Bible dictionaries

Burnt offering

What Bible dictionaries say about “Burnt offering”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Burnt offering - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Hebrew olah; i.e., "ascending," the whole being consumed by fire, and regarded as ascending to God while being consumed. Part of every offering was burnt in the sacred fire, but this was wholly burnt, a "whole burnt offering." It was the most frequent form of sacrifice, and apparently the only one mentioned in the book of Genesis. Such were the sacrifices offered by Abel (Gen. 4:3, 4, here called minhah; i.e., "a gift"), Noah (Gen. 8:20), Abraham (Gen. 22:2, 7, 8, 13), and by the Hebrews in Egypt (Ex. 10:25).

The law of Moses afterwards prescribed the occasions and the manner in which burnt sacrifices were to be offered. There were "the continual burnt offering" (Ex. 29:38-42; Lev. 6:9-13), "the burnt offering of every sabbath," which was double the daily one (Num. 28:9, 10), "the burnt offering of every month" (28:11-15), the offerings at the Passover (19-23), at Pentecost (Lev. 23:16), the feast of Trumpets (23:23-25), and on the day of Atonement (Lev. 16).

On other occasions special sacrifices were offered, as at the consecration of Aaron (Ex. 29) and the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:5, 62-64).

Free-will burnt offerings were also permitted (Lev. 1:13), and were offered at the accession of Solomon to the throne (1 Chr. 29:21), and at the reformation brought about by Hezekiah (2 Chr. 29: 31-35).

These offerings signified the complete dedication of the offerers unto God. This is referred to in Rom. 12:1. (See [85]ALTAR, [86]SACRIFICE.)

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915

Smith’s Bible Dictionary

The word is applied to the offering which was wholly consumed by fire on the altar, and the whole of which, except the refuse ashes "ascended" in the smoke to God. The meaning of the whole burnt offering was that which is the original idea of all sacrifice, the offering by the sacrificer of himself, soul and body, to God--the submission of his will to the will of the Lord. The ceremonies of the burnt offering are given in detail in the book of Leviticus. [SACRIFICE]

William Smith; revised by F. N. Peloubet and M. A. Peloubet; CrossWire SWORD module Smith 1.3

The article in Smith

Translation Words

Definition

A “burnt offering” was a type of sacrifice to God that was burnt up by fire on an altar. It was offered to make atonement for the sins of the people. This was also called an “offering by fire.”

Animals used for this offering were usually sheep or goats, but oxen and birds were also used.
Except for the skin, the entire animal was burned up in this offering. The skin or hide was given to the priest.
God commanded the Jewish people to offer burnt offerings two times every day.

(See also: altar, atonement, ox, priest, sacrifice)

Bible References

Word Data

Strong’s: H0801, H5930, H7133, H8548, G36460

The original work by unfoldingWord is available from https://www.unfoldingword.org/utw. Bible Strong converted the Markdown and resource links to its dictionary schema and normalized Bible references.

The article in Translation Words