Sacrifice to Gods

Its called sacrifice mate the more the merrier.

God just wants you to show that you can make sacrifices for him. That's why it's called animal sacrifice instead of something like honor killing.

but how are you sacrificing it if you are going to eat it? you are losing nothing

Gods (it's more polytheistic thing, however early Jews had something alike sacrifises too) are not just cucks who are gonna help you for free. They give you something, you give something in return.

The sacrifice is the life of the animal not it's body.

your suffering benefits God by making a better world.

The Gods would perform sacrifices in order for a good crop yield or good weather among other things. Ye are Gods, the Bible says so.

Well I can only speak for the Aztecs but in their worldview humanity owed a debt to the Gods to give us life. We repay them with the most precious thing we have to offer which is our blood. Sometimes it's a heart, sometimes it is just offering a little of your own blood. They thought of it more as an offering though, as you could also offer pottery, flowers, food, drinks, incense etc. to a deity. Depending on the deity and the occasion. In the case of the sun, it was believed the Sun that is Tonatiuh needed our blood as offerings to give him strength so he may overcome the forces trying to bring the end of the world and rise again at dawn. Before humanity Tonatiuh could not move unless all the other gods sacrificed some of their blood to make him move. They also, the gods gave their blood to give us life. So in a sense we all have some of all the Gods blood in us.

tl;dr Blood offerings were necessary to repay our debt and maintain order in the world.

Animals and Humans

Thanks, best post so far.

I think it's about the trade. Getting something you want from a God in exchange for something valuable to you.
And what's a more precious thing to someone than their life?

Gods receive the smoke of burning sacrifices as "pleasing odors". Ye are Gods, the Bible says so.

quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=simple&format=Long&q1=sweet savour&restrict=All&size=First 100

Not blood, Sweet Savour, for Hebrews.
King James Version, 50 matches.

Why did the Gods not burn Jesus for the Sweet Savour?

Law of Equivalent Exchange; you want something precious so you have to give something equally precious in turn.

But then you have entertaining loons like Alan Moore, who says that when we sacrifice the physical form of an object we are insuring the eternity of its ideal form; and vice versa.

Human desire to kill shrouded in divinity = Sacrifice

quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=simple&format=Long&q1=blood&restrict=All&size=First 100

Yes blood, Blood (>10x), for Hebrews.
King James Version, 508 matches

They wanted Jesus' blood only is my guess. Perhaps that Lamb was not sweet enough. Ye are Gods, the Bible says so.

Coercion and policing. The priest cast always was the smartest elite and always used the most shocking/impressive/seductive tricks to control and temper the pleb.

You need to distinguish sacrifice from sacred murder.

In sacrifice, the goal is to give something to the god. An example of this would be Aztec human sacrifice, votive offerings, and Greco-Roman Holocaust. In all three the goal of the ritual is to give something to the gods in a "I give so that you give" transaction. The specifics vary, ranging from "This is our sacred duty" to "I have to feed the gods so they can do A" to "Hey, god X, I'll give you this Y and in return you do Z for me".

Sacred murder is different. The Roman practice of executing captives at Triumphs, various crimes being punishable by "sacrifice", and Germanic King Slaying are both sacred murder; the gods aren't getting anything from the killing off the victim. Rather, the sacred murderers are committing a ritualized murder and then telling the gods "Hey, this guy is dead". In the Indo-European context this is usually done as a way of righting some wrong or telling the gods that a problem has been resolved so they can either stop harassing the mortal world or that they are now able to engage in some action to resolve the conflict. The specifics also vary, but generally follow some sort of formula of "hey gods X, Y, and Z, A did bad thing B to C so we killed him. Just letting you know".

Humans and Animals

BBQs are not considered as sacrifices user.

This is correct.
Can be like this "God(s) shouldve sent the rains months ago, like he does most of the years, since he didnt maybe he wants something from us, maybe in his judgement we do not deserve crops this year, so we offer something that we hold in great value to him, if the rains come it means he wanted that something"
And eventually it rained so the sacrifice was proved efective.

Hey when Moses the Egyptian killed 3,000 Jews at Mount Sinai, was that sacred murder or sacred sacrifice? Not sure if Moses barbecued (BBQ) those 3,000 dead Jews that Moses killed afterwards.

Can’t the gods create whatever they crave, why do they need sacrifices?

...

CORRECTION
...'Moses barbecued (BBQ'd) those 3,000 dead Jews'...

When the Jews killed the "King of the Jews" (see the sign over head, the middle one crucified), was that a sacrifice, sacred murder, suicide, or what? I agree with you, we need to first distinguish which; "King of the Jews" a sacrifice, sacred murder, suicide, or what? Only in that way may we provide OP with an accurate answer to reasons and theology. Good post btw user.

Here's a Roman perspective.
My citation first
Scheid, Jean. Introduction to Roman Religion, College de France publishing

>Gods were seen as citizens in the heart of Rome
>Walking among the Romans ans citizen patrons.
>When a Roman sacrifices animals to a god, they are taking part in a share of belongings. A "I give, you give" relationship, and to seal the deal was a meal shared between the mortal and the gods of their liking. Kind of like a handshake.
>Man would eat half the meat, while (Depending on the deity) the other half was burnt for heavenly/Olympian gods. Buried for cthonic deities and sprinkled with substance or liquid for natural gods.
>Human sacrifice in an Aztec sense was incredibly unnatural and immoral in Rome for obvious reasons.
That's it, I couldn't find a proper English translation online for this scholar so I paraphrased.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collège_de_France
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Scheid
goodreads.com/book/show/1127121.An_Introduction_to_Roman_Religion

Also take into consideration the dialogue between Zeus and Prometheus in the creation of man in Hesiod's Theogony. I don't remember the details but here's the link

greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/Creation_of_Man_by_Prometheus/creation_of_man_by_prometheus.html

Also I'm calling on some frogs to translate this video if they can, or to sum it up. Perhaps it would help in our quest in understanding pagan sacrifice.

youtube.com/watch?v=IQUGQknHtFY

I can't find a lot of info on this guy on the English speaking web so I'm stuck with wiki.

sacred murder, he was killed by the jews
no one gave him up and he yielded his fate unto god (pontius pilate "washed his hands") and the jews demanded his murder in the name of proving his status as a blashpheming roman agent

A non-sacrifice murder.
Does not apply then.
Sorry OP. Thanks.

It's for the blood.

Christ offered Himself up as a sacrifice to redeem humanity from the wrath of the Father.

>No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.

- Jn 10:18

The gods want valuable stuff, they are not "perfect by definition" beings like the christian god, more like superhumans with desires and flaws like us.

The more valuable the thing you give, the more it pleases the gods, you're showing respect and faith in their power when you give up something useful or valuable to you.

Sometimes you kill a white lamb, sometimes you give up your favorite sword, but in most cultures life is the most valuable thing. So you sacrifice things like your blood, someone's life, or even your own life for some really serious shit.

Why do we have to give up food for certain months throughout the year?

Why should we sacrifice our food?

Indeed, it seems all we are to this earthly world is a collection of earthly pleasures. The divine is pleased when he sees us let these go.

That is the philosophy of any sacrifice, at its core.

sacred murder

Most likely the origins of animal scarifies lies in the old pre-agriculture hunting rituals. With the possibility being linked to competitive hunting. Animals have higher sensitivity to smell. So when hunters kill an animal and puts their blood on their faces/body, this makes the hunting more difficult. However a successful hunt with that would prove their superiority to their tribes and get a better position in the tribe. Possibly for better life/mate choice.

He does not benefit from anything we do. Humans back then were more into the idea of sacrificing something to higher beings in return for favour and were probably less capable of following His Will, so to guide them and have a relationship with Him without affecting Free Will, He had them do rituals and animal sacrifices since it's what humans knew. Now, it's different. We know better and there is no need for animals sacrifices or rituals as He redeemed our sins. Since we know better, things are much harder for us since it just doesn't take an animal sacrifice to please Him. We have to dedicate our lives intro trying to follow His Will and love Him no matter how many times we fail.

God sacrificed Himself for us. Only perfection is worthy of perfection, so that's why He sacrificed Himself.

It's not like He didn't know what was gonna happen. He knew how things would go before the Light first appeared.

>Christ offered Himself up as a sacrifice
>to redeem humanity from the wrath of
>the Father.

O yea? That's bullshit! It was First-Degree Murder,
Wouldn't tell those Jew fucks where my Ark was.

The Father

Yes sacred murder.

That makes sense.

Funny how nobody gives a rat's ass flying fuck about it anymore; Kikes saying it's just a fucking piece of shit full of junk, go figure.

>Sacred murder
There is also the concept of Homo Sacer elaborated upon by Agamben.

If a man makes a vow before the gods and later on breaks it, he is a 'sacred man' insofar as his life is now in the hands of the god(s) ergo anyone can kill him and it will be justified since his livelihood is no longer his and cannot fall under the protection of the state.

Judges 11:30-40 KJV

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

You're an Asshole

...

Homo Sacer and the figure you just described are different, although Agamben analogizes them.

Meat sharing and rituals of hunt

Thanks, best post so far.