ESSAY
Two Shall Become One Flesh, I: Atonement and Eschatology

Mary Douglas, against the common notion that primitive religious rituals were illogical and random asserts, “The analysis of ritual symbolism cannot begin until we recognize ritual as an attempt to create and maintain a particular culture … Any culture is a series of structures which comprise social forms, values, cosmology, the whole of knowledge and through which all experience is mediated.”[i] Given these assumptions, I will look at the Day of Atonement, and atonement in particular, through the cosmological lens of Genesis, and draw implications from there to its fulfillment in the sacrifice of Christ as presented in the New Testament, and conclude with how this might practically affect sin and forgiveness in the Christian life.

Primordial Visions of Unity

Genesis sets up a certain vision of the cosmos and the pattern of history. The initial moment of creation is in fact a separation into heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1). But creation is not simply a matter of separation. On the first day there is a more complete picture of the process: light is created, then it is separated from darkness, and finally they are joined together “evening and morning” are said to be “one day” (Genesis 1:6).[ii]

Immediately, we should ask, why this pattern? The answer has to do with the nature of heaven and earth. Heaven is created complete, as the dwelling place of God, and there is no process of growth. Earth is created incomplete, dark, formless, and empty. Throughout the creation week, earth becomes light, formed, and filled – thus becoming more mature, and so, more complete, more like heaven itself.[iii]

However, before this unity between heaven and earth can be completed, there must be more separation. On the second day there is separation of waters, and there is no unification on this day.[iv] This is significant because the raqia (“firmament”) is set up as a separation between heaven “waters above” and earth “waters below.” Instead of bringing heaven and earth together, it adds to the separation. Now heaven and earth are not simply distinct, but they are physically separated by a wall of water.[v] Why more separation?

The purpose of the separation becomes clearer in the creation of Adam and the woman. First God creates man (Genesis 2:7), then separates man from woman (2:21-22), and finally unites them together as Adam says, “Bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh” (2:23). The passage further makes clear that this pattern will be repeated wherever there is marriage. First, “a man,” then he will “leave” his father and mother,[vi] and finally become “one flesh” (2:24). Thus, the separation of the man and woman makes possible something more glorious: recreation and life, since man and woman are commanded to “be fruitful” and “fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

Once again, however, the cosmos in Genesis is not unified in this way. Heaven and earth remain separate and separated. So then, the creation of Adam and the woman becomes an eschatological vision for the unity of the cosmos: someday the separating expanse will be removed, and heaven will be joined to earth as “one flesh.” This is clearly not a dissolve into oneness, but as Adam and the woman remain distinct, so heaven and earth will remain distinct, but form a new kind of more glorious unity more like the original creation, resulting in more glory and more recreation with the Spirit itself hovering over the waters as a covering.[vii]

But the narrative of Genesis never fully realizes this unity, and initially starts moving in the opposite direction. The disobedience of Adam brings an added dimension to this eschatological vision of unity. Adam was supposed to “increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). The garden, as the dwelling of God (Genesis 3:8), is more like heaven, and so Adam is supposed to spread the garden throughout the earth, thereby bringing about a unity of heaven and earth.  However, because he eats from the tree, instead of heaven spreading over the earth, curses spread over the serpent, childbirth, and the ground itself. Because of this, Instead of earth moving closer to heaven, at least four further divisions of separation have been made: 1) now the earth is cursed, 2) Adam and Eve are clothed in “garments of skins” (3:21),[viii] 3) they are cast out of the garden, and 4) the flaming sword of the cherubim.[ix] Now that Adam has disobeyed God, he has become unclean[x] and so he must be driven away from the presence of God, cursed and ultimately ending in death.

