Fat
The Fat of the land
Is the term in Hebrew for fat another one of those common metaphors, metonymies[1], or one of those symbolic rituals representing ideas and concepts.
Leviticus 16:25 "And the fat[2] of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar."
The same letters for the word fat(חֶלֶב)[2] also mean milk(חֶלֶב)[3] and is a metaphor for abundance.
Are the instructions in Leviticus concerning blood sacrifice talking about the liver[4] and squeezing kidney[5] fat out before burning up dead animals on altars of clay and stone just to please God in heaven. Or are these symbols
Leviticus 9:19 “And the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump, and that which covereth [the inwards], and the kidneys, and the caul [above] the liver:”
Long before the teachings of Christ, there were written community disciplines that understood the need for and the purpose of freewill offerings in the care of society and the cultivation the social bonds as essential elements of a free society. The were writing that “They shall expiate guilty rebellion and sinful infidelity... without the flesh of burnt offerings and the fat(חֶלֶב)[2] of sacrifice, but the offering of the lips in accordance with the Law will be as an agreeable odor of righteousness, and perfection of the way shall be as the voluntary gift of a delectable oblation.” Community Rule 1QS 9.3-5
Philo Judaeus writes, in his Every Good Man is Free 75, in reference to the Essene, “they do not offer animal sacrifice” and they “are men utterly dedicated to the service of God”. They served each other and the nation as Moses intended before the apostacy and sophistry of the Pharisees.
The Essenes held all things in common with no personal estate, like Moses' Levites and the early ministers of the Church, and “thanks to their type of community, goods were at any rate so great that they were the only Jewish organization of their time to be able to afford to include nonmembers in their charitable system.”[6]
- ↑ the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse races.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 02459 חֶלֶב cheleb [kheh’-leb] or חלב cheleb [khay’-leb]; from an unused root meaning to be fat; n m; [BDB-316b] [{See TWOT on 651 @@ "651a" }] AV-fat 79, fatness 4, best 5, finest 2, grease 1, marrow 1; 92
- 1) fat
- 1a) fat (of humans)
- 1b) fat (of beasts)
- 1c) choicest, best part, abundance (of products of the land)
- see 02461 חָלָב chalab "milk... abundance of the land (metaph.)";
- 1) fat
- ↑ 02461 חָלָב chalab [khaw-lawb’] from the same as 02459; n m; [BDB-316a] [{See TWOT on 650 @@ "650a" }] AV-milk 42, cheeses 1, sucking 1; 44
- 1) milk, sour milk, cheese
- 1a) milk
- 1b) abundance of the land (metaph.)
- 1c) white (as milk)
- 1) milk, sour milk, cheese
- ↑ 03516 כָּבֵד kabed [kaw-bade’] KufBeitDalet the same as 03515 כָּבֵד kabed great 03514 כֹּבֶד kobed heavy from 03513 כָּבַד kabad honor; from 03513 כָּבַד kabad honor; n f; [BDB-458a] [{See TWOT on 943 @@ "943b" }] AV-liver 14; 14
- 1) the liver
- 1a) the liver (as the heaviest organ)
- 1) the liver
- ↑ 03629 כִּלְיָה kilyah [kil-yaw’] KafLamedYodHey or (plural) כליות KafLamedYodVavTav from 03627 KafLamedYod AV-vessel, instrument, weapon. (only pl.); which is from 03615 KafLamedHey AV-consume, end, finish. n f p; [BDB-480a] [{See TWOT on 983 @@ "983a" }] AV-kidneys 18, reins 13; 31
- 1) kidneys
- 1a) of physical organ (lit.)
- 1b) of seat of emotion and affection (fig.)
- 1c) of sacrificial animals
- 1) kidneys
- ↑ The Library of Qumran : On the Essenes, Qumran, John the Baptist, and Jesus, written by Hartmut Stegemann, Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands, 1993 / 1998:(pp. 186 - 187)