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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
The Day of Atonement and the mercy seat
Once a year the high priest went into the holy of holies with sacrificial blood, for his own sins and then the nation's. It was the one fast the law commanded, and the mercy seat on the ark was the place the blood was brought.
Once a year the whole town fasted, owned up, and waited to hear that the slate had been wiped clean. The Day of Atonement fell in early autumn. It was the one day the law of Moses told every Israelite to fast. On that day alone the high priest went into the innermost room of the sanctuary with the blood of a sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's. The law describes the mercy seat as the gold cover of the ark, between two carved cherubim, where God said he would meet with Moses. One goat was sacrificed and another sent away alive into the desert.
It was the one day the law commanded a fast, though religious Jews added many others. The Fast of Acts 27:9 is this day, which fell in September or October, and Wright dates it to October 5 in AD 59. On it alone the high priest entered the holy of holies, perhaps several times in the day (Leviticus 16:13-16). Special precautions kept him from defilement beforehand. Then he offered first for his own sins and then for the nation's. The people waited for him to come out again, the sign that the offering had been accepted. The cultural backgrounds notes call the mercy seat the place of propitiation, consecrated to God each year by sacrificial blood. They say that ancient Israel and its neighbors knew both the appeasing of a god's wrath and the cleansing of impurity. Palestinian Judaism held that the day, joined with repentance, was needed to forgive most breaches of the law. Keener reports the rabbinic view that repentance held off judgment until the day atoned, and the belief that records of sins were blotted out on it. Some Jewish texts expected God to vindicate Israel at the end, as he did each year on that day. In Jewish tradition prayer, alms and good deeds could also turn away wrath (Sirach 3:3, 20), but the law required blood. Some Jews already held that a martyr's death could turn God's wrath from his people (4 Maccabees 17:22). Heiser notes that in the ritual one goat was sacrificed as a sin offering and the other sent alive into the desert for Azazel. Later Jewish books made Azazel a demon, whose realm lay outside holy ground.
An analogy: a nation's one solemn day of reckoning each year, when everyone stops work and fasts while a single official goes into the inner chamber on their behalf. What happens behind that door is the whole point of the day.
Paul's word for Jesus in Romans 3:25 points to the mercy seat, so the cross is pictured as the place where atonement is now made, once. The Fast in Acts 27:9 is this day, and its date told sailors the safe season was over. Hebrews 7:27 sets the high priest's offerings, first for his own sins and then for the people's, against an offering made once for all.
Not an official acting by right of office. A state official stands for the people because he holds the post. The high priest had to offer first for his own sins, and he went into God's presence with sacrificial blood. The people waited for him to come out, the sign the offering had been accepted.
What Paul's word in Romans 3:25 stresses. The ESV Study Bible says it means propitiation, the satisfying of God's wrath, and cannot be limited to the wiping away of sin. Keener also stresses the turning away of wrath. The cultural backgrounds notes say Israel's world knew both appeasing wrath and cleansing impurity. Wright reads the word chiefly as the meeting place, where and by which God meets his people and forgives them. Keener adds that nothing in Romans 3 suggests Paul has the yearly day itself in mind. The Zondervan dictionary sets out the same question for 1 John 2:2. Propitiation is done with reference to a person, expiation with reference to sins. Scholars who take God's wrath as his real attitude to sin hold that propitiation was needed; those who take it as a way of describing sin's results prefer expiation.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-3-21-31\/","n":"Romans 3:21-31, Redemption and the mercy seat","s":"Paul announces that God's righteousness has been revealed through faith in Jesus for all who believe, Jew and Gentile alike, through a redemption and an atoning death he links to the mercy seat.","r":"Romans 3:21-31"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-4-14-5-10\/","n":"Hebrews 4:14-5:10, A high priest who can sympathize","s":"Jesus is a great high priest who has passed through the heavens and was tested in every way, yet without sin, so his people can approach the throne of grace with confidence. Like every high priest he was appointed by God, not self-chosen, and God named him a priest for ever in the order of Melchizedek.","r":"Hebrews 4:14-5:10"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-7-11-28\/","n":"Hebrews 7:11-28, A priest from Judah, by oath, for ever","s":"If the Levitical priesthood had brought perfection, no other priest would have been promised. Jesus comes from Judah, a priest by the power of an indestructible life and by God's oath, the guarantee of a better covenant; Levitical priests died and offered daily for their own sins, but he lives for ever and offered himself once for all.","r":"Hebrews 7:11-28"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-9-1-10\/","n":"Hebrews 9:1-10, The two rooms and their furniture","s":"The first covenant had a sanctuary on earth: an outer room with the lampstand, the table and the bread, and behind the second curtain the most holy place with the golden altar of incense, the ark and the cherubim. Priests entered the first room daily and the high priest the second once a year with blood, a sign that access to the holy place had not yet been opened.","r":"Hebrews 9:1-10"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-9-11-22\/","n":"Hebrews 9:11-22, Blood, ashes and a will","s":"Christ entered the greater tent once for all with his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves. If the ashes of a heifer could make the unclean outwardly clean, how much more will his blood cleanse the conscience; and as a will takes effect only at a death, the new covenant was put in force by his.","r":"Hebrews 9:11-22"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-9-23-10-18\/","n":"Hebrews 9:23-10:18, Once for all, and a seated priest","s":"Christ entered heaven itself, not a copy, and offered himself once at the climax of the ages; as people die once and then face judgment, he will appear a second time to save. The yearly sacrifices only reminded people of sin, but his body offered once has made his people holy, and he has sat down, his offering finished.","r":"Hebrews 9:23-10:18"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-13-7-17\/","n":"Hebrews 13:7-17, Foods, an altar and outside the camp","s":"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever, so the readers must not be carried away by strange teachings about foods. Believers have an altar the tabernacle priests may not eat from; as the bodies of the sin offerings were burned outside the camp, Jesus suffered outside the gate, and they must go out to him, bearing his disgrace, seeking the city to come.","r":"Hebrews 13:7-17"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1john-1-5-2-17\/","n":"1 John 1:5-2:17, God is light, an advocate, and a world passing away","s":"God is light with no darkness in him, so to claim fellowship with him while walking in darkness is a lie; the blood of Jesus cleanses, and those who confess are forgiven. Anyone who sins has an advocate with the Father, the atoning sacrifice for the whole world. The old command of love is new, the darkness is passing, and the world is passing away.","r":"1 John 1:5-2:17"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/azazel\/","n":"Azazel","s":"The name on the second lot at the Day of Atonement, where the other lot says God.","r":"Leviticus 16:8"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/leviticus-16-8-10\/","n":"Leviticus 16:8-10","s":"One goat for Yahweh, one goat for Azazel, sent into the wilderness.","r":"Leviticus 16:8-10"}
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Romans 3:25
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Romans 3:25 and 8:33-34, on Mark 2:18, on Acts 27:9, on Colossians 2:13-14, and on Hebrews 7:26, 7:27, 9:27-28 and 10:4
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Romans 3:25
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Romans, Part One, comment on Romans 3:25-26
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 14, From Caesarea to Rome and Beyond
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 22, Realm Distinction
- N. T. Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, comment on Hebrews 9.23-28
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry propitiation and expiation
