ἁγιασμός

From the study of 2 Thessalonians 2:13

Range of meaning

The act or process of making holy, consecrating, or setting apart for God. Also the resulting state of holiness. In Paul it combines belonging to God with matching behaviour.

Against the English

"Sanctification" is accurate, but it is a church-Latin word that most readers no longer use. Many hear it as a technical later stage of the Christian life ("first justification, then sanctification").

How it drifted

Later theology arranged salvation into a sequence of stages (calling, justification, sanctification and so on). Within that scheme "sanctification" came to mean gradual moral improvement after conversion. Paul's use is broader. It includes the first act of being set apart for God (1 Cor 6:11 puts "you were sanctified" in the past).

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Thess 4:3–7 (God's will is "your sanctification", applied to sexual conduct); Rom 6:19, 22; 1 Cor 1:30. 1 Peter 1:2 uses the identical phrase ἐν ἁγιασμῷ πνεύματος together with election. This suggests early Christians used the wording as a set expression. Behind the idea is the Old Testament language of holiness: Israel set apart as a holy people (Lev 20:26).

From the study of 1 Thessalonians 4:3

Range of meaning

A noun from hagiazō ("to make holy, consecrate, set apart for God"). It means (1) the act or process of making holy, consecration; (2) the resulting state of holiness or set-apartness. BDAG gives "holiness, consecration, sanctification" and notes that in Paul it is the use of holiness "in a moral sense, for a process or, more often, its result." Behind it stands Hebrew qadosh / qodesh: what belongs to God and is removed from ordinary or forbidden use.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and ESV give "sanctification," a Latin-based churchy word most readers hear as a doctrine. BSB and NIV turn the noun into a verb phrase ("that you should be holy" / "be sanctified"). That reads smoothly but can sound like a static state rather than an ongoing setting-apart. Modern "holy" also tends to mean "pious" or "religious-seeming," while the root idea is "belonging to God, set apart."

How it drifted

In later Protestant theology "sanctification" became a technical term for a stage in the order of salvation, the lifelong inner growth that follows justification. Paul's usage overlaps with that, but here he grounds the word in concrete conduct, sexual behaviour, and in the community's identity as God's set-apart people. It is not mainly an inner spiritual state.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare outside biblical and Jewish Greek. It occurs in a few late Septuagint texts (e.g. Sirach 7:31, 2 Maccabees 2:17), with a priestly and cultic flavour of consecration. Paul uses it three times in this short passage (4:3, 4, 7) and again in Romans 6:19, 22 and 1 Corinthians 1:30. Compare 2 Thess 2:13, Heb 12:14 and 1 Pet 1:2. The idea goes back to Leviticus: "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" (Lev 19:2), where the holiness code ties Israel's set-apartness directly to sexual boundaries (Lev 18; 20:7–26).

From the study of 1 Peter 1:2

Range of meaning

An action noun (the -mos ending marks an action or process) from hagiazō, 'to make holy, consecrate, set apart for God'. It covers both the act of consecrating and the resulting holy state, and in Paul also the holy way of living that fits it (1 Thessalonians 4:3–7).

Against the English

'Sanctification' in modern church language usually means gradual moral growth over a lifetime, the second stage after being 'justified'. Here it comes before obedience and before the covenant sprinkling, so it describes the Spirit's first act of setting these people apart as God's own. NIV and NASB's 'sanctifying work' leans toward a process; KJV, YLT and WEB's 'sanctification of the Spirit' keeps the noun but invites the modern sense.

How it drifted

Reformation and later Protestant theology arranged salvation into ordered stages (calling, justification, sanctification, glorification). That gave 'sanctification' a narrow technical meaning that English readers bring back into texts using the word more broadly.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare in the LXX. Amos 2:11 uses it of Nazirites raised up 'for consecration'. Sirach 7:31 has a 'sacrifice of consecration'. 2 Maccabees 2:17 says God gave all his people 'the heritage, the kingdom, the priesthood and the consecration (hagiasmos)', an echo of Exodus 19:6 much like 1 Peter 2:9. The exact phrase en hagiasmō pneumatos occurs in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, also in an election setting. Background: Israel was 'consecrated' before Sinai (Exodus 19:10, 14), and priests were consecrated before serving (Exodus 29).