General HOLINESS, HOLY

[Lori Jane]

We're discussing this in one of my Bible Studies so I thought I would past here:

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HOLINESS, HOLY. Usually translations of words derived from a Hebrew root qadash and Greek hag-. The basic meaning of qadash is “separateness, withdrawal.” It is first applied to God and is early associated with ideas of purity and righteousness. Long before the prophetic period the ethical content is plain. Greek hag- is an equivalent of qadash, and its history is similar. Beginning as an attribute of deity, the hag- family of words developed two stems, one meaning “holy,” the other “pure.” The use of words of this family in the LXX to translate the qadash family resulted in a great development of their ethical sense, which was never clear in classical Greek. What became increasingly evident in the OT is overwhelmingly explicit in the NT: that holiness means the pure, loving nature of God, separate from evil, aggressively seeking to universalize itself; that this character is inherent in places, times, and institutions intimately associated with worship; and that holiness is to characterize human beings who have entered into personal relationship with God.

The words “holiness” and “holy” do not occur in Genesis, though they are implied in the dread that the presence of God inspires (Gen 28:16–17), but from Exodus 3:5 on, where God reveals his name and nature, holiness is constantly stressed. Only samples of the many biblical references will be given here. God is “majestic in holiness” (Exod 15:11); he acts with “his holy arm” (Isa 52:10); his words and promises are holy (Ps 105:42; Jer 23:9); his name is holy (Lev 20:3; 1 Chron 29:16); his Spirit is holy (Ps 51:10; Isa 63:10–11; see HOLY SPIRIT). Places are made holy by God’s special presence: his dwelling in heaven (Deut 26:15), his manifestation on earth (Exod 3:5; Josh 5:15), the tabernacle (Exod 40:9), the temple (2 Chron 29:5, 7), Jerusalem (Isa 48:2), Zion (Obad 17). Anything set apart for sacred uses was holy: the altars and other furniture of the tabernacle (Exod 29:37; 30:10, 29), animal sacrifices (Num 18:17), food (Lev 21:22), the tithe (27:30), firstfruits (19:24; 23:20), anything consecrated (Exod 28:38), the anointing oil and incense (30:23–25, 34–38). Persons connected with holy places and holy services were holy: priests (Lev 21:1–6) and their garments (Exod 28:2, 4), Israel as a nation (Jer 2:3), Israel individually (Deut 33:3), many things connected with Israel (1 Chron 16:29). Times given to worship were holy (Exod 12:16; 16:23; 20:8; Isa 58:13).

In classical Greek hagios was first applied to sanctuaries; in Hellenistic times, to gods; then to the Mysteries (e.g., of Dionysos). Hagios came into frequent use from Middle Eastern religions in the occurrence in the LXX as the equivalent of qdsh. In the NT the holiness of things is less prominent than that of persons. What in Isaiah 6:3 was a personal revelation to the prophet is proclaimed to all from heaven in Revelation 4:8, with power and glory. God is holy and true (Rev 6:10). In one of his prayers, Jesus addressed God in this way: “Holy Father” (John 17:11). 1 Peter 1:15 repeats the assertion of Leviticus 19:2 that God is holy and his people are to be holy. Jesus’ disciples are to pray that the name of God may be treated as holy (Matt 6:9; Luke 1:2). The holiness of Jesus Christ is specifically stressed. Evil spirits recognize him as “the Holy One of God” who has come to destroy them (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34). Jesus is holy because of his wondrous birth (Luke 1:35). The father set him apart “as his very own” and made him holy (John 10:36). He is “holy and true” (Rev 3:7). To the Jerusalem church Jesus is “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14), the “holy servant Jesus” (4:27, 30), fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 42:1–4, quoted in Matthew 12:16–21. In Hebrews 9 Christ is the fulfillment of OT priesthood and sacrifice, in both of which capacities he had to be holy (Heb 2:11).

