The Forgotten Commandment : Be Holy

And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy (Qa-Dosh).

There's a commandment that is so central to Christianity but if you ask people to recite the ten commandments they will never mention it. It's the forgotten commandment - to "Be Holy"

HOLY

 [Old English hālig, hǣlig; related to Old Saxon hēlag, Gothic hailags, German heilig; see hallow]

 To Be Consecrated.

It is interesting that the old english form hale, means "whole."  To be Holy, is to become whole because if you are not Holy a piece is absent of your life - the spiritual.

To BE HOLY is the first thing Peter offers up in his first letter. Peter 1:13 devotes a section to it. We have so few direct writings of Peter all too often we learn of Paul's trips and travels and letters. But now Peter writes a letter to his new growing flock. First he declares "A Living Hope"

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 

But right after his most important subject, the FIRST THING he tells his flock... is to BE HOLY

Be Holy13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

In 1st Peter and also in Hebrews they both proclaim "Be Holy" in the reference to Leviticus. And that commandment is often lost or unknown to people. Because the commandments are given in Exodus, while the order to Be Holy is given in Leviticus not with the declaration of the ten commandments.

For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.  For I am the LORD your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. - leviticus 11:44-45

Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy - lecviticus 20:7

God tells us the first step is to CONSECRATE ourselves. To CONSECRATE is to make or declare (something, typically a church) sacred. This is to make ourselves SACRED. But it is only the FIRST STEP to being Holy, not being holy in and of itself!

Here we see it driven again in Hebrews:

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. - hebrews 12:14

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; - Peter 1:13for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” - Peter 1:16

MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO LIVE IN PEACE WITH EVERYONE

Everyone? YES EVERYONE. But how? What about angry people? Yes with them. What about armies that are attacking me? Yes with them. What about with sinners? Yes with them. WITH EVERYONE. 

This "Be Holy In All You Do" is very important. It does not mean "Be Holy on Sunday" or "Be Holy When You Come to church". It does not mean "Be Holy when you Pray or are in Fellowship with Christ". It says IN ALL YOU DO. All the Time! 

In Numbers, we get the directive to both keep the commandments and be holy

Numbers 15:40New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God.

What does this mean "Be Holy"? Lets look at the Latin:

Leviticus 11:44-45Biblia Sacra Vulgata (VULGATE)

44 ego enim sum Dominus Deus vester sancti estote quoniam et ego sanctus sum ne polluatis animas vestras in omni reptili quod movetur super terram

45 ego sum Dominus qui eduxi vos de terra Aegypti ut essem vobis in Deum sancti eritis quia et ego sanctus sum

So we have "Ego Sanctus"  Be Sanctified. And earlier to the Hebrew:

קָדוֹשׁqadowsh

    to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate

KAW-DASH and KAW-DOSH

Now, there is KAW-DASH and there is KAW-DOSH.

In the hebrew it says "Be Ye HOLY (KAW-DASH), For I am Holy (KAW-DOSH)" Lev 11:45

In the Hebrew sense, you must be SET APART so that you can become MORE like God. They tell us to be KAW-DASH. NOT to be KAW-DOSH. They take great care to use two different words.

This is parallel to our tradition of saying to "Sanctify" as a verb versus to "Be Holy" as a state.

In biblical Hebrew qadash and qadosh are two different grammatical forms of the same verb ("to be holy": the perfect and the participle)

Much of the Jewish teaching dealt with maintaining separation to be Holy. But be careful because this CHANGED with the Christian teaching. To this day Judaism remains a carefully held separate people while Christian teaching is available to everyone. And part of this happened and part of this change can be seen in the sense that we understand this commandment to "Be Holy"

Paul, working closely with the gentiles in establishing the remote churches was one of the first who started to preach more inclusion.  Jewish purity rules made Jews reluctant to eat with Gentiles. How could Paul hold dinners with those who did not follow or know anything about it?

