fides quaerens intellectum
Feb 09 2010
T.C.’s post got me thinking (See Damian’s sorta of response to T.C.’s post, then check out Jeremy’s post as well, as well as this one), rather rethinking about a subject which I have written about previously, and for some reason, I don’t believe that I have accurately, or completely, stated my position on. (See here and here)
Continue reading “Faith Beyond Thought – Hebrews 11 and the Christian Life”
May 23 2009
Our new friend, Polumeros kai Polutropos, has posted these links:
Clifford Kvidahl offers an exegetical analysis of Hebrews 1:1-4 on his blog, Theological Musings. He also has posted some of his exegetical papers online, including a more detailed analysis on Hebrews 1:1-4 entitled, In These Last Days: The Son as the Final Communicative Act of God. I have added this paper to my electronic articles listing.
Feb 26 2009
Translating the Bible is often times viewed as the evil enterprise of heretics, but a constant looking to the original language offers benefits. Granted, this is not the calling of everyone, but is indeed open to all.
Hebrews 11 is generally called the ‘Hall of Fame’ of Faith, and for good cause. It does, after all, list biblical heroes and apply their stature in the Kingdom to the faith that they held. After a short discourse on faith, the writer of Hebrews, generally assumed to be Paul, launches into these heroes with some vigor. It was Abel, first, then Enoch in the roll call. Upon Enoch’s name, and the fact that Enoch pleased God, the writer states,
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV)
I want to examine the ‘He is’ of this verse in a finer detail. The Greek εστιν translates as ‘he is’ easily, but in dealing with translations, I have learned that it is best to figure out what the writer was thinking as he or she wrote the original text. It is not always necessary, nor does it change the translation all that much, but sometimes, it is worth the exercise to hold the same pen as the translator.
ἐστί is a third person singular indicative of εἰμι. ἐστί means, depending on the pronoun, ‘he/she/it is’. It is a noun of existence. εἰμι is the first person singular – I am. In the Septuagint, we find this used in Exodus 3.14:
καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς πρὸς Μωυσῆν Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν· καὶ εἶπεν Οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ Ὁ ὢν ἀπέσταλκέν με πρὸς ὑμᾶς. Exodus 3:14 (LXX)
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”‘ (Exodus 3:14 NKJV)
This statment by the one true God of Israel, along with the Shema in Deuteronomy 6.4, is a key text for Jews and monotheism. Christ used it of Himself several times, notably,
Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58 NKJV)
The Psalmist said,
God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. (Psalms 46:1 NKJV)
Stay with me for just a second – let’s place ourself in the mind of the writer of Hebrews. Can we, if we strip away our translations, if we apply the great ‘I Am’ statements from both written Covenants – if we understand that the sacred writer used the third person for ‘I Am’, could we not see that perhaps a translation highlighting the first person read something like this:
But with faith, it is impossible to please him, for it necessary for the one that approaches God to believe that he is the I AM, and that he becomes a rewarder to those who craves for him. (Hebrews 11:6 CTV-NT)
Like I said, exercises are good, at times, if nothing else for the individual. In my reading, I see the writer of Hebrews fully understanding that God is always declaring himself ‘I AM.’
What do you think? Am I far off?
Feb 21 2009
Mr. Joseph has posted the following information at his blog:
David Allen, Dean of the School of Theology at Southwerstern Baptist Theological Seminary, gave a 3 part series lectures on the Book of Hebrews. Thought-Provoking and Well-Calculated!
Lecture 1: Jesus, Scripture, and Sermon as Word of God
Lecture 2: Was the Author of Hebrews a Charismatic?
Lecture 3: Was the Author of Hebrews a Calvinist?
- He argues for a Lukan authorship to the book of Hebrews.
- Luke was the independent author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. This Luke was the traditional author of Luke-Acts
- He also contends that Luke-Acts was written to a single individual named “Theophilus,” not a Gentile, rather a former Jewish high Priest.
