Exodus 29:31-34

THE FEAST UPON THE CONSECRATION OFFERINGS.

(31-34) The writer having digressed in Exodus 29:27 from his main subject (the consecration of Aaron and his sons) to the consideration of certain permanent laws which arose out of the occasion, returns to his main subject at this point, and records the directions which he received with respect to the feast that followed, as a matter of course, on the consecration sacrifice. The parts of the victim neither consumed on the altar nor assigned to the officiating priest, were to be boiled at the door of the Tabernacle (Leviticus 8:31), and there consumed by Aaron and his sons, together with the loaf of unleavened bread, the oiled cake, and the wafer, which still remained in the “basket of consecrations” (Leviticus 8:31) mentioned in Exodus 29:3; Exodus 29:23. No “stranger” — i.e., no layman — was to join with them in the feast (Exodus 29:33); and, if they were unable to consume the whole, what remained was to be burnt. (Comp. the injunctions with respect to the paschal lamb, given in Exodus 12:10; Exodus 23:18.) Christian ritualism draws from these injunctions the propriety of an entire consumption of the elements on each occasion of the celebration of the Eucharist.