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The high priest and the Day of Atonement: Leviticus 16

Leviticus 16 · about 21 minutes · The high priest and the Day of Atonement

By the end of this class you should be able to

Describe the steps of the Day of Atonement in order: the high priest's preparation, the offerings for himself, the two goats, the blood in the Most Holy Place, and the sending away of the live goat.
Explain why the high priest enters alone, only once a year, and why the sanctuary itself needs cleansing as well as the people.
Say what the rite shows about the high priest's work of bearing guilt, standing for the people and entering God's presence, and who could hold the office.
Trace how Hebrews 2, 4, 9 and 10 and Romans 3:25 read the Day of Atonement as fulfilled in Jesus, labeling type, fulfillment and echo.
State the main debates about the meaning of atonement, the live goat and Christ's continuing priestly work.

Read the passage

16Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence of the LORD. ²And the LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to enter freely into the Most Holy Place behind the veil in front of the mercy seat on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. ³This is how Aaron is to enter the Holy Place: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴He is to wear the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments. He must tie a linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are holy garments, and he must bathe himself with water before he wears them. ⁵And he shall take from the congregation of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. ⁶Aaron is to present the bull for his sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household. ⁷Then he shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁸After Aaron casts lots for the two goats, one for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat, ⁹he shall present the goat chosen by lot for the LORD and sacrifice it as a sin offering. ¹⁰But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement by sending it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. ¹¹When Aaron presents the bull for his sin offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. ¹²Then he must take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense, and take them inside the veil. ¹³He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the cloud of incense will cover the mercy seat above the Testimony, so that he will not die. ¹⁴And he is to take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the east side of the mercy seat; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the mercy seat. ¹⁵Aaron shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and bring its blood behind the veil, and with its blood he must do as he did with the bull’s blood: He is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it. ¹⁶So he shall make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the impurities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting which abides among them, because it is surrounded by their impurities. ¹⁷No one may be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he leaves, after he has made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole assembly of Israel. ¹⁸Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He is to take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. ¹⁹He is to sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. ²⁰When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he is to bring forward the live goat. ²¹Then he is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man appointed for the task. ²²The goat will carry on itself all their iniquities into a solitary place, and the man will release it into the wilderness. ²³Then Aaron is to enter the Tent of Meeting, take off the linen garments he put on before entering the Most Holy Place, and leave them there. ²⁴He is to bathe himself with water in a holy place and put on his own clothes. Then he must go out and sacrifice his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering to make atonement for himself and for the people. ²⁵He is also to burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar. ²⁶The man who released the goat as the scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may reenter the camp. ²⁷The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; and their hides, flesh, and dung must be burned up. ²⁸The one who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and afterward he may reenter the camp. ²⁹This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselves and not do any work—whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you— ³⁰because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD. ³¹It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, that you may humble yourselves; it is a permanent statute. ³²The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest shall make atonement. He will put on the sacred linen garments ³³and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the assembly. ³⁴This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement once a year for the Israelites because of all their sins.” And all this was done as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Open Leviticus 16 in the reader (BSB)

01Background

Leviticus is traditionally attributed to Moses and presents itself as God's speech to him at Sinai. Critical scholars often assign to a priestly source or to a priestly school, with some arguing that it was brought together from earlier rituals; others hold it comes from Moses' time. The setting is the newly built tabernacle (), with its ark and the lid of the ark, the mercy seat, in the Most Holy Place behind a curtain. The audience is Israel, whose priests and people were learning how to live near a holy God.

The chapter opens with a reminder: God speaks after the death of Aaron's two sons (), who died when they approached the LORD with unauthorized fire (). The question the chapter answers is how a priest can safely go where they could not. The chapter is the center of Leviticus. Earlier chapters describe the offerings (1-7), the priests' ordination (8-10) and the laws of clean and unclean (11-15). Later chapters set out holiness for the whole people (17-26).

The Day of Atonement was kept on the tenth day of the seventh month. The Mishnah (tractate Yoma, compiled about AD 200) describes how the rite was carried out in the Second Temple and how the high priest was prepared for it. The destruction of the temple in AD 70 ended the sacrifices. Jewish tradition keeps the day, Yom Kippur, with fasting and prayer.

02Outline

The warning, the plain linen, the offerings required
The bull for himself and the lots over two goats
Incense and blood within the veil; cleansing the sanctuary and altar
Confession over the live goat; sending it away
The garments changed, the burnt offerings, burning outside the camp
A permanent statute: rest, self-humbling, one day each year
, -28; The New Testament reading

03How to read it

is ritual instruction, a set of directions in order of time. The sequence is part of the meaning, since each step answers the one before it. The first half is about entering and cleansing (), the second about removing and concluding (). The chapter must be read inside the book: explains why blood is used: the life is in the blood, and God has given it on the altar to make atonement, and and show that impurity and sin defile the sanctuary.

