Hebrews 8:1-11

1 Now a summary of the things of which we are speaking [is], We have such a one high priest who has sat down on [the] right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens;

2 minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, [and] not man.

3 For every high priest is constituted for the offering both of gifts and sacrifices; whence it is needful that this one also should have something which he may offer.

4 If then indeed he were upon earth, he would not even be a priest, there being those who offer the gifts according to the law,

5 (who serve the representation and shadow of heavenly things, according as Moses was oracularly told [when] about to make the tabernacle; for See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern which has been shewn to thee in the mountain.)

6 But now he has got a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is mediator of a better covenant, which is established on the footing of better promises.

7 For if that first was faultless, place had not been sought for a second.

8 For finding fault, he says to them, Behold, days come, saith the Lord, and I will consummate a new covenant as regards the house of Israel, and as regards the house of Juda;

9 not according to the covenant which I made to their fathers in [the] day of my taking their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because *they* did not continue in my covenant, and *I* did not regard them, saith [the] Lord.

10 Because this [is] the covenant that I will covenant to the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: Giving my laws into their mind, I will write them also upon their hearts; and I will be to them for God, and *they* shall be to me for people.

11 And they shall not teach each his fellow-citizen, and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord; because all shall know me in themselves, from [the] little one [among them] unto [the] great among them.

Hebrews 8:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 8

The apostle observing that the priesthood of Christ is the sum of what he had treated of in the preceding chapter, proceeds to show the superior excellency of it in other instances, particularly in the place where Christ now officiates, which is in heaven; he being set down at the right hand of God there, and so was a minister of the sanctuary, and true tabernacle pitched by God, and not man; whereas the priests of Aaron's line only ministered on earth, and in the typical sanctuary and tabernacle, Heb 8:1,2 and after he had observed that Christ must have something to offer, meaning his body, to answer to the gifts and sacrifices priests were ordained to offer, Heb 8:3 he proves the necessity of his ministering in heaven, because if he was on earth he would not be a priest, a complete one, and would have been useless and needless, Heb 8:4 and besides, it was proper that he should go up to heaven, and minister there, as the antitype of the priests, who, to the example and shadow of heavenly things, served in the tabernacle which was made by Moses, by the order of God, and according to the pattern showed him in the Mount, Heb 8:5 and that the ministry of Christ in the true sanctuary is much more excellent than the ministry of the priests in the shadowy one, is evident from his being the Mediator of a better covenant, Heb 8:6 and that the covenant he is the Mediator of is the better covenant, appears froth the better promises of which it consists, and from the faultiness of the former covenant, Heb 8:6,7 and that that was faulty, and succeeded by another, he proves from a passage in Jer 31:31-34 in which mention is made of a new covenant, and as distinct from that made with the Jewish fathers, and violated by them; and several of the promises of this new and second covenant are rehearsed, and which manifestly appear to be better than what were in the former, Heb 8:8-12 from all which the apostle concludes, that a new covenant being made, the old one must be antiquated; and that whereas it was decaying and waxing old, it was just ready to vanish away, Heb 8:13.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or 'the chief point.' The difference is small; it expresses what it results in, in the writer's mind, as the substance of the things of which we are speaking. 'The things of which we are speaking' is the present subject which occupies him: it heads up in this.
• [b]. Or 'such a high priest.'
• [c]. Or 'set himself down,' as ch. 1.3.
• [d]. See Ex. 25.40.
• [e]. Leitourgia: see ver. 2.
• [f]. Hostis: as Matt. 7.24, 'which is such as.'
• [g]. That is, formally established as by a law.
• [h]. See Jer. 31.31-34.
• [i]. The 'and' here I take to represent the Hebrew word translated 'that' in Jer. 31.31.
• [j]. Kainos: see ch.12.24.
• [k]. 'As regards' indicates the object in respect of which the covenant was made.
• [l]. I add 'in themselves,' to distinguish the word here, oida (which means consciousness in oneself), from the word translated 'know the Lord,' which is from ginosko, meaning knowledge in general.