Editing Propitiation

{{short description|Appeasing or making well-disposed a deity}}
{{Esotericism}}

'''Propitiation''' is the act of appeasing or making well-disposed a [[deity]], thus incurring divine favor or avoiding divine retribution. It is related to the idea of [[atonement]] and sometime mistakenly conflated with [[expiation]].<ref name=":0" /> The discussion here encompasses usage only in the [[Christianity|Christian]] tradition.

==Christian theology==

In [[Romans 3:25]] the [[King James Version]], [[New King James Version]], [[New American Standard Bible]], and the [[English Standard Version]] translates "propitiation" from the Greek word ''hilasterion''. Concretely it specifically means the lid of The Ark of The Covenant.<ref>Strong's Greek Dictionary G2435</ref> The only other occurrence of ''hilasterion'' in the NT is in [[Hebrews 9:5]], where it is translated as "[[mercy seat]]" in all of the Bible translations named above as well as the [[Revised Standard Version]] and the [[New Revised Standard Version]].

For many Christians it has the meaning of "that which expiates or propitiates" or "the gift which procures propitiation". {{bibleref2|1 John|2:2}} (KJV) reads: "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." There is frequent similar use of ''hilasterion'' in the [[Septuagint]], {{bibleref2|Exodus|25:17-22}} ff. The mercy seat was sprinkled with blood on Yom Kippur ({{bibleref2|Leviticus|16:14}}), representing that the righteous sentence of the Law had been executed, changing a judgment seat into a mercy seat ({{bibleref2|Hebrews|9:11–15}}; compare with "throne of grace" in {{bibleref2|Hebrews|4:14–16}}; place of communion, ({{bibleref2|Exodus|25:21–22}}).

Another Greek word, ''hilasmos'', is used for Christ as our propitiation in 1 John 2:2; 4:10; and in the Septuagint ({{bibleref2|Leviticus|25:9}}; {{bibleref2|Numbers|5:8}}; {{bibleref2|Amos|8:14}}). The thought in the OT sacrifices and in the NT fulfillment, is that Christ completely satisfied the just demands of the Holy Father for judgment on sin, by his death at Calvary ({{bibleref2|Hebrews|7:26-28}}).{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} ''TDNT'', however, takes a different view of ''Hebrews: "''If the author uses the ritual as a means to portray Christ's work, he also finds that in the new covenant the literal offerings of the ritual are replaced by the obedience of Christ (10:5ff.; cf. Ps. 40) and the Christian ministry of praise and mutual service (13:15-16; cf. Ps. 50). In other words, total self-giving, first that of Christ, and then, on this basis, that of his people, is the true meaning of sacrifice.<ref>"Sacrifice" (Gk: ''hilasterion)'' article in ''Theological Dictionary of the New Testament,'' Grand Rapids, MI:  Eerdmans (1984) {{ISBN|0802823246}}.</ref>

God, in view of the cross, is declared righteous in having been able to justify sins in the OT period, as well as in being able to forgive sinners under the New Covenant ({{bibleref2|Romans|3:25,26}}; cf. {{bibleref2|Exodus|29:33}}, note).<ref>NOT OR, it's a paraphase of the text referenced: Romans 3:25-26 (NASB) "whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." ~ Exodus 29:33 (NASB) "Thus they shall eat those things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration; but a layman shall not eat them, because they are holy."</ref>

Writing in ''Harper's Bible Dictionary'' (1952), Methodist theologian [[Edwin Lewis]] summarizes Paul's teaching in [[Romans 3]] that God's attitude toward sin is revealed "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:23-26). "The nature of sin must be set forth through the very means through which reconciliation is to be brought about: this means the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, which is therefore 'a propitiation' (v. 25 KJV). ... God's righteousness, which makes sin a barrier to fellowship, and God's love, which would destroy the barrier, are revealed and satisfied in one and the same means, the gift of Christ to be the Mediator between Himself and men."<ref>Lewis, Edwin (1952). "Propitiation". ''Harper's Bible Dictionary'', Harper & Bros., p. 586.</ref>

==Propitiation and expiation==

=== Book of Common Prayer ===
The [[Church of England]]'s [[Book of Common Prayer]] (1662), following the prayer of confession before reception of [[Holy Communion]], the priest is to offer "comfortable words" which consist of a series of four verses from the New Testament. The final text is from 1 John 2:1-2 (KJV): "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins." The same text was used in the American editions of 1789 and 1928. However, in the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]]'s 1979 Book of Common Prayer, in the Rite One form, "propitiation" was changed to read "perfect offering," and with the rest of verse 2 added: "and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world."<ref>''The Book of Common Prayer'' (1979). According to the use of The Episcopal Church. New York: Church Publishing. p. 332.</ref>

