.
23—26,
999
ἡμῶν: 25. % οὐδ᾽ ἵνα πολλάκις προσφέρῃ ἑαυτὸν, ὥσπερ ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ν wees αὶ χοα,
εἰσέρχεται εἰς τὰ ἅγια κατ᾽ ἐνιαυτὸν ἐν αἵματι ἀλλοτρίῳ: 26. " ἐπεὶ
XXX. 10; Lev. xvi
ἔδει αὐτὸν πολλάκις παθεῖν ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου νῦν δὲ ἅπαξ 2, 34.
~ , A ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων, εἰς ἀθέτησιν ἁμαρτίας," διὰ τῆς θυσίας τς;
w 1 Cor. x. Eph. i. 10; Gal. iv. 4.
Άγυνι in SACP, 37, 39, 47, 73; νυν in DEK, 2T.R: CDcEKL; insert τῆς with SAP, 17, 73.
gloria ἀῑνίπα” (Seb. Schmidt in Del- itzsch). viv ἐμφανισθῆναι . - . ‘““now to appear openly before the face of God in our behalf”. νῦν “now,” after His completed work on earth, and as his present continuous function; in contrast both to the past ministries, in which face to face communion was im- possible, and to Christ’s reappearance to men, ver. 28. ἐμφανισθῆναι τ. προσώπῳ τ. θεοῦ. The meaning οἵ ἐμφανίζω is most clearly seen from such passages as Exod. xxxiii. 18, Jo. xiv. 21. In the passive it means “to be manifest,” ‘to appear openly” or “clearly,” ‘to show one’s self,” as in Mat. xxvii. 53 of the bodies of the saints, ἐνεφανίσθησαν πολλοῖς. The infinitive is the infinitive of designed result com- mon in N.T., as in classics, especially after verbs of motion, cf. Mat. ii. 2, xi. 8, etc. The aorist may here be used to de- note that “the manifestation of Christ, in whom humanity is shown in its perfect ideal before the face of God is ‘one act at once’”’; but this is doubtful. The force of ἐμφαν. is strengthened still more by the emphatic τ. προσώπῳ τ. θεοῦ. In the earthly sanctuary the law was τὸ πρόσωπόν pov οὐκ ὀφθήσεται (Exod. Xxxiii. 23) but ἐν νεφέλῃ ὀφθήσομαι ἐπὶ τ. ἱλαστηρίου (Lev. xvi. 2). In Ps. xlii. 2 we find indeed πότε ἥξω καὶ ὀφθ- ήσομαι τ. προσώπῳ τ. θεοῦ ; but this is the non-literal expression of a poet. In the present passage the words are not the loose expression of the ordinary wor- shipper but are meant to be taken literally. And the intentionally emphatic character of the whole phrase is best accounted for by the fact that the darkness and clouds of incense in the old sanctuary were meant as much to veil the unworthiness of the priest from God as the glory of God from the priest. Now Christ ap- pears before God face to face with no intervening cloud. Perfect fellowship is attained by His perfect and stainless offer ing of Himself. All is clear between God and man. For it is ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν “for us” He enters this presence and fellow- ship; not that He alone may enjoy it,
but that we may enter into the rest and blessedness that He has won for us.
Ver. 25. οὐδ᾽ ἵνα πολλάκις.... ΝΟΥ yet [did He enter 1n] in order to offer Himself repeatedly,”’ that is, He did not enter in for a brief stay from which He was to return to renew His sacrifice. Westcott holds that the “ offering” cor- responds with the offering of the victim upon the altar, not with the bringing of the blood into the Holy of Holies. He refers to ver. 14 ἑαυτὸν προσήνεγκεν, to ver. 28, and also to x. 1ο. Similarly Weiss and others. Butin ix. 7 προσφέρει distinctly refers to the bringing in and application of the blood in the Holy of Holies, and the context of the present passage seems decidedly to make for the same interpretation. The sequence of the ἵνα clause after εἰσῆλθεν; the analogy presented in the clause under ὥσπερ ; and the consequence stated under ἐπεὶ (ver. 26) all combine in favouring this meaning. The High Priest enters the Holiest annu- ally, but Christ’s entering in was of another kind, not requiring repetition. The reason for the reiterated entering in of the High Priest, as well as the possi- bility of it, is given in the words év αἵματι ἀλλοτρίῳ. ἐν: “The High Priest was, as it were, surrounded, envel- oped, in the life sacrificed and symbolic- ally communicated”? (Westcott). It is safer to take év in its common instru- mental sense : the blood was the instru- ment which enabled the High Priest to enter. The reason why the entrance had to be annually renewed is given in x. 4. The same contrast between αἷμα ἀλλ- ότριον and αἷμα ἴδιον is found in ix. 12. A sacrifice of blood not one’s own is necessarily imperfect, Christ’s entrance to God being διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος and διὰ πνεύματος αἰωνίου had eternal effi- cacy.