Isaiah 6:3 · Symbol · Holiness and Purity
The Words Qadosh and Hagios
Qadosh and hagios are the Bible's words for holy, and tahor and katharos its words for pure.
The first use of the verb in this family comes at the end of creation, when the seventh day was blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2:3).
And they were calling out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.”
- The word
- קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh), H6918
- First appears
- Exodus 19:6 “…holy nation.’ These are the words that you…”
Summary
The seraphim of Isaiah and the four living creatures of Revelation call God holy three times over, the first cry in Hebrew and the second in Greek. The same words name a nation, a patch of ground, the priests' offerings, the Holy Spirit and the believers. Each adjective has a noun and a verb beside it in its own language. The law sets the holy apart from the common and the clean apart from the unclean.
- The plural of hagios names every believer as a saint.
- Strong's dictionary defines qadosh as sacred, ceremonially or morally, and as a noun it can mean God, an angel, a saint or a sanctuary.
- Holy and pure are related words with different work, since a thing can be clean and still common.
- Hagiazo, to sanctify, speaks of a holiness given once and of a holiness still at work.
The Words in Their First Uses
Exodus holds the first qodesh, at the bush, and the first qadosh, of Israel at Sinai.
Holiness is one of the values Scripture asks of every believer, and the Hebrew qadosh and the Greek hagios carry it from the law of Moses to the song around God's throne. The question this study answers is what the words meant to the writers who used them, and how far that meaning reaches.
It sets out each word's count and sense, the two pairs of Leviticus 10:10, the titles that give the words to God and to Christ, and the tenses of the verb for sanctify.
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”The place is holy because God is speaking there, and Moses must keep his distance.
And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”God gives the title to a whole people before He makes His covenant with them.
The first hagios of the New Testament stands in Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus, in the name of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18).
Where the Words Stand
Qodesh, the Hebrew noun, stands four times as often as the adjective qadosh.
The Hebrew words stand far more often than the Greek, and the Greek nouns of holiness are rare.
| Word | Sense | Uses | The book with the most uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew words for holy | |||
| qodesh, קֹדֶשׁ, H6944, noun | a sacred place or thing; holiness | 469 | Leviticus 92; 29 books |
| qadash, קָדַשׁ, H6942, verb | to consecrate | 171 | Leviticus 31; 23 books |
| qadosh, קָדוֹשׁ, H6918, adjective | sacred (ceremonially or morally); holy | 116 | Isaiah 38; 20 books |
| Hebrew words for pure | |||
| tahor, טָהוֹר, H2889, adjective | pure (in a physical, chemical, ceremonial or moral sense) | 94 | Exodus 28; 17 books |
| taher, טָהֵר, H2891, verb | to be pure | 94 | Leviticus 43; 15 books |
| Greek words for holy | |||
| hagios, ἅγιος, G40, adjective | holy; saint | 220 | Acts 53; 23 books |
| hagiazo, ἁγιάζω, G37, verb | to sanctify | 28 | Hebrews 7; 13 books |
| hagiasmos, ἁγιασμός, G38, noun | purification, the state of purity | 10 | 1 Thessalonians 3; 7 books |
| hagiosune, ἁγιωσύνη, G42, noun | sacredness, the quality | 3 | one each in 3 books |
| hagiotes, ἁγιότης, G41, noun | sanctity, the state | 1 | Hebrews; 1 book |
| Greek word for pure | |||
| katharos, καθαρός, G2513, adjective | clean (literally or figuratively) | 27 | Revelation 6; 12 books |
taher, טָהֵר, H2891, verb, Greek words for holy, hagios, ἅγιος, G40, adjective, hagiazo, ἁγιάζω, G37, verb, hagiasmos, ἁγιασμός, G38, noun, hagiosune, ἁγιωσύνη, G42, noun, hagiotes, ἁγιότης, G41, noun, Greek word for pure and 1 more
The counts are those of the STEP Bible tagging, and a printed concordance may differ by one or two.