The holiness of the church is developed in the NT. As in the OT, Jerusalem is holy (Matt 4:5; 27:53; Rev 11:2), so is the temple (Matt 24:15; Acts 6:13) and the new temple, the church, collectively (Eph 2:21–22) and individually (1 Cor 3:16–17). Stephen refers to Mount Sinai as “holy ground” (Acts 7:33) and Peter to the Mount of Transfiguration as “the holy mount” (2 Peter 1:18 kjv; niv “sacred mountain”). The Scriptures are holy (Rom 1:2; 2 Tim 3:15). The law is holy (Rom 7:12). Since the earthly holy place, priests, cult apparatus, sacrifices, and services were holy, much more are the heavenly (Heb 8:5). The church is a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). The argument of Romans 11:11–32 rests the holiness of Gentile Christians on their growing out of the root (11:16) of Jesse (15:12). Christ died for the church in order to make it holy (1 Cor 1:2; sanctified in Christ Jesus, 1 Cor 6:11; Eph 5:26). The church as a whole, the local churches, and individual Christians are holy, “called … saints” (Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1; Eph 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:2; “saints” being a translation of hagioi, holy). The life of the individual Christian is to be a living, holy sacrifice (Rom 12:1), not only through death (Phil 2:17), but through life itself (1:21–26). In the OT the sacrifice was a thing, separate from the offerer; in the NT it is the offerer himself. Holiness is equated with purity (Matt 5:8; 23:26; 1 Tim 1:5; 2 Tim 2:22; Titus 1:15; James 1:27), a purity that in Acts 18:6; 20:26 is innocence. The means of purification is the truth of the Word of God (John 17:17). The “holy kiss,” in the early churches, was a seal of holy fellowship (1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Thess 5:26). Holiness is prominent in the Book of Revelation from 3:7 to 22:11.

Of other Hebrew and Greek words translated “holy,” two must be mentioned. Hebrew hāsîdh and its Greek equivalent hosios mean “good, kind, pious.” Hāsîdh has many translations, hosios a few. Hāsîdh is translated “holy” in five verses (Deut 33:8; Ps 16:10; 86:2; 89:19; 145:17). Hosios occurs seven times in the NT—once as a noun, the other six times being rendered “holy” (Acts 2:27; 13:35; 1 Tim 2:8; Titus 1:8; Heb 7:26; Rev 15:4); its derivatives appear in forms of the word “holy” (Luke 1:75; Eph 4:24; 1 Thess 2:10).

Summary: The idea of holiness originates in the revealed character of God and is communicated to things, places, times, and persons engaged in his service. The ethical nature of holiness grows clearer as revelation unfolds, until the holiness of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; of the church as a body; and of individual members of that body fills the NT horizon. Holiness is interwoven with righteousness and purity. To seek holiness apart from the other qualities of a Christlike life is to wander from the way of holiness itself.

Bibliography: R. Otto, The Idea of the Holy, 1946; H. Ringgren, The Prophetical Conception of Holiness, 1948; S. Neill, Christian Holiness, 1960; O. R. Jones, The Concept of Holiness, 1961; O. Prochsch, TDNT, 1:88–115.——ER

J. D. Douglas and Merrill Chapin Tenney, New International Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1987), 445–446.

 

[Lori Jane]

Holy, Holiness

“Pursue holiness,” urges the writer to the Hebrews, for without holiness “no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). The word holy and its cognates permeate the NT and find prominence in the postapostolic writings. Yet these words are not always readily understood, since the fundamental idea of the Greek words for holy or holiness and the Hebrew root word (q-d-š) that underlies them is embodied in such expressions as “different from,” “distinct,” “devoted to,” “sacred,” and the like. Moral and ethical ideas derive from these words only insofar as people are devoted to or pledge themselves to a certain kind of god, in this instance to the God of the OT and of the NT—the living and true God, the God who is sheer goodness, who is vitally concerned with the moral and ethical.

1. The Vocabulary of Holiness

2. The Old Testament Background

3. The Idea of the Holy in the New Testament and Apostolic Fathers

1. The Vocabulary of Holiness

The words for “holy” and “holiness” used in the NT and the apostolic fathers belong to that cluster of words derived from an old Greek root, hag-: hagiazō (make holy, sanctify), hagiasmos (holiness, sanctification), hagioprepēs (holy, proper for one who is holy), hagios (holy, sacred), hagiotēs (holiness), along with words such as hagneia (purity), hagnizō (purify), hagnismos (purification), hagnos (pure, holy) and hagnotēs (purity, sincerity). Of this multiplicity of related words, however, hagios is the one used most frequently by all our authors.

Still other words, while from a different root, are related in meaning: hosios (holy), hosiotēs (holiness) and hosiōs (in a holy manner). These words are rarely used in early Christian writings, the latter two not at all in that part of the NT under consideration (but see 1 Clem. 6.1; 21.7–8; 29.1; 32.4; 48.4; 60.2).

