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Bible Lexicons
Old & New Testament Greek Lexical Dictionary Greek Lexicon
Strong's #2435 - ἱλαστήριον
- Thayer
- Strong
- Mounce
- relating to an appeasing or expiating, having placating or expiating force, expiatory; a means of appeasing or expiating, a propitiation
- used of the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins expiated); hence the lid of expiation, the propitiatory
- an expiatory sacrifice
- a expiatory victim
- Book
- Word
- Parsing
did not use
this Strong's Number
ἱλαστηìριον
Neuter of a derivative of G2433
ἱλαστήριος, ἱλαστηρια, ἱλαστήριον (ἱλάσκομαι, which see), relating to appeasing or expiating, having placating or expiating force, expiatory: μνῆμα ἱλαστήριον, a monument built to propitiate God, Josephus, Antiquities 16, 7, 1; ἱλαστήριος θάνατος, 4 Macc. 17:22; χεῖρας ἱκετηριους, εἰ βούλει δέ ἱλαστηριους, ἐκτείνας Θεῷ, Niceph. in act. SS. edition Mai, vol. v., p. 335, 17. Neuter τό ἱλαστήριον, as a substantive, a means of appeasing or expiating, a propitiation (German Versöhnungs- oderSühnmittel); cf. Winer's Grammar, 96 (91); (592 (551)). So used of:
1. the well-known cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins were expiated); hence, the lid of expiation, the propitiatory, Vulg. propitiatorium; Luth.Gnadensruhl (A. V. mercy-seat): Hebrews 9:5 (the Sept. Exodus 25:18ff; Leviticus 16:2, etc.; more fully ἱλαστήριον ἐπίθεμα, Exodus 25:17; Exodus 38:7 (Exodus 37:6), for the Hebrew כַּפֹּרֶת, from כִּפֶּר to cover, namely, sins, i. e. to pardon). Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Luther, Grotius, Tholuck, Wilke, Philippi, Umbreit (Cremer (4te Aufl.)) and others give this meaning to the word also in Romans 3:25, viz. that Christ, besprinkled with his own blood, was truly that which the cover or 'mercy-seat' had been typically, i. e., the sign and pledge of expiation; but in opposed to this interpretation see Fritzsche, Meyer, Van Hengel (Godet, Oltramare) and others at the passage
2. an expiatory sacrifice; a piacular victim (Vulg. propitiatio): Romans 3:25 (after the analogy of the words χαριστηρια sacrifices expressive of gratitude, thank-offerings, σωτηρία sacrifices for safety obtained. On the other hand, in Dio Chrysostom or. 11, 121, p. 355, Reiske edition, the reference is not to a sacrifice but to a monument, as the preceding words show: καταλείψειν γάρ αὐτούς ἀνάθημα κάλλιστον καί μέγιστον τῇ Ἀθηνα καί ἐπιγράψειν, ἱλαστήριον Ἀχαιοι τῇ Ἰλιαδι). (See the full discussion of the word in Dr. Jets. Morison, Critical Exposition of the Third Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, pp. 281-303.)
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† ἱλαστήριος , -α , -ον
(< ἱλάσκομαι ),
[in LXX: 4 Maccabees 17:22; neut., Exodus 25:16 (17) ff. Exodus 31:7; Exodus 35:12; Exodus 37:6 ff., Leviticus 16:2; Leviticus 16:13 ff. Numbers 7:89 (H3727), Ezekiel 43:14; Ezekiel 43:17; Ezekiel 43:20 (H5835) Amos 9:1 (on the original here, v. Deiss., BS, 127)*;]
propitiatory (μνῆμα , FlJ, Ant., xvi, 7, 1; θάνατος , 2Mac, l.c.): of Christ, Romans 3:25; as subst., το ἱ . (sc. ἐπίθεμα , Exodus 25:16-17, where the word first occurs in LXX and where ἱ . ἐ . = H3727 (q.v. in BDB, s.v.), elsewhere rendered simply τὸ ἱ ; cf. Deiss., 124 ff.; Westc., He., in l), Hebrews 9:5.†
Copyright © 1922 by G. Abbott-Smith, D.D., D.C.L.. T & T Clarke, London.
The meaning of ἱλαστήριον in the important passage Romans 3:25 has recently been fully discussed by Deissmann in BS p. 124 ff. and ZNTW iv. (1903) p. 193 ff., where he comes to the conclusion that the word must be understood not as a term. techn. for theכַּפֹּרֶת or cover (of the ark of the covenant), but as an adj. = ";of use for propitiation,"; on the analogy of such word-formations as σωτήριον or χαριστήριον with reference to votive offerings. And in support of this view, he is able to appeal, not only as Light foot had already done (Notes on Epistles of St. Paul, p. 271), to such a passage as Dion Chrys. Or. xi. p. 355 ed. Reiske : καταλείψειν γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἀνάθημα κάλλιστον καὶ μέγιστον τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ καὶ ἐπιγράψειν · ἱλαστήριον Ἀχαιὸν τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ τῇ Ἰλιάδι, but to two interesting exx. of the word from the inscrr. of Cos. The first, Cos 81, is found on a votive-gift which the people of Cos erected as a ἱλαστήριον for the welfare of the Emperor Augustus—ὁ δᾶμος ὑπὲρ (τ)ᾶς Αὐτοκράτορος Καίσαρος, θεοῦ υἱοῦ, Σεβαστοῦ σωτηρίας θεοῖς ἱλαστήριον. The second, Cos 347, which also belongs to the Imperial period, runs—ὁ δᾶμος ὁ Ἁλεντίων. . . . . . . Σε ]βασ [τ ]ῷ Διῒ Σ [τ ]ρατίῳ ἱλαστήριον, δαμαρχεῦντος Γαΐου Νωρβανοῦ Μοσχίωνο [ς φι ]λοκαίσαρος. Nor is this all, but, as he points out, the adjectival use of ἱλαστήριος is now definitely established by the fragment of a philosophical work concern-the gods, P Fay 337i. 3 ff. (ii/A.D.) τοῖς θεοῖς εἱλαστη [ρίο ]υς (for from cf. εἱλαστήριον Romans 3:25 B*D*) θυσίας ἀξιω [θέ ?]ντες ἐπιτελεῖσθαι : cf. 4 Maccabees 17:22 διὰ. . τοῦ ἱλαστηρίου θανάτου, where, however, some MSS. read διὰ τοῦ ἱλαστηρίου τοῦ θανάτου αὐτῶν (see SH, p. 88). The theological consequences of the above interpretation cannot be discussed here, but reference may be made, in addition to the commentators, to an art. by C. Bruston in ZNTW vii. (1906), p. 77 ff. It should be added, however, that, whatever view is taken of Romans 3:25, in Hebrews 9:5, the only other place where the word occurs in the NT, ἱλαστήριον must mean ";place of propitiation"; or ";mercy-seat,"; as in the LXX of the Pentateuch.
Copyright © 1914, 1929, 1930 by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Derivative Copyright © 2015 by Allan Loder.
