Leviticus 1:5-9

"And he shall kill the bullock before Jehovah: and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle its blood upon the altar round about upon the altar that is at the door of the tent of meeting. And he shall flay the burnt-offering, and cut it into its pieces. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay wood in order upon the fire; and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall lay the pieces, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar; but its inwards and its legs shall he wash with water. And the priest shall burn the whole on the altar, for a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah."

A number of things in the procedure here were to be done by the worshipper himself, and these are in addition to his bringing it, laying his hands upon it, and presenting it at the door of the tent of meeting. Note, however, that the priests were to put on the fire and the wood. Bamberger called this a "discrepancy" from Leviticus 9:24, where it is said the fire came "from heaven." This is merely another of the feeble pseudocons that critics love to find in the Bible. It is inherent in every line of the Leviticus narrative that the fire had to be rekindled, rekindled and rekindled continually by the priests; and, as Gordon stated it, "The fire was not allowed to go out, but must often have smoldered."[16]

"Shall burn the whole on the altar ..." Meyrick informs us that the Hebrew here carries the meaning of: "the whole substance is made to ascend unto the Lord";[17] and Orlinsky rendered the passage as "turn ... into smoke."[18] This, of course, is scientifically accurate. Smoke is actually the substance in another form of that which is burned. Thus, the offering literally ascended.