A Note on Romans 3.25's Hilastērion

 In the English Standard Version translation of Romans 3.25, we read that 'God put [Jesus Christ] forward as a propitiation [hilastērion] by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.'  Discussion of the meaning of hilastērion in this verse weighs three options (not mutually exclusive):

1. 'Mercy seat,' that is, the place of the sacrifice of atonement in the holy of holies of the Temple.

2. 'Expiate,' meaning the removal of sin and guilt, such as with a sacrifice.

3. 'Propitiate,' meaning the removal of sin and guilt and appeasement of wrath/anger.

'Propitiation' includes the meaning of 'expiation' but adds the notion that anger towards the sinner must also be removed.  Discussion of this matter typically looks at the Old Testament background, such as the discussion of the Day of Atonement sacrifice and the mercy seat in Leviticus 17.  It also typically looks at the meaning of the Greek word hilastērion.  My note introduces a passage from Tacitus, written in Latin, for the discussion and has to do with what an average Roman reading Paul's letter might have understood.

When the Roman commander, Germanicus, was threatened with his life while putting down a mutiny among his troops, he sent his family away to safety and then said to the angry soldiers:

My wife and children whom, were it a question of your glory, I would willingly expose to destruction, I now remove to a distance from your fury, so that whatever wickedness is thereby threatened, may be expiated[1] by my blood only, and that you may not be made more guilty by the slaughter of a great-grandson of Augustus, and the murder of a daughter-in-law of Tiberius’ (Tacitus, Annals 1.42).[2]

Thus, the cultural context in which Paul writes certainly entertained the notion of providing a blood sacrifice to appease the wrath of someone.  

Readers in the Roman church who were recent, Gentile converts would not have needed to understand the Jewish celebration of the Day of Atonement or the mercy seat in the temple.  The added notion of appeasement of wrath is also understandable in the Roman notion of a blood sacrifice. 

'Expiation' is certainly a part of Paul's meaning--this is a sacrifice, after all.  Yet 'propitiation' is a more complete notion.  The 'wrath of God' (Romans 1.18) is against the sin of the human race is the problem throughout Romans 1.18-3.20.  'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God' (Romans 3.23).  A sacrifice that removed sin, guilt, and God's wrath was required, and only Jesus Christ could do so.

That the Jewish practice on the Day of Atonement provides deeper meaning for this passage is something Jews and older Christians could explain in the church in Rome to new, Gentile converts.  The 'mercy seat' understanding of this verse makes good sense for those acquainted with the Old Testament.  Psalm 78 also adds depth to our understanding of Romans 3.25 and 26.  Psalm 78.38 (ESV) reads:

Yet he, being compassionate,

atoned for their iniquity

and did not destroy them;

he restrained his anger often

and did not stir up all his wrath.

The 'mercy seat', Day of Atonement, and a text like Psalm 78 would provide the new, Gentile convert a deeper theological understanding of Paul's words, but he or she would certainly have understood the notion of a propitiatory sacrifice, a blood sacrifice to assuage God's wrath.

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[1] The Vulgate translates Romans 3.25’s hilastērion with propitionem, propitiation.  The Latin in the Tacitus quote is a verb, pio, which means ‘to seek to appease, appease, propitiate’.  Thus, the notion of sacrificing one’s own blood to appease an angry mob is understandable to the culture.  ‘Expiate’ in this translation is not the best word choice.

[2] Cornelius Tacitus, Complete Works of Tacitus, trans. Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (New York: Random House, rep. 1942).  In Annals 1.49, Tacitus says that the angry soldiers wanted to march against the enemy ‘as an atonement [piaculum, the noun associated with the verb, pio] for their frenzy.’  The word is associated with appeasement of their own anger.