SCIPIOVILLE - During this season of Lent, the thoughts of many people turn toward the ideas of salvation and sanctification - whether it be through religious devotions such as fasting or through something as small as giving up meat on Fridays.

After a simple supper of soup, members of the Scipioville Presbyterian Church gathered to listen to Wells College assistant professor of religion Sarah Malena speak on the ideas of salvation and sanctification and how they have developed in the Bible from the Old to New Testaments.

Malena began by giving a brief etymology on both words, which provided the framework for the rest of her discussion. Malena said that sanctification came from the idea of setting apart.

“It is of the divine,” Malena said. “It is something set off from us, something we can come close to and put our selves in proximity with, but it is part of a different world from us.”

Salvation, according to Malena, refers to deliverance.

“It is deliverance from pain,” Malena said. “Pains and the threats of life and all the things we are vulnerable to. It is also the root word of Joshua and Jesus; this brings in the concept of the redeemer to the people.”

Malena referred to the book Exodus, where the God of the Israelites frees or delivers the people from the pharaoh and Egypt.

“This is to be part of the God's property,” Malena said. “It is literally deliverance, to be rescued.”

Malena then gave a brief outline from the second millennium before the Common Era (BCE), looking at the way the Biblical patriarchs, such as Abraham began to establish a relationship with God to the foundation of Israel and the time of Solomon when the first temple was built.

“This is where the idea of a covenant comes in,” Malena said. “The idea of offering sacrifices and offerings to the God is a way to put us in a place that puts us in touch with the divine.”

The Temple of Solomon would be destroyed and rebuilt several times, but it still stood with the same symbolic significance.

“It is a place for the God,” Malena said. “The God chose where He was going to dwell. And this gave the people a place where they could come close to the divine and put themselves in a state where they were ready to be in touch with the divine presence.”

Once the Israelites found a home in Jerusalem and the Temple was constructed, these ideas began to take more ritualized form, through laws and instructions set out in books like Leviticus, people could learn the rituals that would put them in this sanctified place, in touch with the divine.

This concept differs greatly from the ideas held in the polytheistic world of ancient Greece and Rome, where gods were believed to walk among the people regularly.

“The temple was sort of a safe zone,” Malena said. “There is the story of the man who tried to catch the arc (of the covenant) as it was falling and he was killed. The power of the God is that powerful. We have to purify ourselves and have this place where the God approves of for us as people to meet with the God.”

Through the story of Noah and Moses and the 10 Commandments, Malena said rules were presented to the people, covenants that if people held up their end of, they would be considered worthy to be in the presence of the divine and the God would hold up His end, with the protection and rewards of His power and heaven.

Shortly after the time of Jesus, the second temple was destroyed, and this along with his teachings, built on and modified this idea of how to become sanctified and in touch with the divine.

Through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, new covenants were created, one that Biblical figures such as Saul (later Paul) would write about and ponder.

“Jesus became the way to sanctity,” Malena said. “He became the conduit for us to elevate ourselves and be in communion with God.”