ACC ~ Hebrews 9 v1 - 10

OVERVIEW:

The author of Hebrews now turns his attention to the tabernacle and the things in it, in order to show how these also have passed away with the abrogation of their law. These religious institutions were mere shadows of the true ministry, which will endure. Even though these things had their proper places in the history of salvation, they were nonetheless symbolic shadows of the heavenly ministry (CHRYSOSTOM). Since the truth has now come, it is not necessary anymore that we deal with shadows (EPHREM). The laws are like models of clay that anticipate a later reality (ORIGEN), the intellectual, spiritual creation (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS). The ark can also be taken figuratively as the soul (JOHN CASSIAN), or the holy church, which is constructed from incorruptible wood (that is, from holy souls). The golden urn in the ark holding the manna is the holy soul in Christ that contains in itself all the fullness of divinity (BEDE). Each believer becomes a tabernacle; each one can supplicate through the Mediator (ORIGEN) who offered his blood once for all (CHRYSOSTOM) and opened to the Gentiles the entrance into the inner tabernacle (PACHOMIUS). Extended throughout the four quarters of the world, with faith in the holy gospel, the church expects from God the eternal crown of life (BEDE). The present age referred to in the text is the age that anticipates the age to come through the power of Christ (ORIGEN, CHRYSOSTOM).

9:1-5 | A Tent Was Prepared

TABERNACLE CALLED TEMPLE, SANCTUARY. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: He begins to say how there were symbols in the law and the types of things in the era of grace and how it was possible to see clearly the things of the new covenant glimpsed beforehand in the things of the old covenant, even as he shows in comparison what sort of preeminence the new covenant things have over those of the old covenant. He makes this the beginning of the exposition of his teaching. Then he says that also the first testament had bounds and commandments of ritual that were obligated to be offered to God. The phrase “regulations for worship” refers to the commandments concerning these things.

“And an earthly sanctuary.” Most likely he calls the temple “the sanctuary” because the liturgy is rendered in it to God, or also he calls the tabernacle “the sanctuary,” since they had this in service before the temple. For in a similar manner he called the tabernacle “the temple,” inasmuch as God happened to be present in it, while the later temple was built by Solomon. “And Samuel sat in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was,” although the temple had not yet been built by Solomon. And just as when God commanded Moses to erect the tabernacle as a symbol of the world according to a certain plan, God ordered him to make an enclosure out of curtains that would divide the middle from the rest, so also the temple was made according to the same plan. FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 9.1-2.

THE WHOLE OLD COVENANT COMPARED WITH THE NEW. PHOTIUS: I think that the phrase “also the first one had regulations for worship” refers to the old covenant and not the tabernacle. For he did not compare the tabernacle with the new covenant but the whole old covenant with the new one, and he showed the superiority of the latter over the whole former covenant. “For behold,” he says, “the days are coming and I will effect a new covenant on the house of Israel and on the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I established for their fathers,” and again, “When he says ‘new’ he has already made the first old.” And he adds these things and says, “Now the first one had.” … Therefore it is clear that the discussion is still concerning the covenant. For since he struck it down in comparison with the new covenant, in order that no one may say then that it was rejected as worthless, he anticipates the argument and says that even that covenant had “regulations for worship,” laws and order and fitting conformity with the service of God. And having spoken broadly of the whole law, that “it had regulations of worship,” he also proceeds part by part, beginning with the tent. It had, he says, “the earthly sanctuary.” Then after the earthly sanctuary (which was accessible to all), he had again another tabernacle placed in front of the yet more mystical and holier tabernacle. And in the more outward tabernacle there was “the lampstand and the showbread,” which tabernacle is not called “the earthly sanctuary,” as is the tabernacle in front of all the other tabernacles, but it is simply called “the Holy Place.” FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 9.1-2.

PARTS OF THE TABERNACLE. OECUMENIUS: The “first” part of the tabernacle was that portion near the “Holy of Holies,” since it technically was not the first but the middle part of the tabernacle. For the first part of the tabernacle was where the bronze altar was for sacrifices and whole burnt offerings, while the second part was that of which he says, “In it was the lampstand and the showbread on the table,” and the third part was “the golden altar of incense” and “the ark of the covenant.” FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 9.1-4.

THE INTELLECTUAL CREATION. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: Since the Word knows the tabernacle of Moses to be a figure of the whole creation—I mean the entire system of things visible and invisible—shall we pass the first veil and, stepping beyond the realm of sense, shall we look into the holy place, the intellectual and celestial creation? ON THE DOCTRINE OF GOD, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 2.31.

