Leviticus 3:1-17 - Fellowship Offerings

3:1-17

We now come to the Fellowship offering. Some versions (e.g.NKJV, ESV) have “peace” offering. “Fellowship” probably captures the meaning more accurately. For us “peace” tends to primarily mean the absence of conflict, but the Jewish concept of shalom is much richer, implying harmonious and prosperous relations. The instructions are fairly similar to those for the burnt offering, but there is one very important difference. With the burnt offering the one making the offering was not allowed to eat any of the offering, in the case of the fellowship offering the person did eat part of the offering, so it was a shared meal.

There are still more sacrifice types to come, but we can see a progression. The burnt offering was concerned with atonement for sin, the grain offering thankfulness for provision, and the fellowship offering a sharing in life with God.

We get all sorts of details, and many of them are similar to the burnt offering. The animal had to be without defect, and there is the laying on of hands. However, the fellowship offering could be male or female, whereas the burnt offering had to be male.

The offerer was not to eat any of the fat or blood.