Reference: Hebrews, The Epistle to the
Fausets
Canonicity. - Clement of Rome (1st century A.D.) refers to it oftener than any other canonical New Testament book, adopting its words as on a level with the rest of the New Testament. As the writer of this epistle claims authority Clement virtually sanctions it, and this in the apostolic age. Westcott (Canon, 22) observes, it seems transfused into Clement's mind. Justin Martyr quotes its authority for applying the titles "apostle" and "angel" to the Son of God. Clement of Alexandria refers it to Paul, on the authority of Pantaenus of Alexandria (in the middle of the second century) saying that as Jesus is called the "apostle" to the Hebrew, Paul does not in it call himself so, being apostle to the Gentiles; also that Paul prudently omitted his name at the beginning, because the Hebrew were prejudiced against him; that it was originally written in Hebrew for the Hebrew, and that Luke translated it into Greek for the Greeks, whence the style resembles that of Acts.
He however quotes the Greek epistle as Paul's, so also Origen; but in his Homilies he regards the style as more Grecian than Paul's but the thoughts as his. "The ancients who handed down the tradition of its Pauline authorship must have had good reason for doing so, though God alone knows the certainty who was the actual writer," i.e. probably the transcriber or else interpreter of Paul's thoughts. The Peshito old Syriac version has it. Tertullian in the beginning of the third century, in the African church, ascribes it to Barnabas. Irenaeus in Eusebius quotes it. About the same time Caius the presbyter of Rome mentions only 13 epistles of Paul, whereas if epistle to Hebrew were included there would be 14.
The Canon fragment of Muratori omits it, in the beginning of the third century. (See CANON.) The Latin church did not recognize it as Paul's for a long time subsequently. So Victorinus, Novatian of Rome, and Cyprian of Carthage. But in the fourth century Hilary of Poitiers (A.D. 368), Lucifer of Cagliari (A.D. 371), Ambrose of Milan (A.D. 397), and other Latins quote it as Paul's; the fifth council of Carthage (A.D. 419) formally recognizes it among his 14 epistles.
Style. - The partial resemblance of Luke's style to it is probably due to his having been companion of Paul: "each imitated his teacher; Luke imitated Paul flowing along with more than river fullness; Mark imitated Peter who studied brevity" (Chrysostom). But more familiarity with Jewish feeling, and with the peculiarities of their schools, appears in this epistle than in Luke's writings. The Alexandrian phraseology does not prove Apollos' authorship (Alford's theory). The Alexandrian church would not have so undoubtingly asserted Paul's authorship if Apollos their own countryman had really been the author. Paul, from his education in Hebrew at Jerusalem, and in Hellenistic at Tarsus, was familiar with Philo's modes of thought. At Jerusalem there was an Alexandrian synagogue (Ac 6:9).
Paul knew well how to adapt himself to his readers; to the Greek Corinthians who idolized rhetoric his style is unadorned, that their attention might be fixed on the gospel alone; to the Hebrew who were in no such danger he writes to win them (1Co 9:20) in a style attractive to those imbued with Philo's Alexandrian conceptions and accustomed to the combination of Alexandrian Greek philosophy and ornament with Judaism. All the Old Testament quotations except two (Heb 10:30; 13:5) are from the Septuagint, which was framed at Alexandria. The interweaving of the Septuagint peculiarities into the argument proves that the Greek epistle is an original, not a translation. The Hebrew Old Testament would have been quoted, had the original epistle been Hebrew
Pauline authorship. - This is further favored by internal evidence. The superiority of Christianity to Judaism in that the reality exceeds the type is a favorite topic of Paul. Compare this epistle with 2Co 3:6-18; Ga 3:23-25; 4:1-9,21-31. Herein allegorical interpretation, which the Alexandrians strained unduly, is legitimately under divine guidance employed. The divine Son is represented as the image of God; compare Heb 1:3, etc., with Paul's undoubted epistles, Php 2:6; Col 1:15-20; His lowering Himself for man's sake (Heb 2:9) with 2Co 8:9; Php 2:7-8; His final exaltation (Heb 2:8; 10:13; 12:2) with 1Co 15:25-27; His "mediator" (unique to Paul) office (Heb 8:6) with Ga 3:19-20; His sacrifice for sin prefigured by the Jewish sacrifices (Hebrews 7-10) with Ro 3:22-26; 1Co 5:7. "God of peace" is a phrase unique to Paul (Heb 13:20 with Ro 15:33; 1Th 5:23).