"The question was, should the purity rules be maintained, or should they be discarded. This may seem trivial, but it was in fact a profound question: were the early Christians going to remain a sect of Judaism, or were they going to create a new and universal religion?
The issue was complicated by the fact that in Jerusalem the Christian communities had to take great care not to offend the Jewish authorities, and it would be difficult if not downright dangerous for them to share meals with Gentile Christians. When Peter later visited Antioch, Paul insisted on disregarding the law that forbad Jews to eat with Gentiles." - bible-people.info

At the time, it was the source of much argument between the Jerusalem church and the outlying converts and their new churches. [Note: One big debate was the requirement of circumcision which was no longer necessary in the new church].

But the change was deeper than that still. And it had to do with the old covenant being imperfect. Because Moses was a man, and the sacrifice was simply of this earth. Man could not achieve Kaw-Dosh. But Jesus, being both the perfect high priest and the perfection of God, man could now be holy like god.

So, in Leviticus we have "BE HOLY" including a meaning of being SET APART. This meaning moved into our modern meaning of Sanctuary and Sanctify - from the Latin sanctificare (sanctus, "holy," and ficare, "to make").

Now when we say "BE HOLY" we mean "KAW-DOSH" or LIKE GOD IS HOLY.

1 Thessalonians 5:23New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound[a] and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So we "Be Holy" and are sanctified entirely so that our spirit may be kept Sound and Blameless. 

And do not be "Stiff Necked" ;*>

2 Chronicles 30:8
Do not now be stiff-necked as your ancestors were, but yield yourselves to theLord and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve theLord your God, so that his fierce anger may turn away from you.

We get more instruction in Acts...

Acts 26:18to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

So now, we can begin to think a bit different about "BE HOLY" because we also have the concept of SANCTUARY

To come into that SANCTUARY  that place of protection that safe place. When we are holy we are DEDICATED and if we are not holy we will never be able to see theLord.

Hebrews takes up this point of the Earthly Sanctuary - which was the first Temple, and the Heavenly Sanctuary

When we are holy, and sanctified, our ... being ... is now a sanctuary, a sanctified place we have marked off like any church - wherein we dwell as Holy and can finally be Holy Like God - KAW-DOSH (קָדוֹשׁ)

I hope you enjoyed reading this.

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Hebrews 9 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Earthly Sanctuary

9 Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; 3 and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, 4 which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

Limitations of the Earthly Service

6 Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. 7 But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sinscommitted in ignorance; 8 the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— 10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.

The Heavenly Sanctuary

11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come,[a] with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Propitiation, a powerful word

Propitiation is a rare word in the bible it only appears in the new testament in four places and we first encounter it in John 2:2

John 2:2
Jesus is Our Advocate
1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
 2and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

1 filioli mei haec scribo vobis ut non peccetis sed et si quis peccaverit advocatum habemus apud Patrem Iesum Christum iustum 
2 et ipse est propitiatio pro peccatis nostris non pro nostris autem tantum sed etiam pro totius mundi 

We also encounter this in Romans 3:25

²⁵ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

²⁵ quem proposuit Deus propitiationem per fidem in sanguine ipsius ad ostensionem iustitiae suae propter remissionem praecedentium delictorum

We find it again later in John 4:10

¹⁰ Herein is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

¹⁰ in hoc est caritas non quasi nos dilexerimus Deum sed quoniam ipse dilexit nos et misit Filium suum propitiationem pro peccatis nostris

Finally we find it in Hebrews 2:17

¹⁷ Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

¹⁷ unde debuit per omnia fratribus similare ut misericors fieret et fidelis pontifex ad Deum ut repropitiaret delicta populi

In common usage:
propitius

favorable inclined , appease (the sense of good outcome)

from
propitiate
win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them

derived form:
propitiation

Derivation and Historical Roots.
OK now it gets really interesting. There's a LOT in this word much more than you think when you first encounter it.

When you first encounter the Latin roots it isn't revealing:
  from Latin propitiāre, "to appease;" from propitius, "gracious"
    the propitiation of the wrathful gods (towards a favorable outcome)

or
propitiātōrium n (genitive propitiātōriī); second declension

    (Ecclesiastical Latin):
        a means of reconciliation, an atonement, propitiation

So... To appease through our grace towards a good or favorable outcome

Digging deeper than Latin, to the Greek and Hebrew

But the word reveals much when you see how it came about from the Greek Hilasterion and the older Hebrew Kapporeth. In John 2 the specific word is hilasmos.

