34. See pp. 330f.; cf. also pp. 358-60 (on 12:23).

34. See pp. 330f.; cf. also pp. 358-60 (on 12:23).

23. The LXX title to this psalm is Alvos (uhf; t4 Daueih.

26. In both these places the LXX uses xaianavw, rendering the Hiph`il of Heb. nuah (the root whence menuhah of Ps. 95:11 is derived).

27. The Geneva and Bishops' versions have "Jesus." In the LXX Joshua the son of Nun appears as' Irloov5 Nava. Cf. Acts 7:45 (RSV rightly "Joshua"; AV/KJV "Jesus"). It was probably because Greek-speaking Christians saw a divinely designed coincidence between the names of the great OT "Jesus" and of their own Savior that Aquila in his second-century Greek version of the OT avoided the use of Irlaov5 for "Joshua," preferring the more exact transliteration 'Iwoova.

24. Cf. Rom. 11:2, iv ' HAEia (where authorship is not implied); 9:25, ev t4 ' Qarle.

25. Gk. µeta toooitov Xp6vov. Our author takes historical perspective into account.

28. Cf. Ep. Barn. 6:8f.; Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 113, 132. J. R. Harris (Testimonies, II [Cambridge, 1920], pp. 51-57) shows how in early Christian apologetic Jesus is regarded as the antitype not only of the earlier Joshua but also of the later Joshua (or Jeshua), the first postexilic high priest (Ezra 3:20; Hag. 1:1; Zech. 3:1; 6:11ff., etc.; cf. p. 116, n. 68; p. 121; pp. 124f., n. 33; p. 253, n. 97); he traces a threefold typological pattern: "Jesus the Guide to the Land of Rest; Jesus the new Circumciser (cf. p. 113, n. 51); Jesus the great High-Priest" (p. 91). Harris went so far as to deprecate the alteration of AV/KJV "Jesus" to "Joshua" in the ERV/ARV as obscuring the typology and altering the proper emphasis of the conditional clause with which v. 8 begins; he argued that the sense was "If it was to them that Jesus gave rest"-our author's point being, in his judgment, that Jesus gave rest, not to the Israelites of wilderness days, but to believers of the Christian age. But this is to read into our author's argument the more farfetched typology of later testimonia. (Cf. the reference to Jude 5 on p. 97, n. 46.)

29. See p. 104, n. 13. See E. Lohse in TDNT, VII, pp. 34f. (s.v. aaopatt(µog). In Mishnah Tamid 7.4 the title of Ps. 92 is interpreted: "a psalm, a song for the time that is to come, for the day that shall be all sabbath and rest in the life everlasting." Cf. Jub. 2:30; 6:8.

30. Compare the remarkable parallel in Rev. 14:13, where the Spirit confirms the blessedness of "the dead who die in the Lord" with the words, "Blessed indeed, ... that they may rest (avanavoµat, `have relief') from their labors; for their deeds (EQya, as here) follow them."

31. The first two occurrences of "his" represent Gk. avrov, the third represents Gk. 1&o5 (ano TO V t&i(ov, "from his own").

32. So E. Nestle, "Heb. iv.10," ExT 9 (1897-98), pp. 47f.: "Here there can be no doubt that the first ainov refers to God, the second ai rov and ai r6g [ERV/ARV "himself'] to man."

33. Cf. C. K. Barrett, "New Testament Eschatology," SIT 6 (1953), pp. 136-55, 225-43; "The Eschatology of the Epistle to the Hebrews," in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, ed. W. D. Davies and D. Daube (Cambridge, 1956), pp. 363-93; O. Hofius, Katapausis: Die Vorstellung vom endzeitlichen Ruheort im Hebraerbrief, WUNT 11 (Tubingen, 1970).

34. See pp. 330f.; cf. also pp. 358-60 (on 12:23).

35. 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) is probably to be dated somewhere within the last thirty years of the first century A.D.

36. Gk. aneLOeiag, for which antotk LS ("of unbelief") is read by p46 1611 2005 with the Latin, Sahidic, Coptic, and Armenian versions. Cf. 3:8; 4:6; 11:31 (p. 96, n. 34; p. 104, n. 10; p. 315, n. 212).

37. Gk. ivepyrjs, for which B reads ivapyr15 ("manifest," "clear-shining")-a reading known to Jerome. Cf. Mangey's conjectural but certain emendation ivapyetav for ivepyEtav in Philo, Migration ofAbraham 35, evapyetav twv npayµatwv aQL811? otatr v ("the most distinct clarity of things").

