The* “SIGNS” QUESTION CORNER by William G. Wirth

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California, U. S. A. · Sep 9, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 35.

The “SIGNS” QUESTION CORNER

By William G. Wirth

Conducted by WILLIAM G. WIRTH, 5447 EL VERANO AVENUE, EAGLE ROCK, CALIFORNIA

If you have a question regarding Bible doctrine and Christian living, or on other subjects apropos to the field of the “Signs of the Times,” write out your question and send it in, preferably direct to Dr. Wirth. Anonymous questions will not be answered. Do not become impatient if your question is not answered immediately, for Dr. Wirth has scores of questions in waiting, and yours will be answered in order.

THE VEILS OF THE SANCTUARY

A minister asks for a critical discussion of the word “veil” in relation to the sanctuary of the Old Testament.

In all the twenty-odd times that the word “veil” (Hebrew, paroketh) is used in the Old Testament,—whether alone or in the phrases “within the veil,” “without the veil,” or “before the veil,”—it is quite clear that it refers to the curtain at the entrance of the second apartment of the sanctuary, the most holy place. When the veil at the entrance of the first apartment, or holy place, is mentioned, another word (Hebrew, masak) is used, translated “hanging” in the King James Version; as “screen” in the American Revised Version.

This would seem to make the problem of “veil” in the New Testament very simple,—that wherever it is found it means the curtain before the most holy place. However, when we consult the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, with which the New Testament writers were very familiar and from which they drew heavily in their terminology, phraseology, Old Testament quotations,—naturally so, because of the common language medium, the Greek,—we find that the Septuagint employs one word at times, katapetasma, for all the veils of the sanctuary. In the greater number of instances katapetasma is used in the Septuagint for the veil before the most holy place; in fewer cases it is used in the Septuagint for the veil before the holy place (Exodus 26:37; 37:5; 39:20; 40:5, 19); and in a few references in the Septuagint it stands for the veil of the door of the sanctuary court (Exodus 37:16; Numbers 3:26; 4:32). This threefold usage of katapetasma in the Old Testament makes it clear that its use in the New Testament cannot be made dogmatically to apply to one particular veil and only that veil. The setting, the background, of the context in which it occurs, the thought in the New Testament writer’s mind, can alone determine which veil it is.

Taking up the first three references in the New Testament containing katapetasma (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45), all Bible students are agreed that the “veil” of the temple here, properly so from its temple background, is the one between the first and the second apartment.

The remaining places where katapetasma is used are all in the epistle to the Hebrews (6:19; 9:3; 10:20). When careful study is given these, a most significant fact is noted. In chapter 9:3 the New Testament writer puts the word “second” before the “veil” that leads into the “holy of holies.” This indisputably shows that the author of Hebrews, who saturates his epistle with the literary form of the Septuagint, is using katapetasma, as the Septuagint uses it, to cover more than one particular sanctuary veil. Had he restricted himself to the Hebrew literary form of the Old Testament, he would simply have said “veil” in referring to this curtain before the most holy place. without any qualifying word such as “second.” It is this Septuagintal use of katapetasma that shows how dangerous it is to hold that “veil” in Hebrews must mean only one thing, the curtain before the second apartment. This would be true if the writer of the epistle were following exclusively Hebrew thought; but he is not. Let me again emphasize that the New Testament writers had two Old Testaments at their disposal, the Hebrew and the Greek, and that both were used to express literary form and thought vehicle. Bible students who follow only the Hebrew Old Testament literary form will be very likely to get a one-sided idea of New Testament terms, which will lead them to half-truths and wrong theological conclusions. Both Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments must be studied to arrive at the New Testament writer’s meaning.

Because of this varied use of katapetasma, there is only one safe rule in determining which apartment “veil” is to be understood in Hebrews, and that is by the context, as I indicated in a former question on the writer of Hebrews’ use of hagion (holy) for “sanctuary.” Here in chapter 9:3 it definitely indicates it by the word “second.” As the purpose of the author of Hebrews is to show that we have a High Priest in heaven, who is ministering there in our behalf as did the priests for the people under the earthly sanctuary order, Hebrews 6:19 (read also the twentieth verse) simply affirms that our Lord after His ascension began this ministry in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, “entering into that which is within the veil” of the holy place. The fact that Hebrews 9:3 indicates a “second veil,” proves conclusively the first veil at the entrance of the first apartment, referred to in Hebrews 6:19, in which apartment Christ would naturally begin His work.

What Hebrews 10:20 means by the “new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh,” is that in Christ we have a heavenly priesthood taking the place of the Old Testament earthly priesthood of the Levitical system. Under the old priesthood the believer entered the veil of the sanctuary through the ministration of those who had sinful flesh. Now access is open to the believer “through the veil” of the heavenly sanctuary through the “flesh” of the sinless God-man, Christ. See Hebrews 2:9-18; 4:15; 5:7-10; 9:11-14; 10:5-14. Hence, katapetasma here refers to the curtain at the entrance of the holy place.