B ib ^ o t h e c a S a c r a

70 (October-December 2013) : 400-17

T he M

e a n in g o f

H o l y

IN THE O l H T e s t a m e n t
Peter j . Gentry

T 0 ONE IS HOLY LIEE Y a h w e h was H an n ah s bold praise

when God granted her request for a child (1 Sam. 2:2).1
praise is based not only on her own experience, b u t also on the revelation given a t the Exodus. Moses Song
a t the Sea ran g out, W ho is like you am ong the gods, Yahweh?
Who is like y o u -m a je s tic in holiness! (Exod. 1 5 : 1 ). The revelation of God as holy and the creation of a covenant people who are
holy are connected specifically w ith the events of the Exodus.
Saint is, in fact, an Exodus word, and indeed P auls use of it has
in view th e work of Jesu s C hrist as bringing about a new Exodus.2
U ^ o rtu n a te ly , th e church of Jesu s Christ, at least in the western world, has not understood very well the m eaning of the word
holy, nor w hat it m eans to worship a holy God. System atic theologians from th e Reform ation to the present tim e are surveyed by
R ichard M uller, who describes th e Reformed orthodox doctrine of
the divine holiness as follows: Holiness, has, moreover, two implications, both of which are typically stated in relation or in contrast
to creatures. First, it can indicate the absolute m oral p u rity of God
and stand, therefore, in relation to his justice or righteousness. . . .
Second, the word is also employed to denote Gods infinite excellence above all th a t is low and created. 3 Thus holiness is seen as

Feter j. Gentry is Frofessor Old Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.

Translations of Scripture in this article are the writers, unless noted otherwise.

2 Connections between the term holy and the events of the Exodus are explored
below in sections about the calling of Moses in Exodus 3 and the calling of Israel in
Exodus 19.
3 Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Deuelopment af Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 ca. 1725. Volume 3: The Divine Essence
and Attributes (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 499.

The Meaning Hly in the Old Testament 401

roughly equivalent to purity and transcendence.

U nderstanding of the root , moreover, is commonly based
on the work of w. w. Baudissin, Der Begriff der Heiligkeit im AT,
published in 1878.4 B audissin surm ised th a t the original root was a
b iliteral m eaning to cut. He influenced more th a n a century of
ecclesiastical thought, for recent theologians continue to rely on the
etymology adduced by him.
Not only is th is etymology entirely u n certain , b u t also scholars, w hether biblical exegetes or system atic theologians, have been
w arned for over h alf a century about the dangers of etymological
approaches to sem antics. As an example, nice in English comes
from the L atin word nescius, m eaning ignorant. Thus the history
or origin of a word m ay be interesting b u t entirely irrelevant for
determ ining its m eaning.
The best approach to sem antic analysis is an exhaustive study
of all available usage, both in the litera tu re in question and in contem porary docum ents in the cultures surrounding the original
texts of the Bible. For th is kind of study w as perform ed already
in 1 8 6 by a French evangelical, Claude B ernard Costecalde.6 Costecalde analyzed the p e rtin en t term s in A kkadian, U garitic, and
N orthw est Semitic inscriptions in addition to the usage of in
the Hebrew Bible. His exhaustive research w as so well recognized
by scholars th a t he was invited to contribute th e article on holiness
in the fam ous Catholic D ictionary known as Supplm ents aux Dietionnaire de la Bible? Although published a q u a rte r of a century
ago, this research h as not p en etrated the church in N orth America,
possibly because Costecaldes work is in French. My own exegesis
over the last twenty-five years has been greatly stim ulated by the
work of Costecalde. Thus 1 am presenting his work as well as my
own, which finds th a t n eith er m oral pu rity nor transcendence is

W. w . Baudissin, Der Begriff der Heiiigkeit im AT, in Studien zur semitischen

Religionsgeschichte, vol. 2 (Leipzig: Fr. Wilh. Grunow, 1878).
5 T. E. MeGomiskey States, The suggestion that the root qdsh is derived from an
orign al biliteral qd (cut) is attractive but tenuous. . . . Tire meaning to separate
is favored by many scholars, but the fact that qdsh rarely, if ever, occurs in a secular sense makes any positive conclusion in this regard difficult because of the limited evidence on which to base philological comparison (] ] , in Theological Wordbook /
Old Testament, ed. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, and B. K. Waltke
[Ghicago: Moody, 1908], 2:780-87).
6 Claude Bernard Costecalde, Aux origines du sacr biblique (Paris: Letouzey
An, 1986).

Claude Bernard Costecalde, Sacr in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplment

Tome, vol. 10 (Paris: Letouzey & An, 1985), columns 13461415.

402

B ib l io t h e c a S a c r a

/ October-December 2013

fundam ental to the m eaning of holy in Greek or Hebrew.

The m eaning of the word holy can be expounded by focusing
largely on three texts: Exodus 3, Exodus 19, and Isaiah 6.
E x o d u s 3 H oly G r o u n d

In Exodus 3 Moses encounters Yahweh in the burning bush and is

asked to remove his sandals because he is standing on holy
ground. This is the first occurrence in the Old T estam ent of the
root in either an adjectival or noun form. Indeed, only one instance of the related verb is found prior to this text (Gen. 2:3); so
Exodus 3 is foundational to thinking about the word. As Costecalde
observes, the God of A braham , Isaac, and Jacob was not called by
them a Holy God, nor was He worshiped by them at a holy place.
God w aited until He called Moses and revealed H im self to him to
announce to th is shepherd th a t the m ountain of God was a holy
place: , norm ally tra n sla te d holy ground.
Why did God designate the m ountain as a place? One reason generally given goes as follows. The holiness of the place was
a b a rrier th a t prevented Moses, and la te r the people, from approaching. The m ountain was taboo or a forbidden place. The
presence of God as the totally other upon the m ountain m ade th e
place inaccessible and provoked fear in Moses because of the holy
character of the m ountain. M uilenburg, for example, expresses this
view. He states:
The consciousness of the radical cleavage between the human and the
divine is rooted in taboo, and is illustrated in the law of the hrem
() , in which man is forbidden to appropriate what belongs to God,
and in the frequent prohibitions against profanation. The holy is unapproachable; man must not come near ( ) to it. Thus Moses
must not come near for the place on which he stands is ( Exod.
3:5 j; cf. Josh. 5:15).8

