SACRED SANCTUARY OF OUR GOD AND FATHER YEHOVAH

Discerning the Naos - Hieron Distinction

Stephen, the first martyr of the Faith, at the end of his powerful defense, declared, "The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands" (Acts 7:48). Needless to say, this greatly upset those who were devoted to such physical structures, along with the many human traditions, rituals, and regulations that came to be associated with such temples and cathedrals. But, Stephen was right. God has chosen to make His habitation within His people.

Like Stephen, the apostle Paul understood this truth quite well, making it a part of his sermon in the midst of the Areopagus in Athens: "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands" (Acts 17:24).

King Solomon grasped this truth: "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built" (1 Kings 8:27).

At the end of the prophecy of Isaiah, we find the following spoken by God Himself: "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool: What Temple can you build for me as good as that? My hand has made both earth and skies, and they are mine. Yet I will look with pity on the man who has a humble and a contrite heart, who trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66:1-2).

The strong implication here is that when God casts His eye upon His creation, looking for a habitation, He is not drawn to temples; He is drawn to receptive hearts!

Many Christians look at huge Christian church structures thinking that in these structures they will encounter God; yet, if they would simply cast their gaze inward, they would find His true dwelling place: the sanctuary of our heart! It is here He dwells if we will just open our hearts to Him and allow Him entrance!

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20).

The desire of each of us should be "that the Messiah may dwell in our hearts through faith" (Ephesians 3:17). 

Dr. Kenneth Wuest, in volume one of his classic Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, points out that the word "dwell" (katoikesai) means "to settle down and be at home." Dr. Wuest writes, "The expanded translation is: 'that the Messiah might finally settle down and feel completely at home in your hearts.'

This at-home-ness of the lord Jesus in the heart of the saint is 'through faith.'" Where is the "habitation" of our Lord? Where is the "temple"? Where is the "sanctuary"? It is within us; it is NOT within any physical structure made by human hands.

The apostle Paul, on several occasions, makes this very point: "Do you not know that you are a sanctuary of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are" (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

"Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit which is in you, that you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19).

"What agreement has the sanctuary of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them." (2 Corinthians 6:16).

We, both Jews and Gentiles, are being built into a holy structure on a spiritual foundation with the Messiah as our cornerstone, "in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:21-22).

What many people may not realize is that none of these words translated "temple" in these passages [which I have corrected] is the Greek word "hieron" (which is the word for "temple").

Rather, in each of these texts, it is the Greek word "naos" (which is the word for "sanctuary").

One should also be aware that Paul is making use of both singulars and plurals in these texts: i.e., in some places, he is talking of our individual physical bodies as the dwelling of the Lord, while in other places he is speaking of the corporate body of believers (the called-out Assembly of Yehovah - God).

Many disciples may be rather surprised to learn that the Greek word "hieron" (temple), which appears some 71 times in the pages of the New Testament writings, only appears one time outside of the four Gospels and Acts. That one time is in 1 Corinthians 9:13, "Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar?" The other 70 occurrences of this Greek word are in Matthew (11 times), Mark (9 times), Luke (14 times), John (11 times), and Acts (25 times).

"Hieron" appears nowhere else in the New Covenant writings! 

Why is this important? 

Let's look in the book of Revelation:

Anyone with a Greek concordance can easily verify, is that the Greek word for "temple" ("hieron") never appears in Revelation.

Every word that is rendered "temple" by many of our English translations is actually the Greek word "naos" ("sanctuary"), which appears 16 times in the book of Revelation.

These two words, however, do not convey the same meaning, and to render each of them by a single English word has led to a good deal of confusion over the years.

Simply stated, "hieron" ("temple") refers to the entire complex of buildings and grounds that comprise this facility, while "naos" ("sanctuary") refers only to that innermost area (the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place) which was off-limits to all but a few, and in which God met a man (the high priest) on special occasions.

The Greek scholar W. E. Vine wrote, "The noun hieron signifies the entire building with its precincts as distinct from the naos, the inner sanctuary; apart from the Gospels and Acts, hieron is mentioned only in 1 Corinthians 9:13. Hieron is never used figuratively" [Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, p. 115].

Dr. Joseph Thayer concurs: "Naos in the Septuagint is used of the temple at Jerusalem, but only of the sacred edifice (or sanctuary) itself, consisting of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. In classical Greek naos is used as the sanctuary or cell of a temple, where the image of the god was placed, which is to be distinguished from 'to hieron', the whole temple, the entire consecrated enclosure; this distinction is observed in the Bible!" [Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 422]. "Hieron and Naos differ, in that the former designates the whole compass of the sacred enclosure, embracing the entire aggregate of buildings, balconies, porticos, courts (viz. that of the men or Israelites, that of the women, that of the priests), belonging to the temple; the latter (naos) designates the sacred edifice properly called (sanctuary), consisting of two parts, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (which was entered only on the great day of atonement by the high priest alone)" [Thayer, p. 299].

Dr. Gerhard Kittel observes that the Greek word naos is derived from the Greek term naio, meaning "to dwell; to inhabit," and that it denoted to the pagans "the abode of the gods." Therefore, this inner area was where deity dwelt among men. "Naos is, then, the dwelling of the deity. ... It is the sanctuary in the strict sense as compared with the broader term hieron" [Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 4, p. 880].

This understanding of the naos is the "abode of deity" goes along well with Paul's use of this Greek word in the passages cited above. With the coming of the new covenant, the abode of our God shifted from an institutional setting to an individual setting; from a place to a people.

God indwells His people, both individually (the physical body) and collectively (the body of believers: i.e., the called-out Assembly).

The material shadows have been replaced by the spiritual Substance! The types have faded away in the presence of Reality. "Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary" (Hebrews 9:1, NIV). These were temporary, however, and were only "applied until the time of the new order" (Hebrews 9:10, NIV).

It wasn't 70 A.D. when the temple and its many courts and rituals and priests and sacrifices became obsolete. That happened with the resurrection and ascension of the Messiah, and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.

70 A.D. was just the "casting aside" of what had already (decades before) been spiritually removed as the habitation of Yehovah - God and the "service of worship" of this new "kingdom of priests" (who were both Jew and Gentile, male and female).

WE, therefore ... you and I ... as new creations in the Messiah are individually and collectively the NAOS of God Almighty, just as Paul declares in his use of this term. Paul's focus in his writings is not on the "temple," it is on the "sanctuary." We are indwelt; we are the habitat of our God; we are priests in His service, under His great High Priest Jesus!

"The NT teaches that the believer's body is, in a real sense, a sanctuary of God" [Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 2, p. 1518]. "In all the NT sayings which treat of the significance of the temple, which use the image of the temple to denote the new relationship to God-given in, and which transfer the image to the community, the term is naos rather than hieron. This is not without significance!" [Dr. Gerhard Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 3, p. 246].

That the community of believers "is itself the naos is a belief common to the whole of the NT witness" [ibid, p. 247]. I love the way the Lord wraps up His revelation to John, and it is a fitting close to this study: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:

'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. ... I did not see a naos in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its naos" (Revelation 21:1-3, 22). The entire universe itself will have been absorbed into the eternal Holy of Holies, the abode of the One who fills all in all. And with our Savior who paved the way through the veil into the everlasting Sanctuary, we shall forever dwell in that abode where only righteousness and holiness abound. "In that final state there is properly 'no sanctuary' (Revelation 21:22), for God and the Lamb 'are the sanctuary.' All is there hallowed by the Divine Presence; all is sanctuary!!" [Easton's Bible Dictionary, e-Sword]. Lord, hasten that day!

Written by Al Maxey and edited by Bruce Lyon