The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 245

inauguration of the oovenant,-prob(lbly to ut ille. possemus capeeeere" (Bengel). The the dedication of the te.bernacle, enjoined general meaning is obvioue enough. Com- Exod. xl., and dee~.ribed Lev. viii. It is mentators sometimes raise needless diffi- true that no sprinlding of the tabernacle oalties, and may sometimes even miss tho or its furniture with blood is mentioned in essential purport of a pasearre by tlie too the Pentateuch ; only the anointing of them constant application of the ~ritiea.l micro- with oil (Lev. viii. 10). But the garments scope. It, however, it be thou,,l1t necessary of Aaron and his sons a.re ea.id on that to find a ijense in which the heavenly oocaeion to have been sprinkled with the eanc~ue.ry me.y be eaid to need purification, blood as well e.s with the anointing oil the 1dee. may be the appeasing of Di vine (oh. viii. 90), and Josephus (' Ant.,' iii. 8. wrath which bars the entrance of mankind. 6) says that this blood-sprinkling was Ver. 24.-l'or not into holy places made extended also to the tabernacle e.nd its with hands did Christ enter, which a.re figures vessels (-r1w TE r11e71v~v ,co:I -ra 1r•pl at-r¾,v (?.11-rl-ru1ra, antitypes) ot the true, but into ,r,ce671). Here, e.s well as in ver. 19, our heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of writer me.y bo supposed to follow the tra- (literally, before the face of) God for us. This ditional account, with which there is still verse confirms the view that "the heavenly nothing in the Pentateuch inconsistent. things" of ver. 23 denoted the heavenly Be it observed again that the force of the regions into which Christ is entered. • A-y,o: argument does not depend on these e.dded e.t the be~inning of the verse may be better details, but on the genera.I principle, abun- translated "holy place'' (as a.t vers. 12 and dantly expressed in the original record, 25) rather than " places," since here the which is asserted in the following verse. heavenly counterpart of the holy of holies, Ver. 22.-And al.most (rather, we may as distinguished from the" first tabernacle," almost say that) e.11 things e.re e.ooording to appears to be in view, viz. "heaven itself," the Law purified with blood; e.nd without the heaven of heavens, the immediate shedding of blood there is no remission. presence or "face" of God, the "throne of The essentiality of blood, which is "the the Majesty on high," to which Christ life of all flesh," for atonement e.nd conse- passed through the intermediate heavens. quent remission, is emphatically asserted in There he now (the perpetual now of the new Lev. xvii. 11, which expresses the principle era of accomplished redemption), in his of the whole sacrificial ritual. The idea. humanity, in behalf of and representing seems to be that the life of man is forfeit all humanity, beholds for ever the very face to Divine justice (cf. Gen. ii. 17), and so of the eternal God, which Moses could not blood, representing life, must be offered see and live, and of which the typical high instead of his life for atonement. priest se.w from year to year but the emblem, Ver. 23.-It was therefore necessary (i.e. in transitory glimpses, through intervening in accordance with the principle above clouds of incense. The word a.v-ri,nnra, like expressed) the.t the patterns (rather, copies, tl1ro6eC-yµo:-r11 in ver. 23, expresses the idea, of see eh. viii. 5, supra) of things in the the earthly sanctuary being e. visible repre- heavens should be purified with these ; but sentation answering to a heavenly reality. the heavenly things themselves with better The original -ri'nros (type) was shown to se.orifioes the.n these. Arcording to the Moses in the mount (eh. viii. 5); what was view to.ken under eh. viii. 2 e.nd eh. ix. 11, constructed by him on the eaxth below was " the heavenly things" here must be to.ken the a11titype to it. The words Tuiros and to denote the corresponding realities in the li:v-r!Tuiros e.re elsewhere used to express heavenly sphere of things to which Christ respectively a prophetic figure of a fulfilment hos gone. But how can they themselves to come and the fulfilment itself (as in Rom. be said to require purification or cleansing? v. H and 1 Pet. iii. 21, baptism iu the latter The mundane tabernacle did, being itself text being regarded as the av-ri-ruirov of the conceived as polluted by human siu ; but Deluge), but still with tbe same idea of the how so of the unpolluted heavenly taber- type being prior to the antitype, the latter nacle? The answer may be that the answering to the former. expressions, chosen to suit the case of the Vers. 25, 26.-Nor yet that he should offer earthly type, need not be pressod in all their himself often, as the high priest entereth i.!ito detailee.ee.pplying to the hee.venlysanctue.ry. the holy plaoe every yee.r with blood of others With regard to the latter, they may be ( i.e. blood not his own, aM.o-rplq,); for then meant only to express that, though it be must he often he.ve suffered si.noe the founda- itself pure, yet ma11 requires pnrifice.tion tion of the world: but now (probably vuvi, not for access to it, and the.t for this purpose vvv, meaning "as it is") onoe at the end of " better sacrifices" e.re required. "In he.o the e.ges bath he appeared (rather, been mani- e.podosi verbum Ka6apl(er16a,, mundari, fested, ,recpavlpo,-ra,) to put a.we.y si.n by the sa- subauditum, facit hype.llagem: nam cJelestia crifioe of himself. Here (as above noted) the per ee sunt pura, sed nos purifioaudi fuimue, idea of ?cpd.ir~ in ver. 12 is taken up. That  236 'l'HE EPISTLE 'l'O THE HEBREWS. [on. 1x. 1-28.