Hieros is still another Greek word denoting holiness—holiness or sacredness with no overtones of the ethical. It is used only infrequently in 1 Clement (see Clement of Rome) and the Shepherd of Hermas (1 Clem. 25.5; 43.1; 45.2; 53.1; Herm. Vis. 1.10).

2. The Old Testament Background

2.1. The Fundamental Character of God. The starting point for an understanding of these words in the NT and other early Christian writings is the OT. The OT writers reiterate that the Lord God is holy (Lev 19:2; 21:8; Josh 24:19; Ps 22:3; Is 57:15, passim)—“holy” being the fundamental characteristic of God under which all other characteristics are subsumed—and that humans are sinful (Gen 18:20; 1 Kings 8:46; Ps 51:3; Eccles 7:20, passim).

As holy, God is transcendent above, different from, opposite to, Wholly Other (Otto, 6, 25), separate from sin and sinful people (Is 6:1–9; 55:8, 9; cf. Ex 19:20–24; Num 18:3; Heb 7:26). Sinful people, who have become so by their own choice against God (Gen 2:16, 17; 3:1–7; cf. Rom 5:12), are thereby alienated from God and powerless in that they are incapable of closing the chasm that exists between themselves and God, between the holy and the unholy (Is 50:1; 59:1, 2). God, the Holy, is also the “I am, the One who is” (Ex 3:14): God is Life. For people to be separated from God because of their sin is for them to be separated from Life. Those who were made for the purpose of living (cf. Gen 1:26) are faced with its opposite—death (Ezek 18:4).

2.2. The Actions of God. God, however, did what humans could not do. The holiness of God cannot be described merely as a state of being indicative of what God is, but also as purposeful, salvific action indicative of what God plans and carries out. The OT viewed God as transcendent in that he was distinct from sinful humans but not remote or indifferent to them (Snaith, 47). God took the initiative to make the unholy holy, to make the alien a friend, to reconcile sinners to himself (see Salvation).

An example of this is when God the holy One took the initiative to reveal himself to Israel at Sinai and to call this people out from among other nations into a special personal relationship with himself through covenant, law and sacrifice (Ex 20, 24:1–8; Lev 16). Thus, it was God who made Israel a priestly kingdom and a holy nation (Ex 19:6; Deut 7:6), a people that must preserve its distinctiveness by pursuing a way of life different from that practiced by other peoples (Deut 7:5–6; see Levine, 256), a people fit for the service of God and dedicated to do his will, a light to the nations around them (Is 49:6).

Because of God’s special relation to parts of his creation it was possible even for things to be called holy—holy only in the strict sense that they were different from the profane—wholly given over to divine purposes: the ground around a burning bush (Ex 3:5), Jerusalem (Is 48:2), the temple (Is 64:10), the Sabbath (Ex 16:23), priestly garments (Ex 31:10), and so on.

2.3. The Ethical Response to God. The OT meaning of “holy/holiness,” however, is not exhausted with such ideas as “separate from,” “dedicated to,” “sacred” and the like, although these may have been the primary meanings of the words. There are also ethical and moral meanings attached to them. Again such meanings find their origin in the nature of God, for the nature of God is the determining factor that gives meaning to everything (2.1 above). Leviticus 19:1–18 clearly illustrates the moral side of God’s holiness. Here it becomes clear that to be holy as God is holy is not simply to be pure and righteous, but to act toward others with purity and goodness, with truthfulness and honesty, with generosity, justice and love, particularly toward the poor and those who are in no position to help themselves (see esp. Lev 19:9–10, 14). Religion and ethics, the sacred and moral, belong together in the OT; relationship to the Lord God of the OT demands an ethical/moral response. God’s people must not only be like God but also act like God.

3. The Idea of the Holy in the New Testament and Apostolic Fathers

The meaning of the words holy and holiness, although expanded in the literature under study, is squarely based on the writings of the OT. The primary meaning of holy as “separate from” is to be found in the actions of Paul and others who engaged in purification/sanctification rites (hagnizō, hagnismos) by which they ceremoniously separated themselves from the profane so as to be considered fit to enter the sacred precincts of the house of a holy God (Acts 21:24, 26; 24:18; cf. Num 6:5, 13–18; see Douglas, passim; also Barn. 8.1; 15.1, 3, 6–7). That narrow but fundamental meaning of “holy” is nevertheless inadequate to interpret all the texts that treat this concept.

