Hebrews 9:1

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 obsolete and its holy place of this world. As the writer is commending the first covenant, ‘of this world' can hardly be only depreciatory. The word used, when not used ethically, describes the world in its order and beauty; and this is part of the thought: of this world indeed, and yet costly and beautiful. Compare a similar word in 1 Timothy 3:2, ‘orderly'... The words at the beginning of the verse ‘The first covenant then indeed' are concessive and resumptive, taking up the thought in chap. Hebrews 8:7; Hebrews 8:13.