Hebrews 8:13

πεπαλαίωκεν. “He hath rendered obsolete.” The very expression, “a New Covenant,” used in the disparaging connexion in which it stands, superannuates the former covenant, and stamps it as antiquated. The verse is a specimen of the deep sense which it was the constant object of the Alexandrian interpreters to deduce from Scripture. The argument is analogous to that of Hebrews 7:11.

τὸ δὲ παλαιούμενον κ.τ.λ. Lit., “Now that which is becoming antiquated and waxing aged, is near obliteration.” The expression “near evanescence” again shews that the Epistle was written before the Fall of Jerusalem, when the decree of dissolution which had been passed upon the Old Covenant was carried into effect. Even the Rabbis, though they made the Law an object of superstitious and extravagant veneration, yet sometimes admitted that it would ultimately cease to be—namely, when “the Evil Impulse” (Deuteronomy 31:21) should be overcome.

ἐγγὺς�. Compare the expression ἐγγὺς κατάρας (Hebrews 6:8), and Dr Kay points out the curious fact that “curse” and “obliteration” (ἀφανισμὸς here alone in the N. T.) appear in juxtaposition in 2 Kings 22:19 (where our version renders it “desolation”).