I did a comic a while back showing that there are three types of categories of things in the Bible: Holy, Common, and Pagan (or unholy). I want to dive deeper into each category. This is on what is Holy.

In the Bible, the word we see as holy is קדש (kadosh) in Hebrew. This means to be set apart. Our English definition of holy is "exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness" according to Merriam-Webster. Not quite the same thing.

The first thing called holy in the Bible is the Sabbath in Genesis 2:3:

"So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy(קדש), because on it God rested(שבת[shabbat], where we get the word Sabbath from) from all his work that he had done in creation."

Kadosh is used a total of 172 times in the OT, most of those being in the first 5 books, where YHWH is describing what is and isn't holy.

In 1 Peter 1:16, Peter quotes part of Leviticus 11:44:

"since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy."

This chapter in Leviticus is talking about what is and isn't food. YHWH is equating eating things that He intended for food as being holy.

Looking at the Greek word used in 1 Peter for holy, we can see other passages in the NT using this term.

In Romans 7:12, Paul calls the Law holy, just and good. Later in Romans 12, Paul beseeches his readers to be holy, acceptable to YHWH as a living sacrifice.

In today's culture, we seem to see holiness as just someone being pious or saying a prayer over something or just anything related to the church. This isn't what the Bible teaches though.

Holiness is being set apart. For us, it is being set apart from the world and what it does. We are called to be set apart as we saw in the above verses.

How do we be set apart? By following what YHWH says is set apart: His Law.

An important note to make: we don't get to decide what is holy and what isn't. YHWH does. I've had many conversations with people on "taking this back for God". We aren't instructed anywhere to do such a thing. In most of these cases it is something that is Pagan that the person is wanting to now call Holy or Common. We will get into why this isn't something we should be doing in the Pagan comic.

https://thestraightandnarrow.cfw.me/comics/911

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