Jeremy Davis > Quotes

“As traditional sacrifices faded from collective memory, later Christians became hazy about what ancient teachers meant by the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifices of Christian life. We haven’t repudiated these ways of describing our salvation, since they are firmly rooted in our tradition. Yet, at least in the Eastern Orthodox Church, our focus has shifted toward other, more familiar metaphors: defeat of the devil, invasion of Hades, liberation of captives.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Christ, therefore, offered Himself not just as a gift from humanity to God but also as a gift from God to us. The ancient practice of sacrifice was thus inverted: it had always been employed by human beings to attract God’s friendship, yet Christ came as a gift from God seeking to attract our friendship. Christ’s sacrifice thus exemplifies the unimaginable humility of God, who reaches out in love to those who have denied Him time and again. In no other religion do we find a god who thus sacrifices to his lowly and wayward creatures (see Phil. 2:5–8; 2 Cor. 8:9).”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Instead of the act of killing, the Law emphasizes two other parts of the ritual: burning the animal’s flesh and applying its blood to some part of the sanctuary.30 These actions could only be performed by priests—a restriction emphasized by Leviticus’s punctilious repetition of the phrase “the priests, the sons of Aaron.” Moreover, they could only be performed in particularly holy places: the flesh was burned on the bronze altar, and the blood was poured or daubed either there or within the sanctuary itself. Being performed by holy persons in holy places, these actions were marked as especially holy—the pinnacle of the ritual.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Whereas generosity depends on a trusting security, selfishness ultimately arises from deep fear that one can only depend on oneself, that one’s happiness rests precariously in one’s own hands. It is a strategy for facing what one perceives to be a cold, hard world. Thus, it betrays a mistrust of God’s loving care, a fundamental refusal to believe that God will provide all that is good.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Most Jewish animal sacrifices required two companion offerings, whose proportions depended on the type of animal offered: (1) wine and (2) semolina mixed with oil.8 Thus, the offered meat was joined to a delicious drink and an unctuous starch. These are the makings of a meal, as religion scholar W. Robertson Smith has observed: “When the Hebrew ate flesh, he ate bread with it and drank wine, and when he offered flesh on the table of his God, it was natural that he should add to it the same concomitants which were necessary to make up a comfortable and generous meal.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Since the poor are an altar of God and filled with Christ’s presence, due reverence requires that our gifts to them be obtained honorably and by the sweat of our own brows. This too is in stark contrast with secular charity, which is often used by those with questionable riches to polish up their public images. It is not virtuous to give in charity what you have accumulated through sin—whether through outright theft or by greedily taking advantage of others.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Whereas Christians saw the Jewish sacrificial system as being superseded by Christ, they viewed Greco-Roman sacrifice as fundamentally opposed to Him.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“In place of polytheistic idolatry, a new pattern of worship was ordained by God in the Mosaic Law. One of its key components was a purified form of sacrifice. Although recognizable as the same ritual practiced by other cultures, it was stripped of all their sinful distortions and regulated so that it might fulfill its natural purpose: drawing humanity into relationship with God. It was a perfected form of sacrifice.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“defining sacrifice as violence ignores the myriad sacrifices that didn’t involve killing at all. Nonanimal substances were offered in the same way as animal sacrifices and called by the same sacrificial terms. Though these offerings played a central role throughout ancient religions, they have been erased from our idea of sacrifice.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“The metaphor of sacrifice was a meaningful and effective way to preach the gospel in the ancient world. The ancient idea of sacrifice was familiar to Jews, Greeks, Romans, and everybody else; it didn’t have to be explained, only tweaked. The biblical authors and the Church Fathers relied on this familiarity, and they assumed that their readers shared it.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Across ancient cultures, then, killing was far less important than other parts of the sacrificial ritual.34 It was those other actions that characterized sacrifice for ancient people. Historian Robert Parker’s observation about Greek religion can be extended to all these cultures: “It does not emerge from the combined evidence of literary texts, art, and ritual rules that the act of killing was the central moment in the ritual.”35 Thus, as two other scholars conclude, “the view that sacrifice is essentially, or even primarily, about killing can no longer be maintained.