Holy First of God
The prophets name God the Holy One of Israel and the Holy One among His people.
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.Isaiah sets the title the Holy One of Israel beside the name Savior, so the One who is holy is also the One who rescues.
I will not execute the full fury of My anger; I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man— the Holy One among you— and I will not come in wrath.Hosea gives God's holiness as the reason He holds back His anger from Ephraim.
Holy and Clean as Two Pairs
The priests' charge in Leviticus and Ezekiel's rebuke name the same four Hebrew words.
Strong's dictionary defines the verb qadash as to be or make "clean (ceremonially or morally)". Set apart describes how the words are used, as when the LORD tells Israel, "I have set you apart from the nations to be My own" (Leviticus 20:26).
The LORD gave this charge to Aaron and his sons after the death of Nadab and Abihu, and each pair in it is a line the priests were to draw.
Holy faces common, and clean faces unclean.
| Word | Strong's | Gloss in the tagged text | Its partner in the pair |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy and common | |||
| qodesh, קֹדֶשׁ | H6944 | the holy thing | chol, the common thing |
| chol, חֹל | H2455 | the profane thing | qodesh, the holy thing |
| Clean and unclean | |||
| tahor, טָהוֹר | H2889 | the clean thing | tame, the unclean thing |
| tame, טָמֵא | H2931 | the unclean thing | tahor, the clean thing |
Ezekiel 22:26 charges the priests of his day with failing to draw those lines, in the same Hebrew terms.
The purity words often describe things. All 28 uses of tahor in Exodus are glossed pure, and in the making of the ark it describes gold: "Overlay it with pure gold both inside and out" (Exodus 25:11).
Hagios and the Words Built on It
Abbott-Smith's lexicon gives hagios four senses, and four other Greek words share its stem.
Its highest use, Abbott-Smith writes, "is to God himself, in his purity, majesty, and glory". The others are persons "separated to God's service", the moral sense of "sharing God's purity", and pure, clean offerings.
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.Paul's word for saints is the plural of hagios, and he gives it to every believer in the church at Rome.
The tense of the verb hagiazo, to sanctify, carries weight in Hebrews. It is a perfect participle in "we have been sanctified" (Hebrews 10:10) and a present participle, glossed being sanctified, in Hebrews 10:14.
In the Lord's Prayer the same verb is a command in the third person, "hallowed be Your name" (Matthew 6:9).
Hagiotes stands once, where God disciplines His children "so that we may share in His holiness" (Hebrews 12:10).
The Greek purity word katharos describes the bride's "fine linen, bright and pure" (Revelation 19:8), and in the sixth beatitude it describes the heart.
The Holy One of God
Mark and John give Jesus the title the Holy One of God.
“What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”An unclean spirit gives Jesus the title in the synagogue at Capernaum, and Jesus silences it.
We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”Peter gives the same title as a confession of faith after many other disciples had turned back.
Paul joins the rare noun hagiosune to the resurrection, writing that Jesus "through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God" (Romans 1:4).
How a believer is made holy once and is still being made holy is the subject of the study of sanctification.
Voices on the Words
A commentary of 1755 reads the word of Revelation's song.
1703 to 1791 · John Wesley
Wesley's note sets two Greek words for holy side by side and gives the word of this verse the larger sense.
“There are two words in the original, very different from each other; both which we translate holy. The one means properly merciful; but the other, which occurs here, implies much more. This holiness is the sum of all praise, which is given to the almighty Creator, for all that he does and reveals concerning himself, till the new song brings with it new matter of glory.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament · on Revelation 4:8Evangelical
Holy, Holy, Holy
Revelation closes the course of the words before the throne.
And each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”The Greek repeats hagios three times before the divine name, as the Hebrew of Isaiah 6:3 repeats qadosh.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG glosses (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0), the Greek glosses based on Abbott-Smith (1922), with the Strong's definitions (1890) the rows carry.
- STEP Bible, Translators Amalgamated Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament, the tagged texts (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, with its dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original (1890)
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Revelation 4:8.
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