In some Protestant circles, there is a debate as to the meaning of the terms ιλασμος and ιλαστηριον in the New Testament as well as the Hebrew כפר. For some commentators, most notably C.H. Dodd in his book, The Bible and the Greeks, such terms mean only expiation. Such would fit with the forensic nature of atonement and justification held by Protestantism, wherein an offender/sinner has their trespasses covered over, but there is no intrinsic change within the person at justification (such belonging only to sanctification). Dodd’s thesis was critiqued from various angles from Leon Morris in his The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, and the debate still continues in some circles to this day.
FFrom my study of the issue, I think it would be unwise to claim that such terms, as well as related terms, only mean one or the other; there are some instances where these can mean expiation, but there are clearly instances where it can mean propitiation and others where both could be in view. One classical example would be Rom 3:25:
Whom [Jesus] God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement (ἱλαστήριον) by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed. (NRSV)
In this verse, the apostle Paul teaches us that God the Father provided Jesus as a ἱλαστήριον. As it is the Father who proposed/planned (the meaning of the Greek προτιθημι) his Son to be a place of ιλασμος/propitiation, translating it as propitiation would be unusual—God planning Christ to be a sacrifice that appeases His own wrath—contextually, it suits the meaning of “expiation,” that is, Christ as the means of our sins being covered/remitted.
Notwithstanding, in John 2:1-2, Christ is said to be our advocate (παρακλητος), that is, the person who pleads our cause before the Father (cf. Heb 7:25; Rom 8:33-34), and tied into this, is John's statement that he is the propitiation (ιλασμος) for our sins. An advocate seeks reconciliation between an offended party (the Father) and those who offended the party (us as sinners). Obviously, the concept of appeasement is in view here.
As has been noted by commentators, the Maccabean literature is important for understanding the term ιλαστηριον ("place of atonement/propitiation" sometimes rendered "mercy-seat" or "propitiatory"), such as 4 Macc 17:22, where propitiation, not only expiation, is in view:
And through the blood of those devout ones [i.e., the Maccabean martyrs] and their death as an atoning sacrifice [ιλαστηριον], divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated. (NRSV)
In other words, one must not engage, as some have done regardless of their translation preference, make this into an either-or issue; it can be at times “both-and.”
One of the main arguments against the propitiation motif is that God’s wrath is often relegated as a mere anthropomorphism. However, this results in a lot of fanciful eisegesis of the biblical texts. Furthermore, as Latter-day Saints, this is one approach we cannot take, as the reality of that wrath is emphasized time and time again in our canon, and furthermore, God is often only appeased by personally appeasing Him, whether through intercession (as in the case of Moses in Exo 32-33) or sacrifices.
One of the best examples of this is the case of Phinehas who averted the wrath of God from the Israelite camp. In Num 25 we read of some of the men of the Israelite camp were engaging in cultic sexual intercourse with Moabite and Midianite women (e.g., Num 25:2-3, 6), resulting in God commanding Moses to kill them (Num 25:4), resulting in 24,000 who died in the plague (Num 25:9). In defiance of this divine command, and Israelite man brought a Midianite woman to his tent, more than likely to engage in such cultic sexual intercourse. Phinehas, a priest, saw this happen and took the following action:
And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israelite into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. (Num 25:7-8)
As a direct result of the actions of Phinehas, God’s wrath was appeased (propitiated) against the Israelite camp.
That Christ Himself continues to appease God’s wrath against sin is found in D&C 45:3-5:
Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom though gavest that thyself might be glorified. Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.
