Welcoming Gifts

Sacrifice in the Bible and Christian Life

By: Jeremy Davis

Narrated by: Jeremy Davis

In modern parlance, the word "sacrifice" conjures images of suffering, loss, and even martyrdom. But sacrifice, as practiced in the Old Testament and throughout the ancient world, was most often the occasion of joyous celebration—a way of drawing near to God and to the other members of the community.

Welcoming Gifts explores the history of sacrifice, the meaning of Christ's sacrifice, and what the concept should mean for Christians today—a way of expressing and cementing our relationship with God.

©2022 Jeremy Davis (P)2022 Jeremy Davis

A theological tidal wave of enlightenment.

If your a student of scripture, this book will help you put together some of the seemingly disconnected themes of the old and new covenant’s; removing the fog of Old Testament worship to reveal a much closer kinship to our fellow son’s of Abraham from the BC era.

Superb analysis

Excellent analysis and documentation of 'sacrifice' in the Bible and encouragement for how the Biblical usage can draw us into a more meaningful relationship with God. I'll be purchasing the book.

Sacrifice is not substitutionary atonement

Davis looks closely at how sacrifice was understood as gift in Old and New Testaments as well as in Orthodox Christianity and how it came to be misunderstood and misconstrued in modern usage. In particular he identifies the logical flaws in the theory of substitutionary atonements and shows how they do not make logical sense when understood in light of how sacrifice and scapegoating (two very different acts in scripture) were understood and practiced. The book makes important points for a more accurate understanding of sacrifice including and especially for the one bloodless sacrifice that Christ requires of His Church in the Thanksgiving (Eucharistic) offering of bread and wine that are the core sacrificial ritual of the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, that all Christians should be participating in and consuming regularly as members of the body of Christ.

Profound and Accessible Overview

Fr. Jeremy Davis' book provides a refreshing look into an aspect of Orthodox Christian doctrine that many often struggle to grasp. By reexamining sacrifice in its original context, as a relational meal between God and man, "Welcoming Gifts" explains how Old Testament ritual practice perfectly aligns with our New Testament understanding of the eucharist.

I was impressed by the text's accessible tone, often unpacking complex theological rationale in succinct laymen's terms. The book is broken into chapters detailing particular aspects of sacrifice, any or all of which would make a good topic for church discussion groups. I look forward to recommending this book to those seeking a deeper understanding of Orthodox liturgical practice, as well as those struggling to mesh Old Testament offerings requiring blood with the Divine Liturgy's rational and bloodless worship.

Incredible book that expanded and clarified my understanding of this critical topic!

It never occurred to me that my understanding of sacrifice has been shaped more by modern interpretations and less by what ancient people (and thus Scripture) actually understood about the topic.

This is a must-read for anyone who wants to actually understand what the Bible is saying as a whole about the topic of sacrifice, from the Old Testament to the Gospels and Epistles.

From a sound quality perspective, the audio is a little echoey at times, it doesn’t detract at all from the book as a whole, and I’m already starting to re-listen - it’s just that meaty of a read. (Note that the depth of the read shouldn’t dissuade you at all - it’s not a hard read, just incredibly thought provoking.)

It was like a private retreat.

I didn’t know what to expect from an audiobook but I was not disappointed! Fr Jeremy’s delivery was solid and i loved that he made references to pop culture to help the reader/listener more easily understand the weighty subject of sacrifice. I found this to be a consuming subject, I will be sharing the book with many friends and family. The subject was treated thoroughly, what a comprehensive and fascinating book! It was like a private retreat!

Restoring the Meaning of "Sacrifice"

The idea behind “Welcoming Gifts” is that our modern understanding of sacrifice is one of violence and pain, or at the very least discomfort and inconvenience. It’s transactional in the sense that the sacrificer loses something in order to gain something else.

But, that is not necessarily how the ancient world viewed sacrifices.

Father Jeremy begins with an overview of sacrifice in the Kingdom of Israel and in the ancient world more broadly. From there, he moves to the Israelite's failure to adequately hold up their end of the agreement (so to speak) and how this eventually led to Christ’s sacrifice, which is a perfect fulfillment of the Mosaic Covenant. Finally, he ends with how all of this is relevant to us: how we should consider sacrifice, how it is reflected in the Divine Liturgy, and more.

Welcoming Gifts is an incredibly approachable and yet theologically rich book. Nothing felt too complex to understand, nor did anything feel dumbed down. I normally listen to audiobooks while cooking or driving, but for this one I did need to actively listen and take a few notes.

Finally, Father Jeremy narrates the book himself. I always think it’s a bonus when the author reads their own work. His voice is pleasant to listen to and the audio quality is excellent.

Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone seeking to learn about the concept of sacrifice.

M.div course without the confusion

Father Jeremy Davis does an amazing job describing and explaining something so complex and heavy in a way that even I can understand it. It would not surprise me if this became a required reading for a heavily theological course but without all the confusing language.

How western society views sacrifice has changed and this has changed how we view the sacrifices commanded by God in the Old Testament and ultimately Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Father Jeremy realigns our thinking of sacrifice to how the ancient Jews and Church Fathers understood it and helps everything make sense.

Father’s reading is calming and the audio quality is top notch.

A invaluable redemption of the term "Sacrifice"

It’s time to rid ourselves of the ghost left behind by improper sacrifice – and this book seeks to begin that invaluable work.
For a term used so frequently (and if this book’s author is correct regarding its invocation – rather incorrectly as well) the concept of “sacrifice” sure seems to make people uncomfortable. Sacrifice, as a term, conjures images of blood, violence, gratuitousness, and fear. Culturally speaking, the concept of sacrifice might rest in the mind as a scary space that transports one back to periods of pre-modern moments of history where blood rituals ended the lives of otherwise innocent people and animals – or even modern moments where entire populations are forced to serve a ruling class, even to the point of death. A common thread in these notions of sacrifice is that it glosses over and, in a sense, erases the true philosophical history of sacrifice. What can be reclaimed if one was able to return to the fuller origins of sacrifice, not as a gruesomely bloody “eye for an eye” mentality, but as a means of selfless giving to establish truer relationships? This is part of the larger array of questions tackled by Welcoming Gifts’ author, Fr. Jeremy Davis, and is a must-have for any religious inquirer looking to better understand what ancient Judeo-Christian persons meant when they called for “sacrifice.”
Welcoming Gifts is divided by four main parts (Rediscovering Sacrifice, Old Testament Sacrifice, Christ’s Sacrifice, and Our Sacrifices), which are each further sub-divided into 3-4 chapters. The text is an insightful read for many reasons, but the two that are most apparent among a first read-through might include a critical breakdown of how sacrifice is invoked in ancient pagan cultures and how/where those notions diverge in Orthodox Christian culture[s]. What is particularly curious is how, ultimately, the distinction between ancient pagan and Orthodox notions of sacrifice is that they are more similar than they are distinct to the modern eye, and Fr. Davis does an important work in helping excavate the historical baggage that has been overloaded onto the term. Moving beyond the western juridical notion of sacrifice as a legal atonement for one’s sins, the text pushes the reader to consider how sacrifice is much closer to a self-emptying posture that works to establish a relationship between self and other. Here one can see that sacrifices of all kinds were often sealed with a special meal – oftentimes at a feast; hardly as gruesome a scene as a strictly literal reading of the bible might imply. As Fr. Davis moves from this ancient contextualization of sacrifice to the sacrifice that occurs on the cross (and as a result, the one that is repeated through the rational and bloodless sacrifice inherent to the divine liturgy), the reader is treated with an appreciation of not only the fuller picture of what a sacrifice may be, but also a fuller appreciation of the gravitational range of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Christians that are interested in the meaning and contextual background of an admittedly sometimes confusing set of Old Testament scripture verses about sacrifice will be rewarded with a connection to the life and work of Jesus Christ.
I came to this text by way of Audible and was more than pleased with the sound quality. The reading was clear, maintains a slow reading pace (not much is lost if one were to minorly increase the speaking-speed), and the quick turnaround of the chapters maintains a good flow of content. The content itself could be considered engaging to many, as I’m sure scholars of cultural engagements with sacrifice and religious historians could join hands with Christian laypeople that are looking to read the Christian story with more illumined eyes. I wish to highlight scholars because the audiobook features an appendix and sometimes pauses to highlight important footnotes that yields additional critical information – suggesting that additional resources are at the disposal of the particularly engaged reader. While this book may appeal to scholars, listeners of Ancient Faith’s radio-podcast Lord of Spirits might uniquely appreciate this reading, as the level of nuance and intellectual investigation that Fr. Davis communicates with an uncanny level of ease would allow one to feel right at home – regardless of one’s scholarly status or vocation.
Without being too cheeky, the book sacrifices the repulsive notions of the term for the truly beautiful ones: it allows Orthodox Christians to better connect to their ancient roots without the confusing, gratuitous, and ultimately alienating elements of sacrifice that have built up in the West over time. For anyone formed or informed by the Judeo-Christian scriptures, this book is a must read to better understand how sacrifice marks our religious past, the always present moment of Jesus Christ, and how we are continually called to sacrifice with our daily lives.

Great book!

Always love it when authors record their own audio books. It is very informative and Christians from all traditions should read and consider what it says.