Heb 10:1-18 | Clarke | e4.org | CHAPTER X. The insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to take away sin , 1-4. The purpose and will of God, as declared by the Psalmist , relative to the salvation of the world by the incarnation of Christ; and our sanctification through that will , 5-10. Comparison between the priesthood of Christ and that of the Jews , 11-14. The new covenant which God promised to make, and the blessings of it , 15-17. The access which genuine believers have to the holiest by the blood of Jesus , 18-20. Having a High Priest over the Church of God, we should have faith, walk uprightly, hold fast our profession, exhort and help each other, and maintain Christian communion , 21-25. The danger and awful consequences of final apostasy , 26-31. In order to our perseverance, we should often reflect on past mercies, and the support afforded us in temptations and afflictions; and not cast away our confidence, for we shall receive the promise if we patiently fulfil the will of God , 32-37. The just by faith shall live; but the soul that draws back shall die , 38. The apostle's confidence in the believing Hebrews , 39. NOTES ON CHAP. X. Verse 1. The law, having a shadow of good things to come ] A shadow , σκια, signifies, 1. Literally , the shade cast from a body of any kind, interposed between the place on which the shadow is projected, and the sun or light; the rays of the light not shining on that place, because intercepted by the opacity of the body, through which they cannot pass. 2. It signifies, technically , a sketch, rude plan, or imperfect draught of a building, landscape, man, beast, &c. 3. It signifies, metaphorically , any faint adumbration, symbolical expression, imperfect or obscure image of a thing; and is opposed to σωμα, body , or the thing intended to be thereby defined. 4. It is used catachrestically among the Greek writers, as umbra is among the Latins, to signify any thing vain, empty, light , not solid ; thus Philostratus , Vit. Soph., lib. i. cap. 20: οτισκιακαιονειρατα αιηδοναιπασαι. All pleasures are but SHADOWS and dreams . And Cicero , in Pison., cap. 24: Omnes umbras falsae gloriae consectari . "All pursue the SHADOWS of FALSE GLORY." And again, De Offic ., lib. iii. cap. 17: Nos veri juris germanaeque justitiae solidam et expressam effigiem nullam tenemus ; umbra et itnaginibus utimur . "We have no solid and express effigy of true law and genuine justice, but we employ shadows and images to represent them." And not the very image ] εικων, image , signifies, 1. A simple representation , from εικω, I am like . 2. The form or particular fashion of a thing. 3. The model according to which any thing is formed. 4. The perfect image of a thing as opposed to a faint representation. 5. Metaphorically , a similitude , agreement, or conformity. The law, with all its ceremonies and sacrifices, was only a shadow of spiritual and eternal good. The Gospel is the image or thing itself , as including every spiritual and eternal good. We may note three things here: 1. The shadow or general outline, limiting the size and proportions of the thing to be represented. 2. The image or likeness completed from this shadow or general outline, whether represented on paper, canvass, or in statuary, 3. The person or thing thus represented in its actual, natural state of existence; or what is called here the very image of the things , αυτηντηνεικονατωνπραγματων. Such is the Gospel , when compared with the law ; such is Christ , when compared with Aaron ; such is his sacrifice , when compared with the Levitical offerings ; such is the Gospel remission of sins and purification , when compared with those afforded by the law; such is the Holy Ghost , ministered by the Gospel, when compared with its types and shadows in the Levitical service; such the heavenly rest , when compared with the earthly Canaan . Well, therefore, might the apostle say, The law was only the shadow of good things to come . Can never-make the comers thereunto perfect. ] Cannot remove guilt from the conscience, or impurity from the heart. I leave preachers to improve these points.

‏ Hebrews 10:1-18

CHAPTER X.

The insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to take away sin,

1-4.

The purpose and will of God, as declared by the Psalmist,

relative to the salvation of the world by the incarnation of Christ; and our sanctification through that will, 5-10.

Comparison between the priesthood of Christ and that of the Jews, 11-14.

The new covenant which God promised to make, and the blessings of it, 15-17.

The access which genuine believers have to the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 18-20.

