Hilastērion — the Mercy Seat Word

The LXX rendered the kappōreth — the golden lid of the ark where the Day-of-Atonement blood was sprinkled (Lev 16:14–15) — as hilastērion. The word then surfaces exactly twice in the New Testament: Hebrews 9:5, describing the literal furniture ("the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat"), and Romans 3:25, where God sets forth Christ "to be a propitiation through faith in his blood" (KJV). Whether the word-group means propitiation (wrath turned away — Morris, 1955) or expiation (contamination purged — Dodd; Milgrom) is a live lexical dispute, presented steelmanned on the sacrificial-system page's contested drawer. The workbench: /word/g2435. Sources: KJV (PD); atlas lens 10 row 28; atlas lens 28 contested point 4.