Hebrews 8:4

For if he were Rather, "now if He were still on earth."

if he were on earth His sanctuary mustbe a heavenly one, for in the earthly one He had no standpoint.

he should not be a priest He would not even be so much as a Priest at all; still less a High Priest; for He was of the Tribe of Judah (Hebrews 7:14), and the Law had distinctly ordained that "no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the Lord" (Numbers 16:40).

seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law Rather (omitting "priests" with the best mss.), since "there are (already) those who offer their gifts according to the Law." The writer could not possibly have used these present tensesif the Epistle had been written after the Fall of Jerusalem. Jewish institutions are, indeed, spoken of in the present tense, after the fall of Jerusalem, by Barnabas and Clement of Rome; but they are merely using an everyday figure of speech. In case of the Epistle to the Hebrews the argument would have gained such indefinite force and weight in passages like this by appealing to a fact so startling as the annulment of the Mosaic system by God Himself, working by the unmistakeable demonstrations of history, that no writer similarly circumstanced could possibly have passed over such a point in silence.