=== Reformation theology ===
The case for translating ''hilasterion'' as "expiation" instead of "propitiation" was put forward by British scholar [[C. H. Dodd]] in 1935 and at first gained wide support. Scottish scholars Francis Davidson and G.T. Thompson, writing in ''The New Bible Commentary'', first published in 1953, state that "The idea is not that of conciliation of an angry God by sinful humanity, but of expiation of sin by a merciful God through the atoning death of His Son. It does not necessarily exclude, however, the reality of righteous wrath because of sin."<ref>Davidson, F. and G. T. Thompson (1953,1954). "Romans", ''The New Bible Commentary''. Eerdmans (Second ed. 1954) p. 946. In the 3rd ed. 1970, this statement is found on p. 1022.</ref> The Anglican theologian and biblical scholar [[Austin Farrer]], writing a quarter century after Dodd, argued that Paul's words in Romans 3 should be translated in terms of expiation rather than propitiation: "God himself, says St Paul, so far from being wrathful against us, or from needing to be propitiated, loved us enough to set forth Christ as an expiation of our sins through his blood."<ref>Farrer, Austin (1960). ''Said or Sung: An Arrangement of Homily and Verse''. London: Faith Press, p. 69</ref>

''Hilasterion'' is translated as "expiation" in the [[Revised Standard Version]] and the [[New American Bible]] (Revised Edition), and as "the means of expiating sin" in the [[New English Bible]] and the [[Revised English Bible]]. The [[New Revised Standard Version]] and the [[New International Version]] translate this as "sacrifice of atonement".

Dodd argued that in pagan Greek the translation of ''hilasterion'' was indeed to propitiate, but that in the Septuagint (the oldest Greek translation of the Hebrew OT) that ''kapporeth'' (Hebrew for "covering")<ref>Easton's Bible Dictionary, p. 965</ref> is often translated with words that mean "to cleanse or remove".<ref>Dodd, C. H. (1935). ''The Bible and the Greeks'', p. 93</ref> This view was initially challenged by [[Roger Nicole]] in twenty-one arguments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nicole |first1=Roger |title=C. H. Dodd and the Doctrine of Propitiation |journal=Westminster Theological Journal |date=May 1955 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=117–57}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nicole |first1=Roger |date=1977 |title='''Hilaskesthai''' Revisited |url=https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/1977-3_173.pdf |url-status=live |journal=The Evangelical Quarterly |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=173–177 |doi=10.1163/27725472-04903005 |s2cid=251874988 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/1977-3_173.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}}</ref> Later it was also challenged by [[Leon Morris]] who argued that because of the focus in the book of Romans on God's wrath, that the concept of ''hilasterion'' needed to include the appeasement of God's wrath.<ref>Morris, Leon (1955). ''The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross''. London: Tyndale Press; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 3rd ed., 1965. p. 155</ref> Writing in the ''New Bible Dictionary'', Morris states that "Propitiation is a reminder that God is implacably opposed to everything that is evil, that his opposition may properly be described as 'wrath', and that this wrath is put away only by the atoning work of Christ."<ref>Morris, Leon (1982). "Propitiation", in ''New Bible Dictionary'' 2nd ed. InterVarsity Press p. 987.</ref>

Presbyterian scholar Henry S. Gehman of [[Princeton Theological Seminary]] in his ''New Westminster Bible Dictionary'' (1970) argued that for ''hilasterion'' in Romans 3:25 and ''hilasmos'' in 1 John 2:2 and 4:10, "In these cases RSV more properly has 'expiation,' which means the extinguishing of guilt by suffering a penalty or offering a sacrifice as an equivalent. ... It is God who sent forth his Son to be the expiation of sin. Through the death of Christ sins are expiated or annulled, and fellowship is restored."<ref>Gehman, Henry Snyder (1970). "Propitiation", in ''The New Westminster Bible Dictionary''. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. p. 770.</ref>