This all symbolically begins to indicate a more universal problem. Man as a whole becomes full of wickedness (Genesis 6:4) and so God will permanently separate himself from them (6:7). Thus, the whole earth is covered with water, separated from God. Even righteous Noah can only escape through the covering of the ark.[xi]  Throughout Scripture, this problem of separation continues, even for the righteous. Isaiah says, “Woe is me … for I am a man of unclean lips … for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5). Every man is now polluted and cannot get close to God because he will die. This is clear from the fact that even Moses, whom God expressly points out as having a special capacity talk with him face to face (Numbers 12:8 with Exodus 33:11), cannot even see God and live (33:23). When God passes by there must be a covering between them (33:22). Thus, the unity of heaven and earth is even further away than before, and now seems almost irresolvable as man gets pushed further east away from the “presence of the Lord” (Genesis 4:16).[xii]

Now I turn to see how this cosmological background plays into our understanding of the Day of Atonement. Warning notes that Leviticus 16:2-34 is the central speech of Leviticus.[xiii] Further, within the macro structure of the narrative arc of Genesis-Ruth, this section plays a significant role. In Genesis, the Israelites end in Egypt, away from garden and land, in the wilderness. In Exodus, they go from wilderness to Sinai and end with the tabernacle, a picture of the garden. Finally in the center of Leviticus, someone enters the tabernacle, thus symbolically entering back into the garden. After this Leviticus discusses aspects of the land (17-27), and in Numbers Israel is back in the wilderness, and at the end of Deuteronomy they are on the edge of the land.[xiv]  As a central portion of this literary narrative, Leviticus 16 begins to shed light on how the eschatological vision for the unity of the cosmos can be completed in midst of the added sin and pollution of Adam.

Etymological Background of kipper

Before I look in detail at the Day of Atonement, I want lay some ground work on the meaning of kfr –the Hebrew root typically translated as “to make atonement.” The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon says that the original meaning is “to cover” after an Arabic word.[xv] Although he notes others think it comes from an Aramaic word meaning “to wash away.”[xvi] R. Laird Harris argues that “to cover” has “very little evidence” and its connection to the Arabic root is “weak,” further noting that “the Hebrew root is not used to mean “cover.”[xvii] Milgrom notes these disagreements and suggests that all these words are related and go back to an earlier word meaning “to rub,” and hence could morph into “to rub off” and “to rub on.”[xviii] However, in the levitical cult particularly, Milgrom argues that while “to wipe away” is very well attested for kfr, it almost never means “to cover” in this context.[xix] Sklar persuasively argues that kfr means primarily “to make a ransom”[xx] in the levitical system and Milgrom concurs that this is clearly part of its meaning.[xxi]

Following David Hill’s warning that etymology is limited because it does not take into account the fact that words change and have different uses in their context,[xxii] I will look at the probable origin of the word with its possible semantic range, and then I will examine the usage of kfr in light of the events of the Day of Atonement to help determine its meaning.

The first usage, which we have available, of the Hebrew root is probably Genesis 6:14. Here the qal form of kfr is used to mean “smear with pitch” and is related to the word for pitch used in this same context. There is some debate about whether this word is related to kipper. However, following Milgrom, it seems that this gets at part of the basic meaning, “to rub” or “to smear,” and, at least by implication, we can say “to cover.”[xxiii] Kipper  is used in Genesis 32:20, but this time in its more common piel form, where Jacob says. “I will kfr his face with a gift.” Here I follow Brown-Driver-Briggs and translate this as “to cover” since the context demands that the gift is supposed to pacify or appease Esau’s anger. The phrase “with a gift,” also strengthens the connection with Genesis 6:14 since there God tells Noah to kfr “with pitch” – both uses of kfr are with the Hebrew preposition be.Thus, kfr originally means “to cover” especially “with” something.

The fact that kfr means “to wipe off” is also very well attested, and Milgrom’s analysis is sufficient to establish this as a key meaning. Here, I simply want to point to the purpose of kipper in the Day of Atonement is to “cleanse” (Leviticus 16:30), thus highlighting the fact that wiping off sin is a central idea to kipper.

