by Jean Meslier
Command the children of Israel to make offerings to me; you will receive my offering from all those who offer it gladly, for this they will make me a Sanctuary or Tabernacle to remain in their midst, and furthermore, you will make me an altar of Shittim wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide, and its height will be three cubits. You will take Aaron your brother and his children, to perform the office of sacrificers. You will make them sacred vestments for glory and honor[198]. And this is what you will do, when you will consecrate them and you will sanctify them; you will take a skin of cattle and two sheep without flaw and unleavened bread[199]... then[200] you will tell Aaron and his sons to approach the entry of the Tabernacle, and then take the vestments and dress Aaron in the tunic, the robe of the Ephod, the breastplate, and gird upon them the exquisite belt of the Ephod; then you will place on his head the tiara, and the crown of Holiness upon the tiara, and you will take the anointing oil and pour it on his head; then you will make his sons approach and you will dress them in the priestly robes and will place a belt on them, that is, Aaron and his sons, and will place caps on them and thus you will consecrate them, and the sanctification will be a perpetual ordinance for them. This being done, you will bring the calf before the Tabernacle; then Aaron and his sons will place their hands on the head of the calf, and you will cut its throat before the Lord, in the portal of the Tabernacle; then you will take the blood of this calf and will place your finger on the horns of the altar, then you will pour all the rest of the blood below the altar; then you will take all the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and you will make them smoke upon the altar, but you will burn the flesh of a calf by fire, its skin and its excrement outside the temple; and this sacrifice will be for the atonement of sin. Then you will take one of the sheep, and Aaron and his sons will lay hands on the head of this sheep; then you will cut its throat and, taking its blood, you will pour it around the altar[201], after which you will cut this sheep into quarters, you will wash its entrails and limbs, and will place them on the limbs and head, and you will make them smoke and burn the whole sheep on the altar; and this is the sacrifice of the holocaust that you will offer to the Lord, which sacrifice will be of a pleasing odor for Him. Then you will take another sheep, and Aaron and his sons will place their hands on the head of this sheep, whose throat you will cut, and you will take the blood of this one and place it on the right earlobe and on the large toe of the right foot and pour the rest of the blood on the altar all around, and will take the blood that is on the altar and the anointing oil, and will sprinkle it on Aaron and on his clothing, on his sons and on their clothing, and thus they will be sanctified and consecrated. And this will be a perpetual ordinance for Aaron and for these sons.... you will sacrifice a calf every day for the atonement for sin... Behold again, what you will do upon the altar: you will offer two lambs each day continually, you will sacrifice one of the lambs in the morning and the other lamb in the afternoon, and I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel and I will be their God etc.[202]
Consider, once more, what is written in these same books regarding the kinds of sacrifices:
The Lord spoke to Moses and said: Speak to the Children of Israel and tell them, When anyone among you wants to offer an offering in sacrifice to the Lord, you will offer your offering or your sacrifice from your herds, both the large and the small cattle; if your offering is of large cattle for the burnt offering, you will offer a spotless male, and this at the entry of the Tabernacle, with good grace in the presence of the Lord, and will place the hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be acceptable for him, for the propitiation of his sins, then the neck of the good calf will be slit in the presence of the Lord. The sons of Aaron, the sacrificers will offer its blood and pour it on the altar and all around it, and then burn the holocaust and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron, the sacrificers, will bring fire to the altar and will arrange the wood on the fire. Equally, they will set on the wood the quarters, the head, and the entrails of the animal, and the sacrificers will offer all these things to the Lord on the altar, where he will make them smoke and burn as a holocaust; and this sacrifice being done in this way, it will be for a very pleasant odor unto the Lord[203]. that if his offering is of the least of the cattle for holocaust, to know among the sheep or among the goats, he will offer up a flawless he-goat, its throat will be cut beside the altar toward the North in the Lord's presence, and the sons of Aaron sacrificers poured the blood on the altar and around it, then it would be cut into pieces, and its head, its innards and its fat, and the sacrificer will set them on the wood above which he will set the fire. But he