This explanation, however, does not account for all the facts given
in the text. God does not forbid Moses from approaching the holy
ground b u t only from coming near the b u s h - t h e place from which
He speaks. The ground designated as holy includes th e precise
place where Moses stands, not ju st the bush where Yahw eh speaks.
In th e n a rra tiv e of Exodus 3:1-6 Moses is given two distinct and
separate commands: (1) Dont come n e a r here! and (2) Remove

j . Muileuburg, Holiness, in The Interpreters Dictionary / the Bible (Nashville:

Abingdon, 1962), 2:618.

The Meaning

Holy in the Old Testament

403

your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy
ground.9 The holy ground, then, is much larger th a n th e bush
where Yahweh speaks. It follows th a t the comm and th a t forbids
,Moses to approach does not apply to the ground declared holy
b u t only to the precise spot where ah w eh speaks. The causal
clause inform ing Moses th a t he is standing on holy ground gives
the reason for rem oving his sandals and is not connected to the
.comm and to stay away from the b u sh
The holy ground (v. 5) encompasses a larger space th a n ju st
the bush from which God speaks and is, in fact, equivalent to the
area designated as the m ountain of God (v. 1). Moses is standing
on a -place; th ere is nothing inaccessible or restricted about ap
proaching there. The m ountain of God is not taboo or a forbidden
,place. Moreover, it does not inspire fear any more th a n the b u sh
which ra th e r provokes curiosity. The fear th a t seizes Moses in the
n arrativ e does not spring from the sacrosanct character of the
-m ountain; it is provoked by the shock of the vision of God. This u n
expected m eeting w ith God seizes Moses w ith fright. Verse 6 shows
clearly the difference betw een fear and holy, because the fear is
-inspired by th e vision of God, not by th e holy m ountain. It is th e re
fore im proper to speak of holy fear if language is to be genuinely
.tru e to S cripture
As already noted, holy ground appears as a synonym of the
m ountain of God. From the culture of th a t tim e there is nothing
astonishing about th is because a t U garit, in the fourteenth century
before Jesu s Christ, Baal dwells on a m ountain and the m ountain
of B aal is also called a place qds.10 The m ountain in E xodus 3:1,
however, is called -because of the presence of the God of A bra
ham , Isaac, and Jacob upon it and not because of a holy character
inherent in or proper to the place where Moses stands. In the
course of Moses vision, it is not so much the place as such th a t is
-valued, b u t the presence of God on it. This is when it becomes re
m arkable: the m ountain is .because it is the m ountain of God
Exodus 3, then, provides a m eaning for a derivative of the root
cu rren t in the fourteenth century before Jesus Christ, where
the ,ground is not the place of distance or radical separation
b u t of m eeting and of presence, the m eeting of God and m an. In

.The sentences are asyndetic rather than connected by w aw

G. del Olm Lete and j . Sanmartn, A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the 10
Alphabetic Tradition, Handbook of Oriental Studies 67 (Leiden: Brill,
2003
695 ,(,
where qds is attributed to the citadel of Baal = the mountain 0 Baal, in K TU
1.16.11:46
1.16.1:7.,

404

B ib l io t h e c a S a c r a

/ October-December 2013

standing on th e ground th a t beiongs to God, Moses is not caiied

, but to he allowed to walk th ere he m ust subm it to the practice
of a rite or ritual: remove his sandals. Is th is an innovation? Um
doubtedly not. The act of rem oving ones sandals, as does the nearest relative in Deuteronom y 25:9 and in R uth 4:7, is a ceremony of
de-possession well-known in the culture of th a t tim e. The gel,
th a t is, the n earest relative, removes his sandal to show th a t he is
relinquishing his rights of purchase. Thus Moses m ust
acknowledge th a t this ground belongs to God and en ter into an attitude of consecration. R ather th a n being m arking as set apart,
holy ground is ground consecrated, devoted, or prepared for the
m eeting of God and man.
In speaking from the middle of the bush, God m anifests His
desire to be present in th e m idst of men. B ut He presents Him self
progressively. F irst He addresses Moses, who does not dare to look
a t Him and who is surprised a t the tim e and seized w ith fear. It is
God who takes the initiative in m eeting men; He is the one who
declares th e m ountain to be ground . It is not Moses who decides to m eet the God of th e patriarchs; it is not he who consecrates
to th is invisible God a particu lar place. The n a rra to r insists on the
divine initiative. It seems th a t the m ost suitable tran slatio n of
in E xodu s 3 m ust be som ething like consecrated or devoted
ground. God has chosen the place of the meeting; He w aits for Moses, and after having prepared the ground, He presents H im self
to the shepherd and m akes him p a rt of His project of salvation .
E x o d u s 19 H oly N a t io n

In the next stage in Gods progressive revelation and also in the

extension of holiness, Israel has come out of Egypt and is now
camped before th e m ountain in the desert of Sinai (Exod. 19). In
the n a rra tiv e of th is episode, the Lord speaks to Moses and comm ands him to consecrate the people (v. 10). Moses obeys. He
comes down th e m ountain, w here he has m et God and received this
com m unication from Him, and consecrates the people (v. 14). In
fact, five forms of th e root are found in Exodus 19 (vv. 6, 10, 14,
22, 23), m aking this an im portant developm ent from Exodus 3.
Several different tran slatio n s of the verb have been proposed: sanctify (The O riginal Bible), cause to sanctify oneself
(New Jerusalem Bible 1973), consecrate (Dhorme11), cause to be

E. Dhorme, L volution Religieuse d I sral. Yol. 1: La Religion des Hbreux Homades (Brussels: Nouvelle Socit (!Editions, 193?), 309.

