Does God Overlook Evil?

Biblegems #199

Question: What is meant by the apostle Paul’s statement in Acts 17:30 where he says that “in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands people everywhere to repent”? Isn’t this “overlooking” of evil precisely what many people today accuse God of doing?

The answer to this question is found in the meaning of the word translated “overlooked” in its immediate context, and in the context of Scripture as a whole.

Immediate Context

“Overlooked” translates a form of the Greek word “opheilo,” which carries the idea of indebtedness. As used in Acts 17:30, Paul is saying that God did not hold the human race immediately accountable for the pervasive sin of idolatry. We owed Him our total love and loyalty and chose instead to give that love to things made with our own hands. God had, therefore, ample justification for passing judgment for our offenses against Him, but withheld that judgment. And by withholding judgment evil has been allowed to continue.

This is not the first time in the book of Acts this theme has come up.  Paul had earlier pointed out how God has allowed the nations to determine their own course rather than follow God’s will in determining their place in history:

         Acts 14:16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way.

God’s purpose is to give mankind time to see the error of self-determination and repent. Instead, man’s persistent rebellion results in a history of warfare, death and destruction that we conveniently blame on God.

General Context

Acts 17:30 highlights a truth found woven throughout the Bible—God is love, and His mercy runs in advance of His judgment. Because He does not exercise judgment upon us right away, our disobedience enslaves us to a never-ending cycle of self-destructive behavior until repentance breaks that chain.

Rom. 11:32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

The Day of Judgment is coming, however, and the man God sent to save us from that judgment by sacrificing his own innocent life in our place—Jesus Christ—is also the one who will collect on the debt owed from those who reject him.

         Rom. 3:25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

        

Imagine you advance a contractor a million dollars to build a beautiful home on land you own, with the intent that the contractor move in with his family when it is completed. Instead, the contractor uses the money to buy classic sports cars.  You have every right to demand immediate payback. Instead, you give the contractor time to repent and make things right. You “overlook,” for the time being, the debt that is owed, although the day of recompense will certainly come! 

2Pet. 3:9-10 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

"Mercy Seat" or "Atonement Cover"?

Biblegems #117

Question: Why does the NIV use the term “atonement cover” in Exodus 27:17, when the KJV and most other translations use the term “mercy seat”?

Here is the verse in question:

         Ex. 25:17 Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. (NIV)

         Ex. 25:17 And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. (KJV)

The answer is a matter of both translation and principles of biblical interpretation.

First, the Translation

The Hebrew term we translate into English as either “mercy seat” or “atonement cover” is the noun “khapporet.” The basic meaning of the Hebrew word is “to make an atonement.” Neither the word “seat” nor “cover” is actually involved in the fundamental meaning of the word “Khapporet.” We’ll look at that under Interpretation.

Behind the noun “khapporet” is the verb “kapar,” which means “I, make an atonement, make reconciliation”. [i] The idea of “cover” or “conceal” stems from a similar Arabic word, but that meaning is not native to the Hebrew. Kapar is the same Hebrew word that is behind the name of the familiar Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, “Day of Atonement.”

Then, The Interpretation

As was mentioned earlier, the word “seat,” “lid” or “cover” is not present in the Hebrew. Nevertheless, the object we commonly know as the “mercy seat” was the lid on the Ark of the Covenant that is described in verse 17. The English word “seat” can be used in a variety of ways. The sense intended by the translators of the KJV was probably “position” or “place,” not a place to sit down. In other words, the Ark of the Covenant was the place of atonement, the place where God extended mercy toward sinners, and the lid was the focus of that atonement because it is there, above the cover, where God would speak with Moses (Ex. 25:22).

The Greek translation (the LXX) of this passage in Exodus translates khapporet as the hilasterion, meaning the “propitiatory covering” or “place of forgiveness,” and the New Testament follows this Greek translation in Hebrews 9:5. The translators of the KJV followed the LXX and its New Testament counterpart, but worded “propitiatory covering” as “mercy seat.” That is decision of interpretation, not translation.

The translators of the NIV chose to follow the more literal Hebrew in Exodus 25:17, rather than the LXX translation. They also chose to follow the literal Greek in Hebrews 9:5, staying with “propitiatory covering.” Both the KJV and the NIV had to supply the word “cover” or “seat” where it is only implied in Exodus 25:17.

As we have seen before in Bible Gems, translation and interpretation can be a tricky business, and the lines between the two can easily become blurred. But nothing is lost in either translation. The Ark of the Covenant, a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ, is where atonement (propitiation) is made for sin, and where mercy is received by those whose sins are washed clean by the shed blood of the Lamb!

---

[i] Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, #1023.