Animal Sacrifice in the Bible – The Bible’s Role in the Christian Perception of Animals

The Numbers

The number of animal sacrifices performed in the Bible is truly staggering. In “Animal Welfare: A Quantitative Study of Fundamentalist Biblical Dishonesty,” Brian Bolton presents instances of animal sacrifice and animal cruelty as well as descriptions of animal sacrifices in the Bible. According to his “top-ten” list, biblical animal sacrifices number in the hundreds of thousands.

A painting of Noah and his family sacrificing a lamb after the Great Flood. — The Sacrifice of Noah, an Italian painting from the mid-1600s depicting Noah’s sacrifice to God after the Great Flood.

Famous Sacrifices

Noah’s Sacrifice to God

In Genesis 8:20-21, Noah “took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” When the Lord “smelled the pleasing odor,” he promised to never again destroy all living things on earth.

The Command to Sacrifice Isaac

In Genesis 22:1-14, one of the most famous Bible stories, God tests Abraham by commanding him to kill his beloved son, Isaac. Just as Abraham goes to kill Isaac, an angel intercedes, telling Abraham not to kill his son because he has proven his obedience to God. Abraham sees a ram caught in a thicket by its horns — which some translations understand to have been provided by God — and sacrifices it instead of Isaac.

The First Passover

Exodus 12 narrates the establishment of Passover in anticipation of the plague that finally persuades Pharaoh to free the Israelites. God commands Moses and Aaron to instruct each Israelite family to slaughter an unblemished lamb, smear its blood on their doorframes, and eat the lamb. God passes over the households marked by the lamb’s blood and kills every firstborn in Egypt without the mark, including the firstborn livestock. He later gives Moses and Aaron directions for future Passover celebrations and details the necessary animal sacrifice.

Jesus cleansing the Temple. — *Christ Cleansing the Temple*, a painting by Greek painter El Greco. The animals toward the bottom of the painting, like the doves and the lamb, were being sold for sacrifices before Jesus’ arrival.

Jesus: Son of God, Redeemer, and Animal-Rights Activist?

In John 2:13-16, Jesus famously cleanses the temple in Jerusalem by driving out the people selling cattle, sheep, and doves. Some animal-rights activists claim that Jesus’ opposition to animal sacrifice—the Temple’s primary revenue stream—was the triggering event that angered the Temple Priests and ultimately led to the Crucifixion.