- According to Prof. Allen, Luke was not a Gentile as commonly interpreted in the NT studies, rather a Jewish writer exhibiting comprehensive familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures.
Sep 26 2008
Hebrews 13:1-25 from the Commentary in Translation Version
(1) Let brotherly love last.
(2) Stop neglecting hospitality, for by this some were unaware that they had entertained angels
(3) Bear in mind the prisoners, as if you were imprisoned with them; the ones that are mistreated, as yourselves being mistreated in the body.
(4) Marriage is precious for all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
(5) Let you way of live be free of the love of money, being contented with the things that you have, for he himself said: By no means shall I desert you, no in any way abandon you.
(6) So that we may with full confidence say: I can call upon the LORD to help and so I will not fear; what then shall man do unto me?
(7) Remember them had once led you, who have spoken to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate them.
(8) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever
(9) Stop being carried away by various and strange doctrines, for it is good for the heart to be established with grace and not with meats, which those that follow that way of life could not benefit.
Again a warning against doctrines not of the Church.
(10) We have an altar, and those that still serve the tabernacle have no right to eat
(11) For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
(12) Therefore, Jesus also, to set the people apart as holy with his own bloodm suffered outside the gate.
(13) So let us there fore go out the camp, bearing his reproach.
(14) For here we have no lasting city, but – but! – we are seeking that which is to come.
(15) Therefore, through him, let us through all things, offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips, giving thanks to his name.
(16) But stop neglecting to do good and to share with othersm for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
(17) You yourselves obey those that lead you, and accept their authority, for they watch over your souls, as they will render and account, that they may do it with joy and not with groanings, for this would be detrimental to you.
(18) Pray for us, for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to conducts ourselves honorably.
(19) But I urge you to do this, so that I will be soon restored to you
(20) Now, may the God of peace who did bring up from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant,
(21) Make you perfect in every good work in order to do his will, working in you the acceptable thing before him, through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory forever and ever. Amen.
(22) But I urger you, brethern, listen carefully to the words of this exhortation, for indeed through a few words, I wrote unto you.
(23) Know that the brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he is come quickly, I will see you.
(24) Greet all the ones that lead you, and all of the saints. The Italians greet you.
(25) Grace be with you all, Amen.
Sep 26 2008
Hebrews 12:1-29 from the Commentary in Translation Version
(1) Therefore, let us also keep running our race which is set before us with perseverance, having put away every weight and the sin that readily entangles, seeing that we, yes we, have lying about us a vast mass of witnesses,
Encouragement against apostasy includes the veiled warning against stopping our race to the Crown of Life. If that that have gone on before (Chapter 11) can resist profaning God, even to the point of death, then we have no excuse.
(2) Fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the founder and perfector of the faith, who to obtain the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(3) For consider him that endured such hostility at the hands of sinners against himself, less you grow wearied and grow faint in your souls.
(4) You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, striving against sin.
Christ was not disobedient, and if He was obedient even to death, then we can do no less.
(5) And you have completely forgotten the encouragement which reasons with you as children, saying: My son, stop thinking lightly of the correction of the LORD, and stop becoming discouraged when being admonished by him.
(6) For whom the LORD loves, he corrects, and he punished every son whom he accepts.
(7) It is for correction that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not correct?
(8) But if you without the correct of which we all share, then you are fatherless children and not sons.
(9) Furthermore, we have had earthly fathers who corrected us, and we gave them respect; would we not rather be subject to the Father of our spirits and live?
(10) For they, yes they, indeed were correcting us for a short while in what seemed good to them; however, God corrects for our advantage, to share of his holiness.
(11) Now indeed, no present correction seems joyfull, but painful! Yet afterwards it yields the fruit of righteousness that is a quite heart to those who have been exercised by it.
(12) For this reason, brace up the hands that hang down and the feebled knees,
(13) And make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame limb will not be dislocated, but rather healed.
(14) Pursue peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,
(15) Looking after one another less anyone fall back from the grace of God – unless any bitter root spring up trouble you, causing the many to be defiled,
(16) Lest anyone be a fornicator or a profane person like Esau, who for one piece of meat sold his birthright.