So "distributed gifts of the Holy Spirit" (Heb 2:4) with (Greek) "divisions of gifts ... the same Spirit" (1Co 12:4); "righteousness by faith" (Heb 10:38; 11:7) with the same quotation (Hab 2:4); Ro 1:17; 4:22; 5:1; Ga 3:11; Php 3:9. "The word of God ... the sword of the Spirit" (Heb 4:12) with Eph 6:17. Inexperienced Christians are "children needing milk," i.e. elementary teaching; riper Christians, as full grown men, require strong meat (Heb 5:12-13; 6:1 with 1Co 3:1-2; 14:20; Ga 4:9; Eph 4:13). Believers have "boldness of access to God by Christ" (Heb 10:19 with Ro 5:2; Eph 2:18; 3:12). Afflictions are a fight (Heb 10:32 with Php 1:30; Col 2:1).
The Christian life is a race (Heb 12:1 with 1Co 9:24; Php 3:12-14). The Jewish ritual is a service (Heb 9:1-6 with Ro 9:4); a "bondage," as not freeing us from consciousness of sin and fear of death (Heb 2:15 with Ga 5:1). Paul's characteristic "going off at a word" into a long parenthesis, playing upon like sounding words, and repeating favorite words, quotations from the Old Testament linked by "and again" (Heb 1:5; 2:12-13, with Ro 15:9-12; 2:8 with 1Co 15:27; Eph 1:22; 6:24 with Ro 12:19).
Reception in the East before the West. - No Greek father ascribes the epistle to any but Paul, for it was to the Hebrew of Alexandria and Palestine it was mainly addressed; but in the western and Latin churches of N. Africa and Rome, which it did not reach for some time, it was long doubted owing to its anonymous form, not opening as other epistles though closing like them; its Jewish argument; and its less distinctively Pauline style. Insufficient evidence for it, not positive evidence against it, led these for the first three centuries not to accept it. The fall of Jerusalem previous to the full growth of Christianity in N. Africa curtailed: contact between its churches and those Jews to whom this epistle is undressed. The epistle was, owing to distance, little known to the Latin churches. Muratori's Canon does not notice it.
When in the fourth century at last they found it was received as Pauline and canonical (the Alexandrians only doubted its authorship, not its authority) on good grounds in the Greek churches, they universally accepted it. The churches of the East and Jerusalem their center, the quarter to which the epistle was first sent, received it as Paul's, according to Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem (A.D. 349). Jerome, though bringing from Rome the Latin prejudice against this epistle, aggravated by its apparent sanction of the Novatian heresy (Heb 6:4-6), was constrained by the almost unanimous testimony of the Greek churches from the first to receive it as Paul's; after him Rome corrected its past error of rejecting it. Augustine too held its canonicity. What gives especial weight to the testimony for it of the Alexandrian church is, that church was founded by Mark, who was with Paul at Rome in his first confinement, when probably this epistle was written (Col 4:10), and possibly bore it to Jerusalem where his mother resided, visiting Colosse on the way, and from Jerusalem to Alexandria.
Peter also (2Pe 3:15-16), the apostle of the circumcision, in addressing the Hebrew Christians of the dispersion in the East, says, "as our beloved brother Paul ... hath written unto you," i.e. to the Hebrew. By adding "as also in all his epistles" he distinguishes the epistle to the Hebrew from the rest; and by classing it with the "other Scriptures" he asserts at once its Pauline authorship and divine inspiration. A generous testimony of Christian love to one who formerly rebuked him (Ga 2:7-14).
The apostle of the circumcisio
See Verses Found in Dictionary
and sold their property and belongings, and divided the money with all the rest, according to their special needs.
No one among them was in any want, for any who owned lands or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sale
But members of the synagogue known as that of the Libyans, Cyreneans, and Alexandrians, and men from Cilicia and Asia undertook to debate with Stephen,
The disciples determined to make up a contribution, each according to his ability, and send it to the brothers who lived in Judea,
Paul looked steadily at the council and said, "Brothers, I have done my duty to God with a perfectly clear conscience up to this very day."
