What Does Leviticus 1:3 Mean in the King James?
If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The offering is a qorban, a “drawing near”: the gift itself is movement into God’s presence.
THE MEANING
The verse gives this approach a visible form: a male from the herd, whole and freely brought, meets the LORD at the tabernacle’s entrance. The offering is named as a drawing near, and the burnt offering as what rises; nearness here has a gift, a threshold, and an upward movement.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּן
qorbān
GROWS FROM
ק-ר-ב
q-r-b
Draw near, approach.
English “offering” names the object; qorbān names its movement: the gift draws near. Related forms mean “approach” and “near,” so the verse frames the gift as a path into presence.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: To come near or approach.
קָרַב
The verb names the movement carried by the offering itself.
qārōb: Near or close at hand.
קָרוֹב
This branch shows that the offering’s root holds the idea of nearness within it.
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
ע-ל-ה
ʿ-l-h
Go up, ascend.
“burnt sacrifice” in this verse is ʿōlāh. The name of the burnt offering means “what rises.” Its root also names ascending, complementing qorban’s movement of drawing near with the image of what rises before God.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To rise or go up.
עָלָה
The verb makes the upward movement in the name of the offering audible.
ʿăliyyāh: An ascent or upward movement.
עֲלִיָּה
This noun shares the root’s image of rising with the burnt offering.
תָּמִים
tāmîm
GROWS FROM
ת-מ-ם
t-m-m
Be complete, whole, finished.
“without blemish” in this verse is tāmîm. The word holds completeness and wholeness alongside blamelessness. The offering’s integrity is part of the verse’s picture of drawing near.
ALSO GROWS
tām: Whole or complete; also blameless.
תָּם
This related form shows the root’s sense of wholeness in a description of a person.
tōm: Integrity or completeness.
תֹּם
This branch links the offering’s soundness with the idea of an undivided whole.
THE PATTERN
Drawing near becomes visible through a gift or life brought before God.
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.THE THREAD
But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.Mark 7:11 preserves the Hebrew loanword κορβᾶν (korbān, “a gift dedicated to God”), corresponding to קָרְבָּן (qorbān, “offering, drawing near”) here. In Mark, naming a gift “Corban” can be used to withhold it from a parent, showing how the same word for drawing near is bound up with what is actually brought near.
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