The Meaning Holy in

Old Testament 405

holy (G ilbert^), and declare holy (L eenhardt13). We can agree

here w ith the position of Gilbert against th a t of L eenhardt. The
form is in the Piel stem , and the m eaning is essentially IntensiveF actitive. This has to do w ith th e causation or bringing about of a
state: Moses brings the people into a consecrated or holy status.
At th is point the notion of sanctification is overcharged w ith
a m oral sense in m any expositions. Such a m eaning cannot be justified here by reason of the context. In other respects, th e transation sanctify the people, the priests, or the m ountain, does not
adequately convey the sense of the comm and given by God to Moses. The notion of e x e c r a t i o n more n e u tra l in the first p la c e - is
more suitable.
W hat does God desire? He w ants to get ready or prepare a
meeting w ith the people of Israel under certain conditions. He presented H im self first to Moses in a spectacular m anner. Before receiving the divine call, Moses m ust accomplish a rite. Now in Exodus 19, Moses plays the role of interm ediary betw een God and the
people. Likewise, in 19:23, Moses receives the order to consecrate
(Piel )the m ountain, which h as been delim ited or m arked
G ilbert believes th a t the notion of the holy in 19:22-23 is
closer to the idea of taboo th a n th a t which appears in Ex 19:213.15 The verb , however, in relation to the m ountain is in the
same stem as in verses 10-14, where it is used in relation to the
people. It is difficult to discover a sem antic difference betw een two
identical uses of the verb. F urtherm ore, according to the context,
the ban / interdiction / prohibition (or the taboo) is not equivalent
to consecration: a consecrated m ountain is not a forbidden
m ountain. The interdiction is a consequence or result of the consecration, it does not define consecration itself. Consecrating the
m ountain is preparing this place for the coming of God. To do this,

Maurice Gilbert, Le Sacr dans lAncien Testament, in L E xpression du Sacr

dans les Grandes Religions, ed. Julien Ries, Herbert Sauren, et al. (Louvain-laNeuve, 1983), 1:210-211.
3 Franz-J. Leenhardt, La Notion de Saintet dans l A ncien Testament {Faris:
Librairie Fischbacher, 1929), 44.
See E. Jenni, Das hebrische Pi'el: Syntaktisch-semasiologische Untersuchung
einer Verbalform im Alten Testament (Zrich: EVZ-Verlag, 1968), and idem, Aktionsarten und s^mml'ormen im Althebrischen: Das Fi'el in verbesserter Sicht,
Zeitschrift fr Althebraistik 13/1 (2000): 67-90, and Bruce K. Waltke and M.
OConnor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990).
15 Gilbert, Le Sacr dans lAncien Testament, 1:263.

406 ^OTHECA S acra / October-December 2013

-Moses m ust place boundaries there and order the people not to ap
.proach it
U nlike Exodus 3, w here God orders the fulfillm ent of a ritu a l
-on a consecrated place, here in Exodus 19 it is Moses who conse
crates the people (19:10). Thus th ere is in th is text a progression
in comparison w ith the passage in Exodus 3. Moses is no longer a
-w itness of consecration; he actively participates in th is consecra
tion. He does not ju st touch consecrated ground; he consecrates the
.people in the one case and th e delim ited m ountain in th e o th er
The m eaning of th is consecration is defined by th e context. In
,Exodus 3 the consecrated m ountain appears as a place prepared
-having become for a tim e a divine possession. In chapter 19 a con
secrated people are a people ready ,meet God, as verse 11 sta te s
th a t they may be ready for the th ird day. The o n se c ra tio n of the
people is a preparation. For M o se s-w h o is clearly the subject of
the verb in verse 1 0 -co n se c ra tin g th e people is to put them in
-a sta te to approach God.16 This preparation is effected by the prac
tice of a ritual: w ashing the cloaks, which takes two days ( w . 10and 1415). According to the sequence of volitives, the w ashing 11
-follows the consecration and appears as a result. An elem ent of p u
rification is certainly present in this text, b u t one cannot equate
consecration and purification in strict term s, and the root ) -p u
.rify) is not used
-Are the people consecrated in the sam e m anner as the conse
-crated m ountain? A consecrated peopleare they a people who be
long to God? It seems th a t th e context confirms this, likewise th a t
the elem ent of preparation predom inates. Moses m ust declare to
.the people: Be ready in th ree days. Dont come n e a r your wives (v
-This order is certainly given for a precise reason. In not com .)15
.ing near th eir wives, the Israelites are ready to come n e a r God
-God w ants to prepare the people for a very special m eeting. Cer
tainly Moses is not establishing a taboo; the text does not say th a t
-to have sexual relations is to move aw ay from God. B ut God de
sires, for a special occasion, a special consecration. This abstinence
is also found in 1 Sam uel 21:5 .
One discovers th e idea of belonging and devotion connected to
the notion of consecration a t the beginning of Exodus 19, where
verses 5-6 affirm clearly the purpose of God, less evident perhaps
in verses 10-15 and 22-24. ^ o u will be my personal tre a su re

16 Georges Auzou, De la Servitude au Service: tude du Livre de l Exode (Paris:

Editions de !Orante, 1961), 254. Auzous words in the original are as follows:
Sanctifier ou consarer , V. 10, cest mettre en tat dapprocher Dieu.

