grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face

as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me" (Gen. 33: 8-11).

Here is the scriptural basis for interpreting the meaning of kaphar in the Levitical law.

Would any reader tolerate the argument that, because in the days of King Alfred the

Great a certain word had a certain meaning, that that meaning must adhere to the word

to-day? Could we ignore the revolution in language caused by the Norman Conquest, to

say nothing of the changes that must naturally come with the passage of time?

The use of the word kaphar in the record of the flood is separated from the record of

Gen. 32: by an interval of seven hundred years. Besides this, we have a revolution in

language that puts that of the Norman Conquest into the shade,

The Semitic speaking people adopted the word kaphar, but evidently dropped its

primitive meaning of "covering" as with pitch, for Moses was under no obligation to

append a note of explanation to the record of the use of the word by Jacob, and his

subsequent adherence to one meaning, and to this meaning only, throughout the whole of

the books of the law, is sufficient proof of the established meaning of the word. Apart

from the preservation of the book of the generations of Noah by Moses, no one either in

Israel's day or in our own would ever have had the slightest reason to speak of

Atonement as other than a Propitiation. It is strange that we should use Moses (Gen. 6:)

to confound Moses (Gen. 32:).

In everyone of its occurrences the word kapporeth, a feminine word formed from

kaphar, is translated "Mercy Seat". Seeing that kaphar originally meant "to cover" it has

been assumed that the word "Mercy Seat" should be removed from our Bibles, and the

more prosaic "cover", or even "lid", substituted. The Septuagint translate kapporeth by

exilasmos, "a propitiatory", (I Chron. 28: 11); Thusiasterion, (in some versions) "An

altar", "A place of Sacrifice", and hilasterion "A propitiatory".

In  Exod. 25: 17 epithema is added, a word which was in use amongst the Pagan

Greeks to indicate the "lid" of a chest. It is no revelation to any reader acquainted with

the story of the tabernacle to learn that, as to its material, the "Mercy-Seat" was made of

gold, and as to its shape and purpose, a lid. But this fact has no reference to the word

hilasterion, which in no possible circumstances can mean "a lid". It can only mean "a

propitiatory", and this fact is recognized by the Septuagint translators by the adding of

the word epithema, so that a true translation of that version would read, "a propitiatory

lid", leaving the word hilasterion untouched.

For the sake of clearness, and because the subject is so important, let us approach it

The ark was a chest, made of wood and covered with gold. A golden lid was made of

exactly the same measurements, and this lid is, in the Greek, called epithema. It was