Holiness
When it comes to words that are frequently used in church contexts, sometimes it is necessary to step back and parse what a word really means. Holy is one of these words. In what follows, I’d like to offer a brief description of the word holy and then examine the word through some illustrations that are intended to open a new lens to look at scripture through. Holy has to do with categories. If something is “holy”, that means it belongs in the category of special or unique. Often the pitfall has been to focus on moral goodness or purity when the word is used. While the word can often carry this significance, that understanding is secondary. One way to better understand a word is to look at its opposite. For holy, the opposite is not ‘evil’, but ‘common’. As a simple illustration, the Sabbath is understood to be a holy day. If evil was holy’s opposite, the Sabbath would be holy and the rest of the days of the week would be evil. The correct description is that the Sabbath is