Kipper also clearly means “to make a ransom,” as Sklar has argued based on Leviticus 17:11.[xxiv] The noun form, kofer , can mean “ransom for a life” as in Exodus 21:30, here a kofer can be offered in place of the life of a man who deserves to die. Again in Isaiah 43:3 the Lord says that he will give Egypt as a kofer  for Israel. So the noun clearly connotes the substitution of one life for another. Kofer (the noun) is clearly related to kipper (the verb) as Exodus 30:12-15 makes clear. Here God commands that if someone takes a census, then he needs a kofer “for his life” equal to half a shekel – so that a plague will not come upon the people. Then, in 30:15, the Lord explains that the purpose of the kofer is to kipper “for their lives.”


Ryan Handermann is pastoral intern at Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow, Idaho.


[i] Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (New York: Routledge Classics, 2002), 158.

[ii] All scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the English Standard Version.

[iii] While I am not quoting James Jordan here, I am indebted to his work in Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View of the World (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 1988) and other lectures of his, and so a number of ideas presented here originally come from him.

[iv] This is possibly why the phrase, “God saw that this was good” is absent on this day.

[v] Note that when Ezekiel sees a vision of heaven he sees the expanse, which he describes as a “shining like awe-inspiring crystal” and it is “spread out” (Ezekiel 1:22) as if it were a covering over the earth.

[vi] Just as there is an additional covering between heaven and earth, so perhaps the family serves this function. A man has to cross over his parents’ threshold to get married (cf. Genesis 24:67).

[vii] It is interesting to note that while the man parallels heaven (as the primal genitor) and the woman earth, it could also be switched around. אָדָם  comes from the אֲדָמָה, associating him with earth, and the woman is clearly a more glorious version of man, and hence can be associated with heaven. Paul seems to recognize part of the reciprocity in 1 Corinthians 11:12.

[viii] Adam and Eve attempt to introduce a false attempt at separation from God by covering themselves with fig leaves and then hiding among the trees.

[ix] If the sword is turned in every direction, it is more like a kind of wall or barrier similar, once again, to the expanse, and probably, if it is constantly in motion, slightly opaque.

[x] Leviticus 19:23 expresses that the fruit of new trees in the land of Israel is forbidden for 3-4 years. It does not say what happens if you eat of it, but if we parallel with Leviticus 11:40, eating of a carcass, then the person would at the least become unclean.

[xi] Noah is also separated from the presence of God. After God shuts the door, God does not speak to Noah or indicate any sign that the flood will cease for at least 150 days (Genesis 8:3).

[xii] The problem of God dwelling with sin and uncleanness is a temporal one. God can come down and speak with Adam right after he has sinned. He can dwell with humanity before the flood for 1600 years. He can dwell with Israel in the midst of their impurities – but not forever.  Ultimately, sin and pollution have to be dealt with. Eventually Adam will die, the world before the blood will be destroyed, and atonement will have to made if God is going to remain with humanity.

[xiii] Wilfried Warning, Literary Artistry in Leviticus (Boston: Brill, 1998) 39.

[xiv] The cycle continues as, in Joshua they finally enter the land. Judges begins in the land, but then there is a see-saw between land and wilderness, ending in wilderness, which has now become a false garden, whereas Ruth seems to present a kind of true garden when she uncovers the feet of Boaz and he spreads his wing over her – symbolically returning to the unity of heaven and earth – removing one covering and adding the true covering.

[xv] Francis Brown, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1906) 497.

[xvi] Brown-Driver-Briggs.

[xvii] R Laird Harris, Gleason Archer, Bruce Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament  (2 vols.; Chicago: Moody Press, 1980) 1.1024-1025.

[xviii] Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible, 3; New York: Doubleday, 1991) 1080.

[xix] Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 1081.

[xx] Jay Sklar, Sin, Impurity, Sacrifice, Atonement: The Priestly Conceptions (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2005)160ff.

[xxi] Milgrom relates this specifically to substitution in the case of the scapegoat (Leviticus 1-16, 1082).

[xxii] David Hill, Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1967) 30-31.

[xxiii] As Harris argues, this is a weak argument, but I think its next usage strengthens the connection somewhat.

[xxiv] Sklar, Sin, Impurity, 160ff.

Related Media

To download Theopolis Lectures, please enter your email.

CLOSE