will wash the entrails and legs, then the innards, and will offer all these things in sacrifice, making them smoke and burning them on the altar in holocaust, and this sacrifice being thus made, it will be of a very pleasant smell for the Lord. That if his offering is of the fowl for a holocaust to the Lord, he will offer his offering of turtledoves or young pigeons, and the sacrificer will offer it on the altar and he will take the head with the nail to make it smoke on the altar and make its blood run by the altar; he will take away its craw with his feathers and will cast them to the side of the altar, there were the ashes are, he will break its wings without dividing them, and will make them smoke on the wood that will be on the fire, and this sacrifice being thus made, it will be a very agreeable odor unto the Lord. Holocaustum est et oblatio suavissimi odoris etc.[204]
Another time, as it is noted in this book, God spoke to Moses and told him thus[205]:
When someone has committed some fault or sin against the Law, or against the ceremonies of his God, if it is by an error that he has deliberately committed, he will bring to the Lord an offering for his sin, which will be a sheep without flaw, which the Priest will sacrifice to the Lord for atonement of his sin: likewise[206], if someone sins ignorantly, doing something that was forbidden by the Law, he will offer a sheep without flaw, and the sacrificer offering it to God, will pray for him, and his sin will be forgiven him.
Elsewhere, as it is recorded in the above-mentioned books, God spoke to Moses and told him this:
Speak to the children of Israel and tell them this: When you have entered into the country where you must remain, and where I will bring you, when you wish to make a sacrifice of holocaust to the Lord, you will make your offering of an animal from the greater or lesser livestock, for each lamb you will offer to the Lord in sacrifice a cake of flour, with a certain measure of wine; by each sheep you will also offer a cake of flour, with certain measure of oil and of wine for aspersion, and for each bull you offer with the good calf a cake of flour and a certain measure of oil and of wine, which you will offer to the Lord in sacrifice, this will be done for each cow, for each sheep, and for each of the young among the ewes and the goats, and your sacrifices will be of a very sweet odor to the Lord: in oblationem suavissimi odoris[207].
All these testimonies, taken from the so-called Scriptures and even the above-mentioned supposedly divine revelations, plainly and expressly show that the cruel and bloody sacrifices by men of innocent beasts, were of divine institution, at least in the Law of the Jews, and that they had been, some time at least, very agreeable to God.
But how can anyone imagine or get their head around the fact that a God, an infinitely perfect, infinitely good, and infinitely wise Being, could ever want to establish such cruel and barbarous sacrifices? For it is cruelty and barbarity to kill, to stun them, and slit their throats, as is done to animals, who have done nothing wrong. For they can feel evils and pain just like we do, in spite of the vain, false, and ridiculous statements of our new Cartesians, who regard them as pure machines without souls, and who, for this reason, and with a futile argument of theirs based in the nature of thought, claiming that matter is incapable of thought, therefore consider them as deprived of all feelings of pleasure and pain. What a ridiculous opinion! What a terrible statement and detestable doctrine! Since it clearly tends to suppr
ess in men’s hearts every kind, gentle, and humane feeling they may feel for these poor animals, and it gives them the room and occasion to make a game and find pleasure in tormenting them and pitilessly tyrannizing over them, on the pretext that they will have no feelings, any more than would the machines they cast into the fire and smash into a thousand pieces, which would clearly constitute detestable cruelty if done to these poor animals which, living and mortal like we are, and made like us of flesh, blood, and bone, and having, just like us, all the organs of life and sensation, for example, eyes to see, ears to hear, nostrils to sniff and discern smells, a tongue and a palate to distinguish the taste of meats and of agreeable food, feet for walking, and moreover, since as we find in them all the indices and effects of the same passions we ourselves feel, we should certainly accept that they are sensible, just as we are, to good and evil, that is, to pleasure and pain; they are our servants and our faithful companions in life and labor, and so they should be treated kindly. Blessed be the nations that treat them benignly and favorably, and which are compassionate with their suffering and pain. But cursed be the nations that treat them cruelly, which tyrannize over them, which love to spill their blood, and which greedily eat their flesh. It says in some parts of the apocryphal Scriptures[208] that a bad seed of wickedness, or a bad seed, was planted, from the beginning, in the heart of Adam: Gramen seminis mali seminatum est in corde Adam ab initio. It does seem