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Though absent from vegetal sacrifices, killing was of course required in animal sacrifice. To us this seems like the ritual’s beginning and end—virtually synonymous with the idea of ritual sacrifice. Yet in ancient times, killing was not considered the central or defining act. It was eclipsed by other parts of the ritual, as is evident in sacrificial terminology, artistic depictions, literary descriptions, and ritual instructions.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Through our examination of the rituals and terminology of biblical sacrifice, three key metaphors have emerged: sacrifice as food, sacrifice as aroma, and sacrifice as gift. They all revolve around building relationships: attracting God with inviting scents and deepening ties with Him through shared sustenance and a generous rivalry in meaningful gifts. These metaphors paint a picture of sacrifice that is opposed in every way to the modern idea of sacrifice as suffering.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“The sacrifice of the paschal lamb in Egypt likewise foretold the gift of salvation in Christ. It was commanded by God for the sole benefit of the Israelites who would offer it, with no portion being reserved for Him. The lamb’s blood marked the Israelites as His people and protected them from death, just as Christ’s blood marks us as belonging to Him and shields us from spiritual destruction. Moreover, the lamb’s flesh nourished the Israelites in preparation for their journey from slavery to the Promised Land, just as Christ nourishes us through His teaching and example and through Holy Communion, strengthening us to flee from sin and take up our dwelling in the Kingdom of His righteousness.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“As with other types of sacrifice, the suffering and loss involved in charity are not the point. They are merely the cost of presenting a lavish gift to our beloved Savior. Christian giving is not about opening our wallets like a vein and pouring forth our livelihood as an act of self-abnegation. Rather, it is an extravagant display of love for God, which we pursue heedless of the cost. It may drain our wallet (and even our strength), but this will be the result of reckless abandon and not of miserable self-denial.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Thus, throughout the ancient world, the significance of sacrifice was embedded in a basic and universal human custom: using food to foster relationships.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“sacrificial killing was simply a sacred form of meat production. In fact, it was the standard way of butchering animals for food; all or most meat eaten by Romans and Greeks was from sacrifice.40 This is why eating meat was such a vexing problem for early Christians: in Greco-Roman cities, meat production seemed inextricably tied to idol worship (see 1 Cor. 8:1–13; 10:14–33; Rom. 14:13–23).”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“the Cross has always been seen as a painful and cruel act of violence, but the focus in ancient Christian tradition was elsewhere (as it is in Eastern Orthodox theology today). During the Middle Ages, however, Western Christians increasingly focused on the Cross’s violence. This was the shared heritage of both the Protestant and Roman Catholic sides of the debate, and it shaped their attempts to define sacrifice. “In these discussions the view gained currency that the essential property of sacrifice was the violent destruction of a sentient being, paradigmatically the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.”8”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“In the Old Testament, then, we see God’s attempt to draw the Israelites into relationship with Him by means of ceremonial gift exchange. He first endowed them with gifts that demonstrated His faithfulness: especially the tablets of the Law, the jar of manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded. He then provided a way for Israelite worshipers to reciprocate, through sacrificial gifts that could serve as symbolic pledges of inner devotion and tokens of faithfulness.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“We now bring our self-offering as a sequel to Christ’s offering, being inspired and empowered by it to imitate Him. Instead of our own weak efforts, we offer the fruits of Christ’s transformative work in our lives (“Christ in us”): “For our way of approach is in Christ, and through Him we who have been defiled are brought forward. We have been made righteous through faith and no longer dedicate ourselves but Christ in us to the Father as a pleasant aroma, since we [now] have a spiritual fragrance.”7”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“the pleasant aromas of food offerings and incense had a purpose similar to scents intended for human noses, though operating on a different plane. Pleasant aromas are attractive and inviting; they draw people in and make them comfortable, interested, and complaisant. Similarly, sacrifices of food and incense were intended to attract God’s presence and win His favor:”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Clearly, then, two fundamental themes of biblical sacrifice were meal hospitality toward God and table fellowship with God and one another.