Where did the idea that the atonement is an at-onement come from?

This is one of six episodes in our podcast series based on the book entitled Hugh Nibbley observed.

Most Latter-day Saints understand that the English word, Atonement, literally means at one mint.

But did you know that this insight came from a B.Y.U. Scholar named Hugh Nibbley,

and that he connected the idea directly to temple ritual in ancient Israel.

Astonishingly, the word atonement appears only once in the New Testament, specifically

in Romans chapter 5, verse 11 appears only once in the New Testament, specifically in Romans chapter 5,

verse 11. Everywhere else in the New Testament, including twice elsewhere in this verse,

the same Greek word is translated as reconciliation instead of atonement.

According to Nibley, the term could also be translated as redemption,

which literally means to buy back, that is, to reacquire something you owned previously.

So when the scriptures speak of atonement, it is always reconciliation, redemption, resurrection, release, and so on.

All refer to a return to a former state, a happier condition,

such as the one we enjoyed in the pre-mortal life when we were not separated from God by sin.

In Old Testament times, the purpose of the temple was to undo our separation from God.

According to Doctrine and Covenants, Section 84 verse 23, Moses sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God.

While the word atonement appears only once in the New Testament, Nibley tells us that it occurs 127 times in the Old Testament.

And of those 127 times, all but five occur in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers,

where they explicitly describe the original temple rites on the Day of Atonement.

Hugh Nibbley discovered a connection between the word atonement and the Israelite tabernacle,

a large tent that served as a portable temple.

When people imagine what went on there, they usually think about animal sacrifice,

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