that this bad seed of wickedness, or this bad seed, is still in evidence in men’s hearts, and that it’s this grain of wickedness that makes them find daily pleasure in doing evil, and in particular, in treating, as they do, these poor, sweet and innocent beasts cruelly by tyrannizing over them, killing them, pitilessly butchering them, as they do every day, for the mere pleasure of eating their flesh. For my part, although I have a strong sense of the evil influence and bad effects of this accursed bad seed, I can nevertheless say that I have never done anything with more repugnance than when, on certain occasions, I’ve had to cut or have others cut the throats of certain hens or pigeons, or when I had to slaughter a pig; I insist that I have never done that without complete repugnance and with a certain aversion, and if I should have been a little superstitious and inclined to religious bigotry, I would infallibly belong among those who religiously never kill animals and never eat their flesh. I hate even to see the slaughter happen, and I have never been able to think without cringing, about the abominable carnage and the sacrifice of innocent beasts by King Solomon, when he organized, for the dedication of his Temple, as many as 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep or ewes to have their throats slit: what utter carnage! What a blood-letting! Who could ever imagine, how could anyone be convinced that an infinitely good, great, and wise God would want, for his sacrificers, a crew of throat-cutters and beast-flayers, and that He would want to make His Tabernacle and Temple into a common slaughterhouse? Who could ever imagine or find it convincing that He could take pleasure in seeing and cruelly slitting the throats of so many innocent beasts? Who could ever imagine or be convinced that He might enjoy seeing their blood flowing and in seeing them so pitiably to expire? And finally, who could ever imagine or be convinced that He could take pleasure in smelling the smoke from so much burnt flesh? If it really were as the above-mentioned pretended books and the so-called divine revelations testify, it would be true to say that no tyrant was ever so sanguinary, nor any beast so savage, so carnivorous, than what this God has been; which is an unworthy, totally unworthy thing to posit about a Being who should be infinitely perfect, infinitely good, and infinitely wise. From which it obviously follows that the institution of such sacrifices is falsely attributed to a God, and that the supposed revelations they attribute to Him are only false revelations, that is to say that they are nothing but errors and illusions, or lies and imposture: which shows, plain as day, that these kinds of sacrifices, just like all the rest, are nothing but human institutions and inventions.
24. THE ORIGIN OF SACRIFICE.
Consider what a judicious author takes for the origin of these abominable sacrifices of animals and of innocent beasts:
The historians say that the first[209] inhabitants on Earth lived for two thousand years on plants, that is to say the fruits of the Earth, the first-fruits of which they offered to God, and thought it unforgivable to spill the blood of any animal, even in sacrifice; and even more so to eat their flesh. That is why they say that the first bull was killed at Athens. While Diomus, the city’s priest, was preparing the altar for the oblation of fruits in the open countryside, according to custom, since in those days there wasn’t yet any talk of temples, a bull, having separated from a passing herd, came and ate the consecrated plants. The priest Diomus, furious at this supposed sacrilege, took a sword from one of the spectators and killed the bull. But then, when his rage passed, and having considered the enormity of his crime, and fearing the people, he taught them that God had appeared to him and commanded him to offer the bull in sacrifice, and to burn its flesh on the altar to atone for its sin of eating the consecrated plants. The devout multitude, or rather the stupid and ignorant populace, believed their sacrificer like an oracle: so the bull, having been burned and fire put on the altar, everyone sat in attendance on this new sacrifice. Ever since then, the Athenians have sacrificed a bull annually, and have spread this pious cruelty, not only throughout Greece, but even to all the nations of the world. Then, a certain priest, amid his bloody sacrifice, having lifted a piece of boiled meat which had fallen from the altar to the ground, and in so doing having burned his fingers, he immediately put them in his mouth. When he had tasted the sweetness of the grease on his fingers he wanted more of it, and when he gave a bit to his colleague, who shared it with all the rest, suddenly all of them, avid for more of this new treat, greedily devoured the meat! And that is where this kind of cruel and bloody gluttony originates, of killing animals to eat them. The Jews say, against these authorities, that the children of Adam sacrificed living creatures ever since the beginning of the world; but it’s well known that many errors have crept into the written Law, which is where they take this information.
