Blood Expiation in Hittite and Biblical Ritual: Origins, Context, and Meaning

This volume offers a comprehensive examination of the origins and significance of the biblical blood rite based on comparative evidence from biblical texts and from Hittite texts from the 14th-13th century B.C.E. With a multi-disciplinary analysis of ritual practice the study seeks a concrete sociohistorical context to explain the symbolism of blood in the rite and its relation to the metaphoric scheme of debt and compensation.