AN EARTHLY SANCTUARY. THEODORET OF CYR: This is the term he used of the tabernacle, which represents a type of the whole world: it is divided into two down the middle by a veil, one part of it called Holy, the other Holy of Holies. While the Holy represented the way of life on earth, the Holy of Holies represented life in heaven. The veil itself performed the function of the firmament. … Accordingly, just as he separates what is below from what is above, so the veil stretched out in the middle of the tabernacle divided the Holy of Holies from the Holy. INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 9.

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO DEAL WITH SHADOWS. EPHREM THE SYRIAN: Now “even the first covenant had” in it some rules in addition to “regulations” of the ministry of “worship,” because sin exacted the punishment of the sword. However, this sanctification—this law that sanctifies us by means of water—does not pass away like those rules; in fact, it remains forever hereafter, because Jesus rejected that law for a new covenant, which was earlier proclaimed through Jeremiah.

Then Paul turns his attention to the temporary tabernacle and to all the things which were in it in order to prove and reveal that they also have passed away, together with the abrogation of their law. It could not happen that they remained after the cessation of the law, because they also were shadows and symbols of this true ministry, which will last. Therefore, he begins again to deprive of its authority the service of the ministry held in the temporary tabernacle, of which the priests were proud in their overconfidence, by saying, “The first tent was prepared” so, because “in it were the lampstand and the table” and the other things. In the inner tent, “called the Holy of Holies,” under its veil, there was placed one “golden altar of incense and the ark covered on all sides with gold,” together with the other things. However, is there now any need to describe these objects in detail, one by one? In fact, even though each of these things had been set in their proper place for the service of religious ministry, they were nonetheless symbolic shadows of this heavenly ministry; since the truth has now come, it is not necessary anymore that we deal with shadows. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.

EACH ONE A TABERNACLE. ORIGEN: Each one of us can build a tabernacle for God in himself. For if, as some before us have said, this tabernacle represents a figure of the whole world, and if each individual can have an image of the world in oneself, why should not each individual be able to fulfill the form of the tabernacle in oneself? … For that part within you which is most valuable of all can act the part of priest—the part which some call the first principle of the heart, others the rational sense or the substance of the mind or whatever other name one wishes to give to that part of us which makes us capable of receiving God. HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9.4.

YOUR SOUL WILL BECOME THE ARK OF GOD’S TESTAMENT. JOHN CASSIAN: If you wish to achieve true knowledge of Scripture, you must hurry to achieve unshakable humility of heart. This is what will lead you not to the knowledge that puffs a person up but to the love which illuminates through the achievement of love. It is impossible for the unclean of heart to acquire the gift of spiritual knowledge. Therefore be very careful that your zeal for scriptural reading does not, because of empty pretentiousness, prove to be a cause of perdition instead of being for you the source of knowledgeable light and of the endless glory promised to the one enlightened by knowledge.

Then, having banished all worldly concerns and thoughts, strive in every way to devote yourself constantly to the sacred reading, so that continuous meditation will seep into your soul and, as it were, will shape it to its image. Somehow it will form that “ark” of the Scriptures and will contain the two stone tablets, that is, the perpetual strength of the two Testaments. There will be the golden urn that is a pure and unstained memory and which will preserve firmly within itself the everlasting manna, that is, the eternal, heavenly sweetness of spiritual meanings and of that bread which belongs to the angels. The branch of Aaron is the saving standard of our exalted and true high priest, Jesus Christ. It leafs out forever in the greenness of undying memory. This is the branch that was cut from the root of Jesse and which after death comes more truly alive.

Now all of these things are covered over by the two cherubim, that is, by the plentitude of historical and spiritual lore. “Cherubim” means knowledge in abundance. They provide an everlasting protection for that which appeases God, namely, the calm of your heart, and they will cast a shadow of protection against all the attacks of malignant spirits.

And thus your soul will not only become the ark of God’s testament, but it will be carried forward into a priestly realm. And, by its unfailing love of purity, its concentration upon the disciplines of the spirit, it will implement the priestly command imposed by the lawgiver, “He will not emerge from the holy place, lest he profane the sanctuary of God.” That is, he will not depart from his own heart, where the Lord promised to live continuously when he said, “I will live and walk among them.” CONFERENCE 14.10.

GENTILES IN THE INNER TABERNACLE. PACHOMIUS: The brothers assembled at evening as was their custom. For in all seasons, when they had finished their modest meal, it was their habit to assemble and for each one to pronounce what he knew of the holy Scriptures. … The brother who had returned from the north spoke and said, “Allow me, my brothers, to tell you the saying and its commentary which I heard from a righteous man. It was while returning south that I passed by Tabennesi and was put up there at Abba Pachomius’s monastery. Toward evening Pachomius seated himself and spoke the Word of God to the brothers gathered around him. He spoke of the tabernacle and of the Holy of Holies, applying them to two peoples. The first people is the outer tabernacle, whose service consisted in sacrifices and visible loaves; the Holy of Holies, on the other hand, is the Gentiles’ calling, which, according to the gospel, is the fulfillment of the law. And all the objects that are found in this inner tabernacle are filled with glory. For instead of animal sacrifices, there is the altar of incense; instead of the table, the ark containing the spiritual loaves, that is, the fullness of the law and all that is to be found there; and instead of the light of the lamp, the mercy seat where God appears as a consuming fire, that is, God the Word made human who became remission for us by appearing in the flesh. The words mercy seat mean indeed the place of the remission of sins.”

