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Verse 21. "For he hath made him to be sin for us" - ton mh gnonta amartian, uper hmwn amartian epoihsen? He made him who knew no
sin, (who was
innocent,) a
sin-offering for us. The word amartia occurs here twice: in the first place it means
sin, i.e.
transgression and guilt; and of
Christ it is said, He knew no
sin, i.e. was
innocent; for not to know
sin is the same as to be conscious of
innocence; so, nil conscire sibi, to be conscious of nothing against one's self, is the same as nulla pallescere culpa, to be unimpeachable.
In the second place, it signifies a
sin-offering, or
sacrifice for
sin, and answers to the hafj chattaah and tafj chattath of the Hebrew text; which signifies both
sin and
sin-offering in a great variety of places in the
Pentateuch. The Septuagint translate the Hebrew word by amartia in ninety-four places in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, where a
sin-offering is meant; and where our version translates the word not
sin, but an offering for
sin. Had our translators attended to their own method of translating the word in other places where it means the same as here, they would not have given this false view of a passage which has been made the
foundation of a most blasphemous
doctrine; viz. that our
sins were imputed to
Christ, and that he was a proper object of the indignation of
Divine justice, because he was blackened with imputed
sin; and some have proceeded so
far in this blasphemous career as to say, that
Christ may be considered as the greatest of
sinners, because all the
sins of
mankind, or of the
elect, as they say, were imputed to him, and reckoned as his own. One of these writers translates the passage thus: Deus Christum pro maximo peccatore habuit, ut nos essemus maxime justi,
God accounted
Christ the greatest of
sinners, that we might be supremely
righteous. Thus they have
confounded sin with the
punishment due to
sin.
Christ suffered in our stead;
died for us; bore our
sins, (the
punishment due to them,) in his own body upon the
tree, for the
Lord laid upon him the
iniquities of us all; that is, the
punishment due to them; explained by making his
soul-his
life, an offering for
sin; and healing us by his
stripes.
But that it may be plainly seen that
sin-offering, not
sin, is the meaning of the word in this verse, I shall set down the places from the Septuagint where the word occurs; and where it answers to the Hebrew words already quoted; and where our translators have rendered correctly what they render here incorrectly. In EXODUS,
Exod. xxix. 14, xx16: LEVITICUS,
Lev. iv. 3, 8, 20, 21, 24, 25, 29, 32-34;
Lev. v. 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12;
Lev. vi. 17, 25, 30;
Lev. vii. 7, 37;
Lev. viii. 2, 14;
Lev. ix. 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 15, 22;
Lev. x. 16, 17, 19;
Lev. xii. 6, 8; Leviticus xiv. 13, 19, 22, 31;
Lev. xv. 15, 30;
Lev. xvi. 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 15, 25, 27; Lev. xxiii. 19: NUMBERS,
Num. vi. 11, 14, 16;
Num. vii. 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 52, 58, 70, 76, 82, 87; Numbers viii. 8, 12;
Num. xv. 24, 25, 27;
Num. xviii. 9;
Num. xxviii. 15, 22; Num. xxix. 5, 11, 16, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34, 38.
Besides the above places, it occurs in the same signification, and is properly translated in our version, in the following places:- 2 CHRONICLES,
2 Chron. xxix. 21, 23, 24: Ezra,
Ezra vi. 17;
Ezra viii. x25: NEHEMIAH,
Neh. x. x23: Job,
Job i. 5: EZEKIEL,
Ezek. xliii. 19, 22, 25;
Ezek. xliv. 27, 29; Ezekiel xlv. 17, 19, 22, 23, 25. In all, one
hundred and eight places, which, in the course of my own reading in the Septuagint, I have marked.
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