Propitiation
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
ἱλαστήριον has two local NT-index occurrences, and both are load-bearing. Heb 9:5 uses it for the mercy seat — the golden lid of the Ark of the Covenant where the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἱλαστήριον (G2435) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἱλαστήριον has two local NT-index occurrences, and both are load-bearing. Heb 9:5 uses it for the mercy seat — the golden lid of the Ark of the Covenant where the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement.
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [as an] atoning sacrifice (1), mercy seat (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 3:25. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (1), Romans (1).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
ἱλαστήριον has two local NT-index occurrences, and both are load-bearing. Heb 9:5 uses it for the mercy seat — the golden lid of the Ark of the Covenant where the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement. That is the background. Rom 3:25 is the theological summit: 'God put forward [Christ] as a propitiation by his blood.' Paul is saying that what the mercy seat was in the Mosaic system — the place where blood met the presence of God and atonement was accomplished — Christ is in reality.
Not a piece of gold furniture in a tent but a person, the Son of God, whose blood is the actual atonement the Levitical system was pointing toward. The word carries the concept of propitiation — the turning away of righteous wrath. God's wrath against sin is real; the gospel is not that God looked the other way or graded on a curve, but that the wrath was borne and satisfied in the cross.
Rom 3:25-26 makes the logic explicit: God passed over former sins 'so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.' The justice and the mercy are both upheld — not in tension but in resolution, at the mercy seat that is Christ.
ἱλαστήριον has two local NT-index occurrences. Both are therefore the full local NT witness and each is theologically decisive: Heb 9:5 establishes the mercy-seat background from Levitical worship; Rom 3:25 applies the term to Christ as the fulfillment of that background. The OT background (Exod 25; Lev 16) must be held alongside both NT texts to grasp the full weight of the word.
God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.
The doctrinal anchor. God is the subject — the initiative is entirely divine; God put Christ forward, not Christ volunteering independently. 'By his blood' identifies the means. 'To be received by faith' names the human reception-point. The purpose clause (vv. 25-26) is the theological crown: God passed over former sins in forbearance, and now at the cross both His justice and His justifying mercy are publicly demonstrated.
The word ἱλαστήριον chosen here carries the full mercy-seat resonance: Christ is the place where the holy God meets sinners, where blood is presented, where justice and mercy converge.
Above the ark were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.
The only other NT occurrence of ἱλαστήριον — here unambiguously the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Hebrews describes the physical layout of the tabernacle (Heb 9:1-5) before arguing that Christ has entered the true heavenly sanctuary with His own blood (Heb 9:11-14). The mercy seat in the earthly tent was the shadow; Christ's blood before the Father is the reality.
The author's restraint ('of these things we cannot now speak in detail') is itself significant — the mercy seat is too weighty to handle briefly.
Aaron shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and bring its blood behind the veil, and with its blood he must do as he did with the bull’s blood: He is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it.
The Levitical background that gives ἱλαστήριον its weight. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies — only once a year, only with blood — and sprinkled it on the כַּפֹּרֶת (the mercy seat, LXX ἱλαστήριον). This was the ritual center of Israel's annual reconciliation with YHWH. Heb 9:7 references this exact ceremony; Heb 9:11-14 contrasts it with Christ's once-for-all entry with His own blood. Paul's use of ἱλαστήριον in Rom 3:25 is incomprehensible without this background.
And I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony; I will speak with you about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.
YHWH's declaration about the mercy seat: it is the place where He meets with His people, speaks, and gives commandment. The mercy seat is not merely a lid on a box; it is the place of divine presence and divine communication. This establishes the theological register: the ἱλαστήριον is where God and humanity meet, where the holy One becomes accessible to sinners. Paul's application of the term to Christ says: Christ is the new meeting-place between God and humanity.
He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John uses ἱλασμός (the noun form from the same root) rather than ἱλαστήριον, but the concept is identical and the passage is the pastoral companion to Rom 3:25. John's scope ('not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world') addresses the question of sufficiency: the propitiation is adequate for all. This verse is the pastoral answer to the person asking whether their sin is too great — the propitiation's scope is the whole world's sin.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. God's instrument for turning away wrath through atoning sacrifice, not merely covering sin
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
2 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a sin offering, covering
Read versea sin offering, covering
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Where this word appears in Scripture: passage, original form, and sense in context.
ἱλαστήριον is built from this root:
It identifies Christ’s death as the means by which God’s wrath is satisfied and justice upheld. Hebrews 9:1-10
Anticipates Christ's propitiatory sacrifice. Romans 3:21-26
Rom 3:25-26 is one of the most compressed theological statements in the NT, and ἱλαστήριον is its load-bearing word. Paul says God demonstrated His righteousness by passing over former sins — meaning the long centuries of OT history during which God appeared to tolerate sin without fully dealing with it — and now at the cross both His justice and His mercy are simultaneously vindicated.
The justice: sin was not overlooked; wrath was borne and satisfied. The mercy: the one who bears it is the Son of God, given freely by the Father. The word ἱλαστήριον holds both: it is the mercy seat where blood meets the presence of God and reconciliation is accomplished. Preaching from this word is preaching the full gospel — not a God who is only merciful (and therefore unjust) or only just (and therefore terrifying) but the God who is both at once, at the cross.
Rom.3.25
The translation debate over ἱλαστήριον in Rom 3:25 is one of the most significant in NT scholarship. The options are: (1) propitiation (the means of turning away wrath — Leon Morris, John Murray); (2) expiation (the covering of sin, without wrath in view — C. H. Dodd); (3) mercy seat (the physical object by analogy — N. T. Wright, Richard Hays). The mercy-seat reading is linguistically strongest because ἱλαστήριον is regularly the LXX term for the kapporeth throughout Exodus and Leviticus; Paul's readers would have heard that resonance immediately.
The expiation/propitiation debate is theologically real: if the word means mercy seat, propitiation is implied (blood on the mercy seat was propitiatory) — the two readings converge. The verb ἱλάσκομαι means to placate, to appease wrath, to make propitious — the word-family is strongly propitiatory in secular Greek and in the LXX.
The OT foundation: Exod 25:17-22 (the mercy seat constructed; YHWH will meet Israel there) → Lev 16 (the Day of Atonement; blood sprinkled on the kapporeth annually) → Ps 85:10 ('steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other' — the mercy-seat dynamic in poetic form) → Isa 53:10 ('YHWH was pleased to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt') → NT: Rom 3:24-26 (Christ as the hilasterion publicly set forth) → Heb 9:5 (the earthly mercy seat identified) → Heb 9:11-14 (Christ enters the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood) → Heb 10:19-22 (we now have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus) → 1 John 2:2; 4:10 (he is the propitiation for our sins). The arc: the mercy seat instituted as the meeting-point between holy God and sinful people → the annual blood-ritual pointing forward → Christ as the reality the shadow pointed toward → the way into the presence of God opened permanently.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain