Chapter Eight

The ministry of our High Priest is above the earth and the Old Testament rites, and is accomplished in the heavenly sanctuary, not the earthly one (1–6). The substance of the New Covenant, its distinction from and superiority over the Old (7–13).

The thought of Christ’s heavenly ministry (Heb 7:26) naturally prompted the apostle to think also about the sacred place where this ministry is performed. Therefore the apostle speaks further about the heavenly tabernacle, which served as the model for the earthly one, as well as about the sacrifices as symbols of the Covenant and about the Covenant itself, both the Old and the New, of which Christ is the Mediator.

Hebrews 8:1. Now the chief point of what we are saying is this: we have such a High Priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, Hebrews 8:2. and is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not a man. The chief essence and value of all the apostle’s reasoning is briefly expressed by him in the proposition: “we have such a High Priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” Here, in the heavens, at the right hand of God’s throne — is his tabernacle, his sanctuary and Holy of Holies, where he ministers on our behalf by his intercession. This is not a tabernacle built by human hands, though guided by God, but the “true” tabernacle of God’s own direct thought, the spiritual, heavenly tabernacle, by which we must understand all that the Lord Jesus accomplished for our salvation in correspondence to what was done in the tabernacle of Moses typologically, and what is accomplished in general in the gracious Kingdom of Christ both in heaven and on earth by virtue of the high-priestly ministry of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 8:3. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. Hebrews 8:4. For if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are those who offer gifts according to the law, Hebrews 8:5. who serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was instructed when he was about to complete the tabernacle: See, it is said, make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain. Hebrews 8:6. But now he has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the former as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. The thought of the cited verses can be expressed more clearly as follows: Christ is the High Priest in the heavenly ideal sanctuary, and a priest cannot be without a sacrifice, which for our High Priest could only be heavenly, for if it were earthly it would have no place, since there are already priests according to the law of Moses. Thus there must be and there indeed is another sanctuary where Christ ministers. And his priestly activity is as far superior to that of the earthly legal service as the covenant established through his mediation with its promises is superior to the Old with its sanctuary and institutions. He himself is both Priest and Sacrifice (more on this in Heb 9:11-15). The tabernacle and the worship in it served, in the apostle’s expression, as “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things,” with the very structure of the tabernacle being made according to the “pattern” shown to Moses on the mountain (cf. Exod 25:40; Heb 9:24). This heavenly reality (τά επουράνια) in the present case is everything in the heavenly world relating to the high priesthood of Christ, adapted in a particular vision to Moses for its possible reproduction, reflection, and, so to speak, interpretation through the institutions and furnishings of the tabernacle in earthly conditions. If to Moses this vision appeared as a detailed and exact plan of construction, then outside of this vision such a plan of course did not exist: it too was only “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things,” which cannot be translated into earthly language. The crude notion of the Talmudists, who assert that the tabernacle in a literal sense stands to this day in the heavens and will in due time descend to earth together with the heavenly Jerusalem, finds no support whatsoever in the cited passages from Exodus and the apostle’s epistle. Cf. Heb 7:22.

Hebrews 8:7. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to seek a place for a second. Cf. Heb 7:11.

Hebrews 8:8. But reproving them the prophet says: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, The reason for replacing the Old Covenant with the New is indicated in the deficiency of the first. What this deficiency consisted of is stated further: in the fact that the house of Israel and the house of Judah conducted themselves reprehensibly (“reproving them”), that “they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them” (Heb 8:9). Thus the unfaithfulness of Israel to the covenant introduced a grave deficiency into the Old Covenant — not in the sense of having damaged the covenant itself, but only the offending people who lost the privilege intended for them (“they... and I disregarded them...”). God himself remained faithful to his covenant, as evidenced by the fact that he wishes to bring his goal of salvation — for the fulfillment of which the first covenant proved insufficient (through Israel’s fault) — to completion through the second covenant, and thus to one mercy adds another (Jer 31:31 and following). Thus here is indicated a somewhat different (from Heb 7:11), so to speak, moral cause of the insufficiency of the Old Covenant and the necessity of its replacement by another, the New. The Old Covenant did not penetrate deeply into the thoughts and hearts of the people, bearing the character of a more external, alien authority, and therefore the New is given, which roots its moral requirements in the inner need of the mind and heart of the people themselves, in the necessity and salvific nature of these requirements and their agreement with the whole nature and vocation of man. In this lies the immense pre-eminent power and superiority of the New Covenant over the Old. The laws of God are now written not only on stone tablets, but are placed in the thoughts and hearts of people and bear for them an unassailable authority (2 Cor 3:3). Together with this, such deep penetration of the will of God into the innermost and most hidden recesses of human nature (mind and heart) more closely unites and draws people to God (“I will be their God, and they shall be my people...” Heb 8:10), makes divine revelation inwardly and immediately accessible to all, and living knowledge of God becomes the lot of everyone, from the least to the greatest (Heb 8:11), which all taken together will assure people of eternal justification (Heb 8:12). Just as “because” in Heb 8:9 indicates the cause of the insufficiency and annulment of the Old Covenant, so correspondingly “because” in Heb 8:11 and Heb 8:12 indicates the cause of the firmness and unshakeability of the New — eternal living communion with God and justification by him. As an outstanding advantage of the New Covenant over the Old, one should note also that the scope of the people of God is understood in it far more broadly than the house of Israel and the house of Judah in the literal sense of these words. Here it says: “all shall know me...” — the same as what Jesus Christ said: “they shall all be taught by God...” (John 6:45; cf. 1 John 2:20; Isa 54:13). Thus in its very essence the New Covenant is a covenant of gracious salvation, and it is sealed in the hearts of all people without exception.

Hebrews 8:9. not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. Hebrews 8:10. For 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 minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Hebrews 8:11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest, Hebrews 8:12. for I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and their sins and their transgressions I will remember no more. Hebrews 8:13. In saying “new,” he has shown the first to be obsolete; and what is becoming obsolete and aging is near to vanishing away. Applying the prophetic expression “New” to the Covenant of Christ, the apostle uses this expression to impress upon them the thought of it as given irrevocably, to turn the readers away from attachment to the old as obsolete and aging, and therefore near to vanishing, and to urge them under the New Covenant to begin a new life in Christ, the New Guarantor of the better Covenant and the better promises.