ABSTRACT
The model of the self-sacrificing death reinterprets many of the basic semiotics of animal sacrifice, shifting away from the "channeling" system of animal sacrifice in the priestly writings. The self-sacrificing death is not built around an explicit demand to discontinue animal sacrifice. In the case of human self-sacrifice, animal blood no longer has the status of representing an essence of the sacrificial system. Enduring torture and shedding blood at the altar is the sign of a willing self-sacrifice that is theologically motivated. As a rereading of sacrifice the self-sacrificing death is a two-edged sword: its power can be unleashed against any earthly authority and not just the already-dead foreign king against whom the author of Second Maccabees retroactively railed decades later. The solution to the sacrificial crisis is a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences. The bodies of the sons are concrete representations of the "higher law" of martyrdom.