Having a High Priest over the Church of God, we should have faith, walk uprightly, hold fast our profession, exhort and help each other, and maintain Christian communion, 21-25.

The danger and awful consequences of final apostasy, 26-31.

In order to our perseverance, we should often reflect on past mercies, and the support afforded us in temptations and afflictions; and not cast away our confidence, for we shall receive the promise if we patiently fulfil the will of God,

32-37.

The just by faith shall live; but the soul that draws back shall die, 38.

The apostle's confidence in the believing Hebrews, 39.

NOTES ON CHAP. X.

Verse 1. The law, having a shadow of good things to come] A shadow, σκια, signifies, 1. Literally, the shade cast from a body of any kind, interposed between the place on which the shadow is projected, and the sun or light; the rays of the light not shining on that place, because intercepted by the opacity of the body, through which they cannot pass. 2. It signifies, technically, a sketch, rude plan, or imperfect draught of a building, landscape, man, beast, &c. 3. It signifies, metaphorically, any faint adumbration, symbolical expression, imperfect or obscure image of a thing; and is opposed to σωμα, body, or the thing intended to be thereby defined. 4. It is used catachrestically among the Greek writers, as umbra is among the Latins, to signify any thing vain, empty, light, not solid; thus Philostratus, Vit. Soph., lib. i. cap. 20: οτισκιακαιονειρατα αιηδοναιπασαι. All pleasures are but SHADOWS and dreams. And Cicero, in Pison., cap. 24: Omnes umbras falsae gloriae consectari. "All pursue the SHADOWS of FALSE GLORY." And again, De Offic., lib. iii. cap. 17: Nos veri juris germanaeque justitiae solidam et expressam effigiem nullam tenemus; umbra et itnaginibus utimur. "We have no solid and express effigy of true law and genuine justice, but we employ shadows and images to represent them."

And not the very image] εικων, image, signifies, 1. A simple representation, from εικω, I am like. 2. The form or particular fashion of a thing. 3. The model according to which any thing is formed. 4. The perfect image of a thing as opposed to a faint representation. 5. Metaphorically, a similitude, agreement, or conformity.

The law, with all its ceremonies and sacrifices, was only a shadow of spiritual and eternal good. The Gospel is the image or thing itself, as including every spiritual and eternal good.

We may note three things here: 1. The shadow or general outline, limiting the size and proportions of the thing to be represented. 2. The image or likeness completed from this shadow or general outline, whether represented on paper, canvass, or in statuary, 3. The person or thing thus represented in its actual, natural state of existence; or what is called here the very image of the things, αυτηντηνεικονατωνπραγματων. Such is the Gospel, when compared with the law; such is Christ, when compared with Aaron; such is his sacrifice, when compared with the Levitical offerings; such is the Gospel remission of sins and purification, when compared with those afforded by the law; such is the Holy Ghost, ministered by the Gospel, when compared with its types and shadows in the Levitical service; such the heavenly rest, when compared with the earthly Canaan. Well, therefore, might the apostle say, The law was only the shadow of good things to come.

Can never-make the comers thereunto perfect.] Cannot remove guilt from the conscience, or impurity from the heart. I leave preachers to improve these points.

Verse 2. Would they not have ceased to be offered?] Had they made an effectual reconciliation for the sins of the world, and contained in their once offering a plenitude of permanent merit, they would have ceased to be offered, at least in reference to any individual who had once offered them; because, in such a case, his conscience would be satisfied that its guilt had been taken away. But no Jew pretended to believe that even the annual atonement cancelled his sin before God; yet he continued to make his offerings, the law of God having so enjoined, because these sacrifices pointed out that which was to come. They were offered, therefore, not in consideration of their own efficacy, but as referring to Christ; See on "Heb 9:9".

Verse 4. For it is not possible] Common sense must have taught them that shedding the blood of bulls and goats could never satisfy Divine justice, nor take away guilt from the conscience; and God intended that they should understand the matter so: and this the following quotation from the Psalmist sufficiently proves.

