Sacrifices among the Hebrews.
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
From time immemorial we find the custom of offering sacrifices prevailing among almost all peoples then known. Even in the most primitive times of the human race, we see from Holy Scripture that the sons of our first parents offered sacrifices (minchah) to God: Cain of the fruit of the ground which he tilled, and Abel of the firstlings of the flocks which he raised (Gen. 4:3). The patriarch Noah, after the Flood, in thanksgiving to God for his deliverance, offered a burnt offering of every clean beast and of every clean bird (Gen. 8:20).
In the same way the patriarchs built altars at the sites of divine appearances, for offering sacrifice and calling upon the name of God (Gen. 12:7; 13:4; 26:25, and elsewhere). Until the time of Moses, the motive and underlying thought of sacrifice was not so much a sense of guilt or sin, which separates man from God, as an impulse of love and gratitude toward God for the benefits received from Him. We first meet with the atoning significance of sacrifice at the offering of the burnt offering by Job for his children (Job 1:5) and for his three friends (42:8).
The same significance of sacrifice is found in the words of Moses to Pharaoh concerning the sacrifices in the wilderness (Exod. 10:25). In general, the sacrifices of the Old Testament served as a great foreshadowing of that higher sacrifice which the Son of God was one day to offer on earth for the sins of mankind. The Law prescribed not only the material for the sacrifices and how they were to be handled, but also established various kinds and forms of sacrifice for the various circumstances of the Israelites.
The material for sacrifices consisted partly of animals, partly of the produce of the plant kingdom. The sacrificial animals, of either sex, were: the larger cattle (bull, ox, calf) and the smaller cattle (goats and sheep), among which the lamb or ram is especially specified (Num. 15:5, 6; 28:11); then birds, namely turtledoves and young pigeons (Lev. 1:14). As to the qualities required of the sacrificial animals: a certain age was required (Lev. 22:27, 29) — of the smaller cattle it had to be a year old (Exod. 12:5), and of the larger, three years old; and above all, bodily soundness was required: they had to be without any blemish, and blind, maimed, broken-limbed, or castrated animals, and the like, could not be used as sacrificial victims (Lev. 22:20–24).
Offerings to God from the produce of plants consisted of bread, meat [grain], frankincense, salt, and wine. The first was offered also in the form of ears of grain (Lev. 2:14), dried by fire and beaten out, and as wheat flour (Lev. 2:1), with oil poured upon it and frankincense placed on it, and as unleavened bread (Lev. 2:2ff.) and as wheat flour prepared in a pan with oil (Lev. 2:7). Every grain offering had to be seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13; Mark 9:49) and could not be leavened: leavened dough and honey were not to be burned upon the fire of the LORD (Lev. 2:11). Finally, for the drink offerings, wine was used, in all likelihood of a dark red color.