Be holy?

Originally posted on February 28, 2007 – by Andre Piet

AMSTERDAM – Many Christians experience a stifling feeling when it comes to the concept of holiness. You must live a holy life, because God is holy—this mantra from their youth still echoes in their souls. They feel overwhelmed by an ethic full of commands and prohibitions, making “holy” seem like an unattainable ideal, says Dr. Joep Dubbink, the Protestant minister from Zeist who is this week officially assuming his post as professor of Biblical Theology at the Vrije Universiteit.

“For the separating, restrictive aspect of holiness—in the sense of being set apart—is only a side effect,” he claims in his inaugural lecture on Leviticus 19:1–2. In this passage, the famous words that God spoke to Moses are heard: “Be holy, for I, YHWH your God, am holy.” What follows is a series of commands and prohibitions (…)

“If we understand holiness merely as a set of ethical rules we must follow, we become guardians of boundaries instead of keepers of the Mystery,” says Dubbink, who delivered his lecture at the conclusion of a symposium on the concept of holiness.

So much for the article.

What exactly “the Mystery” of this holiness is, Dr. Dubbink unfortunately fails to make clear. He remains stuck in rather vague terminology. What he should have pointed out is that, directly from the original text, it does NOT say: “be holy” but rather: “you shall be holy.”

Most translations of both Leviticus 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:16 are WRONG—wrong because they turn a promise into a command. Whereas “you shall” is fundamentally a promise! It’s the same grammatical form as:

• “You shall be the father of a throng of nations” (Gen. 17:4),
• “You shall no longer be called Jacob” (Gen. 35:10),
• “You shall not see my face” (Gen. 43:3),
• “You shall be obtaining power” (Acts 1:8).

These too are, one by one, proclamations and promises!
Translators who render “you shall be holy” as “be holy” are not only taking unacceptable liberties—they completely ruin the point! They fall into exactly the same error that Paul accuses Judaism of in his day:

“…yet Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, does not attain to the law. Wherefore? Seeing that it is not out of faith, but as out of works.”
—Romans 9:31–32—

It is stated unambiguously here: Israel did not attain to the law because they assumed the law had to be worked. That assumption was mistaken. Because the law is promise. He—and He alone—shall do it.

Delen: