Hebrews 9

1 a worldly sanctuary. A sanctuary pertaining to this world, in opposition to the “heavenly” (ver. 11; viii. 2-5).

2 a tabernacle made (“prepared,” or “fitted up”). Respecting the tabernacle and its contents, see Exod. xxv.-xxvii., and notes. The whole of this description refers to the tabernacle, not to the Temple, in which some of these things were wanting: see 1 Kings viii. 9.

4 which had the golden censer. The word translated “cesser” has that meaning twice in the Old Testament (Sept.); 2 Chron. xxvi. 19; Ezek. viii. 11; but in Philo and Josephus it generally means the “altar of incense.” So Bishop Chadwick translates it (Devotional Commentary). This the Holy of Holies might be said to have “had,” as the two were closely connected (see Exod. xxx. 6; xi. 5). It was “the altar that belonged to the Oracle,” 1 Kings vi. 22 (R.V.).

5 the cherubim. See note on Exod. xxv. 18.

6 ordained. Rather, “arranged.” The verbs and participles in this paragraph have a present sense, and should be rendered so; as the tabernacle is regarded as “yet standing.”

7 once every year. On one day in the year, the great Day of Atonement (Exod. xxx. 10). On that day he probably entered into the Holy of Holies several times (Lev. xvi. 12-16).

8 the Holy Ghost this signifying, etc. This separation of the most Holy place was a standing reminder to priests and people of a separation from God which the Jewish ritual had no power to do away.

9 a figure. Lit., “a parable.” The Jewish tabernacle served for a representation of the true tabernacle (see note on viii. 2), until (10) the time of “the thorough setting to right” (the meaning of the Greek word translated “reformation”) by Christ.

in which. Rather, “according to which,” i.e., in agreement with that old dispensation.

him that did the service. More accurately in R.V., “the worshipper”: not only the officiating minister.

perfect. See note on vii. 19.

11 not of this building. Rather, “not of this creation,” i.e., this lower world.

12 once. That is, “once for all” (R.V.). So x. 10, where the A.V. also has the phrase.

redemption. See note on Rom. iii. 24.

13 the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean. See Numb. xix., and notes.

14 dead works. See note on vi. 1.

16 testament. The word here rendered “testament” is generally translated “covenant” in Scripture, though Deissmann favours the word “testament.” If it be properly rendered “testament” here, it is best to take verses 16, 17 as a parenthesis, adducing an illustrative argument, suggested partly by the mention of an “inheritance,” and partly by the meaning of the word “testament,” which means any valid arrangement, either by will or other disposition.

20 testament. The quotation is made freely from Exod. xxiv. 8; cp. Matt. xxvi. 28, and note.

22 almost (“I may almost say,” R.V.) all things, etc. Some things were cleansed by water, and some by fire and water: cp. Exod. xix. 10; Numb xxxi. 23.

without shedding of blood is no remission. Under the Mosaic law sin was supposed to be pardoned only through the shedding of a victim’s blood. And this was but the representation of a universal truth.

23 patterns. Rather, “copies”; the tabernacle and its furniture: cp. viii. 5.

better sacrifices. “The plural is used for the expression of the general idea. And in point of fact the single sacrifice of Christ fulfilled perfectly the ideas presented by the different forms of the Levitical sacrifices” (Westcott).

24 to appear, etc. “To be manifested” as our intercessor before God.

25 with blood of others. Better, as R.V., “with blood not His own.”

26 for then must He often have suffered. Like the typical atonement offered every year. The one atoning death of Christ, under the closing dispensation in the world’s history, sufficed for putting away sin for all time.

27 once (for all) to die. Christ by once dying made atonement once for all (cp. Isa. liii. 12). So that (28) when He returns from heaven, He will be “apart from sin”; “which once He took upon Himself, but with which He needs no longer to deal” (Chadwick).

take away sin, the Messiah announces the sacrifice of Himself, which He was prepared to make by His obedience unto death. See notes on Psa. xl. 6-8.

a body hast Thou prepared me. So the LXX renders, or, as Chadwick suggests, paraphrases the Hebrew, “Mine ears hast Thou opened.” Both clauses contain the same general idea of the spirit of obedience, “The ‘body’ is the instrument for fulfilling the Divine command, just as the ’ear’ is the instrument for receiving it” (Westcott).