Atonement #9

Kippurim, the plural form behind the Hebrew name for Yom Kippur (“Day of Atonements”), derives from a root (kaphar) most often rendered “to cover” or “to make atonement.” The underlying image is debated among scholars — covering sin from God’s sight, wiping it away, or paying a ransom for it — but the effect in every case is the same: a barrier between God and a sinful people is removed, and relationship is restored.

Biblical Usage

Leviticus 16 institutes the Day of Atonement as Israel’s annual ritual for this purpose, when the high priest made atonement “for all your sins… to cleanse you” (Leviticus 16:29-30). Leviticus 17:11 grounds the entire sacrificial system in this concept: “it is the blood that makes atonement by the life,” explaining why blood sacrifice, not merely ritual or repentance alone, was the Old Testament’s prescribed means of atonement.

Theological Significance

The New Testament presents Christ’s death as the reality the Old Testament sacrificial system had only foreshadowed — Paul writes that believers “have now received reconciliation” (katallage) through Christ, by whom “we have now received atonement” (Romans 5:11), treating the entire Levitical system of kippurim as pointing toward a single, final, sufficient atonement rather than an endlessly repeated one.