By Ken Yates
INTRODUCTION
It is fascinating to study how the meanings of words develop and how different languages use a word. Recently, I heard a Spanish speaker use a word over and over again in a sermon. It was a word with which I was unfamiliar. At first, I thought he was saying causto. I looked it up and saw that it meant “toxic.” In light of the sermon, that didn’t make any sense. Then I realized that he was saying holo-causto. He was saying “holocaust.”
But that didn’t make sense either. When I hear the word holocaust, I immediately think of the extermination of six million Jews by Nazi Germany during WWII. This Spanish speaker was not talking about the Jews or WWII. In his sermon, he was reading from Hebrews 10. He was talking about Christ and His sacrifice. It drove me crazy trying to figure out why he was talking about the Holocaust. I found out that the word means different things in different languages.
DIGGING DEEPER
It was clear that the Spanish-speaking preacher was saying that in Hebrews 10, the author refers to a holocaust. I found a Spanish Bible and looked it up. Sure enough, the word is found in Heb 10:6 and 8. In English, verse 6 says, “In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.” In verse 8, the author repeats his reference to burnt offerings. In both cases, the Spanish word for burnt offerings is holocausto.
In both verses, the author refers to Ps 40:6-8. The psalms were originally written in Hebrew. The Hebrew word for burnt offering is olah. I wondered. Based on the way we use the word in English, I couldn’t figure out why the Spanish equivalent is holocaust.
Fortunately, I found the answer very quickly. When the OT was translated into Greek, it rendered the Hebrew word olah as holokaustōn. Whenever you see the phrase burnt offering in your English Bible, it is translating the Greek word holocaust. The Greek word holo means “whole.” The Greek word kaustōn means “burnt.” In Greek, the word holokaustōn literally refers to an offering that is completely burned up. That is the Greek word in Heb 10:6 and 8.
The Spanish language simply transliterated the Greek word. It seems that when a native Spanish speaker hears the word holocaust, he does not think of WWII or of Jews. Neither did Greek speakers when the books of the NT were written. In both languages, the word means an animal sacrifice that is “completely burned up” on the altar.
WHY DO WE USE IT THAT WAY?
If the word refers to a religious sacrifice to God, why do we refer to the slaughter of six million Jews as the Holocaust? How did the word acquire this meaning in English? I doubt there are many—if any—native English speakers who hear the word holocaust and think of an OT sacrifice.
Though it did not happen immediately, the term Holocaust came to be widely used in English to refer to the WWII atrocity because of the final fate of the Jews killed by Nazi Germany. Their bodies were completely burned up in the crematoria in the death camps. After WWII, various writers began using the Greek (and Spanish) term as a metaphor to describe the horrific events. Just as the bodies of certain sacrificial animals were completely burned up, so were the bodies of the Jews killed during WWII.
NOT EVERYONE AGREES
In the English-speaking world, holocaust has come to mean something radically different from its original meaning, and not everyone thinks it is appropriate to use it that way. Immediately after WWII, the extermination of the Jews was not called the Holocaust. Especially among those who survived the events, the deaths of their friends and families became known as the catastrophe or the destruction.
As the term Holocaust became more popular in English, many Jews pointed out that the Greek word holokaustōn and the Hebrew word from which it came have strong religious overtones. A burnt offering in the OT was something that was pleasing to God. Certainly, Jewish writers pointed out, the Nazis were not offering up a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God when they slaughtered Jewish families. Unlike those who had offered burnt sacrifices in the temple, these writers’ fellow Jews had not been atoning for the sins of those who killed them. Those who were burned up in the ovens were unwilling victims whose very deaths were the result of profound evil and sinful activity. To use any kind of reference to something offered to God is entirely inappropriate.
I must admit, I see their point. If I had lost family members in the death camps of WWII, I probably wouldn’t want their deaths referred to as a sacrifice to God on the part of the men who killed them. I would much prefer that it be called the catastrophe. In fact, when we use the word Holocaust in English, that is the meaning we ascribe to it.
Greek speakers in the first century, native Spanish speakers, and Jewish OT scholars see the word much differently than most of us probably do. That explains why I was so confused when I heard the word in a Spanish sermon.
I think we can learn by looking at the way the word is used in other languages. In doing so, maybe we can apply those meanings to what the author of Hebrews says about Christ in Hebrews 10.
CHRIST AS A HOLOCAUST
In Heb 10:4-10, the author speaks of the OT sacrifices. None of them, including the whole burnt offering, or holocaust, could take away our sins. They were a shadow in that they pointed to the sacrifice that would truly take away the sins of the world (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2). That would be the sacrifice Christ made on the cross.
What a sacrifice it was! Since He took away the sins of the world, the gift of eternal life is available to all who believe in Jesus for that gift. That sacrifice allows God to declare righteous all who believe in Christ so that they have access to Him. That sacrifice set the believer free from the power of sin so that we now can walk by the power of the Spirit. That sacrifice is the means by which believers receive the ongoing forgiveness of sins when they confess those sins. This forgiveness allows those who already have eternal life to continue their fellowship with the Lord. That fellowship allows us to learn more about Christ and to become more like Him.
The author of Hebrews, then, says that Christ was a whole burnt offering for us. In His case, He was a sacrificial victim. His offering was pleasing to the Lord. We could say that He gave Himself completely. He was abandoned by all who knew Him. He was beaten, scourged, mocked, rejected by both Jewish and Roman society, and died outside the gates of Jerusalem because He was unworthy even to die in front of polite company.
If we consider the meaning of the word in Greek, Spanish, and Hebrew, we could say that Christ was our holocaust.
But I suggest that we could also call Him our holocaust in the way we English speakers use the word. Was a greater injustice ever experienced by anyone who has ever lived? From a human perspective, there was no greater catastrophe. He was completely innocent. He had done nothing but good His entire life, and He spoke only the truth. He was the only perfect Man who ever lived, yet He was murdered by evil men. When they killed Him, they did not do so in order to offer something to God. There is no greater example of sinful activity.
Christ’s sacrifice also leaves us an example to live by. As He sacrificed Himself, we are to do the same in service to Him and others (Rom 12:1-2; Mark 8:34-37). To whatever degree we are faithful to Him, we are called to be a holocaust as well.
CONCLUSION
It is interesting to examine how different cultures and languages use the same word. It can surely be confusing. In some cases, the way one language uses a word can be offensive to those who speak a different language. The word holocaust is a case in point.
It probably speaks to the greatness of Christ that the various ways people use the word can all apply to Him. His death was the grossest miscarriage of justice in the world. It was a Holocaust in the English sense.
But He was also a holocaust in the sense that other languages use the word. His death was full of religious significance. It was the perfect sacrifice, perfectly acceptable to God. In fact, all the OT holocausts made at the temple pointed to Him.
In whatever culture you live, and in whatever language you speak, Christ was our holocaust.
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Ken Yates is a retired Army chaplain (Lt. Col). He has many theological degrees, including a Ph.D. from D.T.S. in New Testament. He leads the GES international ministry, cohosts the daily podcast, and assists Bob in all aspects of the GES ministry. His new book, Elisabeth, is a powerful testimony to the power of God manifested in a Christ-centered family. He and his wife, Pam, live in Columbia, SC.
