11/16/2023
The Atonement.
The purpose of language is to communicate thoughts and ideas. Translation between languages is difficult, because there may not always be a simple word for word mapping between languages. This may be possible for close language families, such as translating between the Romantic languages such as French - Spanish - Italian, but difficult for unrelated languages like from Semitic Hebrew Arabic languages to a Germanic language like English. So Tyndale and others often needed to create words to convey the meaning of Hebrew ideas, but even this was not always possible nor was fully capable of conveying the meaning.
The Hebrew language itself is said to be 'efficient' because it has a very small vocabulary, which is to say that it has a lot less words than other languages such as the English language for example. A consequence of this is that a word can have several different meanings, and the exact meaning of a word is heavily dependent on its context. This makes the ancient Hebrew writings notoriously difficult to translate, even for a native speaker. The Hebrew language is also very poetic and often uses idioms, that are not familiar to modern readers. To address these problems, many of the inspired bible writers would use various literary devices such as parallelism.
A difficult to convey hebrew word/idea is Atonement, and it is generally used in the scriptures to refer to principle of reconciliation and forgiveness, and is crucial in God's work of salvation. The first time the idea of atonement appears in scripture was when God commanded Noah to pitch the ark to make it water tight so that mankind could be delivered form the deluge.
“Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.“ - Genesis 6:14
The salvation of Noah's family, and mankind by extension, wouldn’t happen unless Noah 'pitched the ark' or 'and coat it with pitch'(Hb. וְכָֽפַרְתָּ֥ (wə·ḵā·p̄ar·tā) : to cover over, to atone, purge, make propitiation (reconciliation), cover over with pitch) which makes the ark water tight, and is an action that needed to be done to make the Ark stay afloat and functional to achieve its purpose of salvation.
We often think atonement refers to the pitch (viz tar {noun}) itself, but it actually refers to the verb/action of pitching the ark and coating it with the waterproof sealant.
We are blessed by the way scripture is written, as it often uses the literary device called parallelism, where the same/related idea is alluded to more than once and in close proximity to each other, so that the true meaning of a word or phrase can be better understood. An example is this verse: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."[Psalm 32:1] clarifies that the meaning of the idiomatic phrase ‘sin is covered’ also means ‘transgression is forgiven’. This shows the connection between covering and forgiveness, and how the teachings about the act of covering (viz to pitch) Noah’s Ark with tar to make functional relates to the solid gold lid of the Ark of the Covenant, and why it is referred to as the ‘mercy seat’ [Hb. כַּפֹּרֶת : kapporeth - ‘covers over sin’], and how it relates to Jesus' sinless life and sacrificial act at Calvary provides an ongoing covering over of our sins and offenses; in order that we may saved.
We also read that it is the Mercy Seat of Jesus' sacrificial actions where the Lord God says: “and there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony.”[Exodus 25:22]. The contents of the Ark illustrated YAH’s goodness and merciful actions as opposed to the failure of the people: of which the epistle to the Hebrews comments how “in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.” [Hebrews 3:8-9]
The contents of the Ark: the ten commandments on tables of stone is good, but it effectively described the sins and moral failures of the people; the golden pot of manna is good, but is inevitably associated with the lust of the people for wrong things, and Aaron's rod that budded is good, but is associated with the peoples (priests) rebelliousness. So just as how the gold lid mercy seat 'covers over' the Ark and its contents, it was a way of showing how the Father’s goodness covers over the sins of the people, and teaches how Jesus’ actions at Calvary 'covers over' the sins of mankind, and how the two cherubims symbolize YAHWEH looking down and sees the mercy seat of mercy and favor and not the sins and rebellion of the people. Even though the people were failing, God sees the victory of Jesus' life and actions.
