Hebrews Chapter 8

From The Open Bible Project

8:1 Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

• (1) He briefly repeats that to which all these things are to be referred, that is, that we have another High Priest than those Levitical high priests, even such a one as sits at the right hand of the Most High God in heaven.

8:2 a servant of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

• (2) They of Levi were high priests in an earthly sanctuary, but Christ is in the heavenly.
• (a) Of heaven.
• (3) They of Levi exercised their priesthood in a frail tabernacle, but Christ bears about with him another tabernacle, that is, his body, which God himself made everlasting, as shall later be declared in (Hebrews 9:11).
• (b) Of his body.

8:3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

• (4) He brings a reason why it must be that Christ should have a body (which he calls a tabernacle which the Lord built, and not man) that is, that he might have that to offer: for otherwise he could not be an High Priest. The body is both the tabernacle and the sacrifice.

8:4 For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law;

• (5) He gives a reason why he said that our High Priest is in the heavenly sanctuary, and not in the earthly: because, says he, if he were now on the earth, he could not minister in the earthly sanctuary, seeing there are still Levitical priests who are appointed for him, that is to say, to be patterns of that perfect example. To what purpose should the patterns serve, when the true and original example is present?

8:5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, "See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain."[24]

8:6 But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law.

• (6) He enters into the comparison of the old and transitory Testament or covenant, being but for a time, of which the Levitical priests were mediators, with the new, the everlasting Mediator of which is Christ, to show that this is not only better than that in all respects, but also that that was made void by this.

8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

• (7) He proves by the testimony of Jeremiah that there is a second Testament or covenant, and therefore that the first was not perfect.

8:8 For finding fault with them, he said, "Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

• (c) He calls it a house, as it were one family of the whole kingdom: for while the kingdom of David was divided into two sections, the Prophet would have us understand that through the new Testament they shall be joined together again in one.

8:9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn't continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them," says the Lord.

8:10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

8:11 They will not teach every man his [25] fellow citizen, [See Hebrews Footnotes 25] and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more."[26]

8:13 In that he says, "A new covenant," he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

• (8) The conclusion: Therefore by the later and the new, the first and old is taken away, for it could not be called new, if it did not differ from the old. Again, that same is at length taken away, which is subject to corruption, and therefore imperfect.