The use of the word hilasterion, in reference to both the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant and to Jesus Christ.

 

     “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

– The letter of Paul to the Romans, chapter 3, verses 20 -25 (English Standard Version)

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There is, in Romans 3:25, a particularly troublesome word, “hilasterion.“ Biblical scholars, and translators have been all over the place on the translation of this word, entirely unable to agree on what it means. It has been variously translated with words and phrases such as: sacrifice of atonement, place of atonement, propitiation, expiation, placate, conciliate, mercy seat.

The Septuagint uses the Greek word hilasterion as the equivalent of the Hebrew word kapporeth. This word hilasterion is in English translations of the Bible most often rendered as propitiation. Hilasterion is a noun referring to an appeasing. The word was used in the Old Testament to refer to the mercy seat, or the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, the place where God’s presence would dwell between the cherubim, and which was sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice on the day of atonement once each year.

The word hilasterion or hilesmos allows for some latitude in translation though and there is some theological debate concerning whether the English word “propitiation” or “expiation” is best used in translation. Expiation brings more of an emphasis on making amends, or some say making pious. This may lessen propitiation’s implication of appeasing or placating a wrathful, angry, vengeful god who can be bribed or pacified by payment into a more favorable attitude. While the word propitiation focuses on making God more favorable to the man, expiation implies something more like the removing of a problem.

Many of the Church Fathers seem to have had an understanding that was nearer to expiation. For instance, Gregory of Nyssa who said, “Christ, being an expiation by His blood, teaches each one thinking of this to become himself a propitiation, sanctifying his soul by the mortification of his members.” In another instance, Chrysostom says, “Paul calls the redemption an expiation to show that if the Old Testament type had such power, much more did its New Testament counterpart have it.”

The use of the word hilasterion or hilasmos, in reference to both the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant and to Jesus Christ raises some interesting questions. What theological significance should be drawn from the connection? Is there some imagery at work here telling us that we should think of Jesus in terms of the Ark of the Covenant? Is Jesus the Ark of the Covenant? He is God’s dwelling place with men! Isn’t God the One who is sending the hilasterion as His gift to us, with the plan of removing our hostility towards Him, our separation from Him? This seems more in keeping with the teaching of the Church Fathers than is the view that He is somehow trying to appease His own wrathful vengeance on our behalf.

Christ is instead the hilasmos because of His offering Himself on our behalf as our rescuer in order to open up the way of our reconciliation with God. As Tertullian said, “ Every soul, then, by reason of its birth, has its nature in Adam until it is born again in Christ. Moreover, it is unclean all the time that it remains without this regeneration. And because it is unclean, it is actually sinful.” or Bede, “This is the greatest sign of God’s love for us: when we were not yet able to seek Him because of our many sins, He sent His Son to us, so that we might grant forgiveness to all who believe in Him and call us back into the fellowship of His fatherly glory.”

Pastorally, this might be seen in the example of Moses who prayed for his faithless, ungrateful people, praying that God would pardon them according to His word. In response to which God puts off, delays the consequences of their faithlessness and rebellion.

Again when people were faithless and double-minded about who was the true God, wrathful Baal or the Lord, Elijah served as a conduit for their rediscovery of the Lord as the one true God. The passage beginning with 1 Kings 18:17, the passage about the gentle breeze, may well be understood as a comment on the difference between Baal and the Lord, but also as a comment on the wrathful God of much propitiation theology and the loving Lord who rescues us from our sins and opens the path for us to grow into His likeness.