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“ritual sacrifice was widespread throughout the ancient world—that is, in the ancient Mediterranean region, which has been our focus. It was also common beyond this region—found across the globe, in various forms, in virtually every historic culture. Its universality suggests that this ritual is a fundamental human practice. It’s not surprising, then, that we find sacrifice in the Genesis account of the origins of humanity, described as one of the earliest practices of our race:”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“ancient sacrifice encompassed both animal and nonanimal offerings, and these were seen as a single, inseparable phenomenon. For Jewish sacrifice, there is “overwhelming evidence that vegetal offerings act as full and equal partners with animal [offerings].”19 In Roman religion, “the rituals, the terminology, and the meaning of nonanimal sacrifices are exactly the same as those of animal sacrifice.”20 In Greek sacrifice, vegetal offerings were at least as common as animal ones, and the two were similarly integrated into a single category of religious practice, with no discernible distinction of terminology, rationale, or significance between them.21 Across the ancient world, then, animal and nonanimal sacrifices formed a single phenomenon with a common significance.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“As noted above, the altar of burnt offering (the bronze altar) was called “the Lord’s table.” It was where the Lord’s meal was symbolically delivered to Him, the food being sent up as smoke and the wine being poured out.10 Yet a table suggests a shared meal, set out for many to partake of together. Indeed, the food offered at the tabernacle was consumed not just by the Lord but also by the worshipers gathered around His altar. The altar served as the Lord’s head table (so to speak), at which He presided over a feast shared with His ministers and worshipers.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Out of hundreds of animal sacrifices depicted on ancient Greek vases, only a handful show the killing of an animal. Instead, most depict the sacrificial procession (before the animal was killed) or the meal that followed.23 Roman images of sacrifice also rarely depict killing.24 On the triumphal Roman column of Trajan, scenes of sacrifice are contrasted with the violence of war: they “function visually as a peaceful pause in the midst of the bloodiness of war; and within scenes of sacrifice, as is typical of depictions of the Roman period, there is little violence, no blood.”25 Greek and Roman art represented sacrifice in ways that emphasized other steps in the ritual, not the killing of the animal.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Sacrificial gifts were not supposed to be bargains with God—commercial transactions aimed at acquiring favors—although some worshipers may have cynically tried to use them for this purpose. Sacrifices as gifts were meant to be fundamentally relational: “The gift is directed at the person of the receiver and the relationship created by the gift-exchange is far more important than the objects exchanged and their relative value.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“Incense was offered regularly—every morning and evening—on a golden altar in the Jewish house of worship (Ex. 30:1–8). This incense offering must be seen as a sacrifice since it was burned on an altar (thysiastērion): the purpose of an altar was to offer sacrifice (see above, chapter 1), and the only purpose of this altar was to offer incense (Ex. 30:9). The importance of this offering is suggested by the status of its altar: whereas the altar for animal (and cereal) offerings was outside the house of worship, the altar of incense was located in the holy place, standing before the ark of the testimony itself. Incense might, therefore, be considered an even more significant sacrifice than animals.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“In the end, these voices from the past show us that sacrifice is not about bloodshed but about bonding, not about loss but about love, not about suffering but about self-giving. It is a way of drawing near to God and entering into communion with Him—a welcoming gift, inviting Him into our lives.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

“those rituals of sacrifice that had been ubiquitous in ancient religions—offered daily from Jerusalem to Roman Spain and everywhere in between—vanished from the Mediterranean world more than a thousand years ago, abruptly erased from the cultural landscape by the triumph of the Christian Faith. Since then, at least in Christian and post-Christian societies, we have lived in a dramatically different world. We are complete strangers to this central feature of ancient people’s social and cultural life, something they all took for granted.”
― Jeremy Davis, Welcoming Gifts: Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life