Therefore I strive always to have a clear conscience before God and men.
In it God's way of uprightness is disclosed through faith and for faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright will have life because of his faith."
but self-seeking people who are disloyal to the truth and responsive only to what is wrong will experience anger and fury,
It is God's way of uprightness and comes through having faith in Jesus Christ, and it is for all who have faith, without distinction. For all men sin and come short of the glory of God, read more. but by his mercy they are made upright for nothing, by the deliverance secured through Christ Jesus. For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith. This was to vindicate his own justice (for in his forbearance, God passed over men's former sins)??26 to vindicate his justice at the present time, and show that he is upright himself, and that he makes those who have faith in Jesus upright also.
That was why it was credited to him as uprightness.
So as we have been made upright by faith, let us live in peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have been introduced through faith to the favor of God that we now enjoy, and let us glory in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
For they are Israelites, and to them belong the rights of sonship, God's glorious presence, the divine agreements and legislation, the Temple service, the promises,
If the first handful of dough is consecrated, the whole mass is, and if the root of a tree is consecrated, so are its branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you who were only a wild olive shoot have been grafted in, in place of them, and made to share the richness of the olive's root, read more. you must not look down upon the branches. If you do, remember that you do not support the root; the root supports you. "But," you will say, "branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in!" That is true; but it was for their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you stand where you do. You ought not to feel proud; you ought to be afraid, for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you. Observe then the goodness and the severity of God??everity to those who have fallen, but goodness to you, provided you abide by his goodness, for otherwise, you in your turn will be pruned away. Those others too, if they do not cling to their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from a wild olive and unnaturally grafted upon a cultivated one, how much easier it will be to graft them upon the olive to which they properly belong!
Your love must be genuine. You must hate what is wrong, and hold to what is right.
Do not take your revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God's anger, for the Scripture says, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back, says the Lord."
But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about gratifying your physical cravings.
and causing the heathen to praise God for his mercy; as the Scripture says, "I will give thanks to you for this among the heathen, And sing in honor of your name." And again, "Rejoice, you heathen, with his people!" read more. And again, "Praise the Lord, all you heathen, And let all nations sing his praises." Again Isaiah says, "The descendant of Jesse will come, The one who is to rise to rule the heathen; The heathen will set their hopes on him."
For Macedonia and Greece have determined to make a contribution for the poor among God's people in Jerusalem.
God who gives peace be with you all! Amen.
So, for my part, brothers, I could not treat you as spiritual persons; I had to treat you just as creatures of flesh and blood, as babies in Christian living. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. Why, you are not ready for it now,
To the Jews I have become like a Jew, to win Jews over; to men under the Law I have become like a man under the Law, though I am not myself under the Law, so as to win over those who are under the Law.
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one wins the prize? That is the way you must run, so as to win.
Endowments vary, but the Spirit is the same,
Brothers, you must not be children mentally. In evil be babies, but mentally be mature.
for he must retain the kingdom until he puts all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be overthrown will be death, read more. for everything is to be reduced to subjection and put under Christ's feet. But when it says that everything is subject to him, he is evidently excepted who reduced it all to subjection to him.
for everything is to be reduced to subjection and put under Christ's feet. But when it says that everything is subject to him, he is evidently excepted who reduced it all to subjection to him.
This farewell I, Paul, add in my own hand. A curse upon anyone who has no love for the Lord. Lord, come quickly! read more. The blessing of the Lord Jesus be with you!
and he has qualified me to serve him in the interests of a new agreement, not in writing but of spirit. For what is written kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the religion of death, carved in letters of stone, was ushered in with such splendor, so that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face on account of the brightness that was fading from it, read more. why should not the religion of the Spirit be attended with much greater splendor? If there was splendor in the religion of condemnation, the religion of uprightness must far surpass it in splendor. For in comparison with its surpassing splendor, what was splendid has come to have no splendor at all. For if what faded away came with splendor, how much more splendid what is permanent must be! So since I have such a hope, I speak with great frankness, not like Moses, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the fading of the splendor from it. Their minds were dulled. For to this day, that same veil remains unlifted, when they read the old agreement, for only through union with Christ is it removed. Why, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their minds, but "whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed." Now the Lord here means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, reflecting the splendor of the Lord in our unveiled faces, are being changed into likeness to him, from one degree of splendor to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
You know how gracious the Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, in order that by his poverty you might become rich.
