Trespass Offering

Biblical Text and Content

The Korean term for the trespass offering (속건제, 贖愆祭) means "a sacrifice that atones for a trespass." Its regulations appear in Leviticus 5:14–6:7, and the procedure for offering it follows in 7:1–7. Because the Hebrew Bible divides chapters and verses differently, Leviticus 6:1–7 in English Bibles corresponds to 5:20–26 in the Hebrew text.

Leviticus requires a trespass offering in the following cases:

• Sinning unknowingly in regard to the holy things of the LORD, that is, things set apart as holy (5:15–16)
• Unknowingly violating one of the prohibitive commandments (5:17–19)
• Deceiving a neighbor and swearing falsely concerning something entrusted, something taken by violence, something found, and the like (6:2–7)

The offering was a ram without blemish, valued in shekels of the sanctuary. The loss caused had to be repaid at its original value plus one-fifth. If the sin concerned holy things, repayment was made to the priest; if it concerned a neighbor, repayment was made to the injured party. The animal was slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering was killed. Its blood was sprinkled around the altar, its fat was burned, and the priests ate its meat in a holy place (7:1–7).

The trespass offering also appears in the ritual for a person cleansed of leprosy (Leviticus 14:12–25). When a Nazirite was defiled by a dead body, he offered a lamb of the first year as a trespass offering and began the period of his vow again (Numbers 6:12). In the time of Ezra, priests who had married foreign wives offered a ram as a trespass offering (Ezra 10:19).

Background

The trespass offering is grouped with the burnt offering, the grain (meat) offering, the peace offering, and the sin offering as the five sacrifices of Leviticus 1–7. These sacrifices as a whole are treated in the article Old Testament sacrifices. The Hebrew term asham carries the meanings of both "guilt" and "reparation." English Bibles therefore render it as "trespass offering" or "guilt offering," and some scholars use "reparation offering." In 1 Samuel 6, when the Philistines returned the ark of the covenant, the golden emerods and golden mice they sent with it are described by the same word, as a "trespass offering."

Significance in the Bible as a Whole

The distinctive feature of the trespass offering is that it required both the presentation of a sacrifice and actual restitution. Numbers 5:5–8 stipulates that when neither the injured party nor a kinsman remains to receive the restitution, it is to be recompensed to the LORD and given to the priest.

Isaiah 53:10–12 says of the Suffering Servant, "when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin" (Hebrew asham). The New Testament does not use the term "trespass offering" directly. Christian interpreters, however, have connected this passage with the death of Jesus, explaining that Christ was the offering who paid the debt of sin on behalf of others. This interpretation also accords with the teaching of Hebrews that the old sacrifices were fulfilled in Christ's once-for-all sacrifice (Hebrews 10:1–14). In Judaism, a widely known interpretation reads the passage as referring not to the Messiah but to the community of Israel.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

How to distinguish the sin offering from the trespass offering is a long-standing question. Leviticus 7:7 states, "As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them," indicating that the procedures for the two sacrifices were similar. A common simplified explanation holds that "the sin offering is for sins against God, and the trespass offering is for sins against one's neighbor." In the text, however, the trespass offering also covers sins concerning holy things, and deceiving a neighbor is likewise described as committing "a trespass against the LORD" (6:2). For this reason, many scholars locate the core of the trespass offering in the concepts of loss and restitution.

In the Korean Church

In Bible studies and expository preaching on Leviticus, the trespass offering is frequently treated as one of the five sacrifices. A common application in sermons is that repentance must not stop at words but must extend to making good the loss caused. In this connection, preachers often cite Luke 19:8–9, where Zacchaeus promises to restore what he had taken by false accusation. The fourfold restitution Zacchaeus mentions, however, relates to the regulations of Exodus 22 and differs from the one-fifth requirement of the trespass offering.