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unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall
be put to death' (Num. 18:1 -7).
Even now we have not reached the centre of this holy segregation.
From
the one anointed family, Aaron himself was separated:
'Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into
the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the
second went the High Priest Alone once every year, not without blood'
(Heb. 9:6,7),
and after all this separation, purifying and eliminating we read, 'The Holy
Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made
manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing' (Heb. 9:8). If so
much care was exercised over a frail and failing type, what depths and
heights must there not be in holiness itself!
Let us now consider the words used in Scripture to convey the
conception of holiness. The primary meaning of the Hebrew word qodesh is
'separation', 'apartness', as it is also of the Greek equivalent, hagios.
Qodesh is used
(1)
Of God.
(a)
Of divine activity, Exodus 15:11.
(b)
To attest His word as inviolable, Psalm 89:35.
(c)
Of His name as sacred, Leviticus 20:3.
(2)
Of places.
(a)
A heavenly abode, Deuteronomy 26:15.
(b)
On earth, Exodus 3:5.
(c)
The Tabernacle and Temple,
Exodus 40:9; 2 Chronicles 29:7.
(d)
Jerusalem, Zechariah 8:3.
(3)
Things consecrated at sacred places.
(a)
Furniture of the Tabernacle, Exodus 30:10,29.
(b)
Sacrificial animals, Numbers 18:17.
(c)
Any consecrated thing, a vow, Deuteronomy 12:26.
(d)
Anointing oil of priests, Exodus 30:25.
(4)
Persons sacred by connection with sacred things.
(a)
Priests, Leviticus 21:6. Garments, Exodus 28:2,4.
(b)
Israel, Isaiah 62:12; Daniel 12:7.
(5)
Times consecrated to worship, Exodus 16:23.
(6)
Things ceremoniously cleansed, 1 Samuel 21:5,6.
This is a much abbreviated analysis of the word qodesh set out in the
Lexicon of Brown, Driver and Briggs.
The New Testament word hagios is the principal word translated
'holiness', but hosios, meaning 'pure' and heiros, meaning 'sacred' should be
added. Hagios is used in the title, 'The Holy Ghost' and 'The Holy Spirit'
over sixty times, other associations being the holy city, things, place,
angels, man, name, prophets, child, ground, Scriptures, law, first -fruit,
root, branches, bodies, kiss, temple, children, apostles, the elect, calling,