How Traditional Judaism Teaches That Temple Sacrifices Atoned for the World

One of the Jewish objections today regarding the need for a sacrifice goes like this:

The book of Jonah shoots down all your arguments about sacrifice and atonement, especially with reference to Gentiles. When Jonah preached, the people repented, and God forgave them - no sacrifice, no blood offering. 

Did you know that traditional Judaism, based on the Torah, teaches that the Temple sacrifices made atonement for the Gentile world? This was part of Israel’s call as a priestly nation, and it was Israel’s Temple offerings that helped make Gentile repentance acceptable to God. 

When God brought our people out of Egypt, he said to them, (Exodus 19:4-6):

4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

Israel was called to be a priestly nation, and part of that calling included intercession and atonement for the nations of the world. 

(Remember, this was an integral part of the priestly calling. Therefore, as a priestly nation, Israel would make intercession and atonement for the world.)

According to this concept, when a Gentile nation repented and turned to God, its repentance would be accepted in conjunction with the sacrifices and prayers offered up by the people of Israel. 

That’s why the prophet Jonah called on the Ninevites to repent of their sins. Offering up sacrifices was Israel’s job as a priestly nation. 

“Who says so?” you ask.

Actually, the Talmudic rabbis say so. 

In b. Sukkah 55b we read that the seventy bulls that were offered every year during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot; see Numbers 29:12-34) “were for the seventy nations.”

Which Rashi explains to mean, “to make atonement for them, so that rain will fall throughout the world” (based on the table of nations in Genesis 10). 

In this context - and in light of the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. - the Talmud records the words of Rabbi Yochannan: “Woe to the nations who destroyed without knowing what they were destroying. For when the Temple was standing, the altar made atonement for them. But now, who will make atonement for them?”   

Again: “When the Temple was standing, the altar made atonement for them.” 

Blood sacrifices were indispensable. 

Bottom line: All of us have sinned, Jew and Gentile alike, and all of us need a way to come into right standing with God. 

God ordained prayer, atonement rites, repentance, and faith as the means by which people participate with Him, and obtain forgiveness and mercy. 

And He singled out one particular people, the nation of Israel, and called them to conduct the Temple services, celebrating the holy days and offering sacrifices as a covering for their own sins and the sins of the world, until that which is the perfect sacrifice would come.