The Meaning of Holy in fhe Old Testament 407

[sglh, an Am orite term ] among 1

the peoptessince all the earth
belongs to meand you will he for me a royal priesthood and a holy
nation (vv. 5-6). P riests are persons devoted solely to th e service
of the deity.17 Israel as a nation is a nation given access to the
presence of Yahweh and devoted solely to the service and worship
of the Lord. Moreover the statem en ts in verses 5 and 6 are double.
F irst, the call to he a holy nation is parallel to the call to be a royal
priesthood, and second, the two designations royal priesthood and
holy nation together constitute an explanation of w hat it m eans
to he Yahw ehs personal treasu re. The idea of belonging and th a t of
consecration are closely related in these verses; they are also in the
verses th a t follow.
Study of Exodus 19 does not support speaking of separation,
as some like L een h ard t1^ and M ichaeli^ do, or of an im passable
gulf, as Lefevre does, for whom holiness is the im passable gulf
which m akes God ^accessib le to th e c r e a t u r e . S u c h m eanings
are not appropriate to th e use of forms of in th is text.
The ban on going up on the m ountain does not imply a radical
separation or b a rrier betw een th e people and the m ountain. On the
contrary, the people are invited to participate in the theophany, not
simply as spectators, b u t as consecrated. The place and th e people
are ready to receive God because they belong to Him. If Moses
m ust fix im passable lim itsas God H im self m ust do for Moses at
the tim e of the burning b u s h - t h i s is not to establish a radical separation betw een the people and God, b u t to indicate th e distance
th a t fu rth er rem ains betw een th e people and God and to protect, in
a certain m anner, the Israelites. There is a gradation: th e people
are consecrated; they m ay approach and see, but only Moses and
several privileged ones m ay be enveloped by the cloud. So then, the
g reater th e consecration, the greater is the distance noticeably dim inished. Consecration appears correctly in Exodus 19 as th e opposite of separation.
In the H SC B notes to Exodus 19:9-25 Coover-Cox observes
17 A full treatment f the details and exegetieal issues ean he found in Peter j .
Gentry and Steven Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant (Wheaton: Crssway,
2012 ) .

1 Leenhardt, La Notion de Saintet dans l A ncien Testament, 19-231 Franh Michaeli, Le Livre de lExode (Neuchtel: Delachaux et Niestl, 1974),
166.

^ A. Lefvre, Saint ^est le Seigneur, in Grands Thmes Bibliques, ed. M. E.

Bismard et al. (Paris: Editins de Feu Nouveau, 1958), 52. Lefvres own words are
as follows: La saintet est labime i^ n c h i s s a b l e qui rend Dieu inaccessible la
crature.

408

B ib l io t h e c a S a c r a

/ October-December 2013

th a t the covenant-m aking at Sinai is com pared to a u z e ra in -v a s s a l

tre a ty in the ancient N ear East. She states:
The Reparations for a meeting between the Lord and the Israeiites
continue the extended metaphor that compares the Lord to a great
king issuing a covenant to his vassal The Lord had chosen to come to
Mount Sinai in a way designed to reveal His presence and to communicate with the Israelites, making it private property, where no
one should expect to wander in and out o b liviou s to the wishes of the
owner. For as long as the Lord visited that place, it was holy ground,
an extension of His royal court. Coming teere required a royal summons. It was not a casual meeting of equals.21
I saiah 6 - Y a h w eh a s H oly

If holy m eans essentially consecrated or devoted, w hat then

does it m ean to apply this adjective to God? How is He consecrated
devoted? Isaiah 6 helps answ er these questions.
O utline of Isaiah 6:1-13
I. Vision of Yahweh (6:14)
II. R e s ^ n s o f l s a i a h (6:57)
Commission of the Prophet (6:8-13)
GOD IS AWESOME

C ertain aspects of th is text depict God as awesome and transcendent. Isaiah begins by saying th a t he saw te e Lord (), sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. God is exalted; He is te e High King;
te e edges of His robe filled te e tem ple (6:1). This not only expresses
the awesome greatness of God bu t also clearly indicates th a t Isaiah
was pro strate on te e ground; th is is why he could see only the edges or hem of Gods robe. This vision of God is sim ilar to the teeophany granted to the nobles of Israel w hen te e covenant w ith Israel w as ratified on M ount Sinai in Exodus 24. The nobles saw the
God of Israel, but all th a t they reported seeing is bright blue lapis
lazuli bricks under His feet (v. 10). They, too, were flat on te e
ground and were so aw estruck th a t th eir eyes were raised no higher th a n the paving stones under Gods feet.
Isaiah 6:3 says fu rth e r th a t the glory of te e Lord filled the
earth. W hen the tabernacle was completed in Exodus 40, a bright
cloud designated as te e glory of te e Lord filled te e tabernacle (vv.
3435). Likewise, w hen Solomon built and dedicated te e tem ple,
21 Dorian G. Coover-Cox, Exodus, in HCSB Study Bible, ed. Edwin A. Blum and
Jeremy Royal Howard (Nashville: Holman, 2010), 131.