3.1. The Holiness of God. In our early Christian writings “the holiness of God the Father is everywhere presumed … though seldom stated” (Procksch, 101). Nevertheless it is stated: God’s name, the very essence of his person, is holy (Did. 10.2; 1 Clem. 64). Making use of the vocabulary of Leviticus, especially the Holiness Code in Leviticus 19–26, Peter tells those to whom he writes that it is incumbent upon them to be holy as God is holy (hagios, 1 Pet 1:15–16; cf. Lev 19:2; see Selwyn).

The writer of Hebrews explains the disciplinary action of God as his creative work in human lives so that they may share in his holiness (hagiotēs, Heb 12:10). Once again the trisagion (see Liturgical Elements) is sung to God (cf. Is 6:3), this time by the four living creatures of the Seer’s vision—hagios, hagios, hagios (holy, holy, holy). They acclaim that God is holy to the ultimate degree and as such is the Almighty, the Pantokratōr, the one who is, who was and who is to come, eternal and omnipotent, transcendent, Wholly Other (Rev 4:8; see also 1 Clem. 34.6; 59.3). Those who were victorious over the beast sang, “Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty!… For you alone are holy” (hosios [hagios] Rev 15:3–4; 1 Clem. 59.3), and the angel of the waters, “You are just, O Holy One” (ho hosios, Rev 16:5). The martyrs, asking for vengeance upon those who slaughtered them for serving God, address God as “Sovereign Lord, holy and true (ho hagios kai alēthinos),” because they know that God, as holy, stands apart from and opposed to sin and evil and that he alone is able to administer justice and judge rightly (Rev 6:10).

God as holy is to be feared (cf. Ps 89:7; 99:3; 111:9); he is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29). He owns the right to judge and to take vengeance (cf. Deut 32:35). But in the NT and other early Christian writings God takes no delight in banishing sinners from him. He delights instead in making them holy, in creating a people fit for his presence, in bringing them close to himself and in giving them sacred work to do (cf. Is 6:1–8). As a consequence God sends his good news (see Gospel) out into the world so that sinful people 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 [hēgiasmenoi],” i.e., among those who have been made holy and have been set apart to God (Acts 26:18; cf. 20:32). It is important to note here that the expression “those who are sanctified” is a passive participle (from hagiazō, make holy, consecrate, sanctify) that has been termed a “divine passive.” That is, God is the agent of the action. He has taken the initiative not to destroy sinners but to make them holy (cf. Herm. Vis. 3.9.1).

It is God’s will that sinful people be made holy (Heb 10:10). But it was costly for God to realize this wish. Under the old covenant sinners were made holy on the basis of animals being properly sacrificed year after year in their behalf (Lev 16)—tentatively made holy (cf. Rom 3:25; Heb 10:4). Under the new covenant sinners are made holy or sanctified (hēgiasmenoi/hagiazomenous) by a much more profound act—the conscious, deliberate choice of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, radically to obey his Father and offer his body in death as a single sacrifice for sins forever (Heb 10:5–10, 12, 14, 29; cf. Phil 2:8; Diogn. 9.2; see Death of Christ). The blood of Jesus (an expression that refers to the self-determined action of Jesus to die on behalf of sinful human beings) is that by which sinful persons are made holy. The explicit purpose of his suffering and death was that the unclean might become clean, that he might make unholy people holy (hagiasē, Heb 13:12; see also 9:13; 1 Clem. 32.4; 59.3; Barn. 5.1).

In the writings under consideration, as in the OT, places and things as well as persons can be considered holy. Thus the temple is called “the holy place” (Acts 6:13; 21:28). The two tents of the tabernacle are referred to as “the holy place” (hagia, Heb 9:1) and “the Holy of Holies” (hagia hagiōn, Heb 9:3; see also 9:1, 12, 24, 25; 10:19; 13:11). The mountain on which Jesus was transfigured is designated as “the holy [hagios] mountain” (2 Pet 1:18; cf. Barn. 11.3). The Christian faith is termed “the most holy [hagiōtatē faith” (Jude 20). Jerusalem is called “the holy [hagian] city” (Rev 11:2; 21:2, 10; 22:11, 19). Presbyters are holy (Ign. Magn. 3.1), the Eucharist is holy (Did. 9.5), the church is holy (Herm. Vis. 1.1.6; Mart. Pol. presc.), prophets are holy (Acts 3:21; 2 Pet 3:2), angels are holy (Acts 10:22; cf. Jude 14; Rev 14:10; 1 Clem. 39:7; Herm. Sim. 5.4.4; Herm. Vis. 5.5.3).

