New American Bible
2002 11 11
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Chapter 10
1
1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good
things to come, 2 and not the very image of them, it can
never make perfect those who come to worship by the same sacrifices that they
offer continually each year.
2
Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased
to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have had
any consciousness of sins?
3
But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly
remembrance of sins,
4
for it is impossible that the blood of bulls
and goats take away sins.
5
For this reason, when he came into the world, he
said: 3 "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but
a body you prepared for me;
6
holocausts and sin offerings you took no
delight in.
7
Then I said, 'As is written of me in the
scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God.'"
8
First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings, 4 you neither desired nor
delighted in." These are offered according to the law.
9
Then he says, "Behold, I come to do your
will." He takes away the first to establish the second.
10
By this "will," we have been
consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11
5 Every priest stands daily at his ministry,
offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins.
12
But this one offered one sacrifice for sins,
and took his seat forever at the right hand of God;
13
6 now he waits until his enemies are made his
footstool.
14
For by one offering he has made perfect forever
those who are being consecrated.
15
7 The holy Spirit also testifies to us, for
after saying:
16
"This is the covenant I will establish
with them after those days, says the Lord: 'I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them upon their minds,'"
17
he also says: 8 "Their
sins and their evildoing I will remember no more."
18
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is
no longer offering for sin.
19
9 Therefore, brothers, since through the blood
of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary
20
10 by the new and living way he opened for us
through the veil, that is, his flesh,
21
11 and since we have "a great priest over
the house of God,"
22
let us approach with a sincere heart and in
absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience 12
and our bodies washed in pure water.
23
Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that
gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.
24
We must consider how to rouse one another to
love and good works.
25
We should not stay away from our assembly, 13
as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as
you see the day drawing near.
26
14 If we sin deliberately after receiving
knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins
27
but a fearful prospect of judgment and a
flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries.
28
Anyone who rejects the law of Moses 15
is put to death without pity on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29
Do you not think that a much worse punishment
is due the one who has contempt for the Son of God, considers unclean the
covenant-blood by which he was consecrated, and insults the spirit of grace?
30
We know the one who said: "Vengeance is
mine; I will repay," and again: "The Lord will judge his
people."
31
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.
32
Remember the days past when, after you had been
enlightened, 16 you endured a great contest of suffering.
33
At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and
affliction; at other times you associated yourselves with those so treated.
34
You even joined in the sufferings of those in
prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that
you had a better and lasting possession.
35
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence;
it will have great recompense.
36
You need endurance to do the will of God and
receive what he has promised.
37
"For, after just a brief moment, 17
he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay.
38
But my just one shall live by faith, and if he
draws back I take no pleasure in him."
39
We are not among those who draw back and
perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.
1 [1-10] Christian faith now realizes
that the Old Testament sacrifices did not effect the spiritual benefits to come
but only prefigured them (⇒ Hebrews 10:1). For if
the sacrifices had actually effected the forgiveness of sin, there would have
been no reason for their constant repetition (⇒ Hebrews
10:2). They were rather a continual reminder of the people's sins
(⇒ Hebrews 10:3). It is not reasonable to suppose
that human sins could be removed by the blood of animal sacrifices
(⇒ Hebrews 10:4). Christ, therefore, is here shown
to understand his mission in terms of ⇒ Psalm
40:5-7, cited according to the Septuagint (⇒ Hebrews
10:5-7). Jesus acknowledged that the Old Testament sacrifices did not
remit the sins of the people and so, perceiving the will of God, offered his
own body for this purpose (⇒ Hebrews 10:8-10).
2 [1] A shadow of the good things to
come: the term shadow was used in ⇒ Hebrews 8:5 to
signify the earthly counterpart of the Platonic heavenly reality. But here it
means a prefiguration of what is to come in Christ, as it is used in the
Pauline literature; cf ⇒ Col 2:17.
3 [5-7] A passage from
⇒ Psalm 40:7-9 is placed in the mouth of the Son at
his incarnation. As usual, the author follows the Septuagint text. There is a
notable difference in ⇒ Hebrews 10:5
(⇒ Psalm 40:7), where the Masoretic text reads
"ears you have dug for me" ("ears open to obedience you gave
me," NAB), but most Septuagint manuscripts have "a body you prepared
for me," a reading obviously more suited to the interpretation of Hebrews.
4 [8] Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings: these four terms taken from the preceding passage
of Psalm 40 (with the first two changed to plural forms) are probably intended
as equivalents to the four principal types of Old Testament sacrifices: peace
offerings (Lev 3, here called sacrifices); cereal offerings (Lev 2, here called
offerings); holocausts (Lev 1); and sin offerings (Lev 4-5). This last category
includes the guilt offerings of ⇒ Lev 5:14-19.
5 [11-18] Whereas the levitical
priesthood offered daily sacrifices that were ineffectual in remitting sin (⇒ Hebrews
10:11), Jesus offered a single sacrifice that won him a permanent
place at God's right hand. There he has only to await the final outcome of his
work (⇒ Hebrews 10:12-13; cf ⇒ Psalm
110:1). Thus he has brought into being in his own person the new
covenant prophesied by Jeremiah (⇒ Jeremiah
31:33-34) that has rendered meaningless all other offerings for sin
(⇒ Hebrews 10:14-18).
