Hebrews 10 Footnotes

10:4,11 Some skeptics charge that if these verses are true, then much of the OT is false. They need to remember, however, that the OT sacrifices, which prefigured Christ’s sacrifice, could “sanctify” and “purify” (9:13,23), but they could never remove sin and its guilt; otherwise, they would not have been repeated. The OT sacrifices were able to make worshipers externally, ceremonially clean, but they could never perpetually and effectively cleanse from sin so as to establish right standing before God. Christ’s sacrifice, however, really does cleanse from sin; it takes away sin and its guilt; it is decisive and does not need to be repeated. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice who appeases God’s wrath toward our sin. He atones for it, taking it upon himself so that we might be saved by this wonderful grace of God through faith.

10:5 Some skeptics charge that the writer here misquoted Ps 40:6 (39:6 in the Septuagint Gk translation) because 10:5 reads “body” instead of “ears” as in the OT. But the writer simply cited a version of the Septuagint that differs from the Hebrew Bible. Further, the author of Hebrews used synecdoche (the whole for a part), referring to the entire “body” of Yahweh’s servant, with “ears” listening carefully to obey God’s command.

10:28-29 Under the new covenant, those who reject God’s work of grace achieved through his Son face much more serious retribution than mere physical death; they have committed a sin with eternal consequences.

10:37 Christ will return in accordance with God’s timetable and perspective, not ours.