Sacrifice in the Bible

The study of the theme of sacrifice is seen by many as peripheral, not to say superfluous, to the theological task. The papers in this volume, however, given by members of the Biblical Theology study group of Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical and Theological Research, bear witness to the centrality of the idea and practice of sacrifice in biblical religion. Contributions cover the whole spectrum of the biblical treatment of the subject, as well as survey its contemporary cultural and religious contexts, whether Babylonian and Canaanite or Graeco-Roman and Jewish. The underlying goal of 'Sacrifice in the Bible' is to ascertain how far the developed idea of sacrifice, both as the pattern of human life and as the way of divine salvation in Christ, is implicit in the ceremonial practice from which it arose.

Roger Beckwith is former Warden of Latimer House, Oxford, and Martin Selman is Tutor in Old Testament at Spurgeon's College, London.