Question 1

What does "Holy" mean in the King James Bible?

Accepted Answer

In the KJV, "Holy" means "pure." The otherness. When the seraphim cried 'holy, holy, holy,' they were not saying God was really, really good. They were declaring Him to be utterly unlike anything in creation -- so different that the repetition intensified the distance. Holiness was not the top of the moral scale but a different scale entirely.

Question 2

Why did the word "Holy" disappear from modern English?

Accepted Answer

Hebrew qadosh ('set apart/utterly other/cut off from the common') collapsed into 'morally pure' or 'religious.' Holiness became about avoiding bad things rather than being fundamentally different from everything created. The word was at peak usage around 1611 and declined by still used but evacuated (~1900).

Question 3

What modern word replaced "Holy"?

Accepted Answer

"Holy" was replaced by: "pure" (though this moral category only; holiness was ontological -- a different category of existence); "sacred" (though this implies ceremonial respect; qadosh meant terrifyingly other -- the burning bush that cannot be approached); "religious" (though this institutional and behavioral; holiness was the searing otherness of god's very nature).

What Does “Holy” Mean in the Bible?

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