What is the correct recipe for the new moon sacrifice?
The prescribed new moon animal counts differ, most clearly in the numbers of bulls and lambs.
- 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 same named observance receives explicit different bull and lamb requirements, showing changed ritual rules rather than mere omission.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
The monthly offering requires two bulls seven lambs a ram and a goat
And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the Lord; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot; And three tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, for one bullock; and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, for one ram; And a several tenth deal of flour mingled with oil for a meat offering unto one lamb; for a burnt offering of a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord. And their drink offerings shall be half an hin of wine unto a bullock, and the third part of an hin unto a ram, and a fourth part of an hin unto a lamb: this is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year. And one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto the Lord shall be offered, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.
The new moon offering requires one bull six lambs and a ram
And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.
Understanding the contradiction
Numbers 28:11-15 requires two young bulls, one ram, and seven year old lambs for the monthly burnt offering, with a goat for sin and accompanying grain and wine. Ezekiel 46:6 prescribes one young bull, six lambs, and a ram on the new moon.
The second list is shorter, but the difference is not merely an omitted description of flour or wine. It positively changes the bull count from two to one and the lamb count from seven to six. The missing goat is less decisive because omission alone need not prohibit a separate offering. The stated burnt offering counts nevertheless differ for the same named observance, showing changed ritual requirements rather than one stable recipe.