Saturday, September 28, 2013

"Propitiation" in 1 John


Last time we looked at "propitiation" in Romans; the other New Testament writing that uses that word is 1 John, in the King James translation, where it is used in two places:
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.(1 John 2:2)
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
Why exactly do we care about the original meaning of the word? Well, it has been a key part of many peoples' understanding of God, and of Christ's work. And when people talk about what Christ has done, and how God sees us -- most of the words don't need much explanation, but "propitiation" does. In fact, when it came time for King James' translators to render it into English -- basically, they didn't render it in English. "Propitiation" is fairly close to the Latin word "propitiatio" that was used in the old Latin Bibles, which had been in common use for over a millenium. As far as helping us understand what the author meant, it might as well have still been Greek. So back to the Greek we go, just to see how they used that word, and trace it from there. 

The original Greek word in 1 John is used only in those two places -- there is nowhere else in the New Testament that uses the same original word. As for the same word in the Old Testament, it was used only once in the Septuagint (LXX) Greek translation, which is usually rendered into English something like this:
But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared. (Psalm 130:4 according to KJV/AV chapters and verses; different chapter/verse numbers apply to this passage in the LXX)

So how do we trace its meaning and its usage back in that day? In the original writers' day, did "propitiation" have anything to do with our modern theological meaning of "appeasing wrath" or "satisfying justice"?

One way to build our understanding is by looking at related words in the same family of words. Here is the Greek word in English characters, along with some words in the same word family:

hilasmos - the word in question: wrath appeasement? satisfying justice? forgiveness?
hilasterion - the word we saw in the last post: mercy seat or atonement cover
hilaros - cheerful, willing, prompt to do something, joyous
For another perspective, we could look at how the early church translated it into Latin: that should reflect how the early church understood the original meaning. But here we come right back to our "English" word propitiation, or propitiatio in Latin. Does it seem like we're running in circles? King James' translators basically left that one in Latin, and later theologians have followed suit, and so going to the Latin translation didn't help us much. But here, when we check the word family, we have a related word that is nearly familiar:
propitius: (Latin) favorable, gracious
That one has a directly-derived English word:

propitious: (English) favorably disposed, benevolent; being of good omen, auspicious; tending to favor; advantageous.
The related words that I can find seem to be about goodwill and forgiveness.

Q. How does "propitious" mean "benevolent" and "propitiate" mean "to appease wrath"?
A. I'm not convinced that it does -- or that it did, when it was originally written.

Or as John was saying:
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.(1 John 2:2)
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
According to John, propitiation was something done out of love rather than wrath. (I am not here questioning whether God is angry with sin; I'm questioning whether that's what the word "propitiation" is talking about.) If the related words tend to be about benevolence and goodwill, and the context states it is an act of love, and two different ancient translations picked words related to forgiveness or benevolence for it -- then maybe it means something more along the lines of forgiveness, mercy, benevolence, and grace. If that proved more accurate, then we would get renderings more like: 
And he is the mercy for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the grace for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
I know there is more study to be done -- and there may be better English words to use -- but I wonder very much if this is more in keeping with what the original word meant.

9 comments:

Martin LaBar said...

You have produced an interesting translation.

Weekend Fisher said...

It's the best I can figure. I mean, "propitiation" is more of a Latin loan-word and still isn't well understood. Plus the meaning that the theologians have given it -- maybe someone will show me some references to where that's really what the word meant ... but I'm not seeing a foundation for the "appease wrath" / "satisfy justice" meaning. I don't know that that's what was originally intended at all.

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

We have a hymn, "Phos Hilaron", which is usually translated, "O Gladsome Light".

And though I haven't done the research, I wonder whether "Hillary" and "hilarious" are also related.

To propitiate God is, in our thinking, to please Him.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Yes, I just checked. Hilarious and Hillary are from the same Greek root. Hillary is said to mean "cheerful".

As in, the Lord loves a cheerful giver.

Weekend Fisher said...

Thank you for posting those. And when John says: God gives Christ as the "propitiation" for our sins, I don't think he's talking about wrath.

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

My Greek huband says you and I are both wrong because hilaros is not related to the other two words. Of course, there's always a chance HE may be wrong! Where can we check this?

Weekend Fisher said...

Sometimes I really wish for that time machine to take me back to the ancient Hellenistic Jewish community. I know I've found references that say the whole group is a related word family (e.g. https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1962/05/propitiation-in-relation-to-hileos,-hilasmos-%28d). And then comparing them to the words the translators picked as associated, from Hebrew or to Latin, also gives clues to the meanings.

But I've also seen references which say we should look at what "propitiation" meant to the Greek-speaking idolaters (as opposed to the Greek-speaking Jews). I'm skeptical whether that would be completely the right context.

*If* Jerome was right in his translation from Greek to Latin -- and he was fairly well-read -- then it would go over into Latin as "propitiatio", from a word family which is often used to discuss grace & favor.

For a project like this, we need all the ancients posted on their own websites in their own native languages -- a little on-line virtual community of the ancient classics -- so that we can really search out the original usage.

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Well, guess what? The unthinkable: my husband was wrong, and you and I were right! The words are indeed related, as he discovered by using his Greek dictionary.

Cheers.

Weekend Fisher said...

Ooh he has a Greek dictionary with an etymology lookup? Nice! Though I suppose he would, wouldn't he? Thank him for me, will you? He was a big man to pass that along even when it came with a piece of humble pie. He must be a very Christlike man.

Take care & God bless
Anne / Wf