The Meaning of Holy in the Old Testament 409

the glory of the Lord filled the tem ple ) Kings 8:10-11). H ere in
Isaiah s vision, the glory of the Lord fills the earth. This indicates
th a t the entire e a rth is His sanctuary, or tem ple, and th a t He rules
the whole world. The seraphim describe Him, and w hatever they
are, th eir nam e m eans burning ones. They are beings of fire. In
addition, the foundations of the door-posts shake and the place is
filled w ith smoke. E arthquake, fire, and smoke clearly speak of the
-God of Sinai. In A bram s vision in Genesis 15:17 God reveals H im
self by m eans of a smoking firepot and blazing torch. In Exodus
which is a foretaste and precursor to Sinai, He reveals Him self ,3:2
to Moses in the burning bush. According to Exodus 19:16-19 God
.came on M ount Sinai accompanied by earthquake, fire, and sm oke
He appeared sim ilarly to Ezekiel in chapter 1 in clouds and fire. In
Daniel 7:910, his throne was flam ing w ith fire and its wheels
were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before
him (NIV). There is no question th a t the lord whom Isaiah saw is
.the God who m ade the covenant w ith Israel at S inai
GOD IS HOLY

The concept th a t God is holy is not new. This idea is found before
Isaiah s tim e (Lev. 11:44-45; 20:3, 7, 26; Josh. 24:19; 1 Sam . 6:20 ;
Ps. 22:4). Nonetheless, Isa ia h s favorite term for God is the Holy
One of Israel/Jacob. He uses th is term some 26 tim es; outside of
-the Book of Isaiah it is found only six tim es. The vision of God giv
en to Isaiah a t the beginning of his life and m inistry as a prophet
profoundly affected his life and radically shaped his m essage and
,m inistry. Though recognition of Yahweh as a Holy God is not new
w hat is new is the particu lar m essage th a t God gives to Isaiah in
verses 8 -1 3 .
In Isaiah 6 it is when God appears to the prophet th a t Isaiah
h ears the voice of the seraphim proclaim ing the holiness of the
Lord. This declaration accom panies the coming of God among men
.in the tem ple and a tte sts His presence in the place of consecration
God appears in the place th a t belongs to Him, the sanctuary, but
-He does not stay in the holy of holies, the place th a t is m ost con
secrated. Instead He lets H im self be seen by m en in the front room
of the tem ple, the g reat hall. This is evident from two or th ree facts
in the text. The Hebrew word used here is . In 1 Kings 6-8, the
passage describing the construction of the tem ple, the word or
house is used for the tem ple as a whole, which is divided into two
rooms: th e front room or great hall is called the and elsew here
the holy place; the back room is called the and later the holy of

410

B ib l io t h e c a S a c r a

/ October-December 2013

holies.22 In Isaiah 6 the Lord is not in th e , or holy of holies, He

is in the , the front room, the great hall of His palace. Note th a t
the sta n d a rd term for the tem ple as a whole, , is used in verse 4
and clearly contrasts w ith in verse 1.
Secondly, Isaiah says th a t the bases of the doorposts shook.
This m akes it absolutely clear th a t the Lord is in the front room,
because Isaiah is a t th e doorway and would not have been able to
see into th e back room from the doorway. So while God is awesome
in His m ajesty. His holiness does not m ean th a t He is the Totally
O ther, nor does it speak of His separation. J u s t the opposite in
f a c t- h e r e God is coming to m eet m an (as in Exodus 3), which fits
the central them e of th is new section of Isaiah: Im m anuel, th a t is,
God w ith us.
ROLE OF THE SERAPHIM

In addition, Isaiah sees the seraphim in his vision. It is as imp o rtan t to note w hat he does not see as to note w hat he does see.
He sees seraphim and not cherubim . Norm ally im ages of the cherubim y a r d e d access to the presence of God in the garden and the
tem ple. Their wings protected the mercy seat of th e ark, and they
were on th e curtains guarding the holy of holies. W hat is intended
by the fact th a t Isaiah sees seraphim in stead of cherubim ? The
English word seraphim is, in fact, not of English origin, but rath er a loanword from Hebrew based on a rough tran sliteratio n of
the p lural form of the word '.
The word sarap h is rare in the Hebrew Bible. It occurs in
N um bers 21:6 and 8 and refers to fiery snakes, or serpents, th a t
struck th e Israelites. It also refers to a fiery snake in Deuteronom y
8:15, Isaiah 14:29, and 30:6. In the occurrences in Isaiah 14 and 30
the seraphim are specifically designated as winged serpents, which
clearly connects them to the instances in Isaiah 6.23 Finally we
have the two occurrences in Isaiah 6 for a total of seven instances
in the entire Hebrew Bible. Probably the word was tra n slite ra te d
instead of tra n sla ted because the tra n sla to rs did not see how the

22 For see 1 Kings 6:5, 17; 7:50; and in 1 Kings 6:3. For see
Kings 6:5, 16, 19-23, 31; 7:49, 8:6, 8. The term for the whole, , occurs approximately 46 times in 1 Kings 6-8. The is also designated as the holy of holies in
1 Kings 6:16, 8:6. The is designated as the holy place in 1 Kings 8:8, 10.
23 Annals from King Esarhaddon of Assyria describe his journey across the desert,
and in the same spot where Israel encountered the fiery snakes, he mentions
strange creatures with batting wings (James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts: Relating to the Old Testament [Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1955], 292b).

