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During the Laws for the sin offering in Lev Chapter 7, which Jesus replaced by his own sacrifice. A limitation for the actual food was given for only the Men to eat of it.

Every male among the priests may eat it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy. (Lev 7:6 NKJV)

Now directly after the sin offering, they could offer the sacrifice of peace offerings, this offering I am under the impression is described in 1 Cor 11.

11 ‘This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which he shall offer to the Lord: 12 If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. 13 Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering. 14 And from it he shall offer one cake from each offering as a heave offering to the Lord. It shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offering.

15 ‘The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning. 16 But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice; but on the next day the remainder of it also may be eaten; 17 the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire. 18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, nor shall it be imputed to him; it shall be an abomination to him who offers it, and the person who eats of it shall bear guilt. (Lev 7:11-18 NKJV)

Event-wise I am having trouble separating the two events. Therefore if the sin offering was to only be eaten my the men, is the flesh to be limited to only men?

Note the warnings of partaking of the flesh while being unclean:

‘The flesh that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten. It shall be burned with fire. And as for the clean flesh, all who are clean may eat of it. 20 But the person who eats the flesh of the sacrifice of the peace offering that belongs to the Lord, while he is unclean, that person shall be cut off from his people. 21 Moreover the person who touches any unclean thing, such as human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any abominable unclean thing, and who eats the flesh of the sacrifice of the peace offering that belongs to the Lord, that person shall be cut off from his people.’” (Lev 7:19-21 NKJV)

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  • I don't understand your reference to 1 Cor 11.
    – curiousdannii ♦
    Mar 28, 2014 at 2:39
  • I learned that the Peace offering used flesh from an animal in Lev 3. So now I also do not understand the reference to 1 Cor 11. And if there is I found the answer to my question "all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:3-4)
    – Decrypted
    Mar 29, 2014 at 13:03
  • @Onlyheisgood That verse is in chapter 10, hence, the confusion :)
    – Steve
    Mar 30, 2014 at 13:20
  • @Steve curiousdannii brought to my attention a good point, so whether or not the offering in Lev 7 points to the Eucharist. Paul preluding to the chapter 11 shows how women indeed do get to join in to the Eucharist in chapter 10.
    – Decrypted
    Mar 31, 2014 at 2:44
  • Concerning your last paragraph, women belonging to traditional Christian denominations do not partake of the Eucharist during that particular time of the month.
    – user46876
    Nov 4, 2019 at 5:46

1 Answer 1

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I think it is clear from the text that the eating of the trespass offering in the OT was restricted to males. Women were generally not allowed to touch sacrifices, not sin and trespass offerings anyway, since they menstruate, as is explained in the Apocrypha, in Baruch 6:29 RSV-CE (Also known as Letter of Jeremiah 1:29 in some others translations) "Sacrifices to [idols] may be touched by women in menstruation or at childbirth. Since you know by these things that they are not gods, do not fear them." The fact that this offering had to be eaten in the holy place itself would automatically restrict it to males only. For some of the other offerings, they only had to be eaten in a clean place. Some of the verses about offerings that women could eat: Leviticus 10:14, Numbers 18:11, 18:19.

I suspect your real question, due to the reference to 1 Cor 11, is why women are allowed to eat the bread in the communion, since Christ's sacrifice was a sin offering? The simplest answer, from a Protestantish perspective, is that the communion is a memorial of Christ's sacrifice and not the sacrifice itself. Plus the concepts of ritual purity/impurity from the Old Testament are done away with in Christianity anyway.

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  • good answer I had not remembered the connection with ritual impurity.
    – BYE
    Mar 28, 2014 at 12:43
  • "all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:3-4) How well does this combine into your answer?
    – Decrypted
    Mar 30, 2014 at 13:15
  • @Onlyheisgood. In those verses, Paul saw the bigger picture, that they were involved in something greater than themselves, BUT they chose sin rather than aspire to their holy calling. Paul feared that he too would be disqualified from a heavenly reward, so he kept his flesh disciplined (1 Cor 9:24-27). See 10:1-14 for context. They and we are on a spiritual journey, and theirs was a bad example of practice.
    – Steve
    Mar 30, 2014 at 13:29
  • The rock being referring to is the one Moses struck in the wilderness, from which water came forth. Paul views it as a symbol of Christ. As to the "food" component, he is obviously viewing the manna as a symbol of Christ as well.
    – david brainerd
    Mar 30, 2014 at 19:34
  • @david brainerd This is why I now believe that communion is offered to women. For it says "All ate, All drank".
    – Decrypted
    Mar 31, 2014 at 2:39

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