Consecration vs. holiness

Readers of the Hebrew text will note that the verbal form of the root qdš does often take a human subject (commonly translated “consecrate”). However, the verb qdš does not describe the process by which a thing acquires the status represented by the adjective qādôš. For example, priests are consecrated and priests are also holy, but a person can be consecrated without either becoming holy or becoming a priest (e.g., 1 Sam 16:5). The act of consecrating ritual objects for use in the temple (e.g., Ex 30:29) actually describes a two-stage process, consecrate it (and) it will be holy; the NIV mistranslates the connecting particle as “so that,” collapsing two processes into one. We see a similar two-stage process in Jonah 1:12, “throw me into the sea” and “[the sea] will become calm.” The two events are related, but the one does not mechanically cause the other; humans do the first, and God does the second. This is similar to the way construction of sacred objects worked throughout the ancient Near East. The final image is the product of both humans and gods; the humans built the statue and “consecrated” it (Sumerian KU₃, an adjective with a similar range of objects to the Hebrew verb qdš; see discussion in E. Ian Wilson, “Holiness” and “Parity" in Mesopotamia, Alter Orient und Altes Testament 237 [Neukirchen-Vluyn: Verlag Butzon & Bercker Kevelaer, 1994], 13–35), but the process by which it becomes holy (Sumerian DINGIR), described by the metaphor of birth, is a different process, performed by the gods; see Christopher Walker and Michael B. Dick, “The Mesopotamian mis pi Ritual,” in Born in Heaven, Made on Earth, ed. Michael B. Dick (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999), 55–122, esp. 114–17.— The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest, 106 n. 7

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The book, Born in Heaven, Made on Earth is an excellent book if you are interested in these kinds of things. For that matter, you might find The Image of God in the Garden of Eden interesting also. (No, I don't work for Eisenbrauns anymore, but I do recommend books that I think you might find useful—wherever they are!)
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