Bible Blog: Bible-ese

This month in Powerhouse we’re going to start a new series in our “year of the Bible,” called “Bible-ese.” This series focuses on the words we use that get their meaning from the Bible, such as soul, spirit, sin, salvation, atonement, mercy, grace, and messiah. If you’ve been in the Church long enough, you probably think that you know what all of these words mean. The problem, however, is that all of these concepts are rooted in ancient languages and cultures, and they have had thousands of years to develop and change (for better or worse) since they were written down. What we assume these words mean may not be exactly what the Biblical authors had in mind. Let’s look at an example: atonement.

The dictionary defines atonement as “reparation for a wrong or injury.” When you atone for something, you are paying for a crime or offense you caused in order to make things right. This is probably how most of us use the word, and this is what we think of when we talk about Jesus atoning for our sins: he paid the price for our crimes in order to make things right.

Here’s the problem: that’s not what the word atonement actually means. And I’m not talking about the Hebrew word behind atonement (kipper), either—I’m actually talking about the English word atonement. You see, the word “atonement” was invented in English in the medieval era in order to describe the theological concept of reconciliation. To make atonement is to make reconciliation. You can tell that this is the meaning, because atonement is a compound word: “at-one-ment”—to make two people “at one” with each other. The reason we associate atonement with paying for crimes is that after the word atonement was invented, we developed new concepts of how Jesus reconciles us with God, and those concepts emphasized that Jesus paid for our crimes.

But here’s where it gets interesting: the Hebrew word kipper doesn’t mean the same as either of those definitions! The Old Testament has a lot to say about atonement. It’s one of the more important purposes of the sacrificial system (though not the only purpose, or even the most common purpose). But there’s something very different about how the Old Testament uses the word. In the modern meaning of atonement, you would say, “Jesus atoned for my sins.” In the medieval meaning, you would say, “Jesus made atonement between God and me.” In Hebrew you would say, “The priest atoned me.” In Hebrew, atonement is something you do to someone—or something.

In fact, the purpose of the Day of Atonement was to atone objects, not people. The Bible says that the High Priest would use the blood of the sacrifice to atone the altar, the objects in the Tabernacle, and, most importantly, the Ark of the Covenant. But how can you atone an object? Well, the Hebrew word kipper actually means “to clean.” By sprinkling blood on these objects, and on people, the priest was using a symbol of life (blood) to wash away the pollution of sin and death. When the Old Testament talks about atoning, it is not talking about paying for crimes, and it’s not talking about reconciliation. It’s talking about cleaning. That’s why, whenever the New Testament talks about the blood of Jesus, it refers to his blood cleansing us—because that’s what blood does in the Old Testament.

Now, Jesus did pay for our sins, and he did reconcile us with God. But what I want us to see is that these Biblical words have a history. How we interpret them is affected by the changes in our theology over time. This is why it’s so important that we keep our study rooted in the original languages. I’m not saying that everyone needs to read the Bible in Hebrew and Greek, but we need to be willing to dig a little deeper than our English translations when we try to work out what these really important words mean.