Bible-Center
РУ
EN
FR
Bible
Notes
FAQ
Links
About

Search

Search Search
search in current section [Notes]

NOTES for Heb 10:1-10

Printable version
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hide

Continuing the discussion of sacrifices, the author of the letter returns again to a theme Paul addressed more than once: the insufficiency of the Torah for the complete transformation of the human person. As a disciple and follower of the apostle, he illustrates this through the priestly Torah, which prescribed regular sacrifices, including sacrifices of purification. He draws attention to what his teacher had often said: following the Torah makes it possible to resist sin, but it does not make it possible to be rid of sin once and for all. Applied to the priestly Torah, this means a bad infinity of sacrifices with no end in sight, because after each purification, which is inevitably relative, and each sanctification, which is inevitably incomplete, the person who has been purified and sanctified sins again and loses that sanctification (vv. 1-2). Sacrificial blood can cleanse a person from the consequences of a specific sin, but it cannot free a person from what the New Testament books call original sin. Thus sacrifices of purification paradoxically become for a person a reminder of the sinfulness from which they were supposed to deliver him (vv. 3-4). True, complete purification is accomplished once, just as complete sanctification can only be a one-time reality: complete purification frees a person from his sinfulness once and for all, and complete sanctification, even when it unfolds over time, still does not imply the possibility of losing sanctification and returning to the former state, after which everything would have to begin again.

That is why the author of the letter speaks of the final sanctification of the faithful "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (v. 10). Such final sanctification opens the road to the Kingdom for those who seek it, completely changing the former pattern of purification sacrifices and all other sacrifices. It is in this sense that the author of the letter speaks of the uselessness of the former sacrifices: they are relevant only to the former, pre-Christian order of things (vv. 5-9). In the Kingdom, the priestly Torah ceases to be relevant in the same sense that the Torah in general ceases to be relevant there: after the transformation of the world and of human nature, it is no longer needed as a means of fighting sin, which has been defeated once and for all. And the priestly Torah ceases to be relevant in the Kingdom as a means of the incomplete purification and relative sanctification that it used to provide, when the world still lay in evil (v. 9).

Other notes

 
For Heb 10:1-10
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hide
Continuing the discussion of the Torah and of sanctification through traditional Yahwist sacrifices, the author of the epistle, like his teacher Paul, speaks of the insufficiency both of the Torah itself, which had not opened into the fullness of the living Torah, and of the sanctification connected with it...  Read more

Continuing the discussion of the Torah and of sanctification through traditional Yahwist sacrifices, the author of the epistle, like his teacher Paul, speaks of the insufficiency both of the Torah itself, which had not opened into the fullness of the living Torah, and of the sanctification connected with it. Indeed, for Paul, even before his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road, the fullness of life in God was bound precisely to the living Torah; he considered every other way of following the Torah insufficient.

After that encounter, he understood that the person of Christ is the only example in the world of the living Torah actually fulfilled. He also understood that even the inner Torah, by itself, is not yet the fullness of life with God: the inner Torah only points out the way, but it does not guarantee that the person following it will be able to walk that way.

In the fullness of the living Torah revealed to the world by Christ, not only the Torah as a legal or moral code disappeared, but also the inner Torah as that spiritual compass which pointed the way to the goal: now the goal itself stood before one's eyes. The author of the epistle extends this view of the Torah to sacrifices and to sanctification. Earlier, by being sanctified, a person as it were marked the direction of movement, pointed the way to the goal, and set out toward a place he could not reach, just as a sinful person could not become the living Torah no matter how hard he tried to follow the inner Torah.

Now, with the coming of Christ, the possibility finally appeared of reaching the goal, of being sanctified in all the fullness possible for a human being, and of sharing no longer in the Presence that was found at every earthly altar, but in the Presence that abides at the throne of glory. And in the rays of that throne, the way to which the Savior opens as High Priest of the Kingdom, all earthly altars and all sacred rites disappear. The sacred rites of Christians are not a replacement for the former Yahwist rites within continuing earthly history, but the suprahistorical fullness of sanctification opened to the world through the presence of the Kingdom within it.

But all this is actual only for those for whom the Kingdom is the reality of their own life. For everyone else, in essence, nothing changes. They continue to live in the old spiritual rhythm of periodic cleansing and sanctification, repeated again and again because outside the Kingdom a person is doomed to tread in place, even if he is formally a member of the Church. Then, for such a person, his church life is essentially no different from the life characteristic of believing Yahwists of the pre-Christian era, even if outwardly it is completely Christian.

Hide
 
For Heb 10:4-10
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hide
In the Letter to the Hebrews Paul touches on a theme important for all of us. He exposes the boundary between following some...  Read more

In the Letter to the Hebrews Paul touches on a theme important for all of us. He exposes the boundary between following some rite or other and living faith, the doing of the Father's will.

One can object to this understanding of the matter by saying that behind a rite there almost always stands the faith of previous generations, the Church, and therefore the Lord Himself. In many cases this is so, though not always. But the point is that a rite can screen God from us. As a result, sadly, one can stop perceiving Him as a Person and see only a set of prescriptions, restrictions, and actions required of oneself.

But Paul, quoting Christ's words, emphasizes the doing of the heavenly Father's will, and for this living communion with Him Himself is necessary, in prayer and in reading His Word. And already through this the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, gives us the right perception and the fullness of participation in the rite of the Church.

Hide
 
For Heb 10:1-18
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Hide
Today, in a passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, the apostle Paul speaks of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. Paul emphasizes that...  Read more

Today, in a passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, the apostle Paul speaks of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. Paul emphasizes that the sacrifice is offered in the Body of Jesus Christ only once and never needs to be repeated, because forgiveness of sins is granted through Christ. This is why Christ’s words in the passage from the Gospel according to Mark are so important: “...whoever wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” It is precisely the way of cruciform love that makes us the people whom Christ redeemed, those for whom he offered himself in sacrifice.

Hide
 
For Heb 10:1-18
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Hide
Today's reading from Hebrews is, as it were, two-layered. There is a first layer: what has already been said many times...  Read more

Today's reading from Hebrews is, as it were, two-layered. There is a first layer: what has already been said many times, that Old Testament sacrifices could not cleanse from sin. True cleansing is given only by Christ's death on the cross. This is the direct meaning of the words, "Sacrifices and offerings You did not desire... behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." Paul places these words on the lips of Jesus. Yet one can also look at it somewhat differently. Of course, this is only the second layer, and nevertheless. Here sacrifice is contrasted with doing the will of God. Our offerings, our attempts to do something for God, are not what He needs. He needs the doing of His will. As one priest said, "Stop doing things for God and start doing the works of God."

Hide
Bible
Notes
FAQ
Links
About
Site map
Design and development:  © 2001–2026 W-M v:2.0.3.107

After registering, you can subscribe to any Bible reading plan.

Personalized settings and other services for registered users are planned, so we recommend registering now. Registration is free.