Blemish
A blemish, in the Levitical vocabulary, is a physical deformity that compromises the wholeness required of what comes near Yahweh. The category runs in two directions in the law: outward, to the animal placed on the altar, and inward, to the priest who carries it there. The same word later carries a figurative weight, governing how the apostolic writers describe Christ's offering and the church he presents to himself.
The Unblemished Animal
The principle that what is offered to Yahweh must be physically whole is fixed at Passover and continues through the peace-offering legislation. The Passover lamb is selected by this standard from the outset: "Your⁺ lamb will be without blemish, a male a year old: you⁺ will take it from the sheep, or from the goats" (Ex 12:5).
The wider sacrificial law turns the same requirement into an explicit catalog. Acceptance hinges on offering "a male without blemish, of the bullocks, of the sheep, or of the goats" (Lev 22:19), and a defective animal is refused outright: "But whatever has a blemish, that you⁺ will not offer: for it will not be acceptable for you⁺" (Lev 22:20). The peace-offering rule fixes the requirement of perfection within the same chapter — "it will be perfect to be accepted; there will be no blemish in it" (Lev 22:21). The catalog of disqualifying defects is concrete: "Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, you⁺ will not offer these to Yahweh, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to Yahweh" (Lev 22:22). Animals "superfluous or lacking" in their parts may be brought as a freewill-offering but are barred from a vow (Lev 22:23), and animals "castrated by bruising, or crushing, or breaking, or cutting" are excluded entirely (Lev 22:24). The closing clause extends the prohibition to imported animals as well: "Neither from the hand of a foreigner will you⁺ offer the bread of your⁺ God of any of these; because their corruption is in them, there is a blemish in them: they will not be accepted for you⁺" (Lev 22:25).
The Priest's Body
The same standard reaches inward to the one who handles the offering. In the Aaronic legislation, a descendant of Aaron with a physical defect is barred from approaching the altar: "Whoever he is of your seed throughout their generations that has a blemish, do not let him approach to offer the bread of his God" (Lev 21:17). The text then itemizes the disqualifying conditions — "a blind man, or a lame, or he who has a flat nose, or anything superfluous, or a man who is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or crook-backed, or a dwarf, or who has a blemish in his eye, or is scurvy, or scabbed, or has his stones broken" (Lev 21:18-20).
The disqualification is liturgical, not economic. The blemished priest "will eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy" (Lev 21:22) — he retains his share in the priestly portions — but "he will not go in to the veil, nor come near to the altar, because he has a blemish; that he does not profane my sanctuaries: for I am Yahweh who sanctifies them" (Lev 21:23). What is at stake is the altar's holiness, not the man's livelihood.
Christ as the Lamb Without Blemish
Peter takes the sacrificial vocabulary and applies it directly to Christ's death, treating "without blemish" as the qualifying description of the redeeming offering: "but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, [even the blood] of Christ" (1 Pet 1:19). The Levitical specification of the unblemished animal supplies the figure for how Peter speaks of Christ's blood.
The Church Without Blemish
Paul carries the same word forward to describe what Christ does with the church. The goal of his self-giving is presentational: "that he might present the church to himself a glorious [church], not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:27). The sacrificial standard, applied first to the animal and then to Christ himself, here describes the community he gathers.