On the contrary, when they saw that I had been intrusted with the good news for the heathen, just as Peter had been intrusted with it for the Jews??8 for he who actuated Peter to be an apostle to the Jews also actuated me to be one to the heathen??9 and when they recognized the favor God had shown me, James, Cephas, and John, who were regarded as pillars of the church, pledged Barnabas and me their co-operation, with the understanding that we should work among the heathen and they among the Jews.
Only, we were to remember the poor, and that I have taken pains to do. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, for his own conduct condemned him. read more. For until some people came from James, he used to eat with the heathen, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof, for fear of the party of circumcision. The other Jewish Christians followed his example in concealing their real views, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their pose. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas, right before them all, "If you live like a heathen, and not like a Jew, though you are a Jew yourself, why should you try to make the heathen live like Jews?"
That no one is accepted as upright by God for obeying the Law is evident because the upright will have life because of his faith,
Then what about the Law? It was a later addition, designed to produce transgressions, until the descendant to which the promise was made should come, and it was enacted by means of angels, through an intermediary; though an intermediary implies more than one party, while God is but one.
But before this faith came, we were kept shut up under the Law, in order to obtain the faith that was to be revealed. So the Law has been our attendant on our way to Christ, so that we might be made upright through faith. read more. But now that faith has come, we are no longer in the charge of the attendant.
I mean this: As long as the heir is a minor, he is no better than a slave, although he is the owner of all the property, but he is under guardians and trustees until the time fixed by his father. read more. So when we were minors, we were slaves to material ways of looking at things, but when the proper time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, and made subject to law, to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might receive adoption. And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the spirit of his Son, with the cry, "Abba!" that is, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, made so by God. But formerly, in your ignorance of God, you were slaves to gods that really did not exist, but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again?
but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again?
Tell me this, you who want to be subject to law: Will you not listen to the Law? For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by the free woman. read more. But the child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfilment of the promise. This is an allegorical utterance. For the women are two agreements, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar (and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia), and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For the Scripture says, "Rejoice, childless woman, who bear no children, Break into shouting, you who have no birth pains! For the desolate woman has more children than the married one!" Now we, brothers, are like Isaac, children born in fulfilment of the promise. But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born through the influence of the Spirit, so it is today. Yet what does the Scripture say? "Drive the slave-girl and her son away, for the slave-girl's son shall not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman." So, brothers, we are children not of a slave but of one who is free.
This is the freedom with which Christ has freed us. So stand firm in it, and do not get under a yoke of slavery again.
He has put everything under his feet and made him the indisputable head of the church,
for it is through him that we both with one Spirit are now able to approach the Father.
Through union with him and through faith in him, we have courage to approach God with confidence.
until we all attain unity in faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and reach mature manhood, and that full measure of development found in Christ.
and take salvation for your helmet, and for your sword the Spirit, which is the voice of God.
God's blessing be with all who have an unfailing love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Take your part in the same struggle that you have seen me engage in and that you hear I am still keeping up.
Though he possessed the nature of God, he did not grasp at equality with God, but laid it aside to take on the nature of a slave and become like other men. read more. When he had assumed human form, he still further humbled himself and carried his obedience so far as to die, and to die upon the cross.
I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a descendant of Israel. I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and the son of Hebrews. As to the Law, I was a Pharisee;
and be known to be united to him, with any uprightness I may have not based on law but coming through faith in Christ??he uprightness that comes from God through faith.
Not that I have secured it yet, or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, because I have been captured by Jesus Christ. Brothers, I do not consider that I have captured it yet, only, forgetting what is behind me, and straining toward what lies ahead, read more. I am pressing toward the goal, for the prize to which God through Christ Jesus calls us upward.
and you will thank the Father who has entitled you to share the lot of God's people in the realm of light.