3.2. The Holiness of Jesus Christ. The NT describes Jesus as holy, a person set apart to God, anointed by him (Acts 4:27; see Anointing), dedicated to God and designated as his unique instrument to carry out his predestined plan in the world (Acts 4:28). But holy is also used of Jesus as it is used of God the Father.

The early church understood Psalm 16:10, said to be written by David and about David, to have had its fulfillment in the resurrected Jesus—“You will not … let your Holy [hosion] One experience corruption” (Acts 2:27; 13:35). Peter referred to Jesus as “the Holy [ton hagion] and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14), seemingly in the moral sense of innocent since he linked the word so closely with the anarthrous dikaion (“righteous”—ton hagion kai dikaion; cf. Lk 23:47 and see Conzelmann, 28). In a later sermon Peter speaks of Jesus as God’s “holy [hagion] servant/son” (pais, Acts 4:27; 30).

But the NT and early Fathers say more than this about Jesus. He is the one who makes others holy (ho hagiazōn, Heb 2:11; 13:12), who consecrates them to God and his service that they might be admitted into his presence (cf. Procksch, 89–97). “Jesus is here [in Heb 2:11] exercising a divine function since, according to the OT, it is God who consecrates” (Montefiore, 62; cf. Ex 31:13; Lev 20:8; 21:15; 22:9, 16, 32; Ezek 20:12; 37:28; but see Attridge, 88 n. 107).

Borrowing the language of Isaiah 8:12–13 Peter calls upon Christians to “sanctify [hagiasate] Christ as Lord” (1 Pet 3:15). They are to acknowledge that he is holy (cf. Is 29:23; Ezek 20:41; Ecclus 36:4, Mt 6:9)—holy in the sense that God is holy—for as J. N. D. Kelly has remarked, this verse “has a bearing on 1 Peter’s Christology.… [As] in ii,3 the title ‘the Lord’, which in the Hebrew original denotes God, is unhesitatingly attributed to Christ” (Kelly, 142; see Christology; 1 Peter).

“The Holy One,” a frequent name of God in the OT (2 Kings 19:22; Ps 71:22; 78:41; Is 1:4, passim), appears also in 1 John 2:20 (“you have been anointed by the Holy One [tou hagiou]).” Although there is debate over whether this expression refers to God the Father or to Jesus Christ, in light of the context and especially in light of 2:27–28 it seems more likely that it is a title given to Jesus (see also Diogn. 9.2).

In his vision the Seer reads a letter addressed to the church at Philadelphia. It begins, “These are the words of the Holy One” (ho hagios, Rev 4:7). From the context of this letter (see Rev 2:18; 3:1) this Holy One is none other than the crucified, dead and risen Christ, the one who was and is and will forever be (Rev 1:17–18; cf. Rev 4:8; Diogn. 9.2). These writers want everyone to understand that Jesus is holy in the sense that God is holy—“holy [hosios, a word chosen to emphasize the moral dimension of holiness], blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens” (Heb 7:26). In naming him “the Holy One” they claim for him the title of deity.

3.3. The Holiness of God’s People: Sanctification. In our writings Christians are God’s holy people. These are sinful people who have responded with faith in and gratitude to God, who provided the means by which they might be reconciled to him, to be sanctified, to be made holy—action so radical that it required the death of his Son, Jesus Christ (Heb 10:5–10). All early Christian writings affirm this, but the letter to the Hebrews describes it most fully (Heb 2:11; 9:13; 10:10, 14, 29; 13:12; see also Acts 20:32; 26:18; Rev 22:11). Christians, therefore, but including grateful and believing Israel, have become the new Israel of God, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Pet 2:9; cf. Ex 19:6; see Priest).

The most common term describing Christians is hoi hagioi, consistently translated “saints” (Acts 9:13, 32, 41; Heb 3:1; 6:10; 13:24; Rev 5:8; 8:3–4; 11:18; 13:7, 10; 14:12; 16:6; 18:20, 24; 19:8; 20:9; 22:21 [?]; 1 Clem. 56.1; Ign. Phld. 5.2: Did. 4.2; 16.7, passim). “Saints” is perhaps not the most felicitous translation for this expression, since in popular usage it too often connotes people who rarely or never sin, when in fact this is not always the case (cf. Gal 2:11–14; Phil 1:14–16, passim). Hagioi (holy/saints) refers to persons who are holy because of God’s gracious choice of them (Asting, 133–51). It primarily refers to persons who have a new ground of existence, who have been oriented away from the world and turned toward God, and not primarily to persons who are morally and ethically perfect.

