Baw-dal (בָּדַל): The Division of Light from Darkness, Heaven from Earth, God’s Covenant People from the Nations and the True Priesthood from the Counterfeit: Part I. The Pentateuch: Gen-Lev

[Reading Time: 9 minutes]

Following the prior post on Eccl 7:7, which made explicit the double realities of the kingdom of light and darkness that are inherent in each word study, we move on to the Hebrew verb, bāḏal, which offers us further insight into how the light is separated from the darkness; and why.

בָּדַל (Bāḏal)

Etymology and Dictionary Definition

To separate, make a difference, divide, sever, distinguish, select out

42 occurrences in the OT

21x in the Pentateuch (the focus of the next two posts):

5x in Genesis; 1x in Exodus; 8x in Leviticus; 3x in Numbers; 5x in Deuteronomy

14x in the Histories (of which 9 occurrences come in the postexilic writings of Ezra/Nehemiah)

6x in the Major Prophets

Summary Synthesis

In the Pentateuch, bādal first appears in the creation of the cosmos in God’s separation of light from darkness, the heaven from the earth and day from night. This image of division will be the guiding theme throughout the remainder of the OT, being applied in progressively more elucidating ways as JHWH reveals how the holiness of His people necessarily involves the separation of their worship, their priesthood and they themselves from the darkness and corruption of This Fallen Age.

In Exodus, therefore, its only use appears in the Tabernacle where it designates the veil that divides the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (qodesh qodesh [הַקֳּדָשִֽׁים׃]). It is that which is the diving point between the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth.

And in its progression into the book of Leviticus, it specifies how it so divides not only the people of God from the nations, and not only the ministers of JHWH—the true priesthood from the counterfeit—but moreover, the holy from the unholy. As such, the principle of holiness itself is integrally connected to this principle of separation (again, qodesh, which means a “separation unto elevation and exaltation”) so that the people of God,

“shall be holy (qodesh) to Me, for I the Lord am holy (qodesh), and have separated (bādal [וָאַבְדִּ֥ל]) you from the peoples, that you should be Mine” (Lev )

Detailed Analysis

Genesis

The first five (and only) occurrences of bādal all appear in the opening chapter of Genesis and describe the act of creation. Specifically it is first used of God dividing (וַיַּבְדֵּל [bādal] the “light from darkness” (Gen 1:4), then the waters of the earth from the “sky of heaven” (raqia [רָקִיעַ]. 1:6-7), and finally, the lights “in the heavens” which “divide the day from the night” and “divide the light from the darkness” (1:14, 18).

First there is the light, which early rabbinical writings denote as the “effulgent splendor of the divine presence”1 (p. 60, cf. Jn 1:1-5-> Rev 22:5) that breaks into the primordial darkness. Then, there is the created light of the sun, moon and heavenly luminaries that order time in the cosmos. The eternal kingdom of God, we might say, is that which breaks into the finite realm, scattering darkness and establishing the order of the heavenly realm upon earth.

Exodus

In Exodus, where bādal appears only once, it speaks of a different kind of division. Related to and as an extension of God’s physical division of light from darkness, bādal comes to represent, in a sense, a spiritual division. And this division, this separation, will begin forming the basis of our understanding of holiness. That is to say, JHWH had separated a people unto Himself (Gen 12-50). And when they had fallen into slavery, the Lord redeemed the children of Israel out of bondage (Ex 1-15), “bearing them up on eagles’ wings,” bringing them through the waters of judgment and through the wilderness unto Himself at Sinai. the holy mountain (Ex 16-18), There, He gives them the Torah, codifying the “Book of the Covenant” (Ex 19-24), by which He separates them out from the gentiles as a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6).

The final section of Exodus then gives the reason for this separation—That JHWH may come to “dwell” with His redeemed people in the Tabernacle (Ex 25-40). [And here we might add that Jesus Himself is spoken of as the Presence of JHWH Who “tabernacled among us” (ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν)]. The Tabernacle is further identified as the Sanctuary (מִקְדָּ֑שׁ [miqdash], from קֹדֶשׁ [qodesh], which word Umberto Cassuto notes, relates the idea of separation unto “elevation and exaltation”2. For it is here that JHWH separates His covenant people out from the surrounding pagan nations that He “may meet” with and “speak with” them (Ex 25:22).