He is a likeness of the unseen God, born before any creature, for it was through him that everything was created in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen, angelic thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities??ll things were created through him and for him. read more. He existed before all things and he sustains and embraces them all. He is the head of the church, it is his body; for he is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead??hat he might come to stand first in everything. For all the divine fulness chose to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to God all things on earth or in heaven, making this peace through his blood shed on the cross.
For I want you to know what a fight I am putting up for you and for our brothers in Laodicea, and for all who do not know me personally,
Be persistent in prayer and wide awake about it when you give thanks.
Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, wishes to be remembered to you, and so does Barnabas' cousin Mark. (About him you have had instructions; if he comes to see you, make him welcome.)
This farewell is in my own hand, from Paul. Remember that I am in prison. God bless you.
This greeting is in my own hand, Paul's; it is the mark in every letter of mine. This is the way I write. The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
and revealed at the proper time in his message, through the preaching with which I have been intrusted at the command of God our Savior,
He is the reflection of God's glory, and the representation of his being, and bears up the universe by his mighty word. He has effected man's purification from sin, and has taken his seat on high at the right hand of God's Majesty,
For to what angel did God ever say, "You are my Son! I have today become your Father"? Or again, "I will become his Father, and he shall become my Son"?
while God himself corroborated their testimony with signs, portents, and various wonders, and by impartations of the holy Spirit when he saw fit.
You have put everything under his feet!" In thus making everything subject to man, God left nothing that was not subjected to him. But we do not as yet see everything made subject to him, but we do see Jesus, who was "made for a little while inferior to angels, crowned with glory and honor" because he suffered death, so that by the favor of God he might taste the bitterness of death on behalf of every human being.
and say, "I will tell your name to my brothers, In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise"; and again "I will put my trust in God"; and again, "Here I am with the children that God has given me."
and free from their slavery men who had always lived in fear of death.
And so he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might prove a compassionate high priest as well as one faithful in his service to God, in order to forgive the people's sins.
So there must still be a promised Sabbath of Rest for God's people.
For the message of God is a living and active force, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing through soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and keen in judging the thoughts and purposes of the mind.
Since then we have in Jesus, the Son of God, a great high priest who has gone up into heaven, let us keep firm hold of our religion. For our high priest is not one who is incapable of sympathy with our weaknesses, but he has been tempted in every way just as we have, without committing any sin. read more. So let us come with courage to God's throne of grace to receive his forgiveness and find him responsive when we need his help.
For although from the length of your Christian experience you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very elements of Christian truth, and you have come to need milk instead of solid food. For anyone who is limited to milk is unacquainted with Christian teaching, for he is only an infant.
Let us therefore leave elementary Christian teaching alone and advance toward maturity. We must not be always relaying foundations, of repentance for wrong-doing, and of faith in God,
For it is impossible to arouse people to a fresh repentance when they have once for all come into the light and had a taste of the gift from heaven, and shared in the holy Spirit and felt the goodness of the word of God and the strong influences of the coming age, read more. and yet have fallen back, for they crucify the Son of God on their own account, and hold him up to contempt.
But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is thought worthless and almost cursed, and it will finally be burned.
But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is thought worthless and almost cursed, and it will finally be burned.
For God is not so unjust as to forget the work you have done and the love you have showed for his cause, in giving help to your fellow-Christians as you still do.
For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was on his way back from defeating the kings, and gave him his blessing, to whom Abraham apportioned one tenth of all the spoil, who is first, as his name shows, king of righteousness and then king of Salem, which means king of peace??3 with no father or mother or ancestry, and with no beginning to his days nor end to his life, but like no one but the Son of God, continues as priest forever.
Now see how great this man must have been to have the patriarch Abraham give him a tenth of the spoil. Those of the descendants of Levi who are appointed to the priesthood are directed by the Law to collect tithes from the people, that is, from their own brothers, although they are descended from Abraham like themselves. read more. But this man, whose ancestry is not connected with theirs, collected tithes from Abraham himself, and gave his blessing to the man who had received the promises from God. But, beyond any doubt, it is the inferior that is blessed by the superior. In the one case, mortal men collect tithes; but in the other, one who, it is intimated, lives on. In one way of putting it, Levi himself, the collector of the tithes, through Abraham paid him tithes, for none of Abraham's posterity was yet begotten at the time of his meeting with Melchizedek.