Of course, there is an important caution when it comes to adopting the concept of propitiation, and one that Leon Morris and others have correctly pointed out—that is, we must not think of God being able to be simply “paid off” and have his wrath averted against our sins like some pagan conceptions of propitiation that Dodd critiqued in his work. This was discussed by Elder Joseph E. Robinson, Conference Report, April 1918, p. 47:
I know that it is written by John and Paul that Christ was offered as a propitiation for our sins. I take it, if we had the original text we would learn that it was not in the sense of appeasing the anger of God that he became a propitiatory gift. That the Lord may have been, and has been, grieved and sometimes angry with his stubborn people, I grant you, but I have never felt that God had to be "bought off," if you will allow the expression, through the death of his Son, from visiting upon us condition punishment. No. As I understand it, he gave us his best loved gift, the First Born among many brethren in the spirit world, the only begotten of God in the flesh, that we might know him and thus in knowing him that we might be made free, "for this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." He gave its the gift of his Son that we should be won to him, that we should love him, for we give gifts to those whom we would win, whom we would have love us, whom we would draw to us, whom we would bring close in our affections, that they might be with us and associate with us, and share with us our joys and good fortune. He gave the Christ unto men that they might live again, that they might be made free, for the truth should make them free in their worship, in their power of mind and in their bodies, too, for that matter, and the redemption wrought out by the Christ makes us all alive again in eternity, clothed upon with immortality and eternal youth.
The reason why God is appeased with the sacrifice of Christ and forgives (expiates) our sins is due to the strong covenantal/personal relationship Christ has with the Father, and, by being united to Christ through the salvific covenant of baptism and other covenants that engraft us to Christ (e.g., John 6:3-4; Gal 3:27), and as a result, we can appropriate the salvific benefits of Christ’s atonement (remission of our sins; new spiritual life; an advocate whose intercession will allow for the remission of our future sins, etc), and not the “whimsical” concepts within pagan conceptions of atonement.
In LDS literature, one will find that many commentators have referred to Christ’s sacrifice as a propitiation; others, expiation, and some have used both terms in the same breath, showing that one cannot divorce one from the other. Consider the following examples:
Use of “propitiation”
Doctrine and Covenants (1835), p.57 (Lecture Fifth of Faith)
Q. Was he ordained of the Father, from before the foundation of the world, to be a propitiation for the sins of all those who should believe on his name?
A. He was. I Peter, 1:18, 19, 20. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you. Rev. 13:8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, [the beast] whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. l Corin. 2:7. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden mystery, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.
Elder Joseph D. Robinson, Conference Report, April 1918, p.47
I know that it is written by John and Paul that Christ was offered as a propitiation for our sins. I take it, if we had the original text we would learn that it was not in the sense of appeasing the anger of God that he became a propitiatory gift.
Marion D Hanks, Conference Report, April 1969, p.25
He died willingly, alone, for this was how it must be. There had to be a propitiation, by one of his unique qualifications, for the sins of men -- our sins -- payment for which, through the love of God and the love of his Son, was made on Calvary's hill.
James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, pp.77-78
4. Nature of the Atonement:—The atonement wrought by Jesus Christ is a necessary sequence of the transgression of Adam; and, as the infinite foreknowledge of God made clear to Him the one even before Adam was placed on earth, so the Father's boundless mercy prepared a Savior for mankind before the world was framed. Through the Fall, Adam and Eve have entailed the conditions of mortality upon their descendants; therefore all beings born of earthly parents are subject to bodily death. The sentence of banishment from the presence of God was in the nature of a spiritual death; and that penalty, which was visited upon our first parents in the day of their transgression, has likewise followed as the common heritage of humanity. As this penalty came into the world through an individual act, it would be manifestly unjust to cause all to eternally suffer therefrom, without a chance of deliverance. Therefore was the promised sacrifice of Jesus Christ ordained as a propitiation for broken law, whereby Justice could be fully satisfied, and Mercy be left free to exercise her beneficent influence over the souls of mankind.d All the details of the glorious plan, by which the salvation of the human family is assured, may not lie within the understanding of man; but surely, man has learned from his futile attempts to fathom the primary cause of the phenomena of nature, that his powers of comprehension are limited; and he will admit, that to deny the effect because of his inability to elucidate the cause, would be to forfeit his claims as an observing and reasoning being.
James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, p.80
8. The many kinds of sacrifice prescribed by the Mosaic law are clearly classified under the headings, bloody, and bloodless. Offerings of the first order only, involving the infliction of death, were acceptable in propitiation or atonement for sin
James P. Harris, The Essential James E. Talmage, p.149
The Atonement accomplished by the Savior was a vicarious service for mankind, all of whom had become estranged from God through sin; and by that sacrifice of propitiation, a way had been opened for reconciliation whereby man may be brought again into communion with God, and be made able to live and advance as a resurrected being in the eternal worlds. This fundamental conception is strikingly expressed in our English word "atonement," which, as its syllables attest is "at-one-ment," "denoting reconciliation, or the bringing into agreement of those who had been estranged."