The ancients also say that the first goat who fell by human hands was killed in vengeance for the offense it had committed against the owner of a vineyard where it had grazed, and such an impious deed had never been heard of. It is certain that the Egyptians, the wisest and most ancient of people in the world, having received a tradition from the first inhabitants of the Earth, which forbade men from killing any living creature, to give more force to this first law of nature, represented their Gods in the form of animals, so that the commoners, respecting these sacred symbols, would learn not to take the life of, or even to harm animals. The Brahmins of the East Indies, instead of sacrificing animals, build hospitals for them, as well as for men; which is thought a great virtue among them. In all cities there are a great number of these Prophets who spend their whole lives taking care of sick and hurt animals, and of those who can’t live without their help. This institution is not new among them; they received it from a tradition going back to time immemorial.
Note what the same author says of the Jews, on this point:
The priests of the Jews offered a sacrifice to God of many species such as cattle, sheep, and whatever was prescribed in their law, which they said came from God Himself. The priests, having slit the throats of the animals destined for the sacrifice, then poured the blood around the altar, sprinkling the four corners thereof particularly with much ostentation, then, having removed the entrails and skin of these animals, they burned their flesh and fat in fire, which were lit up on the altar, and, thinking that their God found the smoke of these kinds of sacrifices agreeable, and that He took a great pleasure in it, as it said in their Books.
If there is no evidence or complete certainty in favor of what this author says about the origin and spread of these bloody sacrifices of domesticated animals, still, there is no denying that there is some likelihood, both in its favor, and in favor of what he adds about libe
rality and humanity of the first humans toward their animals, and of the prohibition against them killing hurting them unduly, there is no doubt that this prohibition against harming them wasn’t very harmonious and suitable to right reason and natural justice, and even to what it says in the book of Genesis[210], that God originally gave them permission only to eat the plants and fruits of the Earth.
But there is no semblance of truth in these supposed divine revelations, nor is there any basis of reason and justice in these cruel and barbaric sacrifices of innocent beasts; there is nothing but cruelty and barbarity in such sacrifices, which clearly betrays their origins as being a pure product of the folly and horridness of men, and not any divine ordinance.
But were men not quite insane and blind to believe that they could honor and please their God in so doing? Were they not quite insane and blind to believe that a God might take pleasure at seeing the blood of poor animals flowing, and at seeing them burning their flesh? Were they not quite insane and blind to believe they could appease His anger and merit His good graces by such abominable sacrifices? It should, rather, have provoked His wrath and brought down His vengeance and curse. Who can ever think they honor and please an able and excellent worker by ripping up and burning, right in front of him, the most beautiful of his works, on the pretext of making a sacrifice to him? Who could imagine they might honor and please a Ruler, a Prince, by ripping up and burning, right in front of him, that which is among the most beautiful and rich in his Palace, on the pretext of making a sacrifice to him? To be sure, nobody would be so out of their mind mad enough to ever intend to do such a thing, or even to think of doing so. But why, then, would men be so insane as to believe that they could honor and please their God by ripping up, killing, and burning his own creatures, on the pretext of making sacrifices to Him? And even now, how comes it that our Christ-cultists are so insane and blind as to believe that they bring an extreme honor and pleasure to their God, the Father, by presenting and offering him, on a daily basis, his own divine Son, in memory of his shameful and miserable hanging on a cross, by which he was put to death? How can it be, I say, that they can have such a thought and belief as to think they do pleasure and honor to their God to thus offer Him his own Son as a sacrifice? Certainly, this comes only from mental blindness.
