Some notes on Daniel 8:14 and niṣdaq
In the very important longdistance
period prophecy of Daniel 8 on the two-thousand three hundred evenings and
mornings = one day = one year in biblical prophecy the word appears niṣdaq. The following is important: 1.
The
word is a hapax legomenon meaning that it appears in that form of the
Niphal as a passive meaning only once in the whole Old Testament. 2.
Semantics
is the science of meaning and to find the meaning of words the context of a
number of phrases of the same word helps establish its meaning. This is how
dictionaries originate and this is how BDB Brown-Driver-Briggs allocated
their meanings to words. 3.
When
a word is rare, no context is available so one has to use surrounding hints in
the same sentence to take the word to a certain context: temple/sanctuary. 4.
That
said, the Jewish translator of the LXX or Septuagint or Greek translation of
the Old Testament saw the sanctuary and realized that this action is to take
place within a tabernacle/sanctuary context. Thus the translation was the Greek
word as καὶ
καθαρισθήσεται τὸ ἅγιον = and the
sanctuary shall be cleansed. 5.
Both
the Hebrew and the Greek of Leviticus 16:30 talks about the Day of Atonement as
a day Atonement is made and cleansing takes place: ἐν γὰρ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ταύτῃ ἐξιλάσεται περὶ ὑμῶν,
καθαρίσαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ πασῶν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν ἔναντι Κυρίου, καὶ καθαρισθήσεσθε.
= “For in this day he shall make an atonement for you, to cleanse you from all
your sins before the Lord, ad ye shall be cleansed”. But then, the word used in
the Hebrew of Leviticus 16:30 is not niṣdaq
but thaher as we see in the citation of the original: כִּי-בַיּוֹם הַזֶּה יְכַפֵּר
עֲלֵיכֶם לְטַהֵר אֶתְכֶם מִכֹּל חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה תִּטְהָרוּ = “For on this day shall atonement be made
for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the Lord.”
The Ptolemaic translator in Greek of Leviticus probably had that meaning also
for niṣdaq
because of the sanctuary context. 6.
For
an Adventist the question should not be a polarization of cleansing and
justified, a setting up of a sanctuary scene on the Day of Atonement versus a
court scene. What is a Day of Atonement on earth in the Most Holy of Leviticus
16 is a Court Scene in heaven according to Daniel 7:9-13. It is two sides of
the same coin. Not either cleanse or justified but both. 7.
The
justification is not humans but God‘s character is justified in the eyes of all
heavenly creatures as jury of the Investigative Judgment. 8.
The
theology of salvation comes with a package of cleansing plus justification. See
David in Psalm 51:2-4. Cleansed from washing of Baptism, the sinner is cleansed
from his sin and cleansed from his sin God will be justified and clear when He
judges. These verses breath the Investigative Judgment, the Day of Atonement
language of Leviticus 16:30, the niṣdaq
of Daniel 8:14. 9.
The
final conclusion is that niṣdaq
has both the context of an earthly and heavenly Court Scene or context but
theologically is related to soteriology in the way David saw it that cleansed
from sin means that God is justified in heaven in the Investigative Judgment or
Court also in Heaven. It is the heavenly sanctuary that is the setting for the
court scene there. That was to happen 2300 years since 1844 according to Daniel
8:14. This is regardless what R. Cottrell, D. Ford, or anyone since in
California or elsewhere wants to say about the subject. God does not work with
a theology of polarization of cleansing sins and be justified, an either or
choice, but both as one package.