Now the word ἱλαστήριον (hilasterion) in its most literal sense refers to the mercy seat (kapporet) which covered the ark of the covenant (Ex 25:17ff.)

In rabbinical tradition the original kaporet in the Tabernacle and Temple in Jerusalem is identified as a lid of pure gold on top of the Ark,[10][11] and the name kaporet given since it served to "atone" (kaper) for the sins of the people

Wow. All the way back to the ArK! Amazing huh? Now on Yom Kippur today, jewish still have a practice of atonement where they wave a live chicken over peoples heads to take up their sins. Then kill the chicken. Or the "escape goat".

Kapporeth is probably derived from kaphar, which is often considered to mean cover. So the original meaning was a simple cover. But because that cover that was referred to was the Ark of the Covenant, the cover was used in the ritual ceremony that ALL of JUDEA used to atone for sin.

"According to the Biblical directions, the Holy of Holies could only be entered on the Day of Atonement, and even then could only be entered by the Jewish High Priest, who was covenanted to do so in order to sprinkle the blood[8] of a sacrificial bull onto the mercy seat, as an atonement for himself and his family, the other priests, the Tabernacle, and the people of Israel;"

Thus the meaning of Kapporeth changed from simply a cover, to "wipe out" and cleansing, in particular of sin.  And as they wiped the blood off the cover of the Arc, they wiped away sin.

And the Jewish high holy day - Yom Kippur - means Yom (Day) Kaper (Atonement).

Adoption in Christianity:

The first English Bible, translated from Latin 1382, renders the term "a propiciatory" following the Vulgate propitiatorium, and in the first occurrence, Exodus 25:17, also inserts an unbracketed gloss "that is a table hiling the ark" - "hiling" is Middle English for "covering":[17]

    Exodus 25:17 And thou schalt make a propiciatorie of clenneste gold; that is a table hilinge the arke; the lengthe therof schal holde twei cubitis and an half, the broodnesse schal holde a cubit and half. Wycliffe 1382[18]

Exodus 25:17 And thou shalt make an ark-cover of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. JPS 1917[5]

Upon the Kapporet were set two cherubim (כְּרֻבִים) -- angel-like figures with open wings and "baby faces."  It was from between these faces that the LORD later directly spoke to Moses.

For the Jews, that one exact spot was where God resided. The ARC had great power so much so that when the blood was spilled onto it, great clouds of smoke appeared and the priests were said to have talked with God through the smoke on Yom Kippur.



 So the propitiation is also a time of communication.

Bringing it all together:

But a propiciatory was not any simple table or covering, it had a purpose, specifically, in the jewish tradition, a place where Atonement was practiced. So while we think "propitious" when we read propitiation, and the modern term of good outcome, the good outcome was due to the atonement for sin practiced on the traditional covering which was a Propiciatory.

So when you say it is to "satisfy" that is one sense, the it loses the deep historical context of a third party taking upon sin at the place of Propiciatory or Kapporeth.

In the very old days, the fearful villagers fearing a wrathful god and wanting good outcomes, would offer up something as a vessel for atonement - a chicken or a goat. And that tradition got taken into the jewish tradition of Yom Kippur and swinging a chicken over your head and then killing the chicken, which is practiced to this day. It goes back to Moses who sealed the first covenant - the keeping of the ten comandments - with blood as we can read in Hebrews 9:18

¹⁸ This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. ¹⁹ When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”

But as christians, we don't need to swing chickens, we have christ. His act, his one act on the cross (his Propiciatory), was to atone for all of us, not out of appeasing a wrathful god, but out of the covenant that God was intentionally making with man. Hebrews 9:25-28 tells us this is so :

²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

The big change in Christianity is that we do not see god as a Wrathful god that we MUST offer up continual propitiation to, the change with Jesus is that his one propitiation, that "good outcome", which is of Grace (Latin: Propitius) and being in a state of grace, was done by god to be forever available to us.

Jesus did not "satisfy" God through his propitiation, he offered us a propitious outcome. And while the ark of the covenant, the FIRST covenant with god, to keep the ten comandments was the place of propitiation historically, Jesus' propitiation is the second covenant with god.

It's a powerful word. I hope you enjoyed reading this.