The Wave & Heave Offerings

Sacrifices & Feasts of the Old Testament collection. These are not sacrifices, but ritual actions applied to portions of other sacrifices.

What the Terms Mean

• Wave offering (tĕnûpâ) - root means to move to and fro, possibly to elevate. Ashley translates "elevated" in the Nazirite legislation. Gesture = presentation before the Lord.
• Heave offering (tĕrûmâ) - better rendered "contribution offering." Traditional English comes from a supposed lifting gesture; modern versions have mostly dropped it. "Contribution" is better than the posture.
  • Sklar: describes items given to the Lord to support the tabernacle, often food, which the Lord then gave to priests and Levites (Num 18:8-19).
• Tĕrûmâ literally = "that which is lifted off, separated," and covers:
  • portion of cereal offerings (Lev 7:14)
  • animal sacrifices (Lev 7:20; Num 6:20)
  • Levites' tithe + priests' tenth of that tithe (Num 18:24-29)
  • booty taken in a raid (Num 31:29)
  • contributions for building the tabernacle (Exod 25:2-5)
  • the half-shekel tax funding the daily service (Exod 30:13-15)
  • Common denominator: all are gifts or contributions to God or his priests (or both).
• So, this is not a narrow cultic technicality - it's the general category for everything set apart from ordinary use and handed over, from a slice of bread to the spoils of a war.

Since contribution and wave offerings were so similar in terms of function, it is not clear why some items went through the extra ritual action of waving.

• Jay Sklar, Leviticus (TOTC)

• Possible suggestion: since waving indicated dedication, certain items may have been "in extra need of such an indication." Don't know for sure.

Where They Occur

• Fellowship offering (Lev 7:28-34). Breast waved, right thigh contributed. But distributed differently:
  • Breast > all the priests and their families (v. 31; as in 10:14).
  • Right thigh > the officiating priest and his family alone (v. 33).
  • Both valuable. Sklar: thigh was a special cut (1 Sam 9:22-24), and the right side was viewed as especially important (Gen 48:13-20; 1 Sam 11:2). Breast confirmed as a good cut by the Lord assigning it to Moses at the ordination (Lev 8:29), where Moses was the officiating priest.
  • Sensible arrangement as it provides for the whole priesthood from every fellowship offering, gives the man who did the work that day something extra. And it's God's arrangement, not the priests'.
• Praise fellowship offering (Lev 7:14). One of each bread type > officiating priest as tĕrûmâ, rest to the offerer. Sklar: both priest and offeror had bread to eat with the meat of this covenantal meal.
• Sheaf of firstfruits (Lev 23:11). Priest waves the first barley the day after the Sabbath.
• Two loaves at Weeks (Lev 23:17, 20). Leavened bread couldn't be burned on the altar (2:11), so waving was the only mechanism available. The priest could wave the loaves to dedicate them, then receive them back from the Lord.
• Ordination of priests (Exod 29:24-26; Lev 8:27-29). Portions placed in Aaron's hands and waved.
• Completion of a Nazirite vow (Num 6:19-20). The boiled shoulder is still in the Nazirite's possession, so to transfer it to God's ownership the priest puts it, with an unleavened cake and wafer, into the Nazirite's hands, and these are elevated before Yahweh to consummate the transfer.
• The Levites themselves (Num 8:11). Aaron "waves" the Levites before the Lord as an offering from the people. Rite applied to grain, meat, bread and, once, human beings.

How it Worked

• Osborne's summary: these are how the priestly portions were designated - breast as wave offering, right thigh as tribute offering, intended for the priests alone.
• Num 6:19-20 is the clearest example into how it worked. The item is in the worshipper's hands. The priest puts it in the worshipper's hands again, with additional items. Then it's elevated before the Lord. Then it belongs to the priest.
  • Three parties, one gesture, and a change of ownership that runs through God rather than around Him.
• Lev 7:34 puts the whole transaction on God: "I have taken from the people of Israel… and have given them to Aaron the priest."
  • People give to God. God gives to the priests. There's no direct line between worshipper and clergy - this prevents both resentment on one side and entitlement on the other.
  • Eli's sons broke exactly this. Their offence in 1 Sam 2 wasn't that they ate, but that they took, and took before the Lord had received His portion.

Provision for Those Who Serve

The Lord had assigned various portions of the offerings to the priests as their share. This enabled them to focus their efforts on ministering in the tabernacle. Indeed, when such provision was not made, the worship of God could suffer (cf. Neh. 13:10-11). It was therefore vital for the people to provide for those who ministered.

• Jay Sklar, Leviticus (TOTC)

• Neh 13:10 is the case study of this. Portions not given > Levites and singers went back to their fields > temple service stopped.

New Testament Fulfilment

There is no explicit typological use of the wave or heave offering in the NT - which is what you'd expect of a presentation gesture rather than a sacrifice.

• What does carry forward is the principle:
  • 1 Cor 9:13-14 - "those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings. In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel." Gal 6:6 makes this connection.
  • Paul isn't finding a hidden Christ in the wave offering. He's reasoning from a standing arrangement: God has always funded His ministers through the offerings of His people, and the change of covenant doesn't change that.
• Firstfruits logic. The sheaf waved in Lev 23:11 becomes the controlling image of 1 Cor 15:20. The wave rite is what made a sheaf into a firstfruits rather than a bundle of barley. See The Feast of Firstfruits.
• Presentation as a category. Paristēmi in Rom 12:1 and the cultic "present" of Luke 2:22 (Jesus presented at the temple) belong to the same family. Schreiner identifies the verb as a sacrificial term deriving from the cult.
  • Something is lifted up before God and thereby changes hands. In Rom 12 the thing lifted up is us.