God as Holy

In the ensuing treatment of the divine attributes

Holiness, the much emphasized attribute in the Old Testament
Love, the much emphasized attribute in the New Testament

will constitute the organizing centers. Around each of these, other related attributes will be clustered, and righteousness will serve as a “bridge” attribute between holiness and love.

I. THE OLD TESTAMENT USAGE AND MEANINGS OF THE TERM “HOLY”#

A. THE TERM AND ITS ETYMOLOGY#

This family of words is used in the Old Testament to convey the concept that God is indeed holy.

The Hebrew verb qāḏaš in the Kal stem means “to be holy” and in the Piel and Hiphil stems means “to make holy, sanctify, hallow, consecrate, or dedicate.”
The Hebrew adjective qādôš means “holy”; as a substantive it means “the Holy One.”
The Hebrew noun qōḏeš means “holy thing” or “holiness.”

The earliest or original meaning of qāḏaš and its cognates has probably been lost. The word is thought to have had a physical or non-religious meaning in Hebrew and other Semitic languages. The only extant usages, however, are of a religious nature. Old Testament scholars have frequently suggested that the root idea of qāḏaš was “to cut off, to be separated,” and hence “to exalt.”

B. HOLINESS AS SEPARATENESS OR TRANSCENDENCE#

From their earliest usage in the Old Testament the terms “holy” and “holiness” seem to have carried the idea of separateness or transcendence. Holiness meant that which was uniquely, distinctively, and transcendently other than humankind. Emphasis on God as holy kept the Old Testament writers from succumbing to pantheism or to immanentism.

But we should not understand the Old Testament concept of divine holiness merely in the negative sense of being “separated from”; rather it should also be reckoned in a positive sense as being “separated to”. “God is separate and distinct because he is God.” The Holy One is the Wholly Other.

C. HOLINESS AS A SYNONYM FOR DEITY#

The term “holy” and its cognates were used as synonyms for deity in the Old Testament and also in pagan religions. In such usage “holy” does not indicate a particular attribute or characteristic of deity but rather the essential fact or being of deity.

In the book of Isaiah the term “the Holy One of Israel,” meaning the God of Israel, is used 27 times. Thirteen of these usages are in chs. 1-39; 12 are in chs. 40-55; and two are in chs. 56-66. The term “Holy One of Israel” is used in Ps. 89: 18, and the term “the Holy One in your midst” in Hos. 11:9 (NEB).
Another indication that holiness in Hebrew thought could be a synonym for deity may be seen by comparing Amos 6:8, “The LORD God has sworn by himself,” with Amos 4:2, “the LORD has sworn by his holiness.” Pertinent to the same usage is Hos. 11:9: “for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst.”
In the book of Daniel the words “the spirit of the holy gods” is used (4:8, 9; 5:11), and an extant Phoenician inscription uses the term “Holy Gods.”

D. HOLINESS AS APPLIED TO HUMAN BEINGS, PLACES, AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS#

In a secondary or derived sense holiness came to be applied to certain human beings, places, and institutions connected with the faith of the Israelites. These were said to be “holy” in the sense that they were dedicated or sanctified to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

The nation of Israel was said to be “holy” (Exod. 19:6; Deut. 7:6), and the Sabbath to be a “holy” day (Exod. 20:8-11; 31:14-15).
The tabernacle (Exod. 40:9), the holy place and the most holy place in the tabernacle (Exod. 26:33), the priests (Lev. 21:6) and their garments (Exod. 28:2, 4), and the anointing oil (Exod. 30:25) were also “holy”
Similarly, the tithe (Lev. 27:30, 32), the vessels in the tabernacle (1 Kings 8:4), and the ark of the covenant (2 Chr. 35:3) were called “holy”
The same was said of Jerusalem (Isa. 52:l; 66:20; Neh. 11:1), Mount Zion (Ps. 2:6), the temple (Ps. 11:4; 65:4; 79:1), the covenant (Dan. 11:28, 30), and the angels (Job 5:1; Ps. 89:5, 7).

