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The Word "Atonement" and "Atonement" Theory
The English verb "to atone" isn't a correct translation of the Hebrew verb L'KHAPPEYR (
The Hebrew verb in the infinitive QAL conjugation
So now I will begin to use the base verb form in the PIEL to talk about this matter: "to KHAPPEYR," to make to be purged or to declare to be purged. And if I have occasion to mention the corresponding noun, it will be KIPPURIM, "a declaring to be purged" or "a making to be purged." The most important nuance of meaning in "to KHAPPEYR" is the PIEL causative vs. the PIEL declarative. "To declare to be purged" is an official announcement that a purging has already happened. "To make to be purged" is the actual causing of something to be purged. This will be best understood by studying the almost perfect synomnym of "to KHAPPEYR." This synonym is the Hebrew for "to cleanse."
I should pause here to explain some grammar terms. The Hebrew verb has three root letters, which carry the meaning of the word. The root letters are modified by one of seven conjugations called QAL, NIPHAL, PIEL, PUAL, HIPHAL, HOPHAL, and HITHPAEL. QAL in Hebrew means "light," which is to say the QAL adds nothing to the basic meaning. It is traditional in biblical Hebrew to enter a Hebrew word into a dictionary in the form of the QAL perfect in the third person masculine singular. For example,
The almost perfect synonym is the verb L'TEHOR,
The secret to the declarative sense is in the verb "to make," which is the English auxillary verb used to explain the causative conjugations, PIEL, HIPHAL and HITHPAEL. "To make" something so, means either to cause it, or to legally or officially make it so even when it is already so. So for example, Hebrew speaks in this manner to the judges: "The righteous you shall make righteous." The causative element of the Hiphil in that statement means to make it officially so or to cause it to be so. Obviously, the righteous are already so, and the statement only has the effect of proclaiming it.
The declarative possibility for PIEL and HIPHIL is well recognized by Hebrew scholarship and by the theologians who use it and use it to abuse it in their theological paradigms. So they can hardly deny it or run away from it! It plays a big role in the "declare righteous" vs. "make righteous" argument between church denominations. Really, something can be declared so only if it is already so.
In general, if a causative verb in the PIEL and HIPHIL is not actually causing the state implied by the verb meaning to happen, then it is giving an official pronouncement or proclaimation that the state described by the verb exists. To now prove that we have the proper definition of (
Because on this day he will declare to be purging concerning ye, to declare you to be cleansed from all your sins. At the face of Yahweh ye will be (declared) clean (Lev. 16:30).
Or, we could render: Because on this day he will make to be purging concerning ye, to make you to be cleansed from all your sins. At the face of Yahweh ye will be (made) clean (Lev. 16:30).
I have given both nuances of the PIEL here. The reason it is in () with the last verb is that the MT has the QAL, and we can change the vowel points to get the sense.
Clearly, in this text, the verb "to cleanse" is used parallel to "to purge" and is, in fact, supplying the definition for us. The text is simply saying the same thing in two different ways with synonymous verbs. If there is a difference in the verbs, I would say that "to purge" is the more powerful and forceful verb. "Purge the evil from you'all" might refer to getting rid of evil people among you or destroying external evil, but "Cleanse the evil from you'all" might refer to something more internal, the evil in oneself.
Now that we have the proper definitions, let's transition to giving the theological lesson of it all.
Which sense applies in Lev. 16:30, "make to be purged" or "declare to be purged?" The answer is both, depending on what is purged and when it is purged. Firstly, with respect to transgressions and iniquity, the repentant person can repent while a season to repent remains, and receive forgiveness of the sin when he repents. This is made clear in Ezekiel 18:20-21. On Yom Kippurim the person confesses their sin to the Most High as part of the affliction of their soul commanded on that day, and then his sin is "declared to be purged" from the sin, because he has already repented and been forgiven before that day. The declaration is official assurance of his status before the Most High. And placing the sins on the second goat to be carried away symbolizes the sin being removed from the sinner.
Now the uncleannesses of the people were transported into the holy place by accident or by the transgression of some. Concerning these sins of impurity, the first goat caused a ritual cleansing of the holy place concerning the people. So from all the collective sins of the people that defiled the holy place, a ritual cleansing was effected or caused by the application of blood to the holy objects. So in this respect, the PIEL refers to the causation of the purging.
So always, in reading any text with the PIEL and these two verbs, we must judge from the context and the objects or persons involved if it is a PIEL declarative or causitive.
Notice that the last use of the verb "clean" in Lev. 16:30 is in the QAL in the Masorectic Text, e.g. (
So certainly in a spiritual sense, the repentant are declared to be clean (or purged) on YOM KIPPURIM. If they afflict their souls, then they receive this assurance. But there is also a prophetic and future application for this day, on which any remaining impurity in us will be purged in the causative sense of the PIEL on that day.
