Page 501 - Demo

HEBREWS 
8First he says, “Sacri ces and o erings, holocausts and sin o erings,* you neither desired nor delighted in.”These are o ered according to the law.e 9Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the rst to establish the second.f 10By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the o ering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.g
11* Every priest stands daily at his ministry, o ering frequently those same sacri ces that can never take away sins.h 12But this one o ered one sacri ce for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God;i 13* now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool. 14For by one o ering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.j 15* The holy Spirit also testi es to us, for after saying:
16“This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord:
‘I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them upon their minds,’”k 17he also says:*
“Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more.”l
18Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer o ering for sin.
10:22
“Washed in pure water”: Baptism, the rst sacrament, is a washing away not of dirt but of sin. “You were led down to the font of holy baptism just as Christ was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb.. In the same instant you died and were born again; the saving water was both your tomb and your mother.. This is something amazing and unheard of!
It was not we who actually died, were buried and rose again. We only did these things symbolically, but we have been saved in actual fact. It is Christ who was cruci ed, who was buried and who rose again, and all this has been attributed to us. We share in his su erings symbolically and gain salvation in reality”
(From St. Cyril’s Jerusalem Catecheses, 2nd century).
The Judgment Day, by Gustave Doré (1866)
f. [10:9] 7; Ps 40:8; Mt 26:39; Mk 14:36; Lk 22:42; Jn 6:38.
g. [10:10] 9:12, 14.
h. [10:11] 7:27; Dt 10:8; 18:7.
i. [10:12–13] Ps 110:1.
j. [10:14] 9:28.
k. [10:16] 8:10; Jer 31:33.
l. [10:17] 8:12; Jer 31:34.
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heavenly reality. But here it means a pre guration of what is to come in Christ, as it is used in the
Pauline literature; cf. Col 2:17.
* [10:5–7] A passage from Ps 40:7–9 is placed in the mouth of the Son at his incarnation. As usual, the
author follows the Septuagint text. There is a notable di erence in Heb 10:5 (Ps 40:6), where the Masoretic text reads “ears you have dug for me” (“ears open to obedience you gave me,” NAB), but most Septuagint manuscripts have “a body you prepared for me,” a reading obviously more suited to the interpretation of Hebrews.
* [10:8] Sacri ces and o erings, holocausts and sin o erings: these four terms taken from the preceding passage of Ps 40 (with the rst two changed to plural forms) are probably intended as equivalents to the four principal types of Old Testament sacri ces: peace o erings (Lv 3, here called sacri ces); cereal o erings (Lv 2, here called o erings); holocausts (Lv 1); and sin o erings (Lv 4–5). This last category includes the guilt o erings of Lv 5:14–19.
*[10:11–18] Whereas the levitical priesthood o ered daily sacri ces that were ine ectual in remitting sin (Heb 10:11), Jesus o ered a single sacri ce that won him a permanent place at God’s right hand. There he has only to await the nal outcome of his work (Heb 10:12–13; cf. Ps 110:1). Thus he has brought into being in his own person the new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah (Jer 31:33–34) that has rendered meaningless all other o erings for sin (Heb 10:14–18).
* [10:13] Until his enemies are made his footstool: Ps 110:1 is again used; the reference here is to the period of time between the enthronement of Jesus and his second coming. The identity of the enemies is not speci ed; cf. 1 Cor 15:25–27.
* [10:15–17] The testimony of the scriptures is now invoked to support what has just preceded. The passage cited is a portion of the new covenant prophecy of Jer 31:31–34, which the author previously used in Heb 8:8–12.
* [10:17] He also says: these words are not in the Greek text, which has only kai, “also,” but the expression “after saying” in Heb 10:15 seems to require such a phrase to divide the Jeremiah text into two sayings. Others understand “the Lord says” of Heb 10:16 (here rendered says the Lord) as outside the quotation and consider Heb 10:16b as part of the second saying. Two ancient versions and a number of minuscules introduce the words “then he said” or a similar expression at the beginning of Heb 10:17.
* [10:19–39] Practical consequences from these re ections on the priesthood and the sacri ce of Christ should make it clear that Christians may now have direct and con dent access to God through the person of Jesus (Heb 10:19–20), who rules God’s house as high priest (Heb 10:21). They should approach God with sincerity and faith, in the knowledge that through baptism their sins have been remitted (Heb 10:22), reminding themselves of the hope they expressed in Christ at that event (Heb 10:23). They are to encourage one another to Christian love and activity (Heb 10:24), not refusing, no matter what the reason, to participate in the community’s assembly, especially in view of the parousia (Heb 10:25; cf. 1 Thes 4:13–18). If refusal to participate in the assembly indicates rejection of Christ, no sacri ce exists to obtain forgiveness for so great a sin (Heb 10:26); only the dreadful judgment of God remains (Heb 10:27). For if violation of the Mosaic law could be punished by death, how much worse will be the punishment of those who have turned their backs on Christ by despising his sacri ce and disregarding the gifts of the holy Spirit (Heb 10:28–29). Judgment belongs to the Lord, and he enacts it by his living presence (Heb 10:30–31). There was a time when the spirit of their community caused them to welcome and share their su erings (Heb 10:32–34). To revitalize that spirit is to share in the courage of the Old Testament prophets (cf. Is 26:20; Heb 2:3–4), the kind of courage that must distinguish the faith of the Christian (Heb 10:35–39).