This derived usage did not connote anything moral or ethical about the persons to whom the term “holy” was applied. There are at least three evidences for such a statement.

First, the application of the term “holy” to nonpersonal things was in itself an indication that no inherent moral or ethical meaning was implied.
Second, the term was applied to pagan deities, to which their devotees did not ascribe high ethical qualities.
Third, the fact that a term from the same Hebrew root was used to denominate temple prostitutes and sodomites is major evidence that the applied or secondary usage of holiness connoted no basic moral or ethical meaning.

E. HOLINESS AND CEREMONIAL CLEANNESS#

In the Old Testament the “holy” was set in contrast with the “profane” (ḥālîl), a word derived from the verb ḥālal, meaning “to desecrate, to detract from holiness.” Hence cleanliness came to be associated with holiness, though the two were not synonymous. The “profane” or “unclean” could not be made holy. But cleanness is “only a condition of holiness, not holiness itself.”

F. HOLINESS AS DIVINE AVERSION TO HUMAN SIN#

In Isaiah 6 Isaiah’s vision of Yahweh as “holy” involved the prophet’s acute awareness of his own religio-moral uncleanness and that of the people of Judah and of Yahweh’s forgiveness of iniquity and commissioning of Isaiah. Holiness in this passage is distinctly related to sin and evil; it is more than transcendence and more than a synonym for deity.

The “thoughts” and “ways” of “the Holy One oflsrael” are on a plane far above the “thoughts” and “ways” of human beings (Isa. 55:5, 8, 9).
“But the Lord of Hosts sits high in judgement, and by righteousness the holy God shows himself holy” (Isa. 5:16)

II. THE NEW TESTAMENT USAGE AND MEANINGS OF THE TERM “HOLY”#

In the New Testament one finds the adjective hagios meaning “holy,” the verb hagiazein, “to make holy, to sanctify,” and the noun hagiosyne “holiness.” This family of words, however, is not used as frequently with reference to God in the New Testament as the parallel family of Hebrew words is used in the Old Testament.

This apparent lack of New Testament emphasis on God as holy is balanced by the rather developed New Testament teaching as to the Holy Spirit.

The idea of holiness as transcendence is not absent from the New Testament.

One may detect such meaning in Matt. 6:9, “Hallowed [or, Sanctified] be Thy name,” and in Jesus’ reference to “Holy Father” in his High-Priestly Prayer (John 17: 11 ).
Sometimes the term “holy” seems to connote the ethical perfection of God, as in Pet. 1:15-16 which is a quotation and application of the more ceremonial Lev. 11 :44.

In such a context the holiness of God is the standard for the holiness of Christians. In 1 John 2:20, wherein the term “the Holy One” is difficult to define, the term may be a synonym for deity.

III. REPRESENTATIVE MODERN DEFINITIONS OF HOLINESS#

Do the results of biblical theology as to the meanings and usages of “holy” as applied to God translate into a uniform, fully agreed upon modern theoligical definiton?

A. THE NONRATIONAL OR EXTRARATIONAL FACTOR IN GOD#

Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), Protestant theologian of Marburg, in a well-known monograph explored and interpreted “the holy” as the nonrational or extrarational apsect of God.

To represent this reality, Otto coined the term “numinous”, derived from the Latin noun numen, meaning a “nod” or “beckoning of the hand” and hence “the divine will, command, or majesty”.

“The Holy” is described as “mysterium tremendum”.

The “tremendum” is characterized by “awefulness”, “overpoweringness”, and “energy” or “urgency”
The “mysterium” is characterized by “fascination” and is the “Wholly Other”

B. THE PURITY OF GOD#

Not a few modem Christian theologians have made purity to be the central meaning of God’s holiness.

