“since the Tanakh says, “You are to be holy because I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1:15-16
When you hear the word “holiness” what is the first thing that comes up in your mind? Probably it would be something like this, “Oh we need to change our behavior. We need to have a higher moral standard.” Now let me give you another meaning and concept to that word that is probably different from what you have been taught or heard about.
A lot of people know that holiness is something that you must seek for and fight for, but a lot of people also misunderstand the Scriptural concept of holiness. I believe that the correct understanding will bring you a very sense of belonging to YHVH, and act and think the same way He does about you and about His things.
First of all, we need to check out what the word “holy” originally means in Hebrew, which is “qodesh” (Strong’s H6944) coming from its primitive word “qadash” which simply means “dedicated, separated, set-apart, sacredness, separateness”. In my opinion the best English word to translate is “dedicated”. Now since the word holy means dedicated, when you say that one thing is dedicated, the first question you will probably ask is “to what?”. Just being “dedicated” is meaningless until the object is specified. I will give you some examples to clarify the correct using of the word holy.
If I was married to a woman I would be holy unto her. I would be dedicated, set-apart unto that woman. I would be holy unto her and she would be also unto me. From the wedding day on we started a holy relationship, because an earthly authority made a proclamation over us before witnesses and YHVH [God] Himself. That proclamation made me holy unto my wife and my wife unto me. When you give your life away to Yeshua-Jesus in covenant with YHVH, you become holy unto Him. The Lord makes a proclamation over your life that sets-apart, dedicates you unto Him. The word holy without an object is meaningless.
And what is the opposite of holy? The opposite of holy is common, something not dedicated, not set-apart, for common usage. Coming back to a marriage context, which kind of relationship would my wife have with other men? Common relationships. And with me, her husband? A holy relationship. Does that mean that I have a higher moral standard than other men? Or that I am better than them, or that I have a better character and behavior than them? No! I am just dedicated unto my wife while the other men are not, they are just common unto her. I am not better than they and they are not better than me, I am just dedicated. I am emphasizing that because I believe that we must break the power of how the word “holiness” has been taught nowadays as it is something related to behavior. Does that dedication affect behavior? Of course it does. Holiness affects our behavior but it’s not primarily related to that.
Another example. Let’s suppose you have four phone lines at your home, and one is for the fax-machine. We could perfectly and appropriately state that one phone line is holy unto the fax-machine and the other three are common, for common usage, voice communication, etc. Does that mean that the dedicated, holy phone line is better than the other ones, or that it is made of a different material? No! They are all the same, the only difference is the dedication. Somebody just made a proclamation, a sanctification over that phone line that from that moment on it became holy unto a fax-machine. That is the correct concept of holiness.
I think this last example will help us to definitely break the power of that misunderstood concept of holiness that I have always heard about everywhere.
No woman of Isra’el is to engage in ritual pr*stitution, and no man of Isra’el is to engage in ritual h*mos*xual pr*stitution(sod*mite).
-Deuteronomy 23:17
We have in that verse the word “ritual pr*stitution” which is the Hebrew word “qedeshah” (Strong’s H6948) actually coming from qodesh (holy) which means “female temple pr*stitute, harlo*t”. And “sod*mite” is “qadesh”, meaning “male temple prostitute”. We see here that YHVH-God is warning Israel for not to accept among them females and/or that are HOLY unto a temple that serves strange gods of pr*stitution. In that ancient time, it was common for people to be dedicated (sanctified) to other gods, such as Baal, inside temples through blood covenant. Those people understood blood covenant and realized that if you eat flesh and drink the blood, or if you have a sexual relationship, you enter in blood covenant with the god or spiritual entity of that person. (By the way, blood covenant is a great issue for discussing in the future). Wow, but isn’t holy a good word? We discover here that when it’s about holiness, “to what” is very important to know because you can be holy unto the Lord or unto Baal.
There are other holy things than relationships. For example, in the Scriptures there is holy money, called tithe; holy objects, such as the ark of covenant; holy time, the Shabbat; holy clothes; holy positions, such as priests at the temple services; and a holy nation unto YHVH, Israel. That was just for curiosity because there will be no space to discuss those things here.
As human beings we can have just one holy relationship, called marriage, but YHVH is the only one on the universe that can treat everyone of us, His children, as holy unto Him. He is the only one able to do that, we can’t, we can just be holy unto one person, our marriage partner.
I am YHVH your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. I am YHVH who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy – Leviticus 11:44-45
I strongly believe that He is about to restore His power as the Body of Messiah discovers again His holiness and treat His holy things accordingly. The purpose of this article is just to start the way how you deal with holy things. There are so many interesting things about holiness, but I just wanted to cause you to start thinking and reading the Scriptures differently when you read the word “holy” again. It’s all about dedication, not behavior, although there is a huge impact on it. We should agree with YHVH and treat holy things as special things, dedicated things. That way we will become more and more aware of YHVH’s holiness, “because He is holy”. I hope that helps you to agree with Him as you walk through life. “Father, what do you think it is holy that we are treating as common? Show us!” is my prayer.
In Yehsua’s behalf,
About The Author
Post topics: holiness, holy, marriage, sacredness, set-apart
Ah great post Leandro! Very challenging. I think we’ve also commonised the work “holy” and it’s meaning.
When it comes to marriage and even relationships prior to marriage, we always associate the concept with love.
However, marriage is a reflection of God’s love to the church, therefore it should be holy.
What’s interesting is when the angels shouted (portion in Isaiah if I’m not mistaken) they didn’t shout out love, love, love.
They proclaimed holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. Let us therefore also be holy. :)
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I really enjoyed this post, and you were right, I did learn something. You explained the meaning and application very well. The phone-line illustration and the temple-worship were very good ways to help the reader fully understand your point.
It takes time and deep studying to fully understand being set-apart for Yah and him alone. It takes a lot of courage to abandon what we’ve been taught and shown as how to “be holy” and truly search out the meaning, and then apply it according to his Scriptures.
Again, great article.
Shalom!
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beautifully written,enjoyed reading .
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Miss Salomé, marriage is already holy unto God himself. It has just to be TREATED as holy, because it is already holy, no matter the kind of marriage the couple is experience today, a good or a bad one.
Oh, some important things I forgot to mention. Firstly, the only difference between authorities and non-authorities on earth is actually holiness (the Mr. President, Governors, Mayors, Principles, Teachers, etc). Secondly, a husband is holy unto his wife and as a father, he is holy unto his children. It doesn’t mean that the husband is better or has a higher moral standard than his wife or his children (if it was true, we would never see any fatherhood disfunction happening today!). He is just holy! Ourf father and mother, especially the father, should be treated as holy, not as common.
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Great post! This explained soooo much – thank you.
God bless.
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