The word oblation, from the supine of the Latin verb offero ("to
offer"), is etymologically akin to offering, but is, unlike the
latter, almost exclusively restricted to matters religious. In
the English Bibles "oblation", "offering", "gift", "sacrifice"
are used indiscriminately for anything presented to God in
worship, or for the service of the Temple or priest. This
indiscriminate rendering arises from the fact that these words
do not purport to render always the same Hebrew expressions. The
latter, moreover, are not distinctly specific in their meaning.
In this article oblations will be considered in the narrow sense
the term has tended to assume of vegetable or lifeless things
offered to God, in contradistinction to "bloody sacrifices".
Oblations of this kind, like sacrifices, were found in all
ancient Semitic religions — in fact are a worldwide and ever-
existing institution. Various theories have been proposed to
explain how offerings came to be a part of worship.
Unfortunately very many modern scholars