The Character of God:  Holiness

Old Testament, Hebrew qadosh
Leviticus 11:26-45
Leviticus 19:1-19
Psalm 99:1-9
Isaiah 43:1-15
Isaiah 55:1-13

New Testament, Greek hagios
Mark 1:21-28
John 14:15-26
Acts 2:1-12
1 Peter 1:1-16
Revelation 4:1-11

Other Aspects of God's Character

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Old Testament, Hebrew qadosh

 Leviticus 11:26-45 (2/14/2011)

The Hebrew word that is almost always translated as “holy” (and vice versa) is qadosh, which means “separate” or “set apart.”  This past week I read a commentary on Thessalonians by Lyle O. Bristol, who pointed out that not only is God holy, but also people or things can be holy when they are separated for divine use.  More alarmingly, he said the Hebrew word can be applied to people dedicated to the service of other gods, e.g., male or female temple prostitutes.  My Hebrew-English lexicon shows that one form of the word, the verb qadash, is translated with some synonym of “be sanctified” or “be holy” 170 times, but once as “be defiled.”  Dr. Bristol suggested the word “consecrated,” saying, “By the very act of consecration both persons and things were separated from the ordinary ways and uses of life.”  “Consecrated” seems to me a little more neutral than “holy” – I can disapprove of the worship of other gods while admitting that their places of worship are consecrated to them. 

This week and next week as we look at the idea of God’s holiness, let’s try to temporarily put aside our modern idea of holiness as goodness or righteousness – also attributes of God, but not this particular one.  Our first reading is one we saw fairly recently when we were talking about clean and unclean (i.e., suitably for ritual use or not).  At the end of the requirements to be clean, God says, “Be set apart, for I am set apart.  Be separate, for I am separate.” Leviticus 19:1-19 (2/15/2011)

The March 2011 National Geographic says that the next perfect pet may be a fox.  Scientists in Russia have developed a strain of silver foxes that wag their tails, rush to humans to be petted, and like to kiss faces.  In each generation, the scientists separated the more aggressive fox kits from the friendlier kits.  Now, 50 years later, they have a whole tribe of foxes with personalities like golden retrievers. 

We saw yesterday that qadosh, holy, really means set apart or separate.  One of the great themes of the Old Testament is separation.  Abraham was invited to separate from his family in Ur.  Lot was separated from Abraham.  Esau was separated from Jacob.  The sons of Jacob were separated from the Egyptians in Goshen.  When they returned to Palestine, God commanded the tribes of Israel to remain separate from the Canaanite nations.  Why?

When I was a kid, sometimes I would question my father’s decisions by saying (or whining), “Why?”  The usual answer was, “Because I’m Daddy.”  That was a good and sufficient reason, and normally the end of the discussion.  In the early parts of the Bible, God’s own separateness, or holiness, is presented as a good and sufficient reason for following the rule that we must be separate, or holy.  I doubt that it’s an accident that separation and a version of the ten commandments are presented together.  If we follow these commandments, we will be a separate people. Psalm 99:1-9 (2/16/2011)

Note the structure of today’s psalm.  One to three parallel couplets are followed by choruses in verses 3, 5, and 9 that contains the word qadosh, holy or separate. 

Back in the old days, we worker bees used to say things like, “That’s way above my pay grade,” or “He’s a lot higher in the food chain than I am.”  We were separated from the decision-makers by intermediate layers of management, secretaries, and offices with anterooms.  We envisioned them as being “higher” than we were.

So the progression of these three choruses is interesting.  In vs. 3, we’re going to praise God, who is separate.  In vs. 5, we are going to worship at God’s footstool, because he is above us.  God is even more separate.  In vs. 9, we’re going to worship at God’s holy mountain, who is way above us and more separate still.  If we are going to be holy, as God is holy, we need to grow in our degree of separation from lowly habits. Isaiah 43:1-15 (2/17/2011)

So far this week we’ve seen that the holy God expects his people to be ritually clean when they approach him, to follow certain rules of morality and ethics, and to recognize that he is superior to them.  We’ve seen that these are all associated with the idea of holiness. 

Today we see another idea:  “You are my people, and I am your God.  You can’t get away, and I’m not going anywhere.”  God summons his own people from wherever they are, and they are called to be witnesses to God’s saving acts.  Meantime, people who worship other so-called gods are invited to bring forth their own witnesses – in fact, let them bring forth their gods to show what they have done or to have them predict the future. 

Just as God is God alone, so God’s people must also be separated from everyone else.  God says, “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.  I am the LORD, your qadosh Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”  God’s holiness is bound up with his uniqueness. Isaiah 55:1-13 (2/18/2011)

I have to admit that this week’s scriptures haven’t given me a super-clear idea of what “holy” means.  I think this is because it means something so different from what I thought it did, i.e., worthy of worship, sacred, or perfect in goodness and righteousness.* 

Instead, I’m getting the impression that holiness is bound up with separateness – our separateness from the world and its unbelievers; God’s separateness from evil; and God’s uniqueness, which separates him from everything.  Maybe I’m getting a bias, but it seems to me that several verses from today’s reading support that impression: * See – you think I know where we’re going before we get there, but I don’t always.  I went through and selected a bunch of scriptures that had the word “holy,” and only now, along with you, am I reading them closely.




New Testament, Greek hagios

 Mark 1:21-28 (2/21/2011)

I said Friday that by the end of one week on holiness, I didn’t have a clear idea of what “holy” means, except that it apparently wasn’t what I had previously thought.  I also said that I didn’t plan out ten scriptures that made some sort of coherent picture – I just chose ten scriptures to see what they told us.

