"Atonement, literally at-one-ment, is a word introduced into English in 1526 by William Tyndale as he translated the Greek New Testament into English; specifically, he used the word at-one-ment to translate the Greek word (katallasso) which means 'reconciliation' or 'to come back into a relationship after a period of estrangement.' Reconciliation, a word with Latin roots, means literally, 'to be seated together again.' This word points to what is happening to man—he has fallen from a relationship, even many relationships, and from a knowledge of the oneness of the premortal children and of divine society. The scriptures tell us that man came from a heavenly society and fell, by his birth, into a state of spiritual death (see Helaman 14:16), alienated from his Heavenly Father by the nature of the Fall. Christ wrought the atonement to restore us to the heavenly society. So we might say that the word rendered atonement by the early biblical translators could have been more accurately rendered re-at-one-ment or reunion. Christ wrought the great Reunion. . . . The Hebrew word for atonement includes the meaning 'reconciliation,' but scholars find additional meanings such as 'cover' (even 'embrace')." (M. Catherine Thomas, Light in the Wilderness [Orem, Utah:Amalphi Publishing, 2008], 173–174.)
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