Basic HTML Version
the sin offering and burnt offering together, e.g., Lev. 5:10; 9:7, the meal offering and
peace offering, e.g., Ezek. 45:15, 17, as well as in other respects. It is used of the ram
offered at the consecration of the high priest, Ex. 29:33, and of the blood which God gave
upon the altar to make “propitiation” for the souls of the people, and that because “the
life of the flesh is in the blood,” Lev. 17:11, and “it is the blood that maketh atonement
by reason of the life” (
RV
). Man has forfeited his life on account of sin and God has
provided the one and only way whereby eternal life could be bestowed, namely, by the
voluntary laying down of His life by His Son, under divine retribution. Of this the former
sacrifices appointed by God were foreshadowings.
B. Nouns.
1.
(
,
)$
, 2435), akin to A, is regarded as the neuter of an adjective
signifying “propitiatory.” In the Sept. it is used adjectivally in connection with
,
“a cover,” in Exod. 25:17 and 37:6, of the lid of the ark (see
MERCY SEAT
), but it is used
as a noun (without
), of locality, in Exod. 25:18, 19, 20, 21, 22; 31:7; 35:12;
37:7, 8, 9; Lev. 16:2, 13, 14, 15; Num. 7:89, and this is its use in Heb. 9:5.
Elsewhere in the NT it occurs in Rom. 3:25, where it is used of Christ Himself; the
RV
text and punctuation in this verse are important: “whom God set forth
a
propitiation, through faith, by His blood.” The phrase “by His blood” is to be taken in
immediate connection with “propitiation.” Christ, through His expiatory death, is the
personal means by whom God shows the mercy of His justifying grace to the sinner who
believes. His “blood” stands for the voluntary giving up of His life, by the shedding of
His blood in expiatory sacrifice under divine judgment righteously due to us as sinners,
faith being the sole condition on man’s part.
Note:
“By metonymy, ‘blood’ is sometimes put for ‘death,’ inasmuch as, blood being
essential to life, Lev. 17:11, when the blood is shed life is given up, that is, death takes
place. The fundamental principle on which God deals with sinners is expressed in the
words ‘apart from shedding of blood,’ i.e., unless a death takes place, ‘there is no
remission’ of sins, Heb. 9:22.
“But whereas the essential of the type lay in the fact that blood was shed, the essential
of the antitype lies in this, that the blood shed was that of Christ. Hence, in connection
with Jewish sacrifices, ‘the blood’ is mentioned without reference to the victim from
which it flowed, but in connection with the great antitypical sacrifice of the NT the words
‘the blood’ never stand alone; the One Who shed the blood is invariably specified, for it
is the Person that gives value to the work; the saving efficacy of the Death depends
entirely upon the fact that He Who died was the Son of God.”*
2.
(
,
, 2434), akin to
(“merciful, propitious”), signifies “an
expiation, a means whereby sin is covered and remitted.” It is used in the NT of Christ
Himself as “the propitiation,” in 1 John 2:2 and 4:10, signifying that He Himself, through
the expiatory sacrifice of His death, is the personal means by whom God shows mercy to
the sinner who believes on Christ as the One thus provided. In the former passage He is
described as “the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole
world.” The italicized addition in the
KJV
, “
7 3
gives a wrong interpretation.
* From
Notes on Thessalonians
by Hogg and Vine, p. 168.