"placed above upon the ark", epitithemi . . . . . anothen. Now this tells us the material of

which the article was made, "gold", the purpose it served, "a lid", and where it was

placed, "above upon" the ark. So far so good. We now enquire, Did this article of

furniture have any spiritual significance? The answer is "Yes, the golden lid is explained

to be `a propitiatory', a place where atonement or propitiation could be made". This "lid"

is therefore explained in the Septuagint to be an "hilasterion". But how from this data

anyone can say that the term "Mercy-seat" should be removed and the word "lid"

substituted passes comprehension. Further, the N.T. sets its seal upon the essential

purpose of the Mercy Seat, for in Heb. 9: we read concerning the furniture of the

tabernacle, "And over it the cherubim of glory shadowing", not the epithema, the mere

"lid", but the "mercy seat", hilasterion (Heb. 9: 5). The apostle could have selected from

his Greek Bible the word epithema, enforcing upon us the fact that all we had here was a

golden lid but he passes this word by, and enforces its symbolic purpose; it was a

propitiatory. That he most certainly meant a propitiatory, or a propitiation, is proved by

his one other use of hilasterion where he speaks of the sacrifice offered by Christ as "a

propitiation through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3: 25).

Now it has been suggested that in Rom. 3: we could read, "set forth a mercy seat

through faith in His blood", and this would do no violence to faith or sense, but the

possibility of suggesting that we could substitute the word "lid" in Rom. 3: 25 is

beyond consideration.

Having thus said, the fact remains that the word epithema, used by the Greek

translators, is an addition to the Hebrew they were translating, no equivalent Hebrew

word being used in the original. It is therefore without authority, and must not be used as

a basis for doctrinal teaching.

We have considered two aspects of the subject before us: