CHAPTER III.
CHRIST THE AUTHOR OF A NEW COVENANT AND OF ITS BLESSINGS.
1 8:1BUT the chief thing in addition to what has been said is, that we have such a chief priest who sat on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, 8:2a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up, not man. 8:3For every chief priest is constituted to offer gifts and sacrifices, whence it was necessary that this man also should have something to offer. 8:4For if he had been on earth he would not have been a priest, there being priests to offer, the gifts according to the law, 8:5who serve for a symbol and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when about to make the tabernacle; for see, he says, that you make all things after the pattern shown you in the Mount; 8:6but now he has obtained a more excellent service, by as much also as he is the mediator of a better covenant, which is established on better promises.
2 8:7For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for the second. [But it was not]. 8:8For finding fault with them he says, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, a new covenant, 8:9not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, for they continued not in my covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord. 8:10This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws in their minds, and will write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. 8:11And they shall not teach every one his [fellow] citizen, and every one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them. 8:12For I will be merciful to their wickedness, and their sins and transgressions will I remember no more. 8:13By saying new, he made the first old; but that which is ancient and weak is about to perish.
3 9:1The first covenant then had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. 9:2For the first tabernacle was provided, in which were the candlestick and the table and the show bread, which is called the sanctuary. 9:3But behind the second vail is the tabernacle, called the inner sanctuary, 9:4having the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on every side with gold, in which were the golden vase that had the manna and Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of the covenant, 9:5and over it were the cherubs of glory, overshadowing the propitiation; of which it is not necessary now to speak particularly.
4 9:6And these being thus provided, the priests enter into the first tabernacle continually, performing the services, 9:7but into the second once a year only the chief priest [enters], not without blood, which he offers for his errors and those of the people, 9:8the Holy Spirit showing this, that the way into the sanctuary is not made manifest while the first tabernacle yet has a standing, 9:9which is a type of the time at hand, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshipper as to the conscience, 9:10only in meats and drinks and different baptisms, and external ordinances, imposed till the time of reformation.
5 9:11But Christ having come, a chief priest of the good times that were to come, with a greater and a more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, 9:12not with blood of goats and bullocks, but with his own blood, entered once into the sanctuary having found eternal redemption. 9:13For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies to the purification of the flesh, 9:14how much more shall the blood of Christ, who with an eternal spirit offered himself without fault to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
6 9:15And for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant, that death having been for a redemption of transgressions [transgressors] under the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 9:16For where there is a covenant, there must follow the death of the covenant-maker. 9:17For a covenant is strong for the dead, since it is never strong [unalterable] when the covenant-maker lives; 9:18whence also the first [covenant] was not initiated without blood. 9:19For every commandment of the law having been spoken by Moses to all the people, taking the blood of bullocks and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 9:20saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined upon you. 9:21And he sprinkled also the tabernacle, and all the implements of the service, in like manner, with blood. 9:22And almost all things, according to the law, are purified with blood, and without the pouring out of blood there is no forgiveness.
7 9:23It was necessary, therefore, that the symbols of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 9:24For Christ did not enter into the sanctuary made with hands, a type of the true, but into heaven itself, and already has appeared before God for us, 9:25not that he may often present himself, as the chief priest enters into the sanctuary once a year with the blood of another [being]; 9:26since it was necessary that it should suffer often from the foundation of the world, but now once at the consummation of the world he has been manifested to destroy sins by the sacrifice of himself. 9:27And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this is the judgment, 9:28so also Christ having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time without sin, to those who look for him for salvation.
8 10:1For the law having a shadow of the good things that were to come, not the very likeness of the things, could not by the sacrifices which they offered continually every year perfect the offerers; 10:2if they could, would they not have ceased to be offered, because those serving would have had no longer a knowledge of sins, having been once purified? 10:3But in them there was a remembrance of sins, year by year; 10:4for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. 10:5Wherefore, coming into the world, he says, A sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, but a body didst thou prepare me. 10:6Whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wast not pleased with; 10:7then I said, Behold, I come,—in the volume of the book it is written of me,—to do thy will, O God. 10:8Saying before, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and [sacrifices] for sin thou didst not desire and wast not pleased with, which are offered according to the law, 10:9then he said, Behold, I come to do thy will. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, 10:10by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.
9 10:11And every priest stood daily performing service and presenting often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 10:12but this [priest] having offered one sacrifice forever for sins, sat down on the right hand of God, 10:13henceforth waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. 10:14For by one offering he has perfected forever the sanctified. 10:15The Holy Spirit also testifies [this] to us; for after it had said before, 10:16This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, 10:17and their sins and transgressions will I remember no more. 10:18But where there is a forgiveness of these, an offering for sin is no longer required.