The Meaning of Holy in fhe Old Testament 411

seraphim here could be connected to the other occurrences where

the word refers to snakes.
J u s t because they have feet, hands, and faces, however, does
not m ean th a t they cannot be s n a k e s . ? i c t u r e s of winged snakes
from both Egypt and Syria show them w ith feet, hands, and faces.
According to Isaiah 14:2 , a winged seraph is a symbol of a future
Hebrew king. In fact, Hebrew seals, some of them royal, have
winged snakes on them .25
If th is interp retatio n is regarded as far-fetched, recall 2 Kings
18:4, a passage th a t describes King H ezekiahs efforts to rid the
tem ple worship of idols and idolatrous objects. One item m entioned
is the bronze snake, th e sarap h m ade by Moses, which by this
tim e had become an object of idolatrous worship to which the Israelites burned incense. Since H ezekiah became king in 715, this
bronze snake was in the tem ple a t the tim e of King U zziahs death
in 740, w hen Isaiah was given th is vision.
The seraphim constitute a direct allusion to N um bers 21:6, 8.
T heir purpose and role in the vision is to rem ind Isaiah and readers of when the Israelites complained in the desert about Gods
great provisions in food and w ater. By com plaining about His provision for them , the people were in reality saying th a t God was not
completely devoted, and so they im pugned His holiness. The people
of Isa ia h s tim e were prom oting a society full of social injustice and
saying th a t God should h u rry up and bring the day of judgm ent
th a t He prom ised (Isa. 5:18-19). In th is way they were saying He
24 Out of respect the seraphim cover their faces with one of their three pairs of
wings and their feet with another pair. It is possible that the context may r e t i r e
the meaning pudenda for feet here (HALOT, s.v. (so that covering the feet
means covering their genitals. According to Exodus 20:26; 28:42, Israelite priests
contrasted with priests in the ancient Near East in that they were not to expose
"
in worship of Yahweh. The action of the seraphim may he simiiar to
this.
25 For interpretation of the seraphim as snakes, see K. R. Joines, Winged Serpents in Isaiahs Inaugural Yision, Journal ofB iblical Literature 86 (1967): 410-15;
j,
M. Roberts, Solomons Jerusalem and Zion Tradition, in Jerusalem in Bible
and Archaeology, ed. A. G. Vaughn and A. E. Killebrew (Atlanta: SBL, 2008), 16566, especially H. Cazelles, La Vocation dIsaie (Ch. 6) et le Rites Royaux, in
Homenaje a Juan Prado, ed. L. Alvarez Verdes and E. j . Alonso Hernandez (Madrid: C.S.I.C., 1975), 89-108, and Othmar Keel, Jahwe-Visionen und Siegelkunst:
Eine neue Deutung der M ajesttsschilderungen in Jes 6, Ez und 10 und Sach 4
(Stuttgarter Bibelstudien 84/85; Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1977).
See for example images 11 and 127 in Nahman Avigad, Corpus / West Semitic
Stam p Seals, rev. Benjamin Sass (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1997). Image 11 definitely belonged to a royal personage in Israel. See
also Benjamin Sass and Christoph Uehlinger, eds.. Studies in the Iconography of
Northwest Semitic Inscribed Seals, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 125 (Fribourg/Gttingen: University Press Fribourg/Vandenhoek Ruprecht, 1998).

412

B ib l io t h e c a S a c r a

/ October-December 2 1 3

was not devoted to His justice and so im pugned His hoiiness. Thus
there is a clear parallel betw een the people of Isa ia h s tim e and the
people who journeyed through the desert.
Such a m eaning for holy is entirely consonant w ith uses of
the word connected to Israels journey through the desert. N um bers
20:10-13 is an example: So Moses took the staff from th e L ord s
presence, ju st as he comm anded him. He and Aaron gathered the
assem bly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them , Listen, you rebels, m ust we bring you w ater out of th is rock? Then
Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice w ith his staff. Water gushed out, and the com m unity and th eir livestock drank. B ut
the L ord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not tru s t in
^ enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you
will not bring th is com m unity into the land I give them . These
were the w aters of M eribah, where the Israelites quarreled w ith
the L ord and w here he was proved holy am ong them (NHO.
Moses and A arons act of disobedience did not tre a t Y ahw eh as
h o ly - a s completely devoted to the job of bringing the people out of
Egypt and into the Prom ised Land. Even so, the actions of Yahweh
did dem onstrate precisely the fact th a t He was fully consecrated
and devoted to His promise and task.
A nother example sim ilar to th is is Isaiah 63:10, which recalls
th a t during the journey through the w ilderness the people of Israel
grieved Gods holy spirit. The term sp irit speaks of someone as he
or she is em pow ered,^ and in the context, it is the m essenger of
His presence who m ediated Gods care for the people in providing
protection from cold and h eat through th e cloud and also food and
w ater. Yet the people constantly questioned th a t God was devoted
to His prom ise to bring them through and complained about His
care and provisions for them .
In the vision of Isaiah, the seraphim cover them selves as a
sign of respect and subm ission, and Isaiah is conscious of his impurity. He is not ready to m eet God: he is a m an of unclean lips, and
he dwells in the m idst of a people of unclean lips; he ought not to
see the King, the Lord of Armies. The fear th a t inspires Isaiah is
not a fear of holiness. He does not say, My eyes have seen the Holy
One, bu t rath er, My eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Arm ies.
As in Exodus 3, it is not the holiness of God th a t inspires fear, but
the vision of God Himself. In seeing God, the prophet dreads to be
Hans Walter Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress,
1974), 32-39; James M. Hamilton Jr., G ods Indwelling Presence (Nashville: ^ H
Academic, 2006), 39-40; and idem, God with Men in the Torah, Westminster Theological Journal 65 (2003): 113-33.

