Corban is the general word for anything formally handed over to God, from a lamb to a vow.
In Hebrew, qorban is not the name of one kind of sacrifice. It is the umbrella term Leviticus and Numbers use for whatever gets brought to the altar or dedicated to God's service: a bull, a handful of grain, a wagon full of goods for the tabernacle. The word just means "the thing brought near." It tells you the gift has changed hands, not what kind of gift it is.
By the time of Jesus, the word had picked up a sharper, legal edge. To declare something "corban" was to make a binding vow that dedicated it to God, which meant it could no longer be used for anything else — including, as Jesus points out, supporting your own ageing parents. The same word that describes an ordinary grain offering in Leviticus becomes, centuries later, a loophole people were exploiting.
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, you may bring as your offering an animal from the herd or the flock.
Introduces qorban as the umbrella word for any offering brought to the LORD.
“When anyone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering must consist of fine flour. He is to pour olive oil on it, put frankincense on it,
Shows the same word applied to a grain offering, not just an animal sacrifice.
They brought as their offering before the LORD six covered carts and twelve oxen—an ox from each leader and a cart from every two leaders—and presented them before the tabernacle.
Qorban here covers wagons and oxen given for the tabernacle's service, widening the sense further.
But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),
Jesus cites the vow formula 'Corban' as a way people avoided supporting their parents.
Most English Bibles simply use "offering" or "gift" wherever qorban appears in Leviticus and Numbers, since the word carries no more specific content than that. In Mark 7:11, translators usually keep the transliteration "Corban" and add a gloss such as "that is, given to God," because no single English word covers both "sacred gift" and "binding vow that locks the gift away" at once.
People sometimes assume corban names a particular ritual or category of sacrifice, as if it were the Hebrew word for "burnt offering" or "sin offering." It isn't. It's the generic word for anything dedicated to God, and its one New Testament appearance is really about a vow being misused to dodge family duty, not about temple ritual itself.
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