Further, if he were still on earth, he would not be a priest at all, for there are priests enough provided to offer the gifts the Law prescribes??5 though the service they engage in is only a shadow and imitation of that in heaven. For when Moses was going to make the tent of worship he was warned, "Be sure to make it all just like the pattern you were shown on the mountain."
But, as it is, the priestly service to which Christ has been appointed is as much better than the old as the agreement established by him and the promises on which it is based are superior to the former ones.
Now when he speaks of a new agreement, he is treating the first one as obsolete; but whatever is obsolete and antiquated is almost ready to disappear.
Even the first agreement provided regulations for worship, and a sanctuary that was fully equipped. For a tent was erected, with the lamp and the table and the presentation bread in the outer part, which was called the sanctuary. read more. And beyond the second curtain, in the part called the inner sanctuary, stood the gold incense-altar and the chest that contained the agreement, entirely covered with gold, with the gold jar in it that held the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets containing the agreement; and above the chest were the winged creatures of the Divine Presence overshadowing the lid on which the blood was sprinkled??f which I cannot now speak in detail. With these arrangements for worship, the priests used constantly to go into the outer part of the tent, in the performance of their rites,
With these arrangements for worship, the priests used constantly to go into the outer part of the tent, in the performance of their rites, but only the high priest could enter the inner part, and he but once a year, and never without taking some victim's blood, to offer on his own behalf and for the sins committed through ignorance by the people.
For if sprinkling ceremonially defiled persons with the blood of bulls and goats and with the ashes of a heifer purifies them physically, how much more surely will the blood of the Christ, who with the eternal Spirit made himself an unblemished offering to God, purify our consciences from the old wrongdoing for the worship of the everliving God? read more. And this is why he is the negotiator of a new agreement, in order that as someone has died to deliver them from the offenses committed under the old agreement, those who have been offered it may receive the unending inheritance they have been promised. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established, for a will is valid only in the case of a person who is dead; it has no force as long as the testator is alive. So even the old agreement could not be ratified without the use of blood. For when Moses had told all the regulations of the Law to all the people, he took calves' and goats' blood, along with water, crimson wool, and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled the roll of the Law and all the people, saying, "This blood ratifies the agreement which God has commanded me to make with you." The tent too and all the appliances used in the priestly service he sprinkled with blood in the same way. In fact, under the Law, almost everything is purified with blood, and unless blood is poured out nothing is forgiven. By such means, therefore, these things that were only copied from the originals in heaven had to be purified, but the heavenly originals themselves required far better sacrifices than these. For it was not a sanctuary made by human hands and only copied after the true one that Christ entered, but he went into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God. Nor does he go in to offer himself over and over again, like the high priest who enters the sanctuary year after year, taking with him blood that is not his own, for then he would have had to suffer death over and over, ever since the creation of the world. But, as it is, once for all at the close of the age he has appeared, to put an end to sin by his sacrifice. And just as men are destined to die once and after that to be judged, so the Christ too, after being offered in sacrifice once for all to carry away the sins of many, will appear again but without any burden of sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him to come and save them.
For while the Law foreshadowed the blessings that were to come, it did not fully express them, and so the priests by offering the same sacrifices endlessly year after year cannot wholly free those who come to worship from their sins. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to offer these sacrifices, because those who offered them, having once been purified, would have had no further consciousness of sin? read more. They really only serve to remind the people annually of the sins they have committed, for bulls' and goats' blood is powerless to remove sin. That is why the Christ, when he was coming into the world, said, "You have not wished sacrifice or offering, but you have provided a body for me. You never cared for burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin! So I said, 'See, I have come! as the Book of the Law says of me, O God, to do your will!' " At first he says, "You never wished or cared for sacrifices or offerings, or burnt-offerings or sacrifices for sin"??ll of which the Law prescribes??9 and then he adds, "See, I have come to do your will!" He is taking away the old to put the new in its place.