To further emphasize that atonement is a verb action, consider the case of Phinehas. During the wilderness journey, the Israelite people started to worship the Midianite idols ('gods'), and also appeared to forming a strong strategic political, cultural and economic alliances with the idolatrous Midianite people. As a consequence, God was plaguing Israel for it. This going astray seems to be led by a Jewish man of renown, who happened to be living with a Midianite woman, a daughter of a idol priest and a princess of the Midianites, and in the presence of everyone. Phinehas [a priest] took a javelin (spear) and impaled the couple who had blatantly disobeyed God; and scripture said that Phinehas' action 'made atonement' (Hb וַיְכַפֵּ֖ר (way·ḵap·pêr) to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with pitch] for the people, causing the ending of the plague of death God had visited on the people, and a friendly relationship was restored between God and Israel [Numbers 25:13]. The ancient Jewish translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek (viz Septuagint or LXX - the translation of the Seventy {Rabbis}) translated this verse as (“καὶ ἔσται αὐτῷ καὶ τῷ σπέρματι αὐτοῦ μετ� αὐτὸν διαθήκη ἱερατείας αἰωνία, ἀνθ� ὧν ἐζήλωσε τῷ Θεῷ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐξιλάσατο περὶ τῶν υἱῶν ᾿Ισραήλ”) which in English translates to: ‘And let there be unto him and to his seed a covenant of priesthood for ever, a man who was zealous for his God and redeemed for the children of Israel.’ This indicates that atonement also is redemptive, and offers and involved deliverance.
It’s the redeeming action of one (Phinehas) that brought reconciliation for others (Israel), where in a time of national offenses one man did what was right/righteous and God treated the others as if they did what was right/righteous, just as Jesus’ redeeming actions of doing what was right/righteous brought reconciliation for others (viz ‘the redeemed’) who the Father treats as if they also did what was right/righteous.
“But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”[Romans 5:18]
We read how “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[John 3:16]. We also know that not everyone in the world will receive forgiveness, reconciliation and eternal life. We also understand believers "joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”[Romans 5:11].
This disparity is resolved by understanding that Jesus' sacrificial death provided for and made the atonement-forgiveness-reconciliation-change of relationship status possible and available for everyone in the world, but not everyone in the world is interested nor willing to avail themselves of it nor willing to submit to what is required for receiving the atonement.
The atonement changed our relationship from being God's enemies to His friends, and that makes all the difference. It is not just our association with Jesus himself by baptism that saves us, it is also our association with Jesus’ sacrificial life and actions that makes us righteous. We express our association with Jesus’ life and actions by the things we do every day, such as when the observers took note of the behavior of Peter and John where they "took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”[Acts 4:13].
"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." I John 2:1-2
The word 'propitiation' [Gk. ἱλαστήριον] [I John 2:2] - the act of placating and overcoming distrust and animosity, an action that brings about reconciliation] is a Greek word that has the sense of the Hebrew word Atonement [hb. וְכָֽפַרְתָּ֥ - kophar - 'to cover']. We are counseled by scripture that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." [II Corinthians 5:19]. This ‘reconciliation’ mentioned [Gk καταλλαγῆς (katallagēs) - reconciliation, restoration to favor] was originally used to refer to the exchange of coins (especially money), and alludes to the redemptive actions of the purchasing of sinners by the Father through the actions of His only begotten Jesus the Anointed, and the resulting restoration of friendship status towards sinners, and the exchange of our life of sinful acts and guilt for Jesus’ life of righteousness and loving favor.
The atonement sacrifice of Jesus’ life and actions in one from which we are beneficiaries, where his redeeming work of deliverance changed our status from being inevitably destined to death and oblivion, to the hope of eternal life, changed our relationship from being the enemies of God to being friends (reconciled), where the Father treats us like we are righteous because of Jesus’ righteous actions, which gives us access to God's favor, forgiveness and mercy, and offers us lively hope that leads to eternal life and peace in the soon to be established kingdom of God on earth, when Jesus comes, at last!
While his return is delayed, we are encouraged to bring our troubles and failures to him, because he is actively involved in the works of our reconciliation, and urges and advocates us to accept it: for "he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."[Hebrews 7:25]