Verse 5. When he (the Messiah) cometh into the world] Was about to be incarnated, He saith to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not-it was never thy will and design that the sacrifices under thy own law should be considered as making atonement for sin, they were only designed to point out my incarnation and consequent sacrificial death, and therefore a body hast thou prepared me, by a miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin, according to thy word, The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.

A body hast thou prepared me] The quotation in this and the two following verses is taken from Psalm xl., 6th, 7th, and 8th verses, as they stand now in the Septuagint, with scarcely any variety of reading; but, although the general meaning is the same, they are widely different in verbal expression in the Hebrew. David's words are, oznayim caritha li, which we translate, My ears hast thou opened; but they might be more properly rendered, My ears hast thou bored, that is, thou hast made me thy servant for ever, to dwell in thine own house; for the allusion is evidently to the custom mentioned, Ex 21:2, &c.: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free; but if the servant shall positively say, I love my master, &c., I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him to the door post, and shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever."

But how is it possible that the Septuagint and the apostle should take a meaning so totally different from the sense of the Hebrew? Dr. Kennicott has a very ingenious conjecture here: he supposes that the Septuagint and apostle express the meaning of the words as they stood in the copy from which the Greek translation was made; and that the present Hebrew text is corrupted in the word oznayim, ears, which has been written through carelessness for az gevah, THEN A BODY. The first syllable , THEN, is the same in both; and the latter , which joined to , makes oznayim, might have been easily mistaken for gevah, BODY; nun, being very like gimel; yod, like vau; and he, like final mem; especially if the line on which the letters were written in the MS. happened to be blacker than ordinary, which has often been a cause of mistake, it might have been easily taken for the under stroke of the mem, and thus give rise to a corrupt reading: add to this the root carah, signifies as well to prepare as to open, bore, &c. On this supposition the ancient copy, translated by the Septuagint, and followed by the apostle, must have read the text thus: az gevah caritha li, σωμαδεκατηρτισωμοι, then a body thou hast prepared me: thus the Hebrew text, the version of the Septuagint, and the apostle, will agree in what is known to be an indisputable fact in Christianity, namely, that Christ was incarnated for the sin of the world.

The AEthiopic has nearly the same reading; the Arabic has both, A body hast thou prepared me, and mine ears thou hast opened. But the Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate, agree with the present Hebrew text; and none of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi have any various reading on the disputed words.

It is remarkable that all the offerings and sacrifices which were considered to be of an atoning or cleansing nature, offered under the law, are here enumerated by the psalmist and the apostle, to show that none of them nor all of them could take away sin, and that the grand sacrifice of Christ was that alone which could do it.

Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and the apostle, viz.: SACRIFICE, zebach, θυσια. OFFERING, minchah, προσφορα. BURNT-OFFERING, olah, ολοκαυτωμα. SIN-OFFERING, chataah, περιαμαρτιας. Of all these we may say, with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, &c., should take away sin.

Verse 6. Thou hast had no pleasure.] Thou couldst never be pleased with the victims under the law; thou couldst never consider them as atonements for sin; as they could never satisfy thy justice, nor make thy law honourable.

Verse 7. In the volume of the book] bimgillath sepher, "in the roll of the book." Anciently, books were written on skins and rolled up. Among the Romans these were called volumina, from volvo, I roll; and the Pentateuch, in the Jewish synagogues, is still written in this way. There are two wooden rollers; on one they roll on, on the other they roll off, as they proceed in reading. The book mentioned here must be the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; for in David's time no other part of Divine revelation had been committed to writing. This whole book speaks about Christ, and his accomplishing the will of God; not only in, The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent, and, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, but in all the sacrifices and sacrificial rites mentioned in the law.

To do thy will] God willed not the sacrifices under the law, but he willed that a human victim of infinite merit should be offered for the redemption of mankind. That there might be such a victim, a body was prepared for the eternal Logos; and in that body he came to do the will of God, that is, to suffer and die for the sins of the world.

Verse 9. He taketh away the first] The offerings, sacrifices, burnt-offerings, and sacrifices for sin, which were prescribed by the law.