Yet moral and ethical meanings do inhere in this word, for such meanings derive from the fact that Christians are persons who are set apart unto and dedicated to this God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, who is just, merciful, true, trustworthy, good, and so on (cf. 1 Jn 1:5). Therefore they are persons who have been turned toward God and toward doing his will. But doing the will of God does not come without conscious decision. Hence, the indicative of the verb—“we have been sanctified, made holy, made God’s people” (hēgiasmenoi esmen, Heb 10:10)—is quickly followed by the imperative: “As he [God] is holy, be holy [genēthēte hagioi] yourselves” (1 Pet 1:15). And again, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify [hagnisate] your hearts, you double-minded” (Jas 4:8. The seriousness of this command is such that James underscores it by addressing his Christian readers as “sinners” and “double-minded” people; see Martin, 153).

In Hebrews the perfect tense of the verb hēgiasmenoi esmen (“we have been sanctified, made holy,” Heb 10:10) is followed by the present tense (tous hagiazomenous, “those who are being made holy,” Heb 10:14 NIV). Thus, paradoxically, holiness is both an established fact for Christians and at the same time a process. Christians both are holy and are becoming holy. They are people who have been made holy, made God’s special people by virtue of what God has done to them and for them in Christ (Heb 10:10). But they are also people who must allow the creative power of this redemptive act to work itself out in shaping their day-to-day behavior.

When Peter says, “Be holy as God is holy,” he is not thinking of holiness in the abstract, for he goes on to say, “be holy in all your conduct” (1 Pet 1:15); you must be leading lives of holiness (2 Pet 3:11; cf. 1 Clem. 48.5). Peter’s “be holy in daily conduct” is not, however, holiness solely limited to that of sexual purity, as often is the case in the apostolic fathers (cf. 1 Clem. 30.1; 38.2; 2 Clem. 8.4, 6; Herm. Man. 4.1.1; Pol. Phil. 5.3), although it includes this. Peter’s command is enlarged to embrace purity in the fullest sense of this word—utter goodness in every aspect of life (note how 1 Pet 1:15–16 recalls Lev 19:2–14, which defines the meaning of the word hagios; see also 1 Pet 1:22; 3:2; Jas 3:17–18; 1 Jn 3:3; 1 Clem. 6.1; 21.7–8). Christians are holy and at the same time are people who are continually being shaped so as to share comfortably in God’s holiness (hagiotētos, Heb 12:10; 1 Clem. 56.16).

See also God; Holy Spirit; Purity and Impurity.

Bibliography. A. Asting, Die Heiligkeit im Urchristentum (FRLANT 46; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1930); H. W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Herm; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989); D. Bloesch, “Salt and Light: Our Vocation to Holiness,” Touchstone: A Journal of Ecumenical Orthodoxy 5 (1992) 25–28; R. Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament (2 vols.; New York: Scribners, 1951, 1955) 1:332–33; F. G. Carver, “The Quest for the Holy: The Darkness of God,” WlTJ 23 (1988) 7–32; H. Conzelmann, Acts of the Apostles (Herm; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987); M. Douglas, In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers (Sheffield, JSOT, 1993); J. N. D. Kelly, A Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and of Jude (HNTC; New York: Harper & Row, 1969); B. A. Levine, “Biblical Concepts of Holiness” in The JPS Torah Commentary, Leviticus (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1989) 256–57; R. P. Martin, James (WBC; Dallas: Word, 1988); H. Montefiore, The Epistle to the Hebrews (HNTC; New York: Harper & Row, 1964); R. Otto, The Idea of the Holy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946); O. Procksch and K. G. Kuhn, “ἅγιος κτλ,” TDNT 1:88–115; E. G. Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981 [1947]); N. H. Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament (London: Epworth, 1944); N. Wolterstorff, “Liturgy, Justice, and Holiness,” Reformed Journal 39 (1989) 12–20.

G. F. Hawthorne



Gerald F. Hawthorne, “Holy, Holiness,” ed. Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids, Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 485–489.