Likewise, the Anglican theologian and biblical scholar [[Reginald H. Fuller]], writing in ''The Oxford Companion to the Bible'', has noted that while the precise meaning of ''hilasterion'' is disputed, and while some translate it as "propitiation", this, he says, "suggests appeasing or placating an angry deity-- a notion hardly compatible with biblical thought and rarely occurring in that sense in the Hebrew Bible. It requires God as its object, whereas in this hymn [Romans 3:24-25] God is the subject: 'whom God put forward.' ... Accordingly, the rendering 'expiation' is the most probable."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last= Fuller|first= Reginald H.|author-link= Reginald H. Fuller|editor1-last= Metzger|editor1-first= Bruce M.|editor1-link= Bruce M. Metzger|editor2-last= Coogan|editor2-first= Michael D.|editor2-link= Michael D. Coogan|encyclopedia= The Oxford Companion to the Bible|title= Jesus Christ|language= |edition= |year= 1993|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= New York; Oxford|id= |isbn= 9780195046458|issn= |oclc= |pages= 363–364}}</ref>

In his semantic study of ''hilasterion'' David Hill, of the [[University of Sheffield]], claims that Dodd leaves out several Septuagint references to propitiation, and cites apocryphal sources.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=David |title=Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings: Studies in the Semantics of Soteriological Terms |date=1967 |publisher=CUP Archive |pages=23–37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JJOAAAAIAAJ&q=dodd&pg=PA23 |access-date=12 April 2019|isbn=9781001512488 }}</ref>

Many Reformed theologians stress the idea of propitiation because it specifically addresses dealing with God's wrath, and consider it to be a necessary element for understanding how the [[atonement]] as [[penal substitution]] makes possible Christ's propitiation for sins by dying in the place of sinners.<ref>Kapic, Kelly M. and Wesley Vander Lugt (2013). ''Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition''. IVP Academic, p. 91 {{ISBN|9780830827084}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last= Sproul|editor1-first= R. C.|editor-link1= R. C. Sproul|editor2-last= Mathison|editor2-first= Keith|editor-link2= Keith Mathison|date= 2005|title= The Reformation Study Bible (ESV)|url= |location= Orlando, Fla.|publisher= Ligonier Ministries|page= 1617|quote= In Christ's death, God reconciled us to himself, overcoming His own hostility that our sins provoked. The Cross propitiated God. That is to say, it quenched His wrath against us by expiating our sins, and so removing them from His sight.|isbn=9781596381360}}</ref> Critics of penal substitutionary atonement state that seeing the Atonement as appeasing God is a "pagan" idea that makes God seem tyrannical.<ref>See for example, ''Stricken by God?'', ed. Brad Jersak, Eerdmans: 2007 or ''Be Ye Reconciled to God'' by Paul Peter Waldenstrom.</ref>

[[J. I. Packer]] in ''[[Knowing God]]'', first published in 1973, designates a distinct difference between pagan and Christian propitiation: "In paganism, man propitiates his gods, and religion becomes a form of commercialism and, indeed, of bribery. In Christianity, however, God propitiates his wrath by his own action. He set forth Jesus Christ, says Paul, to be the propitiation of our sins."<ref>Packer, J. I. (1993) [1973]. ''Knowing God'', 20th  anniversary ed., InterVarsity Press, p. 185</ref>

[[John Stott]] writes that propitiation "does not make God gracious...God does not love us because Christ died for us, Christ died for us because God loves us".<ref>Stott, John (1986). ''The Cross of Christ'' InterVarsity Press, p. 174</ref> John Calvin, quoting Augustine from ''John's Gospel'' cx.6, writes, "Our being reconciled by the death of Christ must not be understood as if the Son reconciled us, in order that the Father, then hating, might begin to love us".<ref name="ReferenceA">John Calvin, ''Institutes'', Book 2:16:4</ref> Continuing the quote: "... but that we were reconciled to him already, loving, though at enmity with us because of sin. To the truth of both propositions we have the attestation of the Apostle, 'God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,' (Rom. 5: 8.) Therefore, he had this love towards us even when, exercising enmity towards him, we were the workers of iniquity. Accordingly, in a manner wondrous and divine, he loved even when he hated us."<ref name="ReferenceA" />

Packer also cites God's love as the impetus that provides Christ's sacrifice for the reconciliation of mankind and hence the removal of God's wrath.<ref>J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 208; John Murrey, The Atonement, p. 15</ref> According to Packer, propitiation (and the wrath of God that propitiation implies) is necessary to properly define God's love; God could not be righteous and "His love would degenerate into sentimentality (without Christ's death containing aspects of propitiation).The wrath of God is as personal, and as potent, as his Love."<ref>J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 206</ref>