6 [13] Until his enemies are made his
footstool: ⇒ Psalm 110:1 is again used; the
reference here is to the period of time between the enthronement of Jesus and
his second coming. The identity of the enemies is not specified; cf
⇒ 1 Cor 15:25-27.
7 [15-17] The testimony of the
scriptures is now invoked to support what has just preceded. The passage cited
is a portion of the new covenant prophecy of ⇒ Jeremiah
31:31-34, which the author previously used in
⇒ Hebrews 8:8-12.
8 [17] He also says: these words are
not in the Greek text, which has only kai, "also," but the expression
"after saying" in ⇒ Hebrews 10:15 seems
to require such a phrase to divide the Jeremiah text into two sayings. Others
understand "the Lord says" of ⇒ Hebrews
10:16 (here rendered says the Lord) as outside the quotation and
consider ⇒ Hebrews 10:16b as part of the second
saying. Two ancient versions and a number of minuscules introduce the words
"then he said" or a similar expression at the beginning of
⇒ Hebrews 10:17.
9 [19-39] Practical consequences from
these reflections on the priesthood and the sacrifice of Christ should make it
clear that Christians may now have direct and confident access to God through
the person of Jesus (⇒ Hebrews 10:19-20), who rules
God's house as high priest (⇒ Hebrews 10:21). They
should approach God with sincerity and faith, in the knowledge that through
baptism their sins have been remitted (⇒ Hebrews 10:22),
reminding themselves of the hope they expressed in Christ at that event
(⇒ Hebrews 10:23). They are to encourage one
another to Christian love and activity (⇒ Hebrews
10:24), not refusing, no matter what the reason, to participate in
the community's assembly, especially in view of the parousia
(⇒ Hebrews 10:25; cf ⇒ 1 Thes
4:13-18). If refusal to participate in the assembly indicates rejection
of Christ, no sacrifice exists to obtain forgiveness for so great a sin
(⇒ Hebrews 10:26); only the dreadful judgment of
God remains (⇒ Hebrews 10:27). For if violation of
the Mosaic law could be punished by death, how much worse will be the
punishment of those who have turned their backs on Christ by despising his
sacrifice and disregarding the gifts of the holy Spirit
(⇒ Hebrews 10:28-29). Judgment belongs to the Lord,
and he enacts it by his living presence (⇒ Hebrews
10:30-31). There was a time when the spirit of their community caused
them to welcome and share their sufferings (⇒ Hebrews
10:32-34). To revitalize that spirit is to share in the courage of
the Old Testament prophets (cf ⇒ Isaiah 26:20;
⇒ Habakkuk 2:3-4), the kind of courage that must
distinguish the faith of the Christian (⇒ Hebrews
10:35-39).
10 [20] Through the veil, that is, his
flesh: the term flesh is used pejoratively. As the temple veil kept people from
entering the Holy of Holies (it was rent at Christ's death,
⇒ Mark 15:38), so the flesh of Jesus constituted an
obstacle to approaching God.
11 [21] The house of God: this refers
back to ⇒ Hebrews 3:6, "we are his house."
12 [22] With our hearts sprinkled
clean from an evil conscience: as in ⇒ Hebrews 9:13
(see the note there), the sprinkling motif refers to the Mosaic rite of
cleansing from ritual impurity. This could produce only an external
purification, whereas sprinkling with the blood of Christ (⇒ Hebrews
9:14) cleanses the conscience. Washed in pure water: baptism is
elsewhere referred to as a washing; cf ⇒ 1 Cor
6:11; ⇒ Eph 5:26.
13 [25] Our assembly: the liturgical
assembly of the Christian community, probably for the celebration of the
Eucharist. The day: this designation for the parousia also occurs in the
Pauline letters, e.g., ⇒ Romans 2:16;
⇒ 1 Cor 3:13; ⇒ 1 Thes
5:2.
14 [26] If we sin deliberately: verse
29 indicates that the author is here thinking of apostasy; cf
⇒ Hebrews 3:12; ⇒ 6:4-8.
15 [28] Rejects the law of Moses:
evidently not any sin against the law, but idolatry. ⇒ Deut
17:2-7 prescribed capital punishment for idolaters who were convicted
on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
16 [32] After you had been
enlightened: "enlightenment" is an ancient metaphor for baptism (cf
⇒ Eph 5:14; ⇒ John 9:11),
but see ⇒ Hebrews 6:4 and the note there.
17 [37-38] In support of his argument,
the author uses ⇒ Habakkuk 2:3-4 in a wording almost
identical with the text of the Codex Alexandrinus of the Septuagint but with
the first and second lines of ⇒ Hebrews 10:4
inverted. He introduces it with a few words from ⇒ Isaiah
26:20: after just a brief moment. Note the Pauline usage of
⇒ Hebrews 2:4 in ⇒ Romans
1:17; ⇒ Gal 3:11.
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