Day of Atonement(yom kippur)
“Day of Coverings (or Expiations)”
Summary
The most solemn day in Israel's religious calendar, observed annually on the tenth of the seventh month, when the high priest alone entered the Most Holy Place to make atonement for the sins of the entire nation.
☩Institution and Calendar
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was appointed for the tenth day of the seventh month (Tishri). God commanded Israel to 'afflict your souls'—a command universally understood as fasting—and to do no work whatsoever, treating the day as 'a sabbath of solemn rest.' It was the only mandatory fast in the Mosaic law. The occasion was so well known in the ancient world that Luke could date Paul's voyage simply by noting that 'the fast was now already past' (Acts 27:9). The day also marked the beginning of the Year of Jubilee, when the trumpet sounded on the tenth of the seventh month to proclaim liberty throughout the land.
☩The Ceremony
The ritual, prescribed in Leviticus 16, was the most elaborate in Israel's worship. The high priest first bathed and put on plain white linen garments rather than his ornate robes of office. He then sacrificed a bull as a sin offering for himself and his household. Two goats were presented before the Lord and lots cast over them: one 'for the LORD' and the other 'for Azazel.' The Lord's goat was slain, and the high priest carried its blood behind the veil into the Most Holy Place, sprinkling it on and before the mercy seat. He burned incense so that a cloud covered the mercy seat 'that he die not.' Having atoned for the sanctuary itself—defiled by Israel's uncleanness—he then laid both hands on the live goat, confessing over it all the people's sins, and it was led away into the wilderness, symbolically bearing their transgressions to a land 'cut off.' Finally, additional burnt offerings were made for himself and the people.
☩The High Priest's Unique Access
On this single day of the year, and on this day alone, the high priest entered the Most Holy Place—the inner chamber of the tabernacle where God's presence dwelt between the cherubim above the ark of the covenant. No other priest could enter; no one else was even permitted in the tabernacle while the high priest performed the rites. The high priest made 'atonement for the sanctuary, the tabernacle, and the altar' as well as for the priests and all the people; it was the people's sin that defiled these places so as to make them unfit for the presence of the Holy One. The writer of Hebrews draws particular attention to this restricted access: 'into the second tabernacle went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people; the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest.'
☩Fulfillment in Christ
The epistle to the Hebrews presents Christ as both the true high priest and the perfect sacrifice who fulfills and supersedes the Day of Atonement. Where Aaron entered an earthly copy with the blood of bulls and goats, Christ entered 'heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us' with His own blood, obtaining 'eternal redemption.' The annual repetition of the ceremony testified to its inadequacy—'for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins'—but Christ, 'by one offering,' perfected forever those who are sanctified. The double aspect of the atoning work finds its resolution in Christ: the presenting of the blood to God, and the bearing away of sins never to be found. The veil of the temple was torn at Christ's death, signaling that the restricted access of the Day of Atonement was abolished and the way into the holiest opened for all believers.
☩The Testimony of the Talmud
The Babylonian Talmud records that during the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, four ominous signs manifested to the Jews every Day of Atonement. The lot 'for the LORD,' which the high priest drew over the two goats, ceased coming up in the right hand. The crimson thread, tied to the scapegoat or the Temple door as a visible sign of divine acceptance, stopped turning white. The western lamp of the menorah, which was expected to burn continually, began going out, and the great doors of the Temple opened by themselves. These forty years place the onset of these signs around the time of Christ's crucifixion in approximately 30 AD—a convergence which demonstrates that God ceased to accept the Temple's atonement rites because Christ's sacrifice had already rendered them obsolete.
Related Verses42 mentions
See Also
References
- 1.American Tract Society, "Scapegoat," in American Tract Society Bible Dictionary (American Tract Society, 1859).
- 2.George Morrish, "Atonement," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Atonement," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).
- 4.The William Davidson Talmud (Koren Noé Edition), b. Yoma 39b (Koren Publishers, c.450–550 CE).