B. H. Roberts, The Truth, The Way, The Life, p.467
The Christ suffered for Adam's transgression, not for his own; and for the transgression of all men; for the sins of the world. He suffered for all men, that they might not suffer on certain conditions—the condition of repentance and acceptance of the Christ (D&C 19:16-17). And that by reason of his stripes men might be healed (Isa. 53:5, and Isa. 53:1-4). He made "propitiation" for men's sins (1 Jn. 2:2), and thus satisfied the claims of the law to the uttermost—even unto death—the death of the cross. But it was not "possible that he should be holden of it" (Acts 2:24)—i.e, of death; for he was Lord of life and of death. He had power to lay down his life, and to take it up again.
James E. Talmage, The Vitality of Mormonism, Ch.88, p.308-10
Israelitish sacrifices may be conveniently classified as bloody and bloodless, the former comprising all offerings involving the ceremonial slaughter of animals, and the latter consisting in the offering of vegetables or their manufactured products. The bloody sacrifices were early associated with the idea of expiation, or propitiation for sin, the offerer, whether an individual or the community as a whole, acknowledging guilt and craving propitiation through the death of the animal made to serve as proxy for the human offender.
The animal victim intended for sacrificial death had to be chosen in accordance with specific requirements. Thus, it was to he of the class designated as clean, and within this class only domestic cattle and sheep and certain birds--pigeons and turtle-doves--were acceptable. Furthermore, it was essential that the selected animal be without physical defect or blemish; and thus all that were deformed, maimed or diseased were absolutely excluded. Physical defects were held as typical of spiritual blemish, or sin; and "God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance."
These requirements of relative perfection on the part of the victim were in accord with the fact that the slaughter of animals as a priestly rite by Divine direction was in prefigurement of the then future sacrifice of the Christ Himself, whose atoning death would mark the consummation of His ministry in mortality, while the animal victims slain on Israel's altars figuratively bore the sins of the people, who in their observance of the sacrificial rite sought propitiation for their offenses, or reconciliation with God, from whom they hail become estranged through transgression, Jesus Christ actually bore the burden of sin and provided a way for a literal reconciliation of sinful man to God. The principal sacrifice in the Mosaic dispensation was that of the Passover; and the superseding of the type by the actual is forcefully expressed by Paul: "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." (1 Cor. 5:7.)
Theologians, Bible scholars generally, and ethnologists as well, admit the absence of all record both in the Bible and in profane history concerning the origin of sacrifice. The writer of the article "Sacrifice" in one of our Bible Dictionaries (Cassell's), which article is in line with other learned commentaries, says, following an array of facts: "On these and other accounts it has been judiciously inferred that sacrifice formed an element in the primeval worship of man; and that its universality is not merely an indirect argument for the unity of the human race, but an illustration and confirmation of the first inspired pages of the world's history. The notion of sacrifice can hardly be viewed as a product of unassisted human nature, and must therefore be traced to a higher source and viewed as a Divine revelation to primitive man."
Use of Expiation
President David O. McKay, Conference Report, April 1944, p.121
A young student recently expressed the thought that belief in Christ as the Redeemer, as God made manifest, is waning; that professing Christians no longer believe that Jesus is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh; that in some miraculous manner his death made expiation for sin; or that after His crucifixion Christ rose from the dead.
President Hugh B. Brown, Conference Report, April 1962, p.108
The transgression of Adam, together with all of its consequences, was foreseen and the expiation provided for before the foundations of the world were laid. In that primeval council, of which the scriptures speak
George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses Vol. 11, p.68
The Lord has truly provided for us a plan of salvation that is as wide as eternity, that is God-like in its nature and in its origin; it is intended to exalt us, his children, and bring us back into his presence. For this purpose our Lord and Savior came in the meridian of time. His blood was shed that an expiation might be made by which the plan of salvation could be completed, that we, whose bodies would otherwise continue subject to an everlasting sleep in the grave, might have our mortal tabernacles resurrected and brought into the presence of our Father and God, there to dwell eternally.