The Meaning of Holy in the Id Testament 413

crushed by the m ajesty of th e Soveretgn King, and ence purified, he

does not h esitate to m eet God in verse 8.
The fact th a t the word hoiy is repeated th ree tim es is not reiated to the New T estam ent doctrine of th e Trinity; it is simply a
form of extrem e em phasis in the Hebrew language (cf. Jer. 7:4,
tem ple; Jer. 22:29, land; Ezek. 21:27 [Heb. 32], ruin; and Isa.
6:3, 4, holy).
W hat does it m ean for Yahweh to he called holy? H erm eneutics
requires, surely, above all, attention to the context. And the context
th a t is determ inative for Isaiah 6 is found in chapter 5, w here literary analysis dem onstrates the centrality of verse 16:27
[15] So hum anity is hum bled and m ankind is brought low, and
the eyes of the h aughty will be brought low,
[16] b u t the Lord of H osts is exalted in justice, and the Holy
God shows him self holy in righteousness.2
Now in Isaiah 6:3, the repetition of the word th ree tim es m eans
th a t God is absolutely holy. Holy m eans th a t He is completely
devoted and in this a r t i c u l a r context, devoted to His justice and
righteousness, which characterizes His instruction of the people of
Israel in the covenant, showing them not only w hat it m eans to be
devoted to Him b u t also w hat it m eans to tre a t each other in a
genuinely hum an way, in short, social justice. The holiness of God
is clearly seen in Isaiah 5:16.
Isa ia h s response confirms the understanding th a t the basic
m eaning of holiness is being devoted. Holiness is not identical w ith
m oral purity, although th ere is a connection. Holiness should not
be defined as m oral purity, b u t ra th e r purity is th e result of being
completely devoted to God as defined by the covenant. W hen he
sees the vision of the Lord and h ears the chorus of the seraphim ,
Isaiah cries out, Woe is me, I am a m an of unclean lips and I dwell
in the m idst of a people of unclean lips. Isaiah does not say th a t he
is im pure or th a t th e people are im pure. He says th a t his lips and
the lips of the people are im pure. This refers to all his words and to
all the words of the people. These words stand in contrast to the
words of the seraphim . Isaiah and the people cannot participate in

27 See Peter j . Gentry, Isaiah and Secial Justice, Journal of Midwestern B aptist
Theological Seminary 12 (Spring 2013): 1-15.
Transiation that of H. G. M. Williamson, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on Isaiah 1-27 (New York: T & T Clark, 2000), 1:356-57.

414

B ib l io t h e c a S a c r a /

October-December 2 0 1 3

the worship led by the seraphim . The confession of unclean lips is

the reason for the cry, Woe is me, for I am ruined / 1 am undone.
The verb tra n sla ted undone can also be tran slated , Woe is me,
for I am silenced. Because his lips and the lips of the covenant
people are filled w ith words challenging Gods justice and impugning His holiness, they are unclean and not able to join in the chorus
of worship w ith the seraphim . They have been silenced and may
not join the tru e worship of God. One can and ought to apply th is to
the church and consider w hether the churchs failure to im plem ent
Gods righteous stan d ard s may silence worship.
An action from one of th e seraphim brings about cleansing of
his speech and atonem ent. One of the seraphim takes a burning
coal from the a lta r using tongs and brings it to Isaiah and causes it
to touch his lips. W hat is used to purify Isaiah is exactly w hat is
prom ised to the people of J u d a h as a whole in 1:31, 5:5, and 6:13
fire. Thus, the purification of Isaiah is a forecast or harbinger of
the coming judgm ent th a t will purify the people as a whole. The
atonem ent is also an act of divine grace. The fire comes from the
altar. This indicates th a t atonem ent is m ade by sacrifice and not by
achievem ents on th e p a rt of Isaiah.
GOD IS KING

It is im portant to rem em ber th a t behind th e hum an king in Israel

stands th e real king, Yahweh Himself. N ear the end of Sam uels
life th e people desired a king like the nations surrounding them (1
Sam. 8:57). This is a hum an wielding absolute power for the purposes of self-aggrandizem ent. The Lord told Sam uel, It is not you
they have rejected, b u t they have rejected me as th eir king. W hen
God m ade the covenant w ith David in 2 Sam uel 7, th e purpose of
this covenant was for the king to fulfill the earlier plan prescribed
by Moses in Deuteronom y 17:14-20. The Israelite king m ust represent the divine King. And th a t is precisely the point in both Isaiah
6:1 and 6:5. Isaiah w as given th is vision in th e year th a t King Uzziah died (v. 1). At such a tim e th ere would be a change of regime.
It m ight be an opportunity for those falsely im prisoned to be retried and released under the daw ning of a new era of social justice.
The title given in verse 5 to Yahweh is not simply a statem en t th a t
Yahweh is king. In fact the Lord is referred to in the usual in
which th e hum an kings in Israel are referred to in 1 and 2 Kings. It

L. Kehlr and w. Baumgartner, Hebrisches und Aramisches Lexikon zum

Alten Testament, 3rd ed., edited by . Baumgartner, j . j . Stamm, and B. Hartmann
(Leiden: E. J_ Brill, 1
5

67
19- >) s . v. 1 and III .

The Meaning of Holy in fhe Old Testament 415

is like saying, in the year th a t P resident O bam a finished his secend term of office I saw the real president, th e Lord of A rm ies.
COMMISSION

