DCHindley

What do you mean by "original"?

I think Iskander understood you to ask "Did Judaism invent sacrifices?" The asnswer to that is, of course, "no".

If you are really asking whether earliest Judaism had sacrifices, then the answer is probably "yes". The next question is whether they were animal sacrifices or cereal/wine, animal byproducts (butter, cheese, wine), or (shudder), human beings (or just their semen - that's what sacred prostitutes were all about, but that wouldn't make me shudder).

The Hebrew peoples (before they became Jews/Judeans) believed their early ancestor (Able) made animal sacrifice to God while Cain offered up cereal grain. God favored Able's sacrifice and we all know what happened there. This perhaps is a faint echo from their hunter-gatherer or horticultural stages of development as a distinct people. These folks were often nomadic or semi-nomadic, used hoes for farming whatever type of land they occupied, and relied quite a bit on animals or animal byproducts for sustenance.

The Tel Amarna letters from Egypt contain several frantic letters from a tributary Canaanite king, who were more than likely an agricultural society (farming fields of grain with plows), complaining bitterly about raids by "Hibaru" (which is believed to mean something like "nomads"). This was just before the traditional date for the exodus of Hebrews from Canaan. Whether the Hebrews were actually these "Hibaru" nomads of the middle east (thus inventing their slavery in Egypt), or they came to identify themselves with such nomads during a migration from Egypt to the Levant, is subject to debate.

If there is any truth to such an identification of Hibaru=Hebrew, the early "Hebrews" were probably hunters or herders of cattle (including sheep & goats), and would naturally offer meat or fat as thank offerings to their gods as these represented in their minds the benefits their gods bestowed upon them. This was represented by Able.

Cain, on the other hand, represented the agricultural societies of Canaan, who farmed fields of grain for their sustenance, and likely offered grain sacrifices as thank offerings. The stories of the Hebrews' fury to eradicate these grain farmers suggests that at this point, they did not get along at all. Sheep, oxen and goats do not naturally eat grain, but prefer grass. They were in competition for use of land resources. Even after the Hebrews took control of the land of Canaan, which is represented in the book of Judges, the description provided somewhat romantically and ideally therein fits an Advanced Horticultural Society almost exactly.

That doesn't mean that they totally ignored agriculture now that they were exposed to it. By the time represented in book of Samuel, the newly formed kingdoms of Saul and David, agriculture had become the dominant source of wealth for the Hebrew people, meaning they had developed into an Agricultural society. This continues through the books of Kings and Chronicles.

You can check it out yourself in Gerhard Lenski's Power & Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification (or via: amazon.co.uk) (1966/1984).

DCH

semiopen

Sacrifices are extremely old and probably common to all ancient religions.

The sacrifices of the Hebrews gradually evolved and by the time of Leviticus, the religion was getting close to monotheistic.

The beginning of the actual Jewish religion is conveniently ascribed to the return from the Babylonian exile. The book of Leviticus might predate the return from exile by two centuries (6th century BCE) but that's pretty conservative.