ABSTRACT
The foregoing material has aimed to illuminate our understanding of the background discussions concerning atonement, including those surrounding the notions of forgiveness, love, and justice, as well as issues concerning how to compare the merits of one explanation of atonement to another. This chapter’s primary aim is to work within the findings of previous chapters to construct an explanation of atonement built fundamentally on a biblical understanding of sacrifice. It begins with a foray into the Hebraic world of sacrifice, delineating various components to sacrificial rituals found in the biblical texts. After this, we recall the problem of sin presented in Chapter 4 in all of its component parts. The chapter closes, then, by constructing two instances of a sacrificial explanation of atonement grounded in three rituals – i.e., those involving the yom kippur sacrifice, yom kippur scapegoat, and Passover lamb – prevalent in Christian texts concerning Christ’s atoning work.
