CHAP. 9. The argument interrupted by the preceding quotation is now resumed. The divine-ness and the beauty of the arrangements of the old covenant are admitted, and their significance, Hebrews 9:1-5; but they belonged to this world (Hebrews 9:1) and gave no peace to the conscience, and no free acce... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:1. This verse concedes the excellency of the old economy. IT HAD ORDINANCES OF DIVINE WORSHIP. The writer speaks in the past tense, because he looks back to the original institution and the first tabernacle, partly also because from the vantage ground of the new covenant the old teems obso... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:2. The writer first notes the beauty of the holy place, and then (Hebrews 9:6) the holy ordinances of the service. FOR A TABERNACLE WAS PREPARED with two apartments, THE FIRST WHEREIN WERE THE CANDLESTICK (the golden candelabrum, with its upright shaft and six branches, three on each side,... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:3. AND AFTER (generally of time, here of place, _behind_) THE SECOND VEIL, the same TABERNACLE, WHICH IS CALLED THE HOLY OF HOLIES (the holiest of all); HAVING (belonging to it, not necessarily ‘in it') A GOLDEN CENSER or an ALTAR OF INCENSE. The word means either; and interpretations diff... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:5. AND UP OVER IT (THE ARK) CHERUBIM OF GLORY OVERSHADOWING THE MERCY-SEAT. These ‘cherubim' were connected with the Shekinah, the visible glory of God. They were two in number, one at each end of the mercy-seat, and were beaten out of the same mass with it. A wing of each stretched over t... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:6. Meanwhile he notes the weakness of the old covenant and its fitness for this world only (Hebrews 9:9-10). AND NOW ALL THESE THINGS the apartments and their contents HAVING BEEN THUS PREPARED or arranged, into THE FIRST TABERNACLE t HE PRIESTS GO IN CONTINUALLY, ACCOMPLISHING (performing... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:8. THE HOLY GHOST THIS SIGNIFYING, _i.e_ by the arrangement which excluded all from the sanctuary except the high priest, who entered only on one day in the year THAT THE WAY INTO THE HOLIEST heaven itself, the true antitype, not the holy of holies HATH NOT YET BEEN MADE MANIFEST, WHILE AS... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:9. THE WHICH TABERNACLE IS A FIGURE (literally a parable, an arrangement with a lesson) for, _i.e_ in reference to (or lasting till) THE TIME [now] PRESENT, or [then] present, for neither is expressed. Either makes good sense. The former, ‘now present,' better suits the writer's purpose; t... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:10. And the reason is plain, BEING ONLY WITH MEATS, AND DRINKS, AND DIVERS WASHINGS (or baptisms, a reference to the legal and traditional conditions of eating and drinking, comp. 1 Corinthians 8, and Colossians 2:16-23, and to the various baptisms commanded by the law both for people and... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:11. Here begins the true antithesis to the preceding verses, though Hebrews 9:6 marks a contrast of another kind. That old economy was earthly, glorious indeed, but (Hebrews 9:6) ineffectual. The new economy has to do with another tabernacle not of this creation, with other blood, with a f... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:12. NOR YET BY THE BLOOD OF GOATS (put first because most characteristic of the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16:5, etc. the two goats which made one sacrifice) AND CALVES (called in Hebrews 9:13 bulls; both were males, one of the first year and the other of the second), BUT BY HIS OWN BLOOD... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:13. FOR IF... AND THE ASHES OF A HEIFER, SPRINKLING THEM THAT HAVE BEEN DEFILED, SANCTIFIETH UNTO (_i.e_ so as to secure; the full expression implies result, not purpose) THE PURITY OF THE FLESH. This case of the ‘ashes of the heifer' is one of the most suggestive symbols of the Law, and i... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:14. HOW MUCH MORE SHALL THE BLOOD OF CHRIST... cleanse your conscience from that impurity which shows the inward man to be as a dead corpse, producing only such works as have no pulse, no power or feeling of true and higher life. The context gives to ‘dead works' in this passage a slightly... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:15. AND FOR THIS CAUSE (for the reason that His blood is thus efficacious, Hebrews 9:14, or because He has performed this great work, Hebrews 9:11-14) HE IS MEDIATOR OF A NEW (emphatic) COVENANT, IN ORDER THAT, DEATH HAVING TAKEN PLACE (viz. His own) for redemption from (or expiration of)... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:16. And it is a covenant with all the requisite validity. FOR WHERE A COVENANT IS, THERE MUST ALSO BE (BROUGHT IN or, there is necessarily implied) THE DEATH OF THE COVENANTING VICTIM.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:17. FOR A COVENANT IS OF FORCE OVER THE DEAD (or on the condition that some persons (or things) have died), SINCE IT HAS NO AVAIL AT ALL WHILE THE COVENANTING VICTIM LIVETH.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:18. WHENCE NEITHER HATH THE FIRST COVENANT BEEN INAUGURATED (or ratified) WITHOUT BLOOD. Those verses are specially difficult. The logic of the passage seems to require the rendering now given. It does not follow that because a testator must die before his will can take effect, _therefore_... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:19. FOR (a proof of the assertion in Hebrews 9:18) WHEN EVERY COMMANDMENT HAD BEEN SPOKEN BY MOSES ACCORDING TO THE LAW (as the law directed, without any variation from it) UNTO ALL THE PEOPLE, HE TOOK THE BLOOD OF THE CALVES AND THE GOATS (these last are not expressed in Exodus 24:6-8, bu... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:20. The design of this sprinkling is now explained SAYING, THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD (the Hebrew is Jehovah, and the Greek ‘the Lord;' probably God is used to preserve the O. T. character of the quotation; the N. T. covenant, the Supper especially, is connected with ‘the... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:21. MOREOVER, THE TABERNACLE AND ALL THE VESSELS OF THE MINISTRY (the service) HE SPRINKLED IN LIKE MANNER WITH BLOOD (probably later: it was certainly done every year, Leviticus 16:16-20. Josephus, however, gives the same fact as occurring at the inauguration of the covenant, and in very... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:23. THE PATTERNS; rather, the representations, the heavenly things themselves being the original ‘patterns shown to Moses in the mount' (Hebrews 8:5), whence the earthly copies WERE TAKEN: BUT THE HEAVENLY THINGS THEMSELVES (heaven and the things therein, see Hebrews 9:24) BY BETTER SACRIF... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:24. ‘The heavenly things:' FOR NOT INTO A HOLY PLACE MADE WITH HANDS DID CHRIST ENTER, LIKE IN PATTERN (answering to the original, ‘the typical form') TO THE TRUE, NOW TO SHOW (TO MANIFEST) HIMSELF BEFORE (the face of) GOD FOR US; His passover our offering, and by virtue of ‘the Eternal Sp... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:25. And as Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, NEITHER HAS HE ENTERED INTO HEAVEN THAT HE SHOULD OFFER HIMSELF OFTEN (the reference is not to His dying, but to His presenting Himself and His blood. The dying is named later, Hebrews 9:26), JUST AS THE HIGH PRIEST ENT... [ Continue Reading ]
Hebrews 9:27-28. And there can be no second dying, and so no second offering of Himself unto God. Such an arrangement would be against all analogy and all experience. Since man as such can die but once, so must it be with THE CHRIST also: for in all things He is made like unto His brethren. And as i... [ Continue Reading ]