Commentary on Hebrews

1The first then had indeed ordinances of worship and a worldly sanctuary:

2For there was made the first tabernacle in which werethe candlestick, and the table, and the shew­bread, which is called the sanctuary;

3And after the second vail, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of holies, which has the golden censer, and the ark

4Of the covenant covered around with gold, in which is the golden pot which has manna, and Aaron’s rod which had budded, and the tables of the covenant;

5And over it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy­seat: of which it is not for us now to speak particularly.

6Now these things being thus set in order, into the first tabernacle the priests always enter who perform the service;

7But into the second, the high priest alone once a year, not without blood, which he offers for the ignorances of himself and of the people;

8The Holy Spirit intimating this, — That the way to the holiest was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing;

9Which was a likeness for the time present, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot as to conscience sanctify the worshipper,

10Being imposed only with meats and drinks, and divers washings and sanctifications of the flesh, until the time of emendation.

11But Christ, having afterwards come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,

12Nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.

13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkled on the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh;

14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself, beingfaultless, to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15And for this reason he is the Mediator of a new testament, that by means of death for the redemption of transgressions under the first testament, they who were called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance

16For where a testament is, there must necessarily be the death of the testator:

17For a testament is of force as to the dead, for it is never valid as long as the testator is living.

18Hence the first was not dedicated without blood:

19For when every command according to the law had been spoken by Moses to the whole people, taking the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, he sprinkled the book and all the people,

20Saying, “This is the blood of the testament which God hath commanded you.”

21And he sprinkled also in a like manner with blood the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry;

22And nearly all things are cleansed by blood according to the law: and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

23It is then necessary that the exemplars of those things which are in heaven should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands, the exemplars of the true, but into heaven itself, that he may now appear before God for us;

25Not indeed that he may often offer himself, as the high priest whoenters into the holiest every year with another’s blood,

26(for then he must have often suffered since the creation of the world;) but now at the end of the ages hath he once appeared for the destruction of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27And as it is appointed to men once to die, and after this the judgment;

28So Christ, having been once offered, that he might take away the sins of many, will appear the second time without sin unto salvation, to those who wait for him.