The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 275

being then demanded. But now, the argu- for the intended counterpart to the high ment being oompleted, the previo11B exhor- priest's passing through the veil must have tations a.re taken up again, and enforced in been after the completed sacrifice. It is consequently fuller and deeper tones. The rather that, at the moment of death, when connection of thought between these fin&! after sayin!f, " It is finished," he "gave up the ghost,' the human flesh (which had admonitions and those previously interposed through all the ages been as a veil hiding is evident when we oompare the very ex- " the unseen" from man, and behind which pressions in oh. :x. 19-23 with those in eh. Christ himself had "tabernaoled" during iv. 14-16, l\nd the warnings of eh. :x. 26, his human life) was, as it were, rent asunder aud the new way opened. And thnt this et.c., with those of eh. vi. 4, eto. Thus was so was signified by the rending in twain appears, 68 in other ways also, the carefully of the veil of t~e temple from the top to arranged plan of the Epistle, different in the bottom, mentioned by St. Matthew (xxvL this respect from the undoubted Epistles of 51), at the very moment of the death upon St. Paul, in which the thoughts generally the cross. Thie incident may have suggested to the writer the expression used. " Quum follow ee.ch other without great regard to primum Christus per momentum mortis artistic arrangement. This, however, is in trausiemt, pnesto fuit mere. 'llirtua et vita. itself by no means conclusive against St. Tijr 11''1,l)tcos a.irroii, carnem BUam, que item Paul's authorship, since there would be scissa est, ut velum" (Bengel). " The likely to be just this difference between a house of God" in ver. 21 is a resumption of the thought of eh. iii. 1-7, where Christ set treatise composed for a purpose, and a was shown to be greater than Moses, as letter written curreme calamo by the same being the SON 011er the house of God, having author. It does, however, mark a different (be it observed) been called apx••pla. in ver. I. class of composition, and is 8llggestive, as (For the comprehensive meaning of the far as it goes, of a different writer. expression, not limited either to the Mosaic dispensation or the visible Church, see what Vers.19--21.-Having therefore, brethren, was said under eh. iii. 4.) On the now firmly boldnea to enter (]iterally,/or the entrance) grounded doctrinal bases of (1) open access into the holiest (literally, the holies, ie. the through Christ to the meroy-seat, (2) his holy pl.e.ce, as .,.a, li-y,a is translated in eh. ever-availing intercession, e.re built the ix. 25, but meaning, there as here, the holy exhortations (1) to confidence, (2) to per- of holies) by the blood of J'e&IIS, whioh sistence in faith and corresponding conduct. (entrance) he conseorated (or,dedicated, 11s the Ver. 22.-Let us draw near with a true ea.me verb ~-ytca.wi(to is translated, eh. ix. 18, heart in fD.11 &lllllll'&nce of faith, having our with reference to the Mosaic tabernacle) for hearts sprinkled from an evil oonsoienoe, and us, a new and living way, through the veil, our body washed with pure water. ''Let us that is to aay, his 11.esh; and having & great draw near" (,rpou•px,J,µ.•IJa.) is a liturgical Priest (/•p•11 ,.d-ya.v, not a.px«pla., high priest; phrase, denoting the approach of the people, but a priest of higher order than any ee.rthly after ceremonial atonement, to the earthly priest; cf. eh. v. 14, "PX"P'" µi-ya.v) ov11r sanctuary (cf. ver. I, -ro/Js ,rpou•pxoµ.lvovs). the houe of God. The epithet ,rpdu,P11To11 We may now draw near to the very heavenly ("new") applied to the "way" dedicated mercy-seat, without any sense of a bar to for us by Christ, though meaning origine.lly, our doing so on the ground of consciousness according to its etymology, "newly 11lain," of sin. lo Christ we are to see accomplished is coll).monJy used to express "recent" only. all that is needed for atonement. But there And so here. It i. a new way in relation are conditions also required in ourselves, to the old one of the high priest through the expressed first by the "true heart," and the veil-a way untrodden by man till opened "fulness of faith," and then by the clauses and dedicated by .. the great Priest." The that follow. These clauses, like ,rpou•px,J,- epithet (wua.v ("living") applied to the way µ.•611, have & liturgical basis-that of the distinguishes it, as a spiritual mode of blood-sprinkling (e.g. of the people with the approach, from the old o~e. "_Opponit~r blood of the covenant under Mount Sinai, ezanimo. Per prosopopanam -«ta adscn- eh. ix. 19, and of the priests on their con- bitur u, e:x ipsa. -oita Christi, qui est Via" secration, Lev. viii 23) and of the ablutions (Bengel; see John :xiv. 6). But what is before sacrificial service (Lev. viii. 6: :xvi thti meaning of the -oeil (tca'Ta,rnrurµ.", the 4, 24 : E:i:od. :u:x. 39). Hence these two word always used of the veil in the taber- participial clallll8s are not to be separated nacle or temple) being said to be "his from each other, e.nd seem best t.o be both fiesh " ? The idea cannot be simply that ta.ken in conneotion with the preceding hti pa.seed through the human nature assumed wporr•px,J,µ.•611. "Having our bee.rte sprinkled at his incarnation to tbe bee.venly throne ; from an evil consoienoe " me&DI our h&viDg  OH, X, 1-89.] THE EPIS'l'LE TO THE HEBREWS. 26,