George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses vol. 15, p. 367
those who contend for the same faith to know that slander, persecution, ignominy and shame, and even death itself are not evidences of the falsity of a system, or of the falsity of the doctrines taught by any individual, because we have the history of the Apostles—some of the best men that have ever trod the earth, and of Jesus, the holiest and best man that ever trod the earth, or that ever will, and we find that he and they were persecuted, hated and despised, and their names were east out as evil, and they were slain by a generation who professed to honor God and be very righteous, and who claimed to be the descendants of the Patriarchs of old, who were called the friends of God. If this story were told to us without our knowing anything of the circumstances, we should be reluctant to believe it. It would be a difficult thing to persuade us that human beings could have been so base and degraded, and so lost to every feeling of humanity as to persecute and crucify a pure being like Jesus, who had come from the Father for the express purpose of laying down his life as an expiation for their sins.
The Latter-day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, Vol.1, No.3, p.35
The very idea of atonement or reconciliation, where there is so much guilt as there is attached to the family of man, involves the idea of expiation in propria persona or vicariously: For says the apostle, without shedding of blood is no remission. There is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. We who were once far off by reason of sin and rebellion, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
John Taylor, Mediation and Atonement, Ch.16, p.126 - p.127
As from the commencement of the world to the time when the Passover was instituted, sacrifices had been offered as a memorial or type of the sacrifice of the Son of God; so from the time of the Passover until the time when He came to offer up Himself, these sacrifices and types and shadows had been carefully observed by Prophets and Patriarchs; according to the command given to Moses and other followers of the Lord. So also did He Himself fulfil this requirement, and kept the Passover as did others; and now we, after the great sacrifice has been offered, partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in remembrance thereof. Thus this act was the great connecting link between the past and the future; thus He fulfilled the law, met the demands of justice, and obeyed the requirements of His Heavenly Father, although laboring under the weight of the sins of the world, and the terrible expiation which He had to make, when, sweating great drops of blood, He cried: "Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will be done," and when expiring in agony upon the cross He cried, "It is finished," and gave up the ghost.
John Taylor, Mediation and Atonement, Ch.20, p.144 - p.145
In the economy of God pertaining to the salvation of the human family, we are told in the Scriptures that it was necessary that Christ should descend below all things, that He might be raised above all things; as stated above, He had to "become subject to man in the flesh." It was further necessary that He should descent below all things, in order that He might raise others above all things; for if He could not raise Himself and be exalted through those principles brought about by the atonement, He could not raise others; He could not do for others what He could not do for Himself, and hence it was necessary for Him to descend below all things that He might be raised above all things; and it was necessary that those whom He proposed to save should also descend below all things, that by and through the same power that He obtained His exaltation, they also, through His atonement, expiation and intercession, might be raised to the same power with Him; and, as He was the Son of God, that they might also be the adopted sons of God; hence John says: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."--1 John, iii, 2.
B. H. Roberts, The Truth, The Way, The Life, p.491
It can be readily understood that not even God's omnipotence could make it possible for Him to act contrary to truth and justice. It ought to be no more difficult to understand that God's omnipotence would not permit Him to set aside a satisfaction to justice, any more than to grant an arbitrary concession to mercy. Mere power has not the tight to nullify law, nor even omnipotence the right to abolish justice. Might in Deity is not more fundamental than right. God, we must conclude, will act in harmony with all His attributes, else confusion in the moral government of the world. These reflections lead to the inevitable confusion that there must be a satisfaction made to justice before there can be redemption for man. They also lead to the confusion that the necessity of expiation in order to pardon both Adam's transgression and secure forgiveness of man's individual sins arise from the nature of the case, an existing reign of law, and harmonious reactions to the attributes of God, and not from arbitrary action. Justice is of such an absolute character that it would be as impossible to save the guilty without an antecedent satisfaction to God's attribute of justice as it would be for God to lie; and for God to lie would wreck the moral government of the universe, and result—if such a thing were possible—in His dethronement.