When the brother had finished his exposition of that saying and its commentary, he said, “I am confident that God will forgive me many of my sins because of the remembrance of that just man whose name I just pronounced here before you.” All the brothers uttered their admiration for the great knowledge that was in our father Pachomius, until it was time for each of them to return with joy to his cell. LIFE OF PACHOMIUS (BOHAIRIC) 29.

THE ROD OF EQUITY. BEDE: Now the golden urn in the ark holding the manna is the holy soul in Christ that contains in itself all the fullness of divinity. Aaron’s rod that budded although cut off from the tree is the invincible power of his priesthood, concerning which the prophet says, “Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity.” Even after it seemed for the time being to have been cut off through death, in the dawn of the resurrection morn it was found to have blossomed again all the more vigorously, and it became clear that it would remain forever imperishable and unfading. For “Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” The tablets of the covenant in the ark indicate that all knowledge of the Father’s secrets and all power of judgment are in Christ. For on the tablets of the covenant were inscribed the faith of the eternal divinity which creates and rules the world, and the commandments through which one ought to serve God, and the discerning judgment with which God rightly condemns those who hate God and with due mercy rewards those who love him. This, then, is the testimony that the Lord gave Moses to be put into the ark. It indicated the truth that we ought to confess in Christ about his flesh, his son, and his word. It showed that after the passion of death the same flesh would be glorified in the resurrection and lifted up in the eternal dignity of a king and priest. It taught that he alone is privy to the Father’s secrets, just as truly as he is the judge of all worlds, of one and the same majesty with the Father. ON THE TABERNACLE 1.4.17.

FROM THE INCORRUPTIBLE WOOD OF HOLY SOULS. BEDE: The ark can also be taken figuratively as the holy church that is constructed from incorruptible wood, that is, from holy souls. Extended throughout the four quarters of the world, with faith in the holy gospel, the church expects from God the eternal crown of life. It contains in itself the tables of the covenant by continual meditation on the law of God. It also contains the golden urn with the manna as a guarantee of the Lord’s incarnation, and Aaron’s rod that budded as a sharing in the kingship and priesthood of the Lord; for the apostle Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.” Up above, it has the propitiatory to remind it that every good thing it possesses it has received from the generosity of divine grace. And on the propitiatory it has the glorious cherubim, signifying either the angelic assistance with which it is always aided by a gracious God or the Testaments in which it is taught how it ought to live and in what manner it ought to seek the aid of divine propitiation so that it may live properly. Now the cherubim were set over the propitiatory in this way, just as the city of Christ, that is, the holy church, is said to have been built upon the mountain, that is, upon Christ himself; not that his city can be higher than he but because it derives support from his assistance. The ark has cherubim over the propitiatory because both the angelic ministries and the divine eloquences surely give aid to the church insofar as they themselves stand firm upon the foundation of the highest truth. ON THE TABERNACLE 1.5.20-21.

9:6-7 | Ritual Duties

THE HIGH PRIEST GOES ONCE A YEAR. OECUMENIUS: Above the ark there was, so to speak, a certain golden, rectangular table, which was called “seat of propitiation,” signifying Christ, who is called our “propitiation” and “redemption.” … In Exodus, in the passages concerning these things he says that the high priest enters the Holy of Holies twice during the day, as he sacrifices. For it is written as follows: “And Aaron will burn an offering of pleasant mixture of incense on it”—that is, on top of the golden altar which was in the Holy of Holies—“early in the morning. Whenever he trims the lamps, he will burn incense on it, and whenever he lights the lamps in the evening, he will offer a perpetual burning of incense.” How then does the blessed apostle say, “the high priest alone enters and that but once a year”? And we say that he enters only once a year with “blood,” as he says in the same passage of Exodus, making sacrifice twice that day. For also he says, “Not without taking blood,” that is, with blood, in order that it might be so. For once a year the high priest alone enters with blood, not with the fragrant offering of incense. FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 9.5-7.

