Hebrews 8

Here is the main point of everything we have been saying: we do have a high priest like this, and he has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God, the Majesty, in heaven.

1Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;

Note"The sum" in 1611 meant the chief point or gist of an argument, not a total added up. A high priest was the single chief priest of Israel, the one man allowed to enter the innermost room of the sanctuary, and then only once a year. "The Majesty" is a reverent way of referring to God without saying his name, common in Jewish speech of the period. The right hand of a ruler's throne was the seat of highest honor, the place of the person authorized to act with the king's own power.

2He serves in the holy place, the true tent of worship, the one the Lord set up and no human being built.

2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

NoteThe tabernacle was the portable tent shrine Israel carried through the wilderness, built to the specifications given in Exodus; it was the center of sacrifice before the temple was built in Jerusalem. "Pitched" is the ordinary word for setting up a tent. "Sanctuary" translates a word meaning the holy places, the sacred rooms inside that tent.

3Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. So this priest also had to have something to offer.

3For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.

Note"Ordained" here means simply appointed to an office, not ordained in the later church sense. "Gifts and sacrifices" covers the whole range of what worshipers brought: grain, oil, wine and incense as well as slaughtered animals.

4If he were here on earth, he would not be a priest at all, because there are already priests here who offer gifts as the law requires.

4For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:

NoteUnder the law of Moses only descendants of Aaron, from the tribe of Levi, could serve as priests. Jesus was born into the tribe of Judah, so by that law he would have had no standing at the altar at all. The letter argues this out at length in the chapter before.

5These priests serve at a place that is only a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. That is why God warned Moses when he was about to build the tent of worship: "Be sure you make everything exactly like the pattern I showed you on the mountain."

5Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Note"Example" in 1611 meant a copy or model taken from an original, not something to be imitated. "Admonished of God" means warned by God. The quotation is from Exodus 25:40, and "the mount" is Mount Sinai, where Moses was given the instructions for building the tent.

6But the work God has given Jesus is far better than theirs. In the same way, the agreement he brings about between God and people is a better one, and it rests on better promises.

6But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

NoteA covenant was a formal, binding agreement between two parties, closer to a treaty or a contract than to a simple promise: it set out terms, obligations and consequences on both sides. A "mediator" was the go-between who arranged such an agreement and then stood as its guarantor. "Ministry" here means the work of serving as a priest, not preaching.

7If nothing had been wrong with that first agreement, there would have been no reason to look for a second one.

7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

Note"No place have been sought" uses "place" in the older sense of occasion or opening, the room left for something to happen.

8But God did find fault with them, and he said: "Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah.

8For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

NoteVerses 8 to 12 are a quotation of Jeremiah 31:31-34, words written some six centuries before this letter. After Solomon's death the nation split in two, the northern kingdom called Israel and the southern kingdom called Judah; naming both together is a way of saying the whole people, the split undone.

9It will not be like the agreement I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They did not keep my agreement, so I turned away from them, says the Lord.

9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

Note"I regarded them not" follows the Greek version of the Old Testament, which this writer is quoting. The Hebrew text of Jeremiah reads instead "though I was a husband to them," or possibly "though I was their master." The two readings come from Hebrew verbs that look nearly identical in writing, and it is not settled which the prophet wrote.

10This is the agreement I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

NoteIn Hebrew usage the heart was the seat of thought, memory and decision, the inner self that weighs things and chooses, not the emotions as in modern English. "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people" is the standard covenant formula, the fixed wording used to declare such a relationship binding.

11No one will need to teach his neighbor or his brother and say, "Get to know the Lord," because they will all know me, from the least important to the greatest.

11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

Note"From the least to the greatest" is a set phrase for everyone regardless of rank, from the most obscure person to the most powerful; naming the two ends is a way of including everything between them.

12I will forgive the wrong things they have done, and I will never again remember their sins."

12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

NoteThe King James piles up three words here, "unrighteousness," "sins" and "iniquities." They are near synonyms used together for weight. "Iniquity" translates a word whose root sense is bent or crooked, deliberate wrongdoing rather than a slip.

13By calling this agreement new, God has made the first one out of date. And anything that is old and wearing out is about to disappear.

13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Note"Waxeth" means grows or becomes; to wax is the old opposite of to wane. "Decayeth" here means wearing out with age rather than rotting. The picture is of something like a garment or a document going threadbare and about to be discarded.