(17) For you know how that later on, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he could find no way for repentence, although he pleaded with tears.
The threat of Esau is not hollow, or hypothetical, but real. Esau sold his birthright, which was the promise of Abraham, which is Christ and His Church. The same may be said of the person who has Christ but for acceptance by this world tramples the blood of the Covenant and therefore rebells against God.
(18) For you have not come up to the mount that is touchable, and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and whirlwind
(19) And the sound of a trumpet, and the sound of words, which voice they that heard, begged that no more words should be added.
(20) (For they could were not bearing that which was commanded, and even if an animal were to touch it, it was to be stoned, or thrust through with an arrow)
(21) And so awesome was the sight that Moses said: I am terrified and trembling)
(22) But you, yes you!, have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the numberless multitude of angels in joyful assembly,
(23) And to the church of the firstborn, who are recorded in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,
(24) And to the Mediator of the new covenant – Jesus, and to the sprinkling of bloos, that speaks better things than Abel.
(25) See that you do not refuse him that speaks. For if they who refused him that spoke on earth didn’t escape, shall we then escape if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven?
(26) Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying: Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
Is it possible to turn away from God? This writer says that it is and further says that if we do, we cannot escape. But who is he talking to? Sinners? Or Christians. Throughout the letter, and indeed, every book written after Acts, the audience is the Church.
(27) And this word: Yet once more, clearly shows the removal of the things shaken, as of things having been created, so that he things not being shaken shall remain.
(28) For this reason, since we receive an unshakable kingdom, let us have grace, through which we may acceptably sacred serve God with reverence and godly fear.
(29) For our God is a consuming fire.
Sep 15 2008
This is perhaps one of the most well known passages in the entire bible, dictating a virtual hall of fame of faith as an encouragement for the audience to keep pressing forward. There is no warning here against apostasy by the idea that if through all of these things, these people made it through, then Christians, even today, can overcome persecution and temptation to keep traveling onward.
Hebrews 11:1-40 from the Commentary in Translation Version
(1) Now faith is the beginning foundation of things being confidently expected, the demonstration of unseen accomplishments.
(2) For in this, the men of the past received approval
(3) By faith, we understand the ages to have been prepared by a saying from God; for the things which are visible, did not come from things unseen.
(4) By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he testified to be righteous, God testifying concerning his gifts, and through faith, he himself still speaks, though having died.
(5) By faith Enoch was taken up so as not to see death – he was no longer found, because God took him up; for before his removal, he had stood on record to as having been pleasing to God.
(6) But with faith, it is impossible to please him, for it necessary for the one that approaches God to believe that he is the I AM, and that he becomes a rewarder to those who craves for him.
(7) By faith Noah, having been warned of God concerning the things not yet seen, having been moved with reverence, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an inheritor of the righteousness according to faith.
(8) By faith Abraham, being called, did obey, to go out to the place which was about to receive for an inheritance, and we went out not knowing where he is going.
(9) By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of the divine promise, as a foreigner, having lived in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the joint-heirs of the same promise from God.
(10) For he was looking forward to the city having the foundations who architect and builder is God.
(11) By faith also Sarah herself received power for the founding of a remnant, and she gave birth after the time of life, seeing that she judged him faithful who had promised.
(12) And so from one were born – and in these things having been as good as dead – as the stars of the heaven in number and as innumerable as the sand that is by the sea shore.
(13) All these died in faith, not having received the divine promises – but! – but, having seen them from a afar off and having been persuaded, welcomed them, confessing that they are strangers and sojourners on the earth.
(14) For the ones saying such things make it clear that they are seeking a native land.
(15) And if, indeed, they had continued mindful of that land from which they had came out, they might have had an opportunity to return.
(16) But now they long for a better, that is a heavenly land. For this reason, God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for prepared a city form them.
