The New Testament with Commentary Hebrews 8

Priest and Mediator of a better covenant

1 Now the main point of the things we are saying is this: We do have such a High Priest, who sat down* at the right of the Majesty's throne in the heavens, 2 Minister of the Holy Places, that is, of the true Tabernacle which the Lord set up, not man. 3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices (it follows that it is necessary for this One also to have something He might offer) 4 —if He were on earth He would not be a priest, there already being priests who offer the gifts according to the Law;† 5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things‡ (that is why Moses was warned by God when he was ready to assemble the Tabernacle: “See to it,” He says, “that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain”)— 6 but now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, just as He is Mediator of a better covenant, which was enacted as law on the basis of better promises.§

A new covenant

7 Now if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for a second one; 8 but finding fault with them* He says:

“Listen! Days are coming,” says the Lord,

“when I will establish a new covenant

with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah†

9 —not 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 did not abide by my covenant

and so I disregarded them,” says the Lord.

10 “Now this is the covenant that I will make

with the house of Israel after those days,” says the Lord,§

“I will put my laws into their mind

and write them on their hearts;

and I will be their God

and they will be my people.

11 Further, not one of them will teach his neighbor

and not one his brother saying, ‘Get to know the Lord!’

because they all will know me,

from the least of them to the greatest of them.

12 For I will be merciful to their wrongdoings;

I will not at all remember their sins and their lawless deeds.”*

13 By saying ‘new’ He has made the first one ‘old’; and what is obsolete and aging is near the end.

*8:1 He took His seat; it was His prerogative.

†8:4 This presumably indicates that this missive was written before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, when the sacrifices ceased.

‡8:5 The Tabernacle assembled by Moses was but a ‘shadow’ of the real thing; which probably means that the spiritual realm is more ‘real’ than the physical one—which is difficult for us to believe, so very few live on that basis.

§8:6 Wow! How is that for convoluted syntax—verses 3-6 form a single sentence. It almost feels ‘Pauline’!

*8:8 That is right, the people, since they did not live up to the covenant. The following quote is from Jeremiah 31:31-34.

†8:8 The author equates the second covenant, inaugurated by Christ, with Jeremiah's new covenant, so the reference to ‘the house of Israel’ and ‘the house of Judah’ means that there are no ‘lost’ tribes—God knows who they are and where they are (see Revelation 7:4-8).

‡8:9 “I took them by the hand”—recall that they were led by the column of cloud/fire from the very first.

§8:10 “The house of Israel” is not the Church! I would say that verses 10 and 11 here will be fulfilled during the Messianic Millennial Kingdom. Notice “they will be my people”.

*8:12 Some 3.5% of the Greek manuscripts omit “and their lawless deeds” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).