And it is through his doing of God's will that we have been once for all purified from sin through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ in sacrifice. Every other priest stands officiating day after day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices, though they were powerless ever to remove people's sins. read more. But Christ has offered for all time one sacrifice for sin, and has taken his seat at God's right hand, from that time waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool.
from that time waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by that one sacrifice he has forever qualified those who are purified from sin to approach God. read more. And we have the testimony of the holy Spirit to this, for after saying, " 'This is the agreement that I will make with them In those later days,' says the Lord, 'I will put my laws into their minds, And write them upon their hearts,' " he goes on, " 'And their sins and their misdeeds I will no longer remember.' " But when these are forgiven, there is no more need of offerings for sin. Since then, brothers, we have free access to the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus,
Since then, brothers, we have free access to the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus,
let us draw near to God in sincerity of heart and with perfect faith, with our hearts cleansed from the sense of sin, and our bodies washed with clean water. Let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we profess, for he who has given us his promise may be trusted.
Let us not neglect meeting together as some do, but let us encourage one another, all the more as you can see that the great Day is coming nearer.
For we know who it is that has said, "Vengeance belongs to me! I will pay back!" and in another place, "The Lord will be the judge of his people!"
But you must remember those early days when after you had received the light you had to go through a great struggle with persecution,
For you showed sympathy with those who were in prison, and you put up with it cheerfully when your property was taken from you, for you knew that you had in yourselves a greater possession that was lasting.
For you showed sympathy with those who were in prison, and you put up with it cheerfully when your property was taken from you, for you knew that you had in yourselves a greater possession that was lasting.
For "In a very little while He who is to come will come and not delay, And he whom I accept as righteous will find life through his faith. But if a man draws back, my heart can take no pleasure in him."
Faith led Noah, when he was warned by God of things no one then saw, in obedience to the warning to build an ark in which to save his family, and by such faith he condemned the world, and came to possess that uprightness which faith produces.
Therefore, let us too, with such a crowd of witnesses about us, throw off every impediment and the entanglement of sin, and run with determination the race for which we are entered, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, our leader and example in faith, who in place of the happiness that belonged to him, submitted to a cross, caring nothing for its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
For it is no tangible blazing fire that you have come up to, no blackness and darkness and storm, no trumpet blast and voice whose words made those who heard them beg to be told no more, read more. for they could not bear the order, "Even a wild animal, if it touches the mountain, must be stoned to death," and so awful was the sight that Moses said, "I am aghast and appalled!" But you have come up to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless angels, to the solemn gathering of all God's elder sons, enrolled as citizens in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of upright men now at last enjoying the fulfilment of their hopes,
Now the words "But once more" indicate the final removal of all that is shaken, as only created, leaving only what is unshaken to be permanent.
Remember those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated as being yourselves liable to the same trials.
You must not be avaricious; you must be content with what you have, for God himself has said, "I will never let go of you or desert you!"
You must not be avaricious; you must be content with what you have, for God himself has said, "I will never let go of you or desert you!"
Do not forget your former leaders, the men who brought you God's message. Remember how they ended their lives and imitate their faith.
Do not forget your former leaders, the men who brought you God's message. Remember how they ended their lives and imitate their faith.
Our altar is one at which those who serve the tent of worship have no right to eat.
And so Jesus too, in order to purify the people by his blood, suffered death outside the city gate. Let us, therefore, go out to him, outside the camp, sharing the contempt that he endured, read more. for we have no permanent city here on earth, but we are in search of the city that is to come.
Obey your leaders and give way to them, for they are keeping watch in defense of your souls, as men accountable for the trust. Make their work a joy and not a grief, for that would be the worse for you.
I ask this of you more especially that I may be brought back to you the sooner. May God, the giver of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus who through the blood by which he ratified the everlasting agreement has become the great shepherd of the sheep,
I beg you brothers, to listen patiently to this appeal, for I have written you but briefly. You must know that our brother Timothy has been released from prison. If he comes here soon, we will see you together. read more. Remember us to all your leaders and to all your fellow-Christians. The brothers from Italy wish to be remembered to you.
Remember us to all your leaders and to all your fellow-Christians. The brothers from Italy wish to be remembered to you.
Look upon our Lord's patience as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul, with the wisdom that God gave him, wrote you to do, speaking of it as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which ignorant, unsteadfast people twist to their own ruin, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures.