Hebrews 10:1

δύναται DEKL. δύνανται אAC. The plural is probably a mere oversight due to the previous προσφέρουσιν.

1. Σκιάν. The σκιά is the opposite to the εἰκών, and the two words sum up the whole of the preceding argument.

τῶν μελλόντων�. Of the good things which Christ had now brought into the world (Hebrews 9:11).

οὐκ αὐτὴν τὴν εἰκόνα. “The Law,” says St Ambrose, “had the shadow; the Gospel the image; the Reality itself is in Heaven.” By the word image is meant the true historic form. The Gospel was as much closer a resemblance of the Reality as a statue is a closer resemblance than a pencilled outline.

ταῖς αὐταῖς θυσίαις. Not “with those” (as in A. V.), but “with the same sacrifices, year by year, which they offer continuously, make perfect them that draw nigh,” i.e. the Priests can never with their sacrifices, which are the same year by year, perfect the worshippers. Some have given a fuller sense to the words “the same,” as though it meant that even the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement cannot make any one perfect, being as they are, after all, the same sacrifices in their inmost nature as those which are offered every morning and evening.

εἰς τὸ διηνεκές. “To perpetuity.” See Hebrews 10:12, &c.

οὐδέποτε δύναται. This may be the right reading, though the plural δύνανται “they are never able,” is found in some MSS. If the latter be the true reading the sentence begins with an unfinished construction (anakoluthon).