Thus the definition of Christian propitiation asserted by Calvin, Packer and Murray holds that within God there is a dichotomy of love and anger, but through propitiation love trumps anger, abolishing it. "'The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely this that God loved the objects of His wrath so much that He gave His own Son to the end that He by His blood should make provision for the removal of this wrath... ([[John Murray (theologian)|John Murray]], ''The Atonement'', p. 15)'"<ref>Packer, J. I. ''Knowing God'', p. 185 (Packer here quoting John Murray)</ref>

=== Contemporary Catholic theology ===
The Latin [[Vulgate]] translates ''hilasterion'' in Romans 3:25, and ''hilasmos'' in 1 John 4:10, as ''propitiationem'', and this is carried over to the [[Douay-Rheims Bible]] as "propitiation". This was also the case with the [[Confraternity Bible]] (New Testament 1941). However the promulgation of the encyclical ''[[Divino Afflante Spiritu]]'' in 1943, and the [[Second Vatican Council]] document ''[[Dei verbum]]'' in 1965, led to increased engagement with biblical manuscripts in the original languages, and ecumenical cooperation in Bible translation.<ref>Thuesen, Peter J. (1999). ''In Discordance with the Scriptures: American Protestant Battles over Translating the Bible''. Oxford University Press, pp. 138–141. {{ISBN|0-19-512736-6}}</ref> A [[Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition|Catholic Edition]] of the [[Revised Standard Version]] New Testament was published in 1965. And an ''imprimatur'' was granted in 1966 to the [[Oxford Annotated Bible]] with the [[Biblical apocrypha|Apocrypha]] by [[Richard Cushing|Richard Cardinal Cushing]] of Boston.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Bible: One for All at Last|publisher=Time|date=June 3, 1966|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835742,00.html}}</ref> Another ecumenical edition of the RSV was published as the Common Bible in 1973. In 1970 the first edition of the [[New American Bible]] was published. In both the RSV and the NAB, ''hilasterion'' in Romans 3:25, and ''hilasmos'' in 1 John 2:2 and 4:10, are translated as "expiation."

The NAB includes a note on the use of "expiation" in Romans 3:25, explaining that "this rendering is preferable to 'propitiation,' which suggests hostility on the part of God toward sinners. As Paul will be at pains to point out (5:8-10), it is humanity that is hostile to God."<ref>''The New American Bible'' Including the Revised New Testament. Published as ''The Catholic Study Bible'' (1990). Oxford University Press p. NT 234.</ref>

[[Raymond E. Brown]] in the ''[[Jerome Biblical Commentary|New Jerome Biblical Commentary]]'' argues that in the NT sacrifice (''hilasterion'') does not appease God's wrath but is best expressed from its Jewish roots (76.89–95) as atonement or expiation (82.73).<ref>{{cite book|title=New Jerome Biblical Commentary|last=Brown|first=Raymond E.|publisher=Pearson|year=1990|isbn=0136149340|pages=1399|chapter=Pauline Theology, 82, #73}}</ref> Recent [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] studies<ref>{{cite web|date=2019-10-16|title=Is the Mass a Propitiatory or Expiatory Sacrifice?|url=https://emmanuelpublishing.org/article-categories/eucharistic-teachings/is-the-mass-a-propitiatory-or-expiatory-sacrifice/|access-date=2020-09-11|website=Emmanuel Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref> have depended heavily on the [[Trinity|Trinitarian]] perspective presented by Jesuit theologian Edward J. Kilmartin:
<blockquote>  Sacrifice is not, in the first place, an activity of human beings directed to God and, in the second place, something that reaches its goal in the response of divine acceptance and bestowal of divine blessing on the cultic community. Rather, sacrifice in the New Testament understanding – and thus in its Christian understanding – is, in the first place, the self-offering of the Father in the gift of his Son, and in the second place the unique response of the Son in his humanity to the Father, and in the third place, the self-offering of believers in union with Christ by which they share in his covenant relationship with the Father.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Eucharist in the West, History and Theology|last=Kilmartin|first=Edward J.|publisher=Liturgical Press, 1999|year=1999|isbn=0814661726|location=Collegeville, MN|pages=381f}}.</ref></blockquote>Jesuit theologian Robert Daly has explained the background for this renewed understanding. Daly points out that the initiative is entirely with the Father who "loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10 NAB), and that "when we see the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Mass as a Trinitarian event, we see that, strictly speaking, there are no recipients." He compares the Eucharist to a marriage ceremony that receives its meaning by becoming the reality of one's life.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Daly|first=Robert J.|date=2000|title=Robert Bellarmine and Post-Tridentine Eucharistic Theology|url=http://cdn.theologicalstudies.net/61/61.2/61.2.2.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://cdn.theologicalstudies.net/61/61.2/61.2.2.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|journal=Theological Studies|volume=61|issue=2|pages=260|doi=10.1177/004056390006100202|s2cid=171048687}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Daly|first=Robert J.|date=February 2003|title=Sacrifice Unveiled or Sacrifice Revisited: Trinitarian and Liturgical Perspectives|journal=Theological Studies|volume=64|issue=1|pages=24–42|doi=10.1177/004056390306400130|s2cid=170816180|issn=0040-5639}}</ref>

