Hebrews 9:1

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 renders “and its sanctuary a material one”. οὗν is continuative, and might almost be rendered “to resume”. μὲν find its correlative δὲ in Hebrews 9:6; the first covenant had, indeed, a sanctuary with elaborate arrangements, but after all it was only a symbol. That διαθήκη, not σκηνή, is to be understood after πρώτη, is demanded by the context and is now universally recognised. So Chrysostom, ἡ πρώτη, τίς; ἡ διαθήκη. Of the reading σκηνή Calvin says, “nec dubito, quin aliquis indoctus lector, pro sua inscitia … perperam addiderit.” εἶχε at first sight seems to require us to date the epistle after the destruction of Jerusalem, but it is quite possible that, as Delitzsch says, the writer is looking back upon the old from the platform of the new covenant. “The author in saying had merely looks back from his own historical position to the Mosaic tabernacle and its ordinances, which are everywhere assumed as the standard of the O.T. things; the past ‘had' no more implies that the O.T. ministry had passed away in fact or even in principle, than the present ‘go in' (Hebrews 9:6) implies the reverse” (Davidson.) δικαιώματα λατρείας. δικαιώματα is used, because the writer wishes to draw attention to the fact that the ritual of the first covenant was divinely appointed. He does this because he means to point out (Hebrews 9:8-9) that the Holy Spirit intended these arrangements to be a parable of their own incompetence and transitory nature. κοσμικόν is best illustrated in Rendel Harris' Teaching of the Apostles, p. 71 ff. He has collected a number of passages from early Christian writers which show that a “cosmic” mystery or symbol was “a symbol or action wrought upon the stage of this world to illustrate what was doing or to be done on a higher plane”. His quotation from Athanasius is especially convincing Ὥσπερ ἡ ἐκκλησία ὑποτάσσεται τῷ κυρίῳ, οὕτω καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἐν πᾶσι. ἀπʼ αὐτῶν γὰρ τῶν κοσμικῶν, ἐὰν θέλωμεν, καὶ τὰ ἄνω νοοῦμεν. This significant word standing at the close of the sentence sufficiently indicates the incompetence of the whole. The first covenant had its holy place but it was κοσμικόν. For the same reason he goes on to enumerate the articles contained in the ἅγιον. He wishes to bring before us the care with which all its arrangements were made: nothing was haphazard and meaningless. The succeeding verses are indeed the resumption of Hebrews 8:5, “See that you make all things according to the type shown thee in the mount”.

Hebrews 9:2. σκηνὴ γὰρ κατεσκευάσθη … “For a tent was constructed, the fore-tent, in which were” its appropriate contents. σκηνὴ, a tent. “Observandum est in primis hanc descriptionem non ad templum sed ad tabernaculum accommodari; quia nimirum noster hic scriptor ea proprie quae Moses secundum exemplar ipsi in monte propositum fabricavit, cum rebus ipsis coelestibus comparat” (Beza). On the construction in which the noun is first conceived indefinitely and is then more clearly defined by the attributive, whose import thus receives special prominence, see Winer, p. 174. ἡ πρώτη, the outer, that into which anyone first entered, twice the size of the inner and entered from the east (see Macgregor on Exodus, and appendix by Gillies on construction of tabernacle). Large tents were usually divided into an outer and an inner, a first and a second. And a tent being windowless, ἡ λυχνία was a necessary article of furniture; the lamp-stand, or “candlestick” reminding men that the light of day, the light common to all, was not sufficient to guide to God. Cf. Exodus 25:31-39; and Zech., c. 4. καὶ ἡ τράπεζα for the making of the table instructions are recorded in Exodus 25:23-30, concluding with the injunction “Thou shalt set upon the table showbread before me alway.” In Leviticus 24:6 it is called “the pure table,” because made of “pure” gold. καὶ ἡ πρόθεσις τῶν ἄρτων “and the setting forth of the loaves” called in Exodus 40:23 (P.) “loaves of the setting forth”. In Exodus 25:30 the command is given ἐπιθήσεις ἐπὶ τ. τράπεζαν ἄρτους ἐνωπίους ἐναντίον μου, the loaves here being called לֶחֶם פָּנִים bread of the face or presence. In Leviticus 24:5-9 minute instructions for their composition are given and for their “setting forth,” and it is added ἔσονται εἰς ἄρτους εἰς ἀνάμνησιν προκείμενα τ. Κυρίου. In 1 Chron. the loaves are called τ. προθέσεως translating לֶחֶם הַמַּעֲרָכֶת bread of the row. On the meaning of the “show bread” see Robertson Smith's Religion of the Semites, 207 ff. “The table of show bread has its closest parallel in the lectisternia of ancient heathenism, when a table laden with meats was spread beside the idol.” “But the idea that the gods actually consume the solid food that is deposited at their shrines is too crude to subsist without modification beyond the savage state of society; the ritual may survive, but the sacrificial gifts … will come to be the perquisite of the priests”. Cf. Warde Fowler's Roman Festivals, 215 20. ἥτις λέγεται ἅγια. “The qualitative relative directs attention to the features of the place which determine its name as ‘Holy' ” (Westcott). ἅγια is neuter plural, as in Hebrews 9:3. So Theodoret rejecting the reading ἁγία. For this name see Leviticus 10:4; Numbers 3:22; but in LXX always with the article, here omitted, possibly, to bring out more prominently the holy character of the place.