(formed from ὅλος, whole, and καύω, to consume with fire), a kind of sacrifice, in which the whole offering is burned or consumed by fire, as an acknowledgment that God, the creator, preserver, and lord of all, was worthy of all honour and worship, and as a token of men's giving themselves entirely up to him. It is also called in Scripture a burnt-offering. Sacrifices of this sort are often mentioned by the heathens as well as Jews (Xenophon, Cyroped. lib. viii. p. 446, 1738), and they appear to have been in use long before the institution of the other Jewish sacrifices by the law of Moses (Job. i. 5, xli. 8; and Gen. viii. 20, xxii. 13). On this account the Jews, who would not allow the Gentiles to offer on their altar any sacrifices peculiarly enjoined by the law of Moses, permitted them by means of the Jewish priests to offer holocausts, because these were a sort of sacrifices prior to the law, and common to all nations. During their subjection to the Romans it was no uncommon thing for the Gentiles to offer sacrifices to the God of Israel at Jerusalem. Holocausts were deemed by the Jews the most excellent of all their sacrifices. It is said that this kind of sacrifice was in common use amongst the heathens, till Prometheus introduced the custom of burning only a part, and reserving the remainder for his own use.