(17) By faith Abraham, while still being tested, had already offered up Isaac; the one that had glady received the divine promises was offering up his only son,
(18) (Of whom it is was said: Your descendent’s will come through Isaac.)
(19) Having taken into account that God is able to raise him up even from the dead, from where he indeed received him (in the symbolic sense).
(20) By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
(21) By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing , leant upong his staff.
(22) By faith Joseph, coming to the end of his life, remembered the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave orders concerning his bones.
(23) By faith Moses, having been born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw the beautiful young child and were not afraid of the mandate of the king.
(24) By faith Moses, having become great, refused to be called a son of the daughter of Pharaoh,
(25) Having chosen rather to share the hardship of the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin,
(26) Having regarded the disgrace of Christ as greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking away from all else to the reward.
(27) By faith, he left Egypt behind, not fearing the king’s rage, for he endured, as seeing the invisible one.
(28) By faith he had kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the one destroying the first-born would not touch them.
(29) By faith they passed through the Red Sea as through dry land, which the Egyptians meeting the trial of, were swallowed up.
(30) By faith the walls of Jericho fell, having been encircled for seven days.
(31) By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with the ones who refused to obey, having received the spies with peace.
(32) And what more shall I say? For the time will run short for me is I fully tell about Gideon, both Barak and Samson, and Jephthah, both David and Samuel, and the prophets,
(33) Who through faith conquers kingdoms, brought about justice, obtained divine promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
(34) Extinguished the power of fire, escaped the mouth of the sword, were made strong from weaknesses, became mighty in battle, routed foreign armies.
(35) Women received back their dead by a resurrection, but others were tortured, not accepted their release so that they would obtain a better resurrection.
(36) And others received trials of public ridicule and beatings with a whip, and in addition, chains and imprisonment.
(37) They were stoned; they were cut in two; they were tested; they were murdered with a sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, being afflicted, being tormented,
(38) (Of whom the world was not worthy) wandering about in desolate places and in mountains and in caves and in canyons of the earth.
(39) And all these, having received approval through their faith, did not receive the promise from God,
(40) Because God provided something better concerning us, that they should not be made perfect without us.
Sep 12 2008
Of the issues that we run across in speaking about apostasy is to define exactly what apostasy is. The writer of Hebrews does that for us. It is not the sinning that might happen as we grow in Christ, or the sinning that happens with the flesh comes alive, but it is the deliberate sin whereby we knowingly defy Christ as our Lord and Saviour. Apostasy is the falling away from Christ Himself. Where as chapter 6 defines who can commit apostasy, chapter 10 defines what it is.
Hebrews 10:1-39 from the Commentary in Translation Version
(1) For the Law, which was a rude outline of the good things to come and not the very reality of the matter, cannot with the same sacrifices which they offer yearly make the approachers perfect.
(2) Otherwise, they would cease being offered because the ministering ones if they had once for all been cleansed should have had no more consciousness of sins, would they not?
(3) But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance of sins every year,
(4) For it is impossible that the bloods of bulls and goats should take away sins.
(5) For this reason, coming into the world, he says: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you did prepare for me;
(6) In burnt offerings and sacrifices made for sin, you took no pleasure.
(7) Then I said: Look, for I have come to do your will, O God (In the beginning of the book it stands written concerning me.)
(8) Earlier, when he said: Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin, you desired none, neither did you take pleasure in them (which are offered according to the Law).
(9) Then he said: Look, for I have come to do your will, O God. He abolishes the first that he may establish the second.
(10) By God’s will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time!
(11) And indeed, every priest had stood daily to minister and to repeatedly offer the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
(12) But he himself, having offered one sacrifice forever for sins, has sat down on the right hand of God,
(13) And from that time onward, waiting until his enemies are made his footstool.
(14) For by one offering he has perfected for all times the ones being sanctified.
(15) Moreover, the holy spirit also testifies to us,
(16) For after having said: This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD, putting my laws on their hearts and upon their minds I will inscribe them.
(17) Then he adds: And I shall by no means remember their sins and their iniquities any longer.