So it’s a little spooky to me that today’s scripture is on exactly the same aspect of holiness as last Monday’s scripture:  God’s intolerance for anything unclean.  Last week we read some of the laws of clean and unclean, and it ended, “I am the LORD your God.  You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  Today, in one of his earliest miracles, Jesus casts out an unclean spirit, who says, “Did you come to destroy us?  I know who you are:  the holy one of God.”  The people are amazed and recognize Jesus’ power, but only the unclean spirit recognizes Jesus as hagios, holy. 

Those of you who were at St. John’s this morning heard another similar scripture.  In Matthew 10:8, Jesus tells his disciples, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.”  Now, many of the sick, all of the lepers, all of the dead, and all of the devils were unclean.  In the disciples’ first practice run, they had to concentrate on separating people from their uncleanness. 

Whatever else hagios, holy, might mean, it definitely means clean, i.e., “ritually acceptable to God.”  
John 14:15-26 (2/22/2011)

I still didn’t plan this…  Last Tuesday’s reading emphasized the importance of following God’s commandments.  We are to be holy because God is holy.  We are to follow his commandments, and the only reason given – 7 times in 19 verses – is “I am the LORD.”  Today, Jesus is talking to his disciples at the Last Supper.  Guess what?  He emphasizes the importance of following his commandments, and incidentally, this is prefaced and followed with the promise that Father with send the Holy Spirit.

Both the Hebrew word qodesh and the Greek word hagios mean “separate” or “set apart,” in the sense of “consecrated.”  It’s not surprising to us that these words are used as equivalents in the Hebrew and Greek Old Testament.  

Acts 2:1-12 (2/23/2011)

“Holy” appears about 175 times in the New Testament, and slightly more than 100 of those are in the phrase “Holy Spirit.”  The other 70 or so are divided about evenly among the holy city (Jerusalem); Holy One (Jesus, mostly); holy apostles; holy prophets; holy angels; miscellaneous holy people (the believers, mostly), places (usually the Temple), and things; holy covenant, law, and commandments; holy kiss, holy calling and faith; holy scriptures; holy priesthood and nation; Holy, Holy, Holy LORD God Almighty; and, once, our old friend, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

What I notice about the 70 is that these holy people, places, and things are all set apart for God, i.e., consecrated.  Nowhere does it say that we buy holy groceries or sit on holy furniture.  Things that are “holy” are different in some way from ordinary specimens of their kind.

But most of the “holies” are in “Holy Spirit.”  Today we see the Holy Spirit coming upon the believers at Pentecost. 1 Peter 1:1-16 (2/24/2011)

A definite pattern is emerging that tells us about God’s expectations for us:  “You be holy, because I am holy.”  God will not tolerate uncleanness.  God expects us to obey his commandments.  Even though in the past we were unclean and disobedient, according to his glory and mercy, we now have grace.  The consistency of God’s character continues to shine through.

By the way, I just started reading a commentary on Ezekiel by Nancy R. Bowen.  She makes it clear that a person can be holy or profane (i.e., not consecrated).  A person can be clean or unclean and can move back and forth between these two states.  Profane can be in combination with clean or unclean, but “the only condition not possible was holy and unclean.”   

So this reminds me of the Last Supper again (English Standard Version): So I definitely think we are right that holiness, cleanness, and obedience are all connected.  We cannot approach God or be holy like God if we are unclean or disobedient.  Revelation 4:1-11 (2/25/2011)

Today we’re talking about the language of visions.  Read the scripture below for holy.

Speaking of Nancy R. Bowen and her commentary on Ezekiel, if you go back and read Ezekiel 1:5-11 and Isaiah 6:1-5, you will notice several similarities between Ezekiel’s vision, Isaiah’s vision, and John’s vision, which we are reading in part today.  One thing that you probably will not notice is that in Ezekiel and Revelation, understanding the vision is difficult or impossible.  Dr. Bowen says, “First, the vision itself claims to represent only vaguely what Ezekiel saw, using words ‘something like,’ ‘appearance,’ ‘like,’” and so on.  John does the same thing.

“Second,” she says, “the convoluted syntax or even lack of syntax in the Hebrew, obscured in translation, is problematic.  Some verses simply lack verbs.”  Now, Dr. Bowen is Hebrew scholar, and I just read a little Greek.  But I will say that the books of John and 1, 2, and 3 John are easy-peasy for me to read, and Revelation is difficult.  If you find Ezekiel’s and John’s visions easy to read in English, it’s because the translator has filled things in, smoothed things out, and tried to make sense of them.  The Greek is a lot more like what you read below.

“A third problem is the use of obscure vocabulary.”  John also uses some unusual words:  Now, if you take Biblical Greek, you are rarely required to learn words that occur fewer than 10 times, so all of these count as “obscure vocabulary.”

“Finally,” she concludes, “what Ezekiel sees is bizarre.”  John, too.  However, having seen a vision of God, both Ezekiel and John agree that God is holy.


Other Aspects of God's Character
Glory, Old and New Testament
Holiness, Old and New Testament
Longsuffering, Old and New Testament
Steadfast Love, Old and New Testament
Graciousness and Grace, Old and New Testament
Jealousy and Intolerance of Sin, read this topic
Giver of Good Gifts, read this topic

Copyright 2011 by Regina L. Hunter. All rights reserved.

Opinions expressed on this page are solely those of the author, Regina Hunter, and may or may not be shared by the sponsors or the Bible-study participants.  Thanks to the Holy Spirit for any useful ideas presented here, and thanks to all the readers for their support and enthusiasm.  All errors are, of course, the sole responsibility of the author.

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