 

[Lori Jane]

HOLY, HOLINESS, most HOLY. In Scripture language, strictly and properly speaking, these terms are only applicable to the Lord. In short, the very term means Jehovah himself, for he, and and he only, is holy in the abstract. Hence it is, that we so often meet with those expressions descriptive of his person and character. “Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, I dwell in the high and holy place.” (Isa. 57:15.) Hence the term is applied to all the persons of the Godhead distinctly and separately, and to all in common; the Father speaks of it with peculiar emphasis, yea, confirms his promises by the solemnity of an oath, and does this, by pledging his holiness as the fullest assurance of the truth: “Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David.” (Ps. 89:35.) The Son of God is also spoken of with peculiar emphasis, as essentially holy in himself, in his divine nature, “being One with the Father, over all God blessed for ever, Amen.” (Rom. 9:5.) Thus in special reference to the Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, when the prophet is speaking both of the Father and the Son, he joins in one verse the person of each, and gives to each the distinguishing character of the Godhead. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel: I will help, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. (Isa. 41:14.) In like manner, God the Holy Ghost is peculiarly and personally considered under this Almightiness of character, his Holiness; and the same divine perfection declared to be essentially his, in common with the Father and the Son. Indeed, as if to define the glory of his person, Holy is the essential and incommunicable name by which the Eternal Spirit is known and distinguished throughout his sacred word. Hence, in his offices it is said of him, that by his overshadowing power acting on the body of the Virgin, at the conception of Christ, that Holy Thing, so called, should be born. (See Luke 1:35.) So again, at the baptism of Christ, the blessed Spirit seen by Christ, decending like the hovering of a dove, and lighting upon the person of Christ, and thus distinguished in point of personality from God the Father, whose voice from heaven, in the same moment, declared Jesus to be his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased. (Matt. 3:16, 17.) And holiness is essentially and personally ascribed to God the Holy Ghost, in that gracious office of his, when it is said of the Lord Jesus, that God the Father anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power. (Acts 10:38.)

But what I beg the reader particularly to observe with me, under this glorious distinction of character, belonging to each and to all the persons of the Godhead, is the very peculiar manner in which the holiness of Jehovah is spoken of in Scripture. While each person of the Godhead is thus plainly said to be holy, in the abstract of the word, and in a way of holiness that can be ascribed to no other; the worship and adoration of the Holy Three in One is peculiarly offered up in this very character. When Isaiah saw Christ’s glory, (see Isaiah 6 compared with John 12:41.) the acclamations of the heavenly host resounded to the praises of Jehovah, under thrice ascriptions of the same, to the holiness of the Lord. So in like manner in John’s vision. (See Rev. 4:8.) Certainly (this Trisagium,) this peculiar adoration of Jehovah in the holiness of his nature, rather than to any of the other perfections of the Lord, must have a meaning. Wherefore this divine attribute should be singled out, rather than the faithfulness of Jehovah, which we know the Lord delights in, (see Deut. 7:9.) or the eternity of Jehovah, which the Lord describes himself by, (see Isa. 57:15.) I dare not venture even to conjecture. We are commanded to worship the Lord, indeed, in the beauty of holiness. (Ps. 96:9.) And Moses’s song celebrates the Lord’s praise, in being glorious in holiness. (Exod. 15:11.) And no doubt, as in the portrait of a man, to behold it in its most complete form, we should take all the prominent features of beauty, so the holy Scriptures of God, when sketching the divine representation, do it in all that loveliness of character, so as to endear the Lord to every heart, Hence David made this the one great desire of his soul, “to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” (Ps. 27:4.) I must not forget, under this article yet farther to observe, that the thrice ascribing holiness to Jehovah in the song of heaven, hath been uniformly and invariably considered by the church, as the suited adoration to each person of the Godhead, and, at the same time, to all, collectively considered, in the one glorious and eternal Jehovah, existing in a threefold character of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (1 John 5:7.)

Having thus briefly considered the subject, as referring to the holiness of Jehovah in his own eternal power and Godhead, the subject must now be considered in reference to the person of the God-man Christ Jesus, and then to the church in him.

