horns of the altar, and the rest was poured out at its base (Leviticus 4:25).

A much larger bronze altar was placed in the Temple in Jerusalem built by Solomon (2 Chronicles 4:1). King Ahaz built a new altar modeled on the altar in Damascus and moved the bronze altar to the side (2 Kings 16:10-15). After the return from exile, the people set up the altar before building the Temple (Ezra 3:2-3).

Background and Terminology

The Hebrew word for altar is mizbeach, generally understood to derive from a verb meaning "to slaughter" or "to sacrifice." The word for burnt offering, olah, means "that which goes up" and refers to a sacrifice in which the entire offering is burned and ascends as smoke. The altar of burnt offering is also called the "bronze altar" to distinguish it from the gold-overlaid altar of incense inside the tabernacle (Exodus 38:30). Taking hold of the horns of the altar also appears as an act of seeking refuge to save one's life, as Adonijah (1 Kings 1:50) and Joab (1 Kings 2:28) did.

Significance Across Scripture

The New Testament presents the death of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice offered once for all and teaches that the animal sacrifices repeated year after year have thereby come to an end (Hebrews 10:10-14). Hebrews 13:10 declares, "We have an altar," and goes on to name praise and doing good as the sacrifices believers are to offer (Hebrews 13:15-16). The expression "a living sacrifice" in Romans 12:1 likewise carries forward this sacrificial language.

Interpretation and Debate

• Many Protestant interpreters read the altar of burnt offering as a type (a foreshadowing of something to come) of the cross and of Christ's atonement. Some interpretations assign symbolic meaning to each detail, such as the bronze, the horns, and the four corners. Others, however, caution against fixing meanings that the text itself does not state.
• The Catholic Church, holding that the Mass is connected with Christ's sacrifice on the cross, calls the eucharistic table an "altar." The Anglican Church of Korea also uses the term "altar." Protestants in the Reformation tradition, emphasizing that Christ's sacrifice was completed once for all, generally call the table on which the Lord's Supper is set the "Communion table."
• Scholars differ on where in present-day Jerusalem the Temple's altar of burnt offering stood. Accordingly, accounts that identify it with a specific location are not established fact.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the word "altar" is widely used figuratively. A steady prayer life is described as "building an altar of prayer," and family worship is called the "family altar." The pulpit platform at the front of a sanctuary is sometimes referred to as the "altar." In preaching, complete self-dedication is sometimes likened to a "burnt offering." Some, however, criticize applying Old Testament sacrificial terminology directly to church buildings or worship, on the grounds that Christ's sacrifice has already been completed.