You wrote:
> think S and H say something about hLASTHRION in Rom 3:25 as meaning the
> top of the ark or mercy seat, as in the LXX, taking it as a noun rather
> than an adjective (so also BAG). But they've a problem with the
> substantive, for a reason I simply can't recover from my memory, even
> though that is the way the Fathers normally read it (say, Origen) and
> the way it appears even in ancient liturgies. So I vaguely recall that S
> and H want to go back to an adjectival reading, apparently reading it as
> a masculine, but throughout associating the passage with the Jewish
> sacrifices on the Day of Atonement.
There is an excellent discussion in detail of this by Leon Morris in "The
Apostolic Preaching of the Cross" (pp. 184-213) where he argues against the
"Mercy Seat" idea. It is the discussion or mention of this book that I
think you vaguely remember on B-Greek. It wasn't so long ago this year I
believe, so you might check out the archives.
Morris points out that even if the term hLASTHRION was in common use on the
Day of Atonement and the only other use is in Hebrews 9:5, clearly
referring to the Mercy Seat, it does not follow automatically that Paul
uses it in this way. He argues for the more open "means of propitiation,"
which retains the substantive but doesn't go to extreme of reinterpreting
Paul's language by the LXX. He goes on to point out how rare the use of
the adjective is and conclude that we cannot assume Paul uses the rarer
form unless there is good evidence of it. In this way, he points out that
the use of hILASTHRION occurs with the article (or EPIQEMA in one instance)
as a way of specifically referring to the Mercy Seat only in contexts that
make this reference clear. Morris also takes it to be the neuter rather
than masculine for similar reasons, in spite of some Latin versions early
on and some rather distinguished voices. He says that had Paul intended
the masculine, that is a ref. to Christ, he would have used hILASTHS.
Going back to the LXX Morris points out that the translation of KAPPORETH
by hILASTHRION always occurs in a context where its use is qualified by a
reference to the ark or the cherubim or such, so that a lapse in into the
use of the word without the qualifying EPIQEMA but with the article was
quite natural. However, the noun itself can have a variety of meanings,
including the ledge of the altar, Noah's ark, a monastery and a church. In
the one place KAPPORETH occurs without contextual support for equating it
with the ark (1 Chron. 28:11), the translators use EXILASMOS, evidence,
Morris contends, that hILASTHRION is not necessarily a direct equivalent to
KAPPORETH. Again, in Ezekiel and Amos the Greek is used of objects other
than the KAPPORETH. In fact, he finds five instances in Ezekiel that
should be added to the evidence of LXX usage, where the hILASTHRION does
not have anything to do with KAPPORETH. His remark, that it cannot be
avoided that the anarthrous use of hILASTHRION does not necessarily denote
"Mercy Seat," sums it up. The word he contends means propitiatory,
sometimes in some contexts referring to the Mercy Seat where that is
appropriate.
Paul F. Evans
Pastor
Thunder Swamp Pentecostal Holiness Church
MT. Olive
E-mail: evans@esn.net
Web-page: http://ww2.esn.net/~evans