The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (250 page)

8
 For he finds fault with them
when he says
:

  
"The days will come, says the Lord,

  
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel

  
and with the house of Judah;

 ⁹
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers

  
on the day when I took them by the hand

  
to lead them out of the land of Egypt;

  
for they did not continue in my covenant,

  
and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord.

¹⁰
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 minds,

  
and write them on their hearts,

  
and I will be their God,

  
and they shall be my people.

¹¹
And they shall not teach every one his fellow

  
or every one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'

  
for all shall know me,

  
from the least of them to the greatest.
 
*

¹²
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

  
and I will remember their sins no more."

¹³
In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is
ready to vanish
away.

The Earthly and the Heavenly Sanctuaries

9
  
Now even the first covenant
had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.
²
For a tent
^p
was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of offering;
^q
it is called the
Holy Place
.
³
Behind the
second curtain
stood a tent
^p
called the Holy of Holies,
⁴
having the golden
altar of incense
and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, which contained a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
⁵
above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the
mercy seat
. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

6
 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent,
^p
performing their ritual duties;
⁷
but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but
once a year
, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people.
⁸
By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is
not yet opened
as long as the outer tent
^p
is still standing
⁹
(which is symbolic for the
present age
). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,
¹⁰
but deal only with food and drink and various baptisms, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

11
 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,
^r
then through the
greater and more perfect tent
^p
(not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
¹²
he entered
once for all
into the Holy Place, taking
^s
not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
¹³
For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the
ashes of a heifer
sanctifies for the purification of the flesh,
¹⁴
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit
offered himself without blemish to God, purify your
^t
conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

15
 Therefore he is the
mediator
of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.
^u
16
For where a will
^u
is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
¹⁷
For a will
^u
takes effect
only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
¹⁸
Hence even the
first covenant was not ratified
without blood.
¹⁹
For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
²⁰
saying, "
This is the blood
of the covenant which God commanded you."
²¹
And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent
^p
and all the vessels used in worship.
²²
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without
the shedding of blood
there is no forgiveness of sins.

Christ's Sacrifice Takes Away Sin

23
 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
²⁴
For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary
made with hands
, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
²⁵
Nor was it to offer himself
repeatedly
, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own;
²⁶
for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the
end of the age
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
²⁷
And just as it is appointed for men
to die once
, and after that comes judgment,
²⁸
so Christ, having been offered once to
bear the sins of many
, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Christ's Sacrifice Once for All

10
  
*
 For since the law has but
a shadow
of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near.
²
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If the worshipers had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin.
³
But in these sacrifices there is a
reminder of sin
year after year.
⁴
For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

5
 
Consequently, when Christ
^v
came into the world, he said,

  
"Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

  
but a body have you prepared for me;

 ⁶
in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

 ⁷
Then I said, 'Behold, I have come
to do your will
, O God,'

  
as it is written of me in the roll of the book."

⁸
When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),
⁹
then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He abolishes
the first in order to establish the second
.
¹⁰
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11
 And every priest
stands daily at his service
, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
¹²
But when Christ
^w
had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
¹³
then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet.
¹⁴
For by a single offering he has
perfected
for all time those who are sanctified.
¹⁵
And
the Holy Spirit
also bears witness to us; for after saying,

¹⁶
"
This is the covenant
that I will make with them

  
after those days, says the Lord:

  
I will put my laws on their hearts,

  
and write them on their minds,"

¹⁷
then he adds,

  
"I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more."

¹⁸
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

A Call to Persevere

19
 Therefore, brethren, since
we have confidence to enter the sanctuary
by the blood of Jesus,
²⁰
by the new and living way which he opened for us through
the curtain
, that is, through his flesh,
²¹
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
²²
let us
draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
²³
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful;
²⁴
and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
²⁵
not neglecting to
meet together
, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

26
 For if we
sin deliberately
after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
²⁷
but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.
²⁸
A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of
two or three witnesses
.
²⁹
How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?
³⁰
For we know him who said, "
Vengeance is mine
, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."
³¹
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.