p. 296 | THE SANCTUARY

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

THE SANCTUARY.

A CRITICISM ON KODESH.

A CORRESPONDENT has sent us a copy of the Herald of the Morning, in which we find the following on the subject of the sanctuary:—

“THE SANCTUARY, WHAT IS IT? The Hebrew for sanctuary, in this case [Dan. 8:14] is kohdesh, and is rendered holy city in Dan. 9:24, and saint, in Deut. 33:2. ‘He came with ten thousand of his kohdesh.’”

The writer then goes on to claim that the “gospel church” is the sanctuary. If Deut. 33:2 refers to persons at all, it refers to the angels; and how it would then follow that the gospel church is the sanctuary because the angels were once called such, is beyond comprehension.

But the truth is, the entire criticism is false. Kodesh alone is never used to signify the “holy city,” “holy mountain,” etc. It is used alone in multitudes of instances to denote the sanctuary. But when applied to other things, it is used simply as an adjective, signifying only “holy,” other words being used to signify the mountain, city, garments, things, etc., to which it is applied. It is, therefore, altogether false to say that the “holy city,” or “holy mountain,” is ever called the sanctuary.

As to Deut. 33:2, it is by no means certain that persons are referred to at all by the word translated “saints.” The words are meribeboth kodesh, “which,” says Dr. Clarke, “by a most unnatural and forced construction, our version renders ten thousands of saints, a translation which no circumstance of the history justifies.” He then introduces a criticism by Dr. Kennicott, who, on the authority of the Syriac and Septuagint, reads Meribah-Kadesh, making it refer to one of the four places where God manifested his glory to Israel, three of which are mentioned in the preceding part of the same verse. Dr. K. translates the whole passage thus:—

“Jehovah came from Sinai, And he arose upon them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And he came from Meribah-Kadesh.”

This certainly is consistent with the theme and the context. But even if the word kodesh here refers to the angels, that affords no pretext whatever for saying that it means, or may ever mean, the gospel church.