ContradictionsReading order 64Bible context 2 min read
Does the blood of animal sacrifices take away sin?
The law promises atonement and forgiveness through animal offerings, while Hebrews denies that their blood can take away sins.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Major
- A major event or claim with wider implications.
The law promises forgiveness through animal atonement while Hebrews denies animal sacrifices can remove sins; distinguishing those effects requires a theological qualification.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Sacrificial blood makes atonement and the offender is forgiven
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Leviticus 17:11
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Leviticus 17
And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.
Numbers 15:27-28
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)