Sacrifice. The offering of a gift to God. It occurs in the most primitive and in the highest forms of religion. Human sacrifice was practiced in many primitive societies, and there are echoes of it even in the Old Testament, where, however, animal sacrifice was a regular part of temple worship, being only temporarity suspended after the Exile in 586 BCE and briefly by Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 BCE until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The chief annual sacrifice was that of the Paschal Lamb at the Passover in each household. The Old Testament prophets and the psalmists, however, remind the people that the best sacrifice is that of the heart, given in love and gratitude to God inwardly. Jesus, while accepting sacrifice as part of the customary traditional ritual of his people, also emphasized the importance of inwardness in the sacrificial act. Jesus Christ is frequently represented in the New Testament as the "perfect" and "eternal" sacrifice to God. This concept, exaggerated though it was in medieval theory and practice, is held by both Roman Catholic and (with some exceptions) Anglican churchmen to he essential to the life of the Church and is of the utmost importance in contemporary Catholic theology and practice.

Geddes MacGregor, Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy, New York: Paragon House, 1989

sacrifice : (m.) yāga; yañña. (f.) āhuti. (nt.) juhana. (v.t.) 1. yajati; havati; 2. pariccajati. (pp.) yiṭṭha; huta; pariccatta.

A.P. Buddhadatta Mahathera, Concise Pali-English and English-Pali Dictionary [available as digital version from Metta Net, Sri Lanka]