The noun ayidrijs is used of God (a) in 2 Co 1^* (iv ayLOTTjTi Kai elXiKpiveig, tov deov) ; and (b) also in He 12^" (et's rb /ieraXa/Seif Ttjs ayi6T7]Tos avTov) (cf. 2 Mac 15").
(a) Another reading is d.7r\6r?yrt (N'=DEGL, the Latin and Sj-rian VSS). ayLOTrjTL is supported by K*ABCKMP 17, 37, 73 and the Bohairic. St. Paul is claiming tliat his conduct is characterized by these Divine qualities, and ' in so far as they are displayed in men they are God's gift, as he goes on to explain ' (J. H. Bernard, EGT iii. [1903] 42). Denney finely paraphrases : ' In a holiness and sincerity which God bestows, in an element of crystal transparency, I have led my apostolic life ' {S Corinthicms [in Ex- positor's Bible, London, 1894], p. 30). Here, again, the affinity is apparent between the conceptions of purity and holiness. St. Paul is claiming to have walked 'in the light, as he is in the light.' The thought is akin to the Johannine idea ' God is light, and in him is no darkness at all ' (1 Jn P).
(b) The word in Hebrews is used similarly to indi- cate a holiness of God that can be imparted to men. The conception here is not of a holiness that is only possible after death (H. von Soden). We may compare 12'^, 'without holiness, no man shall see the Lord,' where, however, the word is dyiaa-fib^, or 'consecration' (seeSANCTiFlCATlON), the process, of which ayibrris is the result. Here, again, we can detect, shining through the depth of ethical mean- ing, the fundamental idea of holiness as ' separa- tion.'
'"Holiness" or sanctity in God is properly separation or dis- tance from tlie world and elevation above it ; holiness in men is separation from the world and dedication unto God ' (A. B. Davidson, Hebrews, p. 238).
It is significant, as indicating the immense pro- gress attained in the Christian idea, that in the only two instances in the NT where the ayibr-qs of God is spoken of as an abstract term, men are represented as sharing in it.
Th. Haering {The Christian Faith, Eng. tr., London, 1913, i. 345) aptly cites the words 'ye would not' (Mt 23^') as the expression of a love that is also holiness, in its reaction against sin. These are words, he says, 'which in their simple seriousness are not surpassed by the awful say- ing in He l'2-».' The love of God in the NT is awe-inspiring in its holiness, which, equally with love, is a term that may be used to express the glorious fullness of His moral excellence. Holiness is the principle and standard of God's love, which is His desire 'to impart' Himself and all good to other beings, and to possess them as His own in spiritual fellowship (W. N. Clarke, Outline oj Christian Theology, Edinburgh, 1898, p. 98 f.). The reaction of the nature of God against sin is itself love, because thereby it exercises the means for overcoming the opposition to love. The ' wrath ' of God [e.g. Ro 1"*) is a conception that can be ade- quately expressed and understood only in terms of the biblical conception of His holiness. Holiness, it has to be remembered, is not strictly an attribute, but the fullness of the Divine nature, as love is. We cannot set these two conceptions naively side by side. One of the theological tasks of the pre- sent is to procure an adequate adjustment of these two aspects of the Divine nature to one another. No theological writer of modern times has realized and met the need so strikingly as Haering (see esp. ii. 494 tr. of his work already quoted).
568
HOLINESS, PUEITY
HOLINESS, PURITY
' We are . . . face to face with the mystery of the Divine personality, of which we are compelled to think as life capable of being- moved to its utmost depths, without however being able to press this necessary idea [of holiness] to its logical con- clusions ' (ib. iL 495).
We mast recognize that the love of God, like all perfect love, has ' height,' as well as * depth,' if we would be filled ' unto all the fulness or God ' (Eph3i8'-).
(2) The holiness ofJestis. — In Lk 1^ the child Jesus in His pre-natal existence is called rb yevvw/ievov ayiov, ' tuat holy thing that is being generated' (of. Mt 1'-'*). The expression has no special significance in connexion with tbe subject of this article. The Holy Spirit is regarded as tlie origin of the phj^sical existence of Jesus ; and therefore the embryo is entirely holy, as deriving existence from God. The application of tlie term to the physical nature of Jesus must be regarded as the result of reflexion, no doubt influenced by Hellenistic thought, and perhaps in opposition to Docetic theories of His Person. It belongs to a milieu where the theo- logical idea of the pre-existence of Jesus has given way to a more popular conception of His physical birth (cf. Lk 1">) (see art. Holy Spirit). We are also faced here with the problem of a possible inter- polation in vv.*»- 35 (Moflatt, LNT, p. 268 fl'.).
Jesus is also referred to as * the Holy One of God ' (Mk V\ Lk 4\ Jn 6«3 [ace. to the true reading]). The phrase is evidently a designation of the Messiah. The demons are represented as acknowledging that Jesus is ' the Holy One of God,' i.e. One who has been chosen, equipped, and consecrated for the service of humanity against the might of the demonic powers that brought disease and madness by taking possession of the bodies of men. This was regarded in contemporary Jewish thought as a function of the Messiah. The epithet ' holy ' is used in the same sense of consecration to special service in Jn 6^", which again may be compared with Jn 10^ : dv 6 Trarrip 7]yLa<Tei>, i.e. set apart for a special mission. No feature, however, of the con- sciousness of Jesus in the Johannine Gospel is more marked than the emphasis on the idea that Jesus in His essential nature transcends the ordinarj- Messianic categories. Therefore, although 6 vibs Tov deov cannot be regarded as the reading in Jn 6^^, the same conception of the moral and religious relationship of Jesus with God, His unique Sonship, as transcending Messianic categories {yaoyo7€«'-)7s), ex- pressed so frequently in the Johannine writings by 6 vibs rod deov, or 6 vi6^, must be regarded as implicit in 6 dytos tou deov (cf. pruxara fw^s aiuviov ?x"s [v.®^]). Jesus is called 6 017105 absolutely in Rev 3' (6 dyios 6 a\r]div6s) and in 1 Jn 2-". In the latter passage the idea of the transference of the xP^o'/i* niay or may not have an affinity with Hellenistic mystery- religion (R. Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mys- terienreligionen, Leipzig, 1910, p. 206 f.); but in any case the xP^<^/^°- itself is to be connected with such passages as Ex 29^ SU^i, and Jesus is ' holy ' because He has been 'anointed' or set apart for His particular mission, wherein He perfectly reveals and perfectly does the will of God. In Johannine thougiit, the Holy Spirit is conferred on Jesus with- out measure (Jn 3^); it 'abides 'in Him (P-*-)- It is the source of His unique filial consciousness, and in this sense He is set apart by God for His mission, and perfectly carries it out. It is extremely ques- tionable if the Johannine writings ever contemplate the metaphysical notion of the essential oneness of the Fatiier and the Son, however justiiiable it may be to deduce that conception from the main position adopted, viz. a 'oneness' of love and will. The Joliannine position, however, as to the ' oneness ' of God and Jesus is clearly developed in the face of physical notions of union' with deity, derived from the Hellenistic mystery-religions (cf. W. Bousset,