What does hilasmos (propitiation) mean in the Bible?
Hilasmos (ἱλασμός) means propitiation, the turning away of wrath by a satisfying sacrifice, not merely expiation (the wiping away of sin). "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
What the text states
The KJV keeps the fuller word. It is the same root as hilastērion, the mercy seat (Rom 3:25), the lid where blood was sprinkled and wrath was turned. And the reach is stated in the same verse: the propitiation is “for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2), which is why the atonement is unlimited in provision. A wrath-satisfying sacrifice offered for the whole world is the free offer's foundation.
Modern translations often soften hilasmos to “atoning sacrifice” or “expiation,” which loses the object: propitiation is toward God, satisfying His righteous wrath, while expiation is only toward sin.
Go deeper
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 45 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. Every Strong's number in the wave-3 notes resolved against our own strongs_greek / strongs_hebrew and the lemma matched the form in the file. Wave 3. 45 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table, all pass. 21 Greek and 3 Hebrew Strong's entries cross-checked against strongs_greek (5,523 rows) and strongs_hebrew (8,674). Three notes, none a form mismatch: (1) G2434 hilasmos is glossed in our table as 'atonement... an expiator', usage 'propitiation', so Strong's own wording is softer than the answer's 'not merely expiation'; Thayer and BDAG carry the propitiation sense and the KJV renders it so. (2) G728 is spelled arrhabon in our table (double rho) against the file's arrabon; the same word, a transliteration convention. (3) our table derives skenoo (G4637) from skenos (G4636), while the answer says it is built on skene (G4633); the three are cognate and skene is the LXX's tabernacle word. One reference in the wave-3 verification notes did not exist: Rev 22:24 (Revelation 22 ends at verse 21). Ruled by Darren 2026-09-29 a typo for Rev 22:17 and corrected in the source file. The hilasmos gloss discrepancy was ruled the same day: the answer stands and is not softened.
This answer is the short form. The argument is made at length in Bought, Then Perished.