As strictly and properly speaking, the term holy can belong to none but Jehovah, and so the song of Hannah beautifully set forth, (1 Sam. 2:2.) so none but the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Christ of God, can be holy. The highest order of created beings, angels of the first magnitude, have only a derived holiness from the Lord, as the moon’s brightest light is only borrowed from the sun. The holiness of creatures can be no other than as the shadow to the substance. Hence we are told, that in the very moment of adoration “angels veil their faces,” as if to testify their nothingness in the presence of the Lord. (Isa. 6:2.) But, by the union of that pure holy portion of our nature which the Son of God hath united to himself in the Godhead of his nature, he hath communicated an infinite dignity to that nature, and made it holy as himself. In fact, it is truly and properly himself; for in Christ, God and man in one person, dwelleth “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Col. 2:9.) And hence, in proof, we have these blessed Scriptures. Daniel, when speaking of Christ as coming “to finish transgression, and to make an end of sin,” saith, that this is “to anoint the Most Holy.” (Dan. 9:24.) And another prophet calls Christ, as Christ, the Holy One. “Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Ps. 16:10.) And the Lord Jesus had this name specifically given him before his incarnation, the Holy Thing. (Luke 1:35.) And Peter, in his sermon, peculiarly denominates the Lord Jesus Christ, in his mediatorial character, the Holy One, and the Just. (Acts 3:14.) All which, and more to the same amount, are expressly spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his person and character as the Head of his body the Church, God and man in one person. “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” (Heb. 7:26.) Such, then, is the personal holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ—an holiness higher than the angels, because the infinite holiness of the Godhead in him is underived. Hence of angels, it is said, the Lord “chargeth them with folly;” (Job 4:18.) that is, with weakness, and the possibility of sinning. But of the Son, he saith, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever;” that is, his mediatorial throne, as is plain by what follows: “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore, God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” (Heb. 1:8, 9.) Here is a double proof that this is said to Christ, as Christ; for in the first place, the anointing of the Lord Jesus could not have been as God only, but as God and man in one person. And, secondly, this anointing with the oil of gladness is expressly said to have been “for, or above his fellows,” that is, his body the Church; evidently proving hereby, that he is considered, and here spoken of, as “the glorious Head of his body the church, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Ephes. 1:22, 23.)

Next, we must take a view of the term holy and holiness, as relating to Christ’s church, made so only by virtue of her union with him. And this becomes a most interesting part to be considered, because without an eye to the Lord Jesus, nothing in the creation of God can be farther from holiness, than poor, fallen, ruined, undone man. I beg the reader’s particular attention to this, as forming one of the sweetest features of the gospel. The whole Scriptures of God declare, that the great purpose for which the Son of God became incarnate, was to destroy the works of the devil, and to raise up the tabernacles of David that were fallen down, and to purify to himself “a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” One of the apostles, in a very interesting and beautiful manner, describes the Lord Jesus in this endearing character, as engaged in the great work of salvation. “Christ (saith he) loved the church, and gave himself for it: that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:25–27.) And hence, in conformity to this gracious design of the Lord Jesus, we find the church of God, beheld as in oneness and union with her glorious Husband, spoken of, in all ages of the church, under this precious character. “Ye shall be (saith Moses to the true Israel of God) a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Exod. 19:5, 6.) And hence the gospel-charter, corresponding to the same as the law by Moses had typically represented, makes the same proclamation. “Ye are (saith Peter) a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1 Pet. 2:9.) And if it be asked, as well it may, how is it that the church of the Lord Jesus, which in every individual member of it is continually complaining of a body of sin and death, believers carry about with them from day to day, how is it that such can be called holy before the Lord? The answer is at hand, and perfectly satisfactory: They are so, from their union with, and their right and interest in their glorious Head; for if “he was made sin for them, who knew no sin,” it is but just that they, who in themselves have no righteousness, should be made “the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor. 5:21.) And if the church be commanded, as that the church is, and by God the Father himself, to call Christ “the Lord our righteousness,” equally proper is it, and by the same authority also, that the church should be called the Lord our righteousness, as the lawful wife bearing her husband’s name. (Compare Jer. 23:6 with 33:16.) And all this because the Lord Jesus hath married his church, hath made her holy in his holiness and is become to her, by God the father’s own covenant-engagements, “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:30.) Such, then, are the beautiful Scripture views of holy and of holiness, in the lovely order of it. First, as beheld in the persons of the Godhead, in the very being of Jehovah. Secondly, as the same in the personal holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Christ of God, and the glorious Head of his body the church. And thirdly, as making holy the whole body of the church in Jesus, and from Jesus, and by Jesus, united to him. And hence, from this union, every thing that is called holy in Scripture, derives that sanctity. The temple, the holy of holies, the vessels of the sanctuary, the ordinances, sacrifices, and all that belonged to the Jewish church. And, under the Christian dispensation, every thing found in the simple services of Christ’s church is, no otherwise holy, than as it derives that purity from Christ’s person; Christ is all, and in all. Yea, heaven itself, into which Jesus is gone as the forerunner of his people, hath all its holiness and blessedness from him. John tells the church, that “he saw no temple there, for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it.” (Rev. 21:22.)



Robert Hawker, The Poor Man’s Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures (London: Ebenezer Palmer, 1828), 367–374.