Two cautions apply. The chapter does not explain every detail, and symbolism beyond what the text gives should be marked as later reflection. Second, the New Testament reads the chapter through Jesus, mainly in Hebrews. The class first reads what the rite meant in Israel, then follows what Hebrews and Paul draw from it.

04What the text says

to 5. The LORD warns Moses to tell Aaron that he may not come at just any time into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain, before the mercy seat on the ark, or he will die, because God appears in the cloud over it (). The access that Aaron's sons lost their lives over is now defined. He may enter only on one day and in a set way. He comes with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, bathed, and dressed not in the gold-woven garments of chapter 28 but in holy linen: tunic, undergarments, sash and turban (). The plain linen is the dress of a servant before the King. From the people he takes two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering ().

to 10. The bull is for himself and his household (). The high priest must be cleansed before he can stand for the people. Then two goats are set at the entrance of the tent, and Aaron casts lots over them: one for the LORD and one for Azazel (). The lot places the choice with God. The word Azazel appears only in this chapter (, 10, 26) and its meaning is uncertain. It may name a place in the wilderness, the goat itself as the one that goes away, or a being associated with the desert. The goat for the LORD is a sin offering. The other is kept alive.

to 19. Aaron kills the bull, takes a censer of burning coals from the altar and two handfuls of fragrant incense, and enters behind the curtain, so that the cloud of incense covers the mercy seat and he does not die (). He sprinkles the bull's blood with his finger on the east side of the mercy seat and seven times before it (). He then kills the goat for the people, brings its blood in, and does the same (). The result is stated: he makes atonement for the Holy Place because of the uncleanness of the Israelites and their transgressions, all their sins (). The sanctuary itself needs cleansing, because the people's sin and impurity defile it, and no one else may be in the tent while he does this (). He puts the blood on the altar's horns and sprinkles it seven times to cleanse and consecrate it ().

to 22. After finishing the sanctuary, Aaron brings the live goat. He lays both hands on its head and confesses over it all the iniquities of the Israelites, all their transgressions and all their sins (), putting them on the goat's head. A man appointed for the task leads it into the wilderness, and the goat carries all their iniquities to a remote land (). The three words for sin, iniquity, transgression and sin, cover every kind: wrongdoing, rebellion and missing the mark. Two goats are one picture: the blood cleanses, and the sin is carried away.

to 28. Aaron removes the linen garments and bathes, puts on his own clothes, and offers the burnt offerings for himself and the people (). The man who led the goat away, and the one who burned the bull and goat of the sin offering outside the camp, must wash and bathe before returning (). The carcasses are burned outside the camp because they carry the impurity of the sanctuary.

to 34. The day is a permanent statute: on the tenth day of the seventh month the people are to humble themselves (a phrase usually taken to mean fasting) and do no work, the native and the foreigner alike (). It is a Sabbath of complete rest. The atonement cleanses them from all their sins before the LORD (). The anointed priest who succeeds his father makes the atonement in the same way (). It is to be done once a year (). adds that the jubilee trumpet sounds on this day.

05Key terms

mercy seat, atonement cover kapporet (Greek hilasterion): The gold lid of the ark, where God appeared in the cloud and where the blood was sprinkled (, 14-15). The Greek Old Testament calls it hilasterion, the same word Paul uses in and uses for the mercy seat.
to atone, make atonement kipper (Greek hilaskomai): The verb for the cleansing and covering action in (, 11, 16-18, 30, 32-34). Scholars debate whether its root sense is to cover, to wipe away or to ransom. In the New Testament related words are hilaskomai in and hilasmos in and .
Azazel azazel: A word that occurs only in , , . It has been read as the goat that departs (so the Greek and Latin versions), as a place in the wilderness, or as a name for a desert being. The meaning is uncertain.
afflict yourselves, humble yourselves innu nafshoteichem: The command of and for the people on the day. The usual understanding, supported by , and , is fasting. refers to 'the Fast', usually understood as this day.
once for all ephapax: The Greek word Hebrews uses of Christ's single offering: , and (compare ). It stands against the yearly repetition of .
curtain, veil katapetasma: The curtain that hid the Most Holy Place. speaks of hope entering behind it, of the second curtain, and of the new and living way through the curtain, which is his flesh. The Gospels record that at Jesus' death the temple curtain was torn in two (; ; ).

06In the whole Bible

states what the whole sacrificial system is for. Sin and impurity are not only the individual's concern. They defile the place where God dwells, and God cannot dwell among an unclean people unless the defilement is dealt with. Blood has a particular purpose, given in Leviticus 17:11: the life is in the blood, and God has given it on the altar to make atonement. Ordinary sin offerings dealt mostly with sins committed unintentionally (), and describes defiant sin as leaving a person cut off. The Day of Atonement covers 'transgressions', the word for rebellion, as well as other sins (, 21), and it does so once a year for the whole nation.

