Kapporet #67

The kapporet was the solid gold cover of the ark of the covenant, set above the tablets of the law and flanked by two golden cherubim. Its name comes from the verb kaphar, the root behind kippur (“atonement”), and the sense is usually taken to be either “the place of covering” or “the atonement cover.” The English “mercy seat” comes from Tyndale’s rendering, which was influenced by Luther.

Biblical Usage

In Exodus 25:17-22, God instructs Moses to make it of pure gold, two and a half cubits by one and a half, with two cherubim of beaten gold at the ends whose wings stretch over it and whose faces look toward it. The testimony is to be placed in the ark below, and God promises: “there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat” (Exodus 25:22). So the kapporet is the place of God’s speaking to Moses and, by extension, of his presence with Israel.

Its second role is in the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 16:2 warns Aaron not to enter the holy place at all times, because God appears in the cloud upon the mercy seat. On the appointed day the high priest brings the blood of a bullock and of the goat of the sin offering into the inner sanctuary and sprinkles it on and before the mercy seat (Leviticus 16:14-15). Hebrews 9:5 mentions it among the furnishings of the tabernacle, describing “the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat,” and adds that the writer cannot speak of them in detail.

Theological Significance

The kapporet joins two themes: God’s throne-like presence above the cherubim, and the blood that deals with the people’s sin so that God can dwell among them. The Septuagint translates the word with hilasterion, the term Paul uses in Romans 3:25, and this has led to debate over whether Paul means that Christ is himself the place of atonement, the propitiatory sacrifice, or both. Christians have generally read the ritual as looking toward Christ’s death, as Hebrews does, while Jewish interpretation has focused on the Day of Atonement as an annual renewal of the relationship with God. The word also raises the question of translation, since “mercy seat” reflects tradition more than the Hebrew root.