With this background to the Tabernacle and Sanctuary we come to its only use in Exodus. Chapter 26 offers in great detail the construction of the tabernacle. Here, it specifies the veil which shall be a divider (bādal [וְהִבְדִּילָ֤ה]) between the holy place (qodesh [הַקֹּ֔דֶשׁ]) and the Holy of Holies” (qodesh qodesh [הַקֳּדָשִֽׁים׃], 26:33). And in the Holy of Holies will be placed the mercy seat upon the ark of the covenant (26:34), whereupon morning and eventing “perpetual incense” shall be “burned before the Lord” and once a year the sins of the Israel will be atoned by the high priest (Ex 30:6-9).

This partition, as we know, would finally be done away with in the Passion of Christ, as the veil, the “divider,” is “rent in two from top to bottom” (Mt 27:51; Mk 15:38; Lk 23:44). In Mark’s Gospel, fascinatingly enough, the verb, schizó [ἐσχίσθη] is used, which occurs only only one other time in the book describing the “heavens being torn open” [σχιζομένους] at the Baptism of Jesus, Mk 1:10). That is to say, Jesus, Who had opened the pathway from Heaven to earth in His incarnation now reopens the path for God’s people from earth back to Heaven in His once for all sacrificial, atoning death (Heb 9:23-28).

Leviticus

By the time we come to Leviticus, bādal begins to become more deeply integrated into the very essence of separation involved in Israel’s worship, their priesthood and the people themselves from the darkness and corruption of the Age. As such, in the opening chapter it details the division within the sacrifices first of the burnt offerings (Lev 1:17) then of the sin offering (Lev 5:8) that have been given to God’s people to make atonement (kaphar [וְכִפֶּ֨ר]) for their sins.

From this point, it extends to the division between the priests themselves. In the historical interlude of Nadab and Abihu, we find a separation of the true priesthood from the false; or more specifically, those who offer the true sacrifices under the Lord’s direction which atone for the sins of the people and those who do not. Though the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu transgress their place and go beyond the Word of JHWH, entering into the Tabernacle themselves and taking off the altar the “fire that came out from before the Lord and had consumed the burnt offering” (9:24). With this holy fire in their censers, they then seek to “offer” it before God which He “commanded them not” (Lev 10:1). For this reason, following their human presumption that profanes their holy offering and transforms the divine fire of JHWH into “strange (zuwr [זָרָ֔ה]) fire”, JHWH judged them by fire such that they “died before the Lord” (10:2).

Following their removal from the “Sanctuary out of the camp” (10:4-7) The Lord then specifies in the subsequent verses that there must be a distinction, a separation, a division within the priesthood,

that [they] may distinguish (bādal [וּֽלֲהַבְדִּ֔יל]) between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that [they] may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken…(10:10-11).

As such, the remaining five uses in Leviticus all speak of this distinction that must be made between the holy and the unholy. First, in relation to the ceremonial laws of clean and unclean foods, related to those animals that have been set aside by the Lord as clean and unclean (11:47); then, the final four instances in quick succession presenting the principle that undergirds this distinction of Israel from the nations:

And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them.

But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

I am the Lord your God, who has separated (bādal [הִבְדַּ֥לְתִּי]) you from the peoples. You shall therefore distinguish (bādal [וְהִבְדַּלְתֶּ֞ם]) between clean animals and unclean, between unclean birds and clean, and you shall not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird, or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated (bādal [הִבְדַּ֥לְתִּי]) from you as unclean.

And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated (bādal [וָאַבְדִּ֥ל]) you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.

The book of Leviticus thus closes with not only an extension of the meaning of bādal to ceremonial cleanliness but, more importantly, to the understanding of the foundation of holiness—for I the Lord am holy, and have separated (bādal [וָאַבְדִּ֥ל]) you from the peoples, that you should be Mine (Lev 20:26).

We will continue in the next post to trace the meanings of this word through the book of Numbers into Deuteronomy.