4.4--τῇ.
ψεκρῶν ἔργων, εἰς τὸ λατρεύειν Θεῷ ζῶντι ; 15. θήκης καινῆς μεσίτης ἐστὶν, ὅπως θανάτου γενομένου, εἰς ἀπολύτρω- σιν τῶν ἐπὶ τῇ πρώτῃ διαθήκῃ παραβάσεων, τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν λάβωσιν οἱ κεκλημένοι τῆς αἰωνίου κληρονομίας. θήκη, 16. θάνατον ἀνάγκη φέρεσθαι τοῦ διαθεμένου -
worshipper. Works from which a man must be cleansed before he can enter God’s presence. A pause might be made before ἔργων, from dead—(not bodies but) works, [καθαρίζω, Hellenistic; see Anz. Subsidia, 374. Inclass. καθαίρω is used, as in Herod. i, 44, Tov αὐτὸς φόνου ἐκά- Oype, and «φομ. Choeph. 72.) This cleansing is preparatory to the worship of the living God ets τὸ λατρεύειν θεῷ ζῶντι. The living God, who is all life, can suffer no taint of death in His worshippers. Death moral and -physical cannot exist in His presence. λατρεύ- ειν, ‘‘ad serviendum, in perpetuum, modo beatissimo et vere sacerdotali” (Bengel).
Ver.15. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, ‘ And on this account,” that is to say, because, as stated in ver. 14, Christ’s blood cleanses the conscience from dead works and thus fits men to draw near to God, διαθήκης καινῆς μεσίτης ἐστίν, “He is mediator of a new covenant”. The old covenant with sacrifices which could only cleanse the flesh allowed sins to accumu- late. But Christ, asabove stated, obtained cleansing from sins, and so laid the essential foundation of a new covenant, vill. 12. ὅπως θανάτου γενομένου .. . “that a death having taken place for deliverance from the transgressions [com- mitted] under the first covenant, those who have been called might receive the promised eternal inheritance”. Even under the old covenant this inheritance had been promised. A gospel had been preached to them, and they had been invited, iv. 2. God being during that period the covenant God of the people, this involved eternal good. But until their transgressions were atoned for they could not receive the inheritance. The sacrifices under the old covenant could not atone for sin, therefore a new cove- nant with a death which could atone was necessary; in order that such a death having taken place and their sins being removed they might receive fulfilment of the promise. The retrospective reference of the death of Christ is here affirmed; as in xi. 40 it is stated that without us, i.¢., without the Christian dispensation, the O.T. believers could not be perfected,