What Does “Holocaust” Mean in the Bible?
A sacrifice in which the animal offered to God was burned whole.
A detail
- Today: the word is also used for the murder of the Jews in the Second World War. In the Bible it is the sacrifice.
Where it appears in the Bible
Genesis 22:2; Leviticus 1:9
What the Bible says
Genesis 22:2
He said to him: Take thy only begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision: and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will show thee.
Leviticus 1:9
The entrails and feet being washed with water: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar for a holocaust, and a sweet savour to the Lord.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Leviticus 1:9