The insufficiency of the first covenant is further illustrated from the character of its ordinances. For it was not devoid of elaborate and impressive appointments and regulations for worship, but these only pictured their own inefficiency. Especially did the exclusion from the holiest place of all... [ Continue Reading ]
Εἶχε μὲν οὖν καὶ ἡ πρώτη … “Even the first covenant, however, had ordinances of worship and the holy place suitable to this world,” _i.e._, as hinted in Hebrews 8:2, a tent pitched by man, constructed with earthly materials, “of this creation,” Hebrews 9:11, and thus appealing to sense. Farrar rende... [ Continue Reading ]
μετὰ δὲ τὸ δεύτερον καταπέτασμα.“And after the second veil the tent which is called ‘Holy of Holies,' ” not, as Westcott, “a tent [was prepared] which is called,” for “when attributives are placed after with the article, the article before the substantive is dropped” (Buttmann, p. 92). The participl... [ Continue Reading ]
χρυσοῦν ἔχουσα θυμιατήριον.… The inner tent is characterised by its furnishings, a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant. f1θυμιατήριον is rendered both in A.V. and R.V. by “censer” following the Vulgate, “aureum habens thuribulum;” Grotius “ θυμ : hic non est mensa, sed impositum mens... [ Continue Reading ]
τούτων δὲ οὕτως κατεσκευασμένων … “And after these things had been thus furnished, into the fore-tent, indeed, the priests enter continually in the performance of their services, but into the inner the High Priest alone once a year not without blood.” This is the particular δικαίωμα λατ. (Hebrews 9:... [ Continue Reading ]
Significance of these arrangements.... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰς δὲ τὴν δευτέραν ἅπαξ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ … The law is given in Leviticus 16, both negatively and positively; negatively in Leviticus 16:2 μὴ εἰσπορευέσθω πᾶσαν ὥραν εἰς τὸ ἅγιον ἐσώτερον τ. καταπετάσματος promiscuous or continuous, daily entrance was forbidden; and positively, in Leviticus 16:34 ἅπαξ τ... [ Continue Reading ]
ἥτις παραβολὴ εἰς … “for this is a parable for the time [then] present,” for the contemporary period. ἥτις has for its antecedent σκηνῆς. This is the simplest construction (_Cf._ Winer, p. 207). That suggested by Primasius and Vaughan “Which thing (the fact of there being a πρώτη σκηνὴ separate from... [ Continue Reading ]
μόνον ἐπὶ βρώμασιν … μόνον evidently introduces the positive aspect of the virtue of the “gifts and sacrifices,” thus more closely defining μὴ δυνάμεναι κατὰ συνείδησιν τελειῶσαι … the gifts and sacrifices are not able to bring the worshipper into a final rest _as regards conscience_, only having ef... [ Continue Reading ]
Χριστὸς δὲ παραγενόμενος … “But Christ having arrived a High Priest of the good things that were to be, He, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, nor yet through blood of he-goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered once for al... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐδὲ διʼ αἵματος τράγων … Not only was the place of ministry different, the sacrifice offered also was different. “Not without blood,” could the High Priest make his annual entry (Hebrews 9:7), but it was with the blood of a calf for himself and of a he-goat for the people. In LXX of Leviticus 16 th... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰ γὰρ τὸ αἷμα … “For if the blood of goats and bulls and an heifer's ashes sprinkling the unclean purify as regards the cleanness of the flesh, how much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who through eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works t... [ Continue Reading ]
πόσῳ μᾶλλον τὸ αἷμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ.… The Levitical sacrifices had their congruous effect, the sacrifice of Christ must also have its appropriate result. The blood offered was not of bulls and goats but of “the Christ;” it was not with another's blood (vicarious, Hebrews 9:25) but with His own He entere... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, “And on this account,” that is to say, because, as stated in Hebrews 9:14, Christ's blood cleanses the conscience from dead works and thus fits men to draw near to God, διαθήκης καινῆς μεσίτης ἐστίν, “He is mediator of a new covenant”. The old covenant with sacrifices which could only... [ Continue Reading ]
ὅπου γὰρ διαθήκη … The meaning of these words is doubtful. In the LXX διαθήκη occurs about 280 times and in all but four instances translates בְרִית, covenant. In classical and Hellenistic Greek, however, it is the common word for “will” or “testament” (see especially _The Oxyrhynchus Papyri_, Grenf... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ τὴν σκηνὴν δὲ.… “And he also in like manner sprinkled with the blood the tabernacle and all the instruments of the service”. The tabernacle, however, was not yet erected when the covenant was instituted. Delitzsch supposes that a subsequent though kindred transaction is referred to; and colour i... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ σχεδὸν ἐν αἵματι πάντα … “And one may almost say that according to the law all things are cleansed with blood, and without blood-shedding is no remission”. σχεδὸν qualifies the whole clause and not only πάντα. Whether it qualifies both clauses, as Bleek, Weiss and others suppose, is more doubtfu... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀνάγκη οὖν τὰ μὲν ὑποδείγματα … “It was necessary, therefore, that the copies indeed of the heavenly things be cleansed with these, but the heavenlies themselves with better sacrifices than these.” ἀνάγκη οὖν, the οὖν carries to its consequence Hebrews 9:22; and the necessity arises from the injunct... [ Continue Reading ]
The necessity of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary and the efficiency and finality of Christ's one sacrifice.... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐ γὰρ εἰς χειροποίητα.… The connection, indicated by γὰρ, is “I say αὐτὰ τὰ ἐπουράνια, _for_ it is not into a holy place constructed by man that Christ has entered, but into heaven itself”. Others prefer to connect this verse with κρείττοσιν θυσίαις. “Better sacrifices” were needed, for not into, e... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐδʼ ἵνα πολλάκις … “Nor yet [did He enter in] in order to offer Himself repeatedly,” that is, He did not enter in for a brief stay from which He was to return to renew His sacrifice. Westcott holds that the “offering” corresponds with the offering of the victim upon the altar, not with the bringing... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπεὶ ἔδει αὐτὸν … “Since in that case he must often have suffered since the creation.” If Christ's one offering of Himself were not eternally efficacious, if it required periodical renewal, then this demanded periodical sacrifice. It was “not without blood” the entrance was made, and if the entrance... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ καθʼ ὅσον … “And inasmuch as it is reserved for men once to die and, after this, judgment, so, also, Christ, etc.” To confirm his statement that Christ's sacrifice was “once for all,” he appeals to the normal conditions of human death. To men generally, τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, it is appointed once to di... [ Continue Reading ]
οὕτως. The comparison extends to both terms, the once dying and the judgment. [_Cf._ Kübel, “die Korrespondenz ist nicht bloss die der gleichen Menschennatur, sondern das, dass mit dem Tod das, was das Leben bedeutet, abgeschlossen, fertigist”]. The results of the life are settled. And in Christ's c... [ Continue Reading ]