Hebrew Word Study with Rabbi Jason Sobel

Hebrew is a Semitic language, and “most Semitic vocabulary is based on a lexical system in which each root word consists of a series of three consonants.” As we study Hebrew, we will examine this detail frequently—often referred to as a triliteral or triconsonantal root. In the case of miqdash, the following three Hebrew consonants make up its root:

• • Kuf (100) / ק
  • Dalet (4) / ד
  • Shin (300) / שׁ

The most common version and transliteration of this root is kodesh. If one removes the vowels from that transliteration, the root consonants (kuf-dalet-shin) are apparent. We can also see how mikdash is an expansion of this root. The word kodesh rarely appears in secular usage but is overwhelmingly employed in religious contexts. Consider its use in a broader cultural and historical setting:

The word occurs in several dialects of Akkadian with the basic meaning “to be clean, pure, consecrated.” In the Canaanite texts from Ugarit, the basic meaning of the word group is “holy,” and it is always used in a cultic sense.

Its formal definition is: apartness, holiness, sacredness. Now we see that the Tabernacle (mishkan) Israel assembled in the Wilderness was not to be a mere tent—it was separate, apart from anything the world had known. Remember: Adonai said He would “dwell” (shakan) in this edifice. He is the One of whom the seraphim cried, “Holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3) or, for our purposes, “Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh.” The Prophet Isaiah was undone in the face of such purity and “otherness.” The Mishkan (Tabernacle) was also the Mikdash (Sanctuary) because the “Holy One [kadosh] of Israel” (Psalm 71:22) dwelled in it. His Presence is transformational!

Now consider the Apostle Paul’s words,

You have been built on the foundation made up of the emissaries and prophets, with Messiah Yeshua Himself being the cornerstone. In Him the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple for the Lord. In Him, you also are being built together into God’s dwelling place in the Ruach. (Ephesians 2:20-22 emphasis added)

Even more specifically, Yeshua’s final prayer included this request: “Make them holy in the truth. Your word is truth” (John 17.17). How would God make Yeshua’s followers “holy” (kadosh)? Much like the Tabernacle in Exodus, God would indwell them with His very Presence. As the Lord declared just before praying those words, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper so He may be with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. You know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17 emphasis added).

His indwelling Presence transforms us. As He fills us with Himself, we are qadosh, the holy dwelling place of God.

Nicholas R. Werse, “Semitic Languages,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016)..
Thomas E. Mccomiskey, “1990 קָדַשׁ,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 787.
Ibid., 786.

Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the Tree of Life Version.