Commentary on Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles John Calvin
CHAPTER 13
Christ. Having then previously grounded our faith on Christ, he now says that the observance of meats does not conduce to our salvation and true holiness. As he sets grace in opposition to meats, I doubt not but that by grace he means the spiritual worship of God and regeneration. In saying that the heart may be established, he alludes to the word, carried about, as though he had said, ``It is the spiritual grace of God, and not the observance of meats, that will really establish us. 285
Which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. It is uncertain to whom he here refers; for the fathers who lived under the Law had no doubt a useful training, and a part of it was the distinction as to meats. It seems then that this is to be understood rather of the superstitious, who, after the Gospel had been revealed, still perversely adhered to the old ceremonies. At the same time were we judiciously to explain the words as applied to the fathers, there would be no inconsistency; it was indeed profitable for them to undergo the yoke laid on them by the Lord, and to continue obediently under the common discipline of the godly and of the whole Church; but the Apostle means that abstinence from meats was in itself of no avail. And no doubt it is to be regarded as nothing, except as an elementary instruction at the time when God's people were like children as to their external discipline. To be occupied in meats is to be taken as having a regard to them, so as to make a distinction between clean and unclean. But what he says of meats may be extended to the other rites of the Law.
Heb 13:10-15
Hebrews Chapter 13:10-15
10. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
10. Habemus altare, de quo edendi non habent potestatem qui tabernaculo serviunt.
11. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
11. Qyiryn ebun abunakuyn ubfertyr sabgyus ori oeccati ub sabcta oer sacerdotem, eorum corpora cremantur extra castra.
12. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
12. Quare et Iesus ut sanctificaret per proprium sanguinem populum, extra portam passus est.
13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
13. Prinde exeamus ad eum extra castra, probrum ejus ferentes: 14. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. 14. Non enim habemus hic manentem civitatem, sed futurum inquirimus.
285See Appendix F 3.