The French Jesuit theologian and biblical scholar Stanislas Lyonnet has explained the [[Johannine epistles|Johannine]] usage of the term, "When St. John in two different places alludes first to the heavenly intercession of Christ before the Father (1 John 2.2), and then to the work accomplished here below by His death and resurrection (1 Jn 4.10), he declares that He is or that the Father has made Him a '''hilasmos'' for our sins.' This term certainly carries the same meaning which it always has in O.T. Greek (Vulgate Ps 130.4) and which the Latin word ''propitiatio'' also always conveys in the liturgy: through Christ and in Christ, the Father achieves the plan of His eternal love (1 Jn 4.8) in 'showing Himself propitious,' that is in 'pardoning' men, by an efficacious pardon which really destroys sins, which 'purifies' man and communicates to him God's own life (1 Jn 4.9)."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Lyonett |first=Stanislas |editor-last=Léon-Dufour|editor-first=Xavier |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Biblical Theology [Vocabulaire de theologie biblique] |title=Expiation |edition=2nd, revised |year=1973 |publisher=Geoffrey Chapman |location=London |pages=156 }}</ref>

Along similar lines, the entry on "sacrifice" in the ''Theological Dictionary of the New Testament'', after reviewing the epistles of Paul and Hebrews, concludes that "total self-giving, first that of Christ, and then, on this basis, that of his people, is the true meaning of sacrifice." And Cardinal-theologian [[Walter Kasper]], in his book ''The God of Jesus Christ'', concludes that what Jesus effected was to give suffering "eternal import, the import of love." Kasper points out that [[Gregory of Nyssa]] and [[Augustine of Hippo]], working out of the New Testament, speak of a God who can freely choose to feel compassion, which implies suffering. Kasper adds that: "It is [[Origen]] who gave us the clearest statement.  In Origen's words: 'First God suffered, then he came down.  What was the suffering he accepted for us?  The suffering of love.'  Origen adds that it is not just the Son but also the Father who suffers so. This is made possible by God's freedom in love."<ref>Walter Kasper, ''The God of Jesus Christ.'' Crossroad (1986), pp. 191, 195. {{ISBN|0824507770}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last=Zupez|first=John|date=December 2019|title=Is the Mass a Propitiatory or Expiatory Sacrifice?|url=https://emmanuelpublishing.org/article-categories/eucharistic-teachings/is-the-mass-a-propitiatory-or-expiatory-sacrifice/|journal=Emmanuel|volume=125|pages=378–381}}</ref>

Currently, however, some scripture scholars contend that using the word "propitiation" was a mistranslation by [[Jerome]] from the Greek ''hilastērion'' into the Latin Vulgate,<ref name=":1">{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Raymond E.|title=New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 82: 73|publisher=Pearson|year=1989|isbn=0136149340|display-authors=etal}}</ref> and is misleading for describing the sacrifice of Jesus and its Eucharistic remembrance. One expression of the conclusion of theologians is that sacrifice "is not something human beings do to God (that would be [[propitiation#Contemporary Catholic theology|propitiation]]) but something which God does for human kind (which is expiation)."<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite journal|last=Daly|first=Robert|date=March 2003|title=Sacrifice Unveiled or Sacrifice Revisited|journal=Theological Studies|doi=10.1177/004056390306400130|s2cid=170816180}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Mulcahy|first=E|title=Cause of Our Salvation|publisher=Gregorian & Biblical Press|year=2007|isbn=978-8878390805}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fides|first=P. S.|title=Past Event and Present Salvation|year=1989|isbn=066425036X|page=71|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|propitiation}}
* [[Atonement]], [[Atonement in Christianity]], and [[Atonement in Judaism]]
* [[Indulgence]]
* [[Justification (theology)]]
* [[Penal substitution]]
* [[Substitutionary atonement]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{wiktionary-inline}}

[[Category:Christian soteriology]]
[[Category:Christian terminology]]
[[Category:Religious terminology]]