The high priest does what no one else may do. He goes alone into God's presence, he takes the blood, and he acts for himself and the people. His functions are those of a mediator: he is approved by God (), sets apart a place and time, offers for himself first (, 11), confesses sins over the goat (), and carries the blood to the mercy seat. He also holds the highest office. He is a descendant of Aaron () and, as the anointed priest, his death marks the end of a period; the person who killed unintentionally was free to return home after the high priest died (, ). In the later history, the office was held by Aaron's descendants, such as Eleazar (), Eli, of the line of Ithamar () and Zadok (). By New Testament times Annas and Caiaphas held it under Roman supervision (; ).

The New Testament's fullest use of this chapter is in Hebrews. summarizes the rite: only the high priest, only once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the people's sins done in ignorance. The Holy Spirit shows by this arrangement that the way into the holy places is not yet open while the first tent stands. says the yearly sacrifices remind of sins and that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take sins away. and use the language of atonement for Christ.

07Where Christ is

The connection is type and fulfillment, and Hebrews makes it. Jesus is the high priest who, unlike Aaron, needs no offering for himself (), enters not an earthly tent but heaven itself (, 24), and does so with his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves (). He does it once for all (; ), not every year. The people waited for Aaron to come out again; Hebrews says Christ will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to those waiting for him (). calls him a merciful and faithful high priest who makes atonement for the people's sins, and says he has passed through the heavens and can sympathize with weakness, so that believers may come to the throne of grace.

The curtain and the sanctuary also point to him. At his death the temple curtain was torn in two (), and says believers now have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, through the curtain, his flesh. Paul says God presented Christ as a hilasterion, to be received by faith in his blood (). The word is the one used for the mercy seat, and many interpreters take Paul to mean that Christ is himself the place where blood meets God's presence; others translate it as an atoning sacrifice, and the two readings do not exclude each other. First says he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The goats are pictures of different aspects. The goat for the LORD is a sin offering (type, fulfilled in the death of Christ). says that the bodies of the animals burned outside the camp correspond to Jesus suffering outside the city gate (type). The live goat that carries away guilt is best read as an echo of , where the LORD lays the iniquity of us all on his servant, and of , where Christ bears the sins of many; Hebrews itself does not mention the goat. The jubilee trumpet on this day () is an echo of Jesus' announcement of release ().

08How traditions read it

What does atonement do? The word translated in and (hilasterion, hilasmos) has been read in two ways. C. H. Dodd argued in the 1930s that it means expiation, the removing of sin, and the Revised Standard Version of 1946 translated it so. Leon Morris and others answered in the 1950s that in biblical usage it includes propitiation, the turning away of God's wrath, and the ESV and similar versions use that word. Reformed and many evangelical writers hold that Christ bore the penalty of sin in the sinner's place, citing , and . Catholic and Orthodox writers also affirm Christ's sacrifice for sin, and many stress cleansing, the restoration of communion and Christ's victory over death. Jacob Milgrom, a Jewish scholar, argued in his commentary (1991) that in Leviticus the blood purges the sanctuary of the defilement caused by sin, and not the sinner, which supports the emphasis on cleansing. These readings are not always exclusive; the debate is over which carries the weight.

What is the live goat? Early Christian writers read the two goats as two comings of Christ, the first suffering and the second glorious: Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 40, c. AD 155-160) and Tertullian (Against Marcion 3.7, c. AD 207) are among them. Many modern interpreters read the two goats as one sin offering in two parts, in which the blood cleanses and the live goat removes. Those who see Azazel as a demon take the goat's destination as the realm of evil, and others hold that this reading is unwarranted because the goat is not offered to anyone. The New Testament does not decide the question.

Does Christ's priestly work continue as an offering? The Catholic Church teaches that the sacrifice of the Mass is the same sacrifice as the cross, made present and offered in an unbloody way (Council of Trent, Session 22, 1562; Catechism 1366-1367), and Orthodox liturgy speaks similarly of offering. says Christ does not offer himself repeatedly, and 'once for all' is the Reformed and Lutheran ground for rejecting any repeated offering. The Anglican scholar B. F. Westcott (1889) wrote of Christ presenting his sacrifice in heaven, a view later taken up in some Anglo-Catholic thought. Reformed writers hold that his heavenly work is intercession on the basis of the finished offering ().

Finally, Jewish tradition after AD 70 teaches that repentance and the day itself bring atonement without the temple (Mishnah Yoma 8), and that wrongs against another person must first be put right with that person. The class reads with Hebrews, taking the high priest and the day as shadows fulfilled in Christ.

09Review questions

Why does the chapter open with the death of Aaron's two sons (), and what conditions does it set for Aaron's entry into the Most Holy Place?
What does the high priest offer for himself, and what does that show about the limits of the office?
What are the two goats used for, and what happens to the blood and to the live goat?
Why does the sanctuary itself need atonement ()?
Which texts in and 10 compare Christ's work to the Day of Atonement, and which points of contrast does each draw?

Prepared with AI assistance. A scholar's review is still to come; if you spot anything to correct, please tell us.