Towards, unto, into and in Theos

As has been intimated earlier, a homograph of אל is as the translation ‘not’/’neither’. It was used in one of the quotations used in a previous post. When Ruth says, Intreat me not (אל) to leave you. This is a form less common than its more ubiquitous inversion לא (lo’). This form of the negative is more widely used. It becomes quite obvious, for example, in Hoshea’ chapter 1 where it is used as part of the name of two of his children.

‘And she conceived again and bare a daughter and he said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Yisra’el; but I will utterly take them away.’ (Hoshea’ 1.6)

Her name is made up of two words ‘not’ and ‘mercy’ because Yahweh will not have mercy on Yisra’el. A further child is named similarly:

‘Then said he, Call his name Lo-ammi for you are not my people and I, I will be not yours.’ (Hoshea’ 1.9)

So we can see that the opposite of Yahweh’s name, that is merciful, (Exodus 34.6), is embedded in the name of Hoshea’s daughter – not mercy. Interestingly, Hoshea’ is taken from the word ‘to save’ and is the name first given to Yehoshua’ before his name is moved into the future tense (he shall save) – Numbers 13.16

Similarly the opposite of the creative work embedded in Yahweh’s name, that is the creation of a people, is in the name of Hoshea’s son – Not a people. It is the negation of the promise that Yahweh will be(come) his people and they will be(come) him. It uses the critical ‘I will be’ from Exodus 3 but negates it. Yet the promise is that he will undo this negative and return once again to the positive ‘I will be’.

So we can see here that both אל and לא are used in the same way. That is, although the letters are inverted the meaning remains the same. This is not uncommon in Hebrew where letters are inverted or mixed around, in the case of 3 word stems rather than the 2 used here. Often these words bear a relation of meaning to one another and sometimes their relation is one of dissimilarity, sometimes to the point of complete inversion, sometimes it is an identical or similar meaning. This idea of inverting letters and changing meaning as well as inverting letters while retaining the same or a related meaning is particularly relevant when considering the homographic אל as a ‘not’ and something which is not a not, that is an affirmative. We might deduce, therefore, that in the title of ‘el (אל) there is an implicit sense of the affirmative and the negative. The commandment to not (eg ‘thou shalt not’) and the commandment to do (Thou shalt love the Lord thy Theos…).

Of course, the above raises the issue of what is antithesis. The opposite of a people is not a people and the opposite of mercy is not mercy. At some level, anything that is ‘not’ is by definition an antithesis. We consider that black is the opposite of white but in many cases it is as though anything that is not white is its antithesis. This becomes more evident as we consider the attribute of the negative to ‘el (אל). That is, that anything that is not of him is by definition antithetical to him and that anything that is of him is antithetical to every other value. Inversions of meaning may, therefore, be what we might call opposites but may be, simply, a not of the word it inverts. Hopefully in upcoming blogs we will look at the idea of ‘the other’ which may crossover well with this section.

Let’s look at a further example of an inversion.  
כפרת (kaporeth) is a word which is translated as ‘mercy seat’ in the Old Testament. It is based on the 3 letter stem כפר (kapar) which is translated predominantly as ‘covering’ or ‘atonement’. An inversion of this word ‘covering’ or ‘to cover’ (כפר) is the word perek (פרך). This occurs only a handful of times and is predominantly translated ‘rigour’ and once as ‘cruelty’. It is used in the context of people ruling in a hard and unsympathetic way, that is to say without mercy.

As the word כפרת (kaporeth) is lengthened from its 3 letter stem כפר (kapar) by the addition of a final ת (th) to make up the word translated ‘mercy seat’ so the 3 letter stem פרך (perek) is also similarly lengthened by a final ת (th) to make the word פרכת (paroketh) which is translated as ‘vail’ and is used to describe the vail that separated the holy from the holy of holies in the tabernacle. That is, it separated the holy (place) with the table of shewbread, the lampstand and the altar of incense within it from the holy of holies wherein was the ark of the covenant with the kaporeth (mercy seat/covering) on top of it.

We will, undoubtedly, visit the subject of the kaporeth later in this blog as it features in a number of issues surrounding the ‘to’/’unto’/’toward’ sense of ‘el (אל). However, it would be as well to mention a number of characteristics of it and the meaning of its name.

The kaporeth is a ‘covering’ or a lid to the open topped box which was the ark of the covenant, inside which were the tables of stone (the ten commandments, made up of both not and affirmative commandments), a pot of the bread from heaven and ‘Aharon’s rod that budded. This ark of the covenant was then covered by the kaporeth, a single piece of solid gold which formed the lid to the ark but out of which were crafted two creatures called kerubym whose wings overshadowed the covering and met at their apex while the faces of the creatures faced one another. The Hebrew says they were man unto his brother and they were unto the kaporeth.

In the New Testament the kaporeth, with its meaning of covering/atonement is translated into the Greek with the word ilasterion (ιλαστηριον) whose only other occurrence is translated ‘propitiation’ and is used to describe the reconciliatory work of Iesous in Romans 3.25. It is related to a verb which is used when Iesous gives the parable of the publican and the Pharisaios and it is the publican who is justified before Theos because he would not lift up his eyes to heaven but smote his breast and said, Theos be merciful to me, a sinner. Its only other translation in Heb.2.17 is ‘reconciliation’. A related word is translated as ‘merciful’ in Heb.8.12 quoting Yer.31.34 where the apparently equivalent Hebrew word is ‘to forgive’ or ‘to pardon’. Any of the usual words for ‘mercy’ both in Hebrew and Greek are unrelated to the idea of kaporeth or ilasterion. The point here is evident that the covering of the ark carries with it senses of covering and forgiveness. We may argue that the mercy of Yahweh is to forgive iniquity and transgression and sin, which is perhaps why the KJV translators chose the epithet ‘mercyseat’ but the focus is on the forgiveness and the method of its deliverance.

We have a juxtaposition in the tabernacle of two terms which are inversions of one another. At some level we may see an opposition in meaning. That is, that one is the ‘not’ of the other. The vail, coming from the word ‘rigour’ hinting at a lack of kindness (and mercy), separating from the object whose name is taken from the idea of covering and forgiveness. While the vail is in place access to the kaporeth is restricted to the annual entry of the high priest on the day of coverings or atonements (yom ha-kipurym יום הכּפּרים – atonements here taken from the same 3 letter stem as the kaporeth כפר – see above) . At the death of Iesous the vail is rent and access is restricted only to the saints (holy ones). The relationship of the two items and the terms that describe them is a juxtaposition firstly of geography, that is that the one faces the other and prohibits viewing or entry of the other. Secondly, there is a juxtaposition of meaning where one, in its name, reveals its purpose, forgiveness. The other however is ‘not’ that meaning.