The idea and study of sacrifice in ancient Israel

This article offers an introduction to the idea of sacrifice in Israel across the first millennium bce, and presents data from both the first and second temple periods. In the first part of the article, I discuss three different types of evidence available for the study of sacrifice—archeological, comparative, and literary—the strengths and limitations of each form of evidence, and highlight recent trends in this area of study. In the second part of the article, I turn to a more direct discussion of the what, where, who, why, and how of sacrifice in ancient Israel.