That he may establish the second.] The offering of the body of Jesus once for all. It will make little odds in the meaning if we say, he taketh away the first covenant, that he may establish the second covenant; he takes away the first dispensation, that he may establish the second; he takes away the law, that he may establish the Gospel. In all these cases the sense is nearly the same: I prefer the first.

Verse 10. By the which will we are sanctified] Closing in with this so solemnly declared WILL of God, that there is no name given under heaven among men, by which we can be saved, but Jesus the Christ, we believe in him, find redemption in his blood, and are sanctified unto God through the sacrificial offering of his body.

1. Hence we see that the sovereign WILL of God is, that Jesus should be incarnated; that he should suffer and die, or, in the apostle's words, taste death for every man; that all should believe on him, and be saved from their sins: for this is the WILL of God, our sanctification.

2. And as the apostle grounds this on the words of the psalm, we see that it is the WILL of God that that system shall end; for as the essence of it is contained in its sacrifices, and God says he will not have these, and has prepared the Messiah to do his will, i.e. to die for men, hence it necessarily follows, from the psalmist himself, that the introduction of the Messiah into the world is the abolition of the law, and that his sacrifice is that which shall last for ever.

Verse 11. Every priest standeth] The office of the Jewish priest is here compared with the office of our High Priest. The Jewish priest stands daily at the altar, like a servant ministering, repeating the same sacrifices; our High Priest offered himself once for all, and sat down at the right hand of God, as the only-begotten Son and Heir of all things, Heb 10:12. This continual offering argued the imperfection of the sacrifices. Our Lord's once offering, proves his was complete.

Verse 13. Till his enemies be made his footstool.] Till all that oppose his high priesthood and sacrificial offering shall be defeated, routed, and confounded; and acknowledge, in their punishment, the supremacy of his power as universal and eternal King, who refused to receive him as their atoning and sanctifying Priest. There is also an oblique reference here to the destruction of the Jews, which was then at hand; for Christ was about to take away the second with an overwhelming flood of desolations.

Verse 14. For by one offering] His death upon the cross.

He hath perfected for ever.] He has procured remission of sins and holiness; fur it is well observed here, and in several parts of this epistle, that τελειοω, to make perfect, is the same as αφεσιναμαρτιωνποιεω, to procure remission of sins.

Them that are sanctified.] τουςαγιαζομενους. Them that have received the sprinkling of the blood of this offering. These, therefore, receiving redemption through that blood, have no need of any other offering; as this was a complete atonement, purification, and title to eternal glory.

Verse 15. The Holy Ghost-is a witness to us] The words are quoted from Jer 31:33, 34, and here we are assured that Jeremiah spoke by the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

Had said before] See Heb 8:10, 12, and the notes there.

Verse 18. Now where remission of these is] In any case, where sin is once pardoned, there is no farther need of a sin-offering; but every believer on Christ has his sin blotted out, and therefore needs no other offering for that sin.

"If," says Dr. Macknight, "after remission is granted to the sinner, there is no need of any more sacrifice for sin; and if Christ, by offering himself once, has perfected for ever the sanctified, Heb 10:14, the sacrifice of the mass, as it is called, about which the Romish clergy employ themselves so incessantly, and to which the papists trust for the pardon of their sins, has no foundation in Scripture. Nay, it is an evident impiety, as it proceeds upon the supposition that the offering of the body of Christ once is not sufficient to procure the pardon of sin, but must be frequently repeated. If they reply that their mass is only the representation and commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ, they give up the cause, and renounce an article of their faith, established by the council of Trent, which, in session xxii. can. 1, 3, declared the sacrifice of the mass to be a true and propitiatory sacrifice for sin. I say, give up the cause; for the representation and commemoration of a sacrifice is not a sacrifice. Farther, it cannot be affirmed that the body of Christ is offered in the mass, unless it can be said that, as often as it is offered, Christ has suffered death; for the apostle says expressly, Heb 9:25, 26, that if Christ offered himself often, he must often have suffered since the foundation of the world." Let him disprove this who can.