(18) Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer an offering for sin.
(19) Therefore, brethren, we have a confident assurance for the entrance to the holy of holies in the blood of Jesus,
(20) By a way newly slain but living, which he has inaugurated for us through the veil, which is say, his flesh,
(21) And having an high priest over the house of God,
(22) Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled free from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water,
(23) Let us keep holding fast to the profession of our hope that it waver not, for God is faithful that promised.
(24) Let us continuously take care one for another to spur to love and to good works,
(25) Not abandoning the assembling of ourselves together, as the habit of some is; instead encouraging one another, and so much more so as you see the Day approaching.
The Danger of Apostasy
(26) For if we, yes we, sin deliberately after the receiving of the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
‘Deliberately’ excludes sins of infirmity and weakness of will; ‘knowledge’ excludes ’sins of ignorance’. Once you reject the Gospel there will be no more that will supplant or supplement it as it did with Judaism.
(27) But only a terrifying expectation of judgment and wrath of fire that is ready to devour the adversaries.
(28) If anyone rejecting the Law of Moses dies without mercies under two of three witnesses,
What then is this Law of Moses? Remember, this entire book as drawn together the Old and New into one seamless Testament of God.
“If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing His covenant, who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. (Deuteronomy 17:2-6 NKJV)
“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. (Deuteronomy 13:6-9 NKJV)
The worship of God has moved from the physical of Judaism to the spiritual of Christianity, so the physical death that is demanded by the Law is the spiritual death wrought under Grace. If you were to serve even another ‘Jesus’ than the true one once you have the knowledge of the truth, then what standing do you think you have? Would you presume to debate doctrine with God?
(29) How much worse the punishment do you think that he will be deemed to merit who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, counting the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and having outraged the spirit of Grace.
The idea here is some public dishonour – such as publicly denouncing the doctrine of the Church or even accepting the doctrine of another equal with the Church. It is also dismissing the doctrine as false. The RV has ‘common’ thing, referring to the blood. The idea is the same: when you fail to make the distinction between the blood bought, the separate, and the world, then you have denied Christ.
(30) For we know him that said: Vengeance belongs unto me; I will repay, says the LORD. And again: The LORD will judge his people.
(31) Terrifying is the fall into the hands of the living God.
This deliberate sin is the same sin that is found in Numbers,
“And if a person sins unintentionally, then he shall bring a female goat in its first year as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally, when he sins unintentionally before the LORD, to make atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him. You shall have one law for him who sins unintentionally, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel and for the stranger who dwells among them.
“But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the LORD, and he shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him.”‘ (Numbers 15:27-31 NKJV)
1st John has the same theme,
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. (1 John 5:16-17 NKJV)
The idea is the same in Hebrews. There are two types of sin – the one that is unintentional owing itself to human frailty and eyes that are growing dim; there is a sin though that has always brought death, it is the sin that brings a reproach upon the Lord. The Law of Moses and the Grace of Christ allows for the sins of the former type, but neither gives room for the latter sin.
The writer of Hebrews warns again of apostasy – the intentional sin whereby a person counts the blood of the covenant void. Take the example of Joel Hemphill, who recently denied the deity of Christ in favor of the ancient heresy of Arianism. He willingly did this and thus the songs that he wrote and sang, the years that he preached, the many times that he would have called Jesus Christ God is made a reproach to him. What if you denied the doctrine of the Church? The baptism? The very name of God? The very Church of God?
Note the emphatic ‘we’ of the author – he puts himself in the same place as those that hear him. If he too sins deliberately, with a high hand, he too will find nothing more than the expectation of judgment. Paul said the same,
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Corinthians 9:27 KJVA)
This is a sin that eternally separates a person from God.
Continue to Persevere
(32) Call to remembrance your former days, in which after you were enlightened, you endure a great fight of afflictions.
(33) Sometimes, while you were made a public example both by insults and afflictions and on other occasions you companioned with those that were treated this way.