According to Charles Hodge, “Freedom from impurity is the primary idea of the word.”
Making holiness to be the central attribute of God and the ground of human moral obligation, H. Strong defined it as the “self-affirming purity” of God.
J. K. Mozley stated that holiness is “the moral transcendence of God” or “the purity” of God or “that spiritual aspect of His transcendence wherein is given the idea of the absolute contradiction between God and evil.”
According to Donald G. Bloesch, holiness is “separation from all that is unclean.” God as holy “must be intolerant of sin and can only demand purity of heart on the part of his subjects.”
Millard Erickson has defined holiness as God’s “uniqueness” or separateness and as “his absolute purity or goodness,” but he has given emphasis to the latter by classifying holiness under the attributes of"moral purity."

C. BOTH THE SUPRARATIONAL MYSTERY AND THE PURITY OF GOD#

Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963) combined the first and the second definitions of holiness. The term means both

The “awesome”, “incomprehensible”, “suprarational” Mystery, as in Otto
“Personality and moral content”, with “an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity” as in the Bible

D. THE DIVINE ATONING NATURE AND ACTIVITY VIS-À-VIS HUMAN SIN AND SINNERS#

Peter Taylor Forsyth understood divine holiness in connection with atonement for sin.

He is the father of pity to human weakness, still more father of grace to human sin, but chiefly father of holy joy to our Lord Jesus Christ… Fatherhood in the Old Testament neither demands sacrifice nor makes it, but in the New Testament the Holy Father does both. The holiness is the root of love, father- hood, sacrifice, and redemption… The divine Father is the holy. And the Holy Father’s first care is holiness. The first charge on a Redeemer is satisfaction to that holiness. The Holy Father is one who does and must atone… You can go behind love to holiness but behind holiness you cannot go.

E. THE UNITY OF SEEMING OPPOSITES#

For both Karl Barth and Emil Brunner divine holiness embraced and united what seem to be opposite or contradictory characteristics or movements.

Barth declared: “The holiness of God consists in the unity of His judgment with His grace. God is holy because His grace judges and His judgment is gracious.” Barth treated both grace and holiness under “perfections of the divine loving.” Both grace and holiness “in characteristic though differing fashion point to the transcendence of God over all that is not Himself.”

Brunner affirmed that “in the concept of the Holiness of God there is a twofold movement of the Divine Will-at first sight a contradictory movement, namely, a movement of withdrawal and exclusion, and a movement of expansion and inclusion.”

F. THE TRANSCENDENCE OR MORAL ABSOLUTENESS OF GOD#

Other theologians, taking their clue from the otherness of God, have concluded that transcendence or separateness or moral transcendence is the most adequate general definition of God’s holiness.

According to E. Y. Mullins, holiness

is found sometimes in connection with the exercise of his natural attributes. But usually holiness is the manifestation of his moral attributes. It is thus a general term descriptive of the moral perfection of God …. The holiness of God, then, is his supreme moral excellence in virtue of which all other moral attributes have their ground in him.

Concerning holiness Walter Thomas Conner wrote:

[It] is the quality of infinity, absoluteness or transcendence that belongs to God …. Holiness is the moral perfection of God considered from the point of view of his absoluteness and transcendence. Righteousness is God’s holiness in relation to man as a responsible moral agent …. Love is the holiness of God as interested in man as weak and sinful.

Otto’s definition of divine holiness, which rightly affirms awesomeness and incomprehensibility, fits the New Testament less well than it does the Old Testament. Purity as the definition of holiness, as also the concept of sanctification, is hard to reconcile with Jesus’ utterance, “For them I sanctify myself’ (John 17: 19a, NIV), if his sinlessness is to be maintained.

Holiness should hardly be a bridge attribute, for it needs to have its centrality and uniqueness expressed, although Brunner’s two movements have validity. Transcendence, though not above criticism, seems to offer more advantages as a basic definition of what it means to say that God is “holy.”