B. H. Roberts, The Truth, The Way, The Life, p.504
We conclude, then, that for man's individual sins, as for Adam's transgression, though differing in some respects already noted, involve the same necessity of atonement. There is the same inexorableness of law; the same helplessness on the part of man to make satisfaction for his sin; hence, man's dependence upon a vicarious atonement, if he is to find redemption at all. There is the same need for ability on the part of the one making the atonement to make full satisfaction to justice by paying the uttermost farthing of man's obligations to the law; the idea of satisfaction necessarily involves that of penal suffering. This couples together the two ideas, satisfaction through expiation; or satisfaction to justice through expiation. Whosoever redeems man from his individual sins must pay the penalty due to sin by suffering in man's stead. No merely human sacrifice will be adequate. As put by Alma, the Nephite prophet: "If a man murder, behold, will our law, which is just, take the life of his brother? I say unto you, Nay. But the law requireth the life of the murderer. Therefore, there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sins of the world (cf. Alma 34:11-12)."
James E. Talmage, The Vitality of Mormonism, Ch.14, p.60
We have learned but little of the eternal laws operative in the heavens; but that God's purposes are accomplished through and by law is beyond question. There can be no irregularity, inconsistency, arbitrariness or caprice in His doings, for such would mean injustice. Therefore, the Atonement must have been effected in accordance with law. The self-sacrificing life, the indescribable agony, and the voluntary death of One who had life in Himself with power to halt His torturers at any stage, and whom none could slay until He permitted, must have constituted compliance with the eternal law of justice, propitiation and expiation by which victory over sin and death could be and has been achieved. Through the mortal life and sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ the demands of justice have been fully met, and the way is opened for the lawful ministration of mercy so far as the effects of the Fall are concerned.
James E. Talmage, The Vitality of Mormonism, Ch.88, p.308-p.309
Israelitish sacrifices may be conveniently classified as bloody and bloodless, the former comprising all offerings involving the ceremonial slaughter of animals, and the latter consisting in the offering of vegetables or their manufactured products. The bloody sacrifices were early associated with the idea of expiation, or propitiation for sin, the offerer, whether an individual or the community as a whole, acknowledging guilt and craving propitiation through the death of the animal made to serve as proxy for the human offender. [Note how this this and the previous quote uses both terms]
The Latter-day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, Vol.1, No.10, p.156
Scarce can the reflecting mind be brought to contemplate these scenes, without asking, for whom are they held in reserve, and by whom are they to be enjoyed? Have we an interest there? Do our fathers, who have waded through affliction and adversity, who have been cast out from the society of this world, whose tears have, times without number, watered their furrowed face, while mourning over the corruption of their fellowmen, an inheritance in those mansions? If so, can they without us be made perfect? Will their joy be full till we rest with them? And is their efficacy and virtue sufficient, in the blood of a Savior, who groaned upon Calvary's summit, to expiate our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness? I trust, that as individuals acquainted with the gospel, through repentance, baptism and keeping the commandments of that same Lord, we shall eventually, be brought to partake in the fulness of that which we now only participate the full enjoyment of the presence of our Lord. Happy indeed, will be that hour to all the saints, and above all to be desired, (for it never ends) when men will again mingle praise with those who do always behold the face of our Father who is in heaven.
Suggested Reading
C.H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks
Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross
Stephen Finlan, The Background and Content of Paul's Cultic Atonement Metaphors
Christian A. Eberhart, The Sacrifice of Jesus: Understanding Atonement Biblically
Darrin W. Snyder Belousek, Atonement, Justice, and Peace: The Message of the Cross and the Mission of the Church
Jarvis J. Williams, Maccabean Martyr Traditions in Paul's Theology of Atonement: Did Martyr Theology Shape Paul's Conception of Jesus' Death?
David S. Powers, Salvation through Participation An Examination of the Notion of the Believers' Corporate Unity with Christ in Early Christian Soteriology
Stanislas Lyonnet and Leopold Sabourin, Sin, Redemption, and Sacririce: A Biblical and Patristic Study