(34) For indeed you sympathized with me in my chains, and you accepted the seizure of your property with joy, knowing that you have a better and lasting possession in the heavens.
(35) Therefore, throw not away your confident assurance, which has a great reward,
(36) For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive his promise.
(37) For in a very little while, he that shall come will come and will not delay.
(38) Now the just will live by faith, and if he draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him,
(39) But we, yes we!, are not of them that draws back unto destruction, but we, yes we, are they that believe in the securing of the soul.
Again, the writer turns to the illumination of the Saint – being made aware of who Jesus Christ is. He encourages them to hold to that revelation, to stand upon it, and if persecution comes, knowing that Christ Himself is still on the way.
In verse 38-39, the writer makes a clear distinction concerning those that are moving forward and those that have shrunk back. He did not say, as some would suppose, that those that withdrew themselves from Christ where never really saved; instead, he says that they were once righteous and living by faith but because they turned their back on Christ. Thus, he could not fellowship with them; however, he was going forward.
Sep 11 2008
Hebrews 9:1-28 from the Commentary in Translation Version
Just as in the previous chapter, we see the writer trying to draw the readers to the fact that the covenant inaugurated through the blood of Christ is eternal, and therefore superior than to the temporal Law which Moses brought from Sinai.
(1) Then indeed even the first covenant used to have ordinances of divine service and its own sanctuary, a sanctuary of this world.
(2) For there was a tabernacle prepared: in the first part were both the lamp stand and the table with the bread of the presence which is called the holy place;
(3) After the second veil was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,
(4) Which had a golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant, overlain all around with gold, in which was the golden pot that had the manna, the rod of Aaron, which budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
(5) Over it were the cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy seat (something that we are unable to speak about now in detail).
(6) Now when these things were prepared in this way, the priests continually went into the first tabernacle, performing the divine service.
(7) But into the second division went the High Priest, along, once every year and always with blood, which he offered for himself and for the sings of the people which were committed in ignorance.
(8) The holy spirit making this clear: that the way into the very presence of God was not yet revealed while the first tabernacle had a place,
(9) Even this is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the offering of both gifts and sacrifices are unable to make the conscience of the worshipper perfect,
(10) Since they are concerned only with food, drinks, and various ceremonial washings — regulations for the body that were imposed upon them until the time of reformation.
(11) When Christ having appeared as High Priest of the good things to come went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands (that is, not of this creation),
(12) He did not enter through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood did he enter once for all time into the very presence of God, having secured eternal redemption.
(13) For if sprinkling the unclean with the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a young cow sanctifies them to outwardly cleanness,
(14) How much, then, how much more will the blood of Christ (who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God) purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
(15) For this reason — that death having come for redemption from the transgressions under the first covenant — he is the Mediator of a new covenant that those who are called will receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
(16) For where there is a last will, it is necessary for the death of the will-maker.
(17) For the last will is valid over dead people, since it never in force while the will-maker lives.
(18) Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
(19) For when every commandment had been spoken according to the Law by Moses to all the people, having taken the blood of the calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, he sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people, saying:
(20) This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded to you.
(21) And likewise he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the scared ministry with the blood.
(22) And with blood, I may almost say, all things are purified according to the Law, and without shedding of blood forgiveness does not come.
(23) Therefore it was indeed necessary for the earthly examples of the heavenly things to be continually purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves purified with better sacrifices than these.
(24) For Christ did not enter into holy places made by man, which are only copies of the true, but he entered into heaven itself, now to be openly manifested before the face of God on our behalf.
(25) He did not enter that he should offer himself often, just as the high priest enters into the holy places yearly with blood belonging to another;
(26) Otherwise, it would have been necessary for him to suffer often — even from the laying of the foundation of the world – but now, once for all time, at the fullness of time, he has been revealed, annulling the power of sin through his sacrifice.
(27) Just as it is appointed unto men once to die and after this comes the judgment,
(28) So also Christ, having been offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time without sin to bring salvation to the ones waiting for him!
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