THIS CURTAIN IS INTERPRETED AS HEAVEN. BEDE: Figuratively, the curtain in the temple represents the same curtain that the apostle declares openly to the Hebrews, in the place where he also explains properly, according to the allegorical sense, the reason that “the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties, 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.” This curtain is interpreted as heaven. And the priests entered into the first tabernacle with sacrifices daily throughout the year, which further illustrates the circumstances of this life, in which the saints who serve the Lord as true priests of God and of his Christ ceaselessly atone for the daily errors of their frailty, without which they are by no means able to exist in this life through the daily sacrifices of good works and the daily libations of their own tears. But the apostle understands the high priest who went into the Holy of Holies with the blood of victims once a year to be the great high priest himself, of whom it was said, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” He who as both priest and victim had offered himself through his own blood once for our sins entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” ON THE TABERNACLE 2.8.71.

BLOOD ONCE FOR ALL. CHRYSOSTOM: And Paul well said, “not without taking blood.” … He signifies that there shall be a sacrifice, not consumed by fire but rather distinguished by blood. For inasmuch as he called the cross a sacrifice, though it had neither fire nor logs nor was offered many times but had been offered in blood once for all, he shows that the ancient sacrifice also was of this kind, offered “once for all” in blood. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 15.2.

9:8-10 | The Outer Tent Is Still Standing

THE PRESENT AGE IS BEFORE CHRIST. CHRYSOSTOM: “This is a symbol for the present age,” the apostle says. What does he mean by “the present”? That time before the coming of Christ, for, after the coming of Christ, it is no longer a present age. How could it be, having arrived and being ended? There is something else as well that he indicates when he says, “which is symbolic for the present age,” that is, became the type. “Gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper.” You see now what is the meaning of “The law made nothing perfect,” and “If that first covenant had been faultless.” How? As pertaining to “the conscience.” For the sacrifices did not put away the defilement from the soul but still were concerned with the body: “after the law of a carnal commandment.” ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 15.3.

HE DOES NOT REJECT THE LAW AS A WHOLE. THEODORET OF CYR: We are being taught through figures, he is saying, that the law bears of this life and is appropriate for those who still have a moral nature. … He also clearly taught us in these words that he does not reject the law as a whole—only the regulations about eating and drinking, menstruation, leprosy, childbirth and periods; they washed themselves and purified themselves with sprinkling, but none of this could make the conscience pure. Now none of these was imposed without reason but to meet some need, specifying which is not relevant at the present time. They were all temporary, however, looking forward to the time of perfection. INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 9.

MODELS OF CLAY UNTIL THE TIME OF CORRECTION. ORIGEN: We indeed who are of the church rightly receive Moses and read his writings, believing that he is a prophet who wrote down the future mysteries which God revealed to him in symbols, figures and allegorical forms, which we teach were fulfilled in their own time. But whoever does not receive such an understanding in him, whether one of the Jews or even one of us, certainly cannot teach that he is a prophet. For how will he prove he is a prophet whose writings he asserts to be common, containing no knowledge of the future or anything of a hidden mystery? Whoever thinks thus the divine word censures, saying, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

Therefore, the law and all the things that are in the law are, according to the opinion of the apostle, “imposed until the time of reformation.” … Those whose craft is to make tokens from copper and to pour statues, before they produce a true work of copper or of silver or of gold, must first form figures from clay to the likeness of the figure image. (The model is necessary only until the work that is principal is completed, for when that work for which that image was made of clay is completed, its use is no longer sought.) [Thus we] understand also something like this in these things which were written or done “in a type” and in a figure of the future in the law and prophets. For the artist and creator of all himself came and transformed “the law which has but a shadow of the good things to come” to “the true form of these realities.” But lest perhaps the things we say appear difficult for you to be able to prove, examine them one by one.

First, there was Jerusalem, that great, royal city, where the most renowned temple had been constructed for God. But after that, one who was the true temple of God came and said about the temple of his body, “Destroy this temple,” and began to open the mysteries “of the heavenly Jerusalem.” This earthly place was destroyed, and the heavenly became visible, and in the temple “stone” did not remain “upon stone” from the time when the flesh of Christ was made the true temple of God. First there was a high priest who purified the people “by the blood of bulls and goats”; but when the true high priest who “sanctifies” believers “through his own blood” came, that first high priest existed no more, and neither was any place left for him. First there was the altar, and sacrifices were being celebrated; but when the true Lamb came who “gave himself up as an offering to God,” all these other, as it were, temporary institutions ceased.

Therefore, does it not seem to you that, according to the figure set forth above, there were some models made from clay, as it were, through which true images were represented? Finally, for this reason, the divine dispensation provided that the city and the temple and all those as well be overthrown, lest he who is perhaps still “a child and feeding on milk of the faith” be enraptured by the view itself of the diverse forms, if he should see them standing and be astonished and amazed during the ritual of sacrifices and during the order of the services. But God, watching out for our weakness and desiring his church to be multiplied, made all these to be overthrown and taken away completely, so that without any hesitation, when those ceased, we might believe these to be true for which the type was contained in advance in them. HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS10.1.1-4.