So now we are in a better position to understand the purpose and nature of the animal sacrifices with respect to sin. With sins of impurity contaminating the outer self or the holy place, the purging effected is PIEL-causative. All offerings are connected to the life of blood which is the cleansing agent. But with respect to spiritual aspects of sin, which are repented of before the offering, the offering is PIEL declarative. The Spirit of the Most High effects the purging of the heart upon repentance before an offering. The offering is only teaching a symbolic lesson about the spiritual reality that came before it.
We receive forgiveness, because the penalty of our sins is also purged. The penalty is extinguished, so that we go from a state where a penalty applies, to a state where no penalty is required after we repent. The judgment against us is reversed to a judgment for life. This happens before the offering. The offerings are symbolic of what went before, in all respects, except the one mentioned above pertaining to ritual purification. The offerings upon which sins are confessed symbolically bear the sin to dispose of them, to purge them, to kill them in the grave. Our old self is figuratively sent with the offering to the grave. The suffering of the offering represents the cost endured by God's Spirit in purging our hearts of sin prior to the offering, which only declares it, and gives official assurance of the prior spiritual reality.
The offering also represents the cost of our sin to others, the harm caused to them, and the harm caused to ourselves. The offering is a specific lesson not to return to our sin. It represents the divine redemptive cost to effect our rescue, which is also explained by the term "ransom." The Most High is compelled by evil circumstances to figuratively get his hands dirty in cleaning up our sin and in suffering its costly effects.
When the Most High forgives, he overturns the judgment against us and abolishes it. He annuls it. Then, in the declarative purging of the offering, the judgment can be represented as being carried away with our sins to be destroyed, that is, to be purged. The offering's suffering represents no more than the suffering caused by our sin toward God and man. But the judgment is also carried off. The offering does not suffer the penalty it carries away. It is just serving to symbolically carry the legal determination for judgment to the grave, to annul it and destroy it. This is symbolized by the second goat that bears our sins away unharmed to the wilderness, which symbolizes a desolate place, namely the grave.
Individual Levitical sin offerings were only allowed to provide declatory purging from sins of ignorance or perhaps circumstance. But on Yom Kippur, the second goat served as a declaration of purging concerning transgressions and iniquity. Lev. 16:10 states: "And the goat upon which had come up on him the lot for the goat of escape shall be made to stand alive at the face of Yahweh, to declare to be purging with it, to make it be sent away as an escape goat into the wilderness." All the transgressions and iniquities of the sons of Israel were confessed on the second goat (cf. Lev. 16:21–22). Since the worshippers have already repented in their hearts and received forgiveness, the ceremony of the second goat is to declare the purging.
When Messiah was murdered by evil, by our collective transgressions, by the sin of Israel, which the Almighty knew would strike him in the heel through the agency of Satan's attack on him, he took advantage of this predictable fate to declare his death a guilt offering, so that the same lessons taught by the guilt offering may be taught through Messiah's death. In this way, he is declaring to be purged the guilt of Israel, both collectively and individually, for all who have repented and received forgiveness.
I want to be clear about a key point here. Messiah did not die because he needed to cause our forgiveness or our purging. He died because he and his father agreed that the best way to give a tangible lesson of divine suffering in the Spirit and the cost of our sins was for the Most High to suffer from it in the flesh, and therefore, the Son allowed himself to fall into the hands of sinners. Teaching us this lesson is an act of divine love.
When the Scripture says that the blood of Messiah purges us from sin, or cleanses us from sin, it is speaking of his life in the Spirit, which operates in our hearts through confession and repentance to remove the sin from us. The blood represents the resurrection life of Messiah, which was restored to him by the Father.
But I think I can also safely say this. The spilling of his physical blood declares the purging of judgments against us. The penalty unjustly laid on him by evil men was destroyed with him in death. He left it in the grave, rising himself because he was innocent. Our old self and sins are also declared to be put to death with him.
The unjust judgment that fell on Messiah represents Satan's wrath against God, aided and abetted by our sins. It is the Serpent that strikes the promised seed. It is not God. The serpent hates the fact that the Most High is willing to forgive all of mankind who repent, and this is the message the Almighty Son came to bring to us.
So the judgments that were against us, the penalties and decrees, and the divorce document between himself and Israel were all figuratively stamped with annulment when he forgave us. These cancelled documents were figuratively taken by Messiah through death to destruction and decay in the grave. He himself did not suffer decay, and he rose from the dead so that he might continue to give us life.
Yeshua did not suffer one iota or one scintilla of divine wrath or judgment directed at him. It was all our sins that did it to him, enhanced by the wrath of Satan.
The lesson of the "cross" is part of Messiah's administration of justice to us. It is the Judge's lesson of reprimand and warning, the instruction with our forgiveness. Messiah's death should remind us that Satan tried to pin on him the judgment of the unrepentant, everlasting death, but he failed. Satan's wrath did not exact everlasting death on Messiah, because he rose again, knowing that Satan had figuratively destroyed any requirement for our eternal condemnation when he tried to lay it on Messiah. Messiah just took it to the grave and buried it there, declaring the need to satisfy any penalty nullified.