fsaiah h eard th e voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And
who will go for us? (Isa. 6:8). Why did the Lord use the plural?
Why did He say, Who will go for us? W hat does this m ean? This
does not m ean th a t the faith of Israel was in m any gods, nor is it a
rem n an t of an old polytheism . It is not even an indication of the
Trinity, which is not clearly revealed un til the coming of Jesu s
Christ. It is an expression th a t would have been understood in the
ancient N ear E ast to refer to the fact th a t the heavenly King was
speaking in the divine court or council and Isaiah the prophet was
given access to th a t council. It indicates th a t Isaiah was an authorized agent who really did know the m ind and will of God and was
commissioned to bring it to the people.
The commission Isaiah w as given seems strange. The people
will really h e a r but not gain insight. They will really see b u t not
know a t all. Their h eart, th e center of the place where they feel,
think, and m ake decisions will not be granted insight or understanding. It seem s crazy to send a person on a m ission th a t will
fail. It seem s cold and h ard-hearted to prevent repentance and restoration. Y ahw eh is, however, describing for Isaiah not th e content
of his m essage but (by way of metonymy) th e effect and resu lts of
his preaching. It will h arden h e a rts (vv. 9-10), and it will lead to
th e devastation of the land and the people (vv. 11-12). The reason
for th is is clear. The people have already rejected the divine message. The first five chapters of Isaiah detail th eir arrogance and
indifference. The result of Isa ia h s preaching will be to confirm the
response they have already m ade and to bring about the judgm ent
th a t has already been predicted. These verses, then, show th a t
judgm ent is certain and inevitable and th ere will be no situation
like Jo n a h s preaching to Nineveh, w here the people repented and
God reversed the judgm ent. These verses are also a rem inder th a t
the results of preaching and w itness are in Gods hands, and not
the m essengers.
It is now possible to explain why the encounter opens w ith a
vision of Gods transcendence. Why is it th a t a t the beginning Isaiah sees Yahw eh as exalted and awesome? He sees Yahweh as high
and exalted because He is beyond m anipulation. He sees Yahweh
sitting on His throne for judgm ent, and th ere will be no possibility
for influencing th is to anyones advantage. It is clear from the outset th a t no one is in a palsy-walsy situation w ith th is judge, and no
one has th e m eans to reach Him and influence His m ind on the

416 Bib^ theca $AcaA / October-December 2013

verdict. Ail m ust aw ait His sentence. He is tru iy abeve and beyend
everyone. Sentence has been passed on th e nation in heaven; Isaiahs preaching wiii p u t it into effect on earth.
And yet th ere is a hope, even though it is extrem ely slender.
This is expressed in verse 13. At first the picture of judgm ent is
bleak. After the devastation and death only a te n th will rem ain.
And even th is surviving te n th will be subjected to fu rth e r judgm ent. There are a num ber of problem s in th is verse and scholars
differ greatly on the details. The general picture, however, is
roughly th e same. It m ay refer to two great trees ju st outside one of
the gates of Jeru salem which were burned. All th a t was left was
the blackened tru n k and branches stripped bare. It seem ed th a t
the tree was dead and could only be cut down and th e stum p tak en
out. And yet th ere was life and new grow th came. In the Old Testam ent, kings or kingdoms are pictured as m ajestic, tall, stately
trees (for example, Ezek. 31; Dan. 9). The Davidic dynasty seem s to
be a tree th a t is dead. And yet, somehow, out of th is tru n k will
spring new life and th e prom ises of God will be fulfilled. We see
here th e m essianic hope of Isaiah. It m ay be th a t tru e Israel will be
reduced to one faithful person before the rebuilding process beginsC o n c l u s io n

This is only the beginning of a fresh study of th e word holy in the

Old T estam ent. Interestingly, if one begins to analyze the counterp a rt in Greek, the word , th e basic m eaning given is also devoted.31 This needs close attention.
W ayne Grudem in his System atic Theology sta te s th a t Gods
holiness m eans th a t he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor.32 F u rth e r reading yields a discussion th a t is
traditional, so th a t the use of the word devoted in his opening
sentence is confused w ith the notion of separation. Indeed, systematic theologians of the last five hundred years have not been helpful in explaining w hat Scripture teaches on this topic due to reliance on doubtful etymologies and connection of the term w ith mor-

30 For a thorough treatment of the problems in the text, see Dominique Barthlemy. Critique Textuelle de lA ncien Testament, 2, Isae, Jrmie, Lamentations, Orbis
Bihlicus et Orientalis 50/2 (Gttingen: v ^ d en h o eek & Rupreeht, 1986), 41-44.
31 H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, and H. s. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with
revised supplement (Oxford: Oxford University Fress, 1996), s.v. .
32 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 203.

The Meaning of Hoiy in fhe ^ Testament 417

al purity and divine toanscendence. P urity is a resu lt of being holy

in the biblical sense, b u t is not the m eaning of the word. Nor is the
word connected w ith divine transcendence, however much this idea
is otherw ise m ade plain in S cripture.
The basic m eaning of the word is consecrated or devoted. In
S cripture it operates w ithin the context of covenant relationships
and expresses com m itm ent. The notion of divine transcendence in
Isaiah 6 is th ere to dem onstrate th a t the holiness of Y a h w e h -H is
dedication to social justice in th is particu lar s i^ a tio n cannot be
m anipulated, and judgm ent is certain. T hat explains the coincidence of hohness and divine transcendence in th is text.
One day in th e barnyard, the hen and the pig were discussing
the difference in m eaning betw een the words involvem ent and
com m itm ent. The pig told the hen, W hen the farm er comes for
break fast tomorrow, youre only involved, bu t Im com m itted. The
cross is a revelation of th e divine holiness.

33 Although holiness and transeendence are both in the context of Isaiah 6, it is

false to assume that they are e}uivalent. They are connected or related in that the
one who is devoted to social justice is the supreme judge and cannot be bribed,
bought off, or overpowered.


:Copyright and U se

As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use
according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as
.otherw ise authorized under your resp ective ATLAS subscriber agreement
No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the
,copyright holder(s) express written permission. Any use, decompiling
reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a
.violation of copyright law
This journal is made av^lable to you through the ATLAS collection with permission
from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a jouirai
,typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However
.for certain articles, the author o fth e article may maintain the copyright in the article
Please contact the copyright holder($) to request permission to use an article or specific
work for any use covered by the fair use provisions o fth e copyright laws or covered
by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the
,copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright infonnation in the journal, if available
.)$(or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder
:About ATLAS
The ATLA Serials (ATLAS) collection contains electronic versions of previously
published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS
collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association
.ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc (
The design and final form ofthis electronic document is the property o fthe American
Theological Library Association .