כפר – Atone, Make Atonement

The concept of atone, atonement is central to the message of the Hebrew scriptures as well as to the New Covenant scriptures.  People in both the synagogue and church behave as if they know what it means, but the original meaning is somewhat hard to grab hold of.  The meaning of atonement has sometimes been described as an Old or Middle English derivative from at-one-ment.   In fact the first known use of atone is in 1574, and its various forms were consistently used in the 1611 KJB for the כפר word group.  The base meaning for the Middle English term is be reconciled, be in harmony with.  The fundamental question is this: How well does the Middle English term represent the meanings of the Hebrew word group or the current usage in English?

Word Group

BDB lists four different homonyms for the for the root כפר.  The first of these is the root of interest, and the latter three are semantically unrelated.  This root constitutes the semantic base for four different words found in the Hebrew text.

כפר         This root occurs occurs 142 times and is attested in Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, and later Hebrew.  The suggested original root meaning is cover; subsequent meaning in the cognate languages are  hide, wash away, obliterate.

rp,Ko          This is a masculine noun meaning ransome price for a life.  The term occurs 13 times.  The Greek term used in the LXX for this noun as well as several others is λυτρον, which was the common term for the purchase price needed to free a slave.

כפר          The root forms a denominative verb that occurs 102 times in the bible.  The root is attested four different stems:

·       Piel stem – cover over, pacify, make propitiation (92 times)

·       Pual stem – passive of piel (8 times)

·       Hitpael stem – similar to pual (1 time)

·       Nitpael stem – similar to pual (1 time)

µyrIPuKi     Abstract plural noun for that which covers or makes propitiation.  The term is usually translated as sin offering of the atonement, Day of Atonement. (8 times)

tr<PoK'        This is the name for the lid for the ark of the covenant.  The term occurs 27 times, and its meaning is explained as being derived from cover, place of propitiation.  The term is often translated into English by mercy seat, but this has no semantic connection with the Hebrew term.

The following terms are most commonly used in the LXX and Vulgate to translate this word group:

ιλασκομαι  This verb has both transitive and intransitive senses.  The transitive sense expresses conciliate, appease, propitiate.  The intransitive sense expresses be propitious, merciful, expiate for, make propitiation for.

ιλασμος      This masculine noun form is derived from the above verb and means means of appeasing, means of propitiation.

ιλαστηριον This neuter noun is used as the translation for tr<PoK', and it is also used adjectivally to mean propitiatory.  The nominal meaning evidently is place of propitiation or place of expiation.

The terms expiate and propitiate are both derived directly from Latin, but many English speakers have no clear understanding of what either term means.  The Latin expio (verb) and expiation (noun) both relate to actions done by a guilty party to make satisfaction or amends for some fault or transgression.  The Latin propitio (verb) and propitius (adjective) relate to the one wronged and expresses the meaning render favorable, appease.  Thus, the transgressor takes some action to expiate the one wronged that renders the one wronged well-disposed to the transgressor.

Significance

The root significance of the Hebrew word group appears most closely related to cover with the exception of rp,Ko, which is used as the term for a ransom price.  Thus the general ritual as described in the Hebrew bible presents a guilty person bringing an animal as substitute for himself, and other forms of restitution may also be required, depending on the type of transgression.  The animal is killed, blood collected, and applied to the horns of the altar.  (Additional details vary depending on the type of transgression and the position of the guilty party.)  Symbolically, the guilty person is killed and placed on the altar, and the resulting smoke goes up before YHWH for assessment.  The result of the ritual activity is that YHWH forgave (סלח) the person guilty of an inadvertent transgression – that is, the transgression was covered, and YHWH would see it no more.  The details for Yom Kippur are much more elaborate, and the blood is poured on the tr<PoK', but the symbolism is similar.

The Greek and Latin terms used to translate the Hebrew words were taken from the cultic experiences used by their cultures.  At that time essentially all cultures of the region used animal sacrifice for worship and for expiation of personal sin.  Within the scope of their formal religious activity, a guilty party performed expiation based on the nature of the fault, and when the ritual was done that rendered the god propitious toward the person.  The external physical actions were not much different from those of the Jews, but the cultural attitude was very different.  From the standpoint of the English term atone, the culture of the time (1574 CE) was separated from any use of animal sacrifice by at least 1000 years.  The basic meaning of the Middle English term misses most of the significance behind the כפר word group as used in the Hebrew bible, but atone has become the standard English term for the concept.