38. Gk. ev9 , oewv xai i>vvoui v, for which D* reads evOwrjaeto5 evvot(ov to and C* I (and possibly Origen in one out of two instances) ev0vµtjuro)xai i>vvotchv.

39. Gk. oaouMowREv ("Let us then make every effort," NEB; "Let us therefore strive," RSV).

40. I. Watts (1674-1748).

41. Cf. C. H. Dodd, According to the Scriptures (London, 1952), pp. 20f.

42. He explains the dividing of the covenant victims in Gen. 15:10 as performed by God "by means of his word, the cutter of everything (t6 to tai T6 )V ovlur&vrmv eavtov koy(g)" (Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? 130).

43. Cf. Jer. 23:29, "Is not my word (LXX of Xoyot pov) like fire? ... and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"

44. Gk. &rzotoµo5 (cf. here toluutepo5, "sharper").

47. Gk. i;i4Jos 6i;4 (as against toE htepos imep trdoav lu xaLQav here); cf. Isa. 49:2, where God makes the Servant's mouth "like a sharp sword." (See p. 314, n. 206.)

48. Gk. bi-oroµo5 (lit. "two-mouthed"), not &a-t6µo5 ("twice-cutting"). The word is classical; cf. Euripides, Helena 983, Siotopov l;i4os ("two-edged sword").

49. Judg. 3:16; Ps. 149:6; Prov. 5:4; Sir. 21:3. Its other NT occurrences are in Revelation (1:16; 2:12, and in some authorities 19:15), of the "sword" (Gk. powia) proceeding from the mouth of the glorified Christ. In the Valentinian Gospel of Truth (Jung Codex 26:2) the judgment (xQiotg) which comes from heaven is described as "a drawn sword of two edges cutting this way and that." There may be an allusion there to the sword at the east of Eden (Gen. 3:24), which Philo (On the Cherubim 28) interprets as the Logos.

45. Gk. 6 navroovvap6g oov ?.6yo5. See p. 314, n. 206.

46. Gk. thv avun6wQLtov lmtayrjv aov.

50. Cf. Philo's treatment of this narrative (pp. 111 f., n. 42 above).

51. Justin Martyr, drawing out the parallel between Joshua and Jesus (see p. 109, n. 28 above), says: "Jesus Christ circumcises all who will with knives of stone" (Dialogue with Trypho 24). This becomes a commonplace interpretation of Josh. 5:2 in early Christian literature; the Syriac father Aphrahat in his treatise On Circumcision puts it thus: "Jesus our Saviour circumcised a second time, with the circumcision of the heart, the people who had been baptized by baptism, and they were circumcised with the scimitar which is sharper than a sword with two edges" (J. R. Harris, Testimonies, II, pp. 55f.). Aphrahat evidently thinks of the "word of God" (as described in this passage of Hebrews) as the means by which our Lord effects the circumcision of the heart. But it is going too far to suppose with Rendel Harris (loc. cit.) that Aphrahat's language reflects a use of the testimonium (Josh. 5:2) which was already accessible to the author of Hebrews, and that accordingly the heart-discerning power of the Logos in our present passage is another way of expressing the circumcision of the heart.

54. With the application to the word of God of the epithet xQurLx6g here may be compared Philo's comment on Gen. 14:7, where the same place is called En-mishpat ("the spring of judgment," LXX tit)v a1qygv tiijs xgios(o5) and Kadesh ("holy place"): "The wisdom of God is both holy ... and the judgment (xpiot5) of all things, by which all opposites are disjoined" (On Flight 196).

52. A. B. Davidson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1882), p. 96. Cf. E. Schweizer, TDNT, IX, p. 651 (s.v. yruXr ).

53. C. Spicq, however, following A. J. Festugiere (L'ideal religieux des Grecs et 1 'Evangile [Paris, 1932], pp. 212ff.), sees here the Philonic dichotomy between yrvxr and nvevµa, the latter being the higher part which apprehends divine philosophy (L'Epitre aux Hebreux, I [Paris, 1952], pp. 52f.). (Cf. G. H. Lang, Hebrews, pp. 82f.: "It is of the highest importance to recognize these two types of life, the soulish and the spiritual.") More characteristic of Philo, however, is his depiction of the Logos as the "cutter" (toµev5) which divides the tripartite soul of Platonism into its components, and then further divides each of these components into two (Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? 225).

57. Gk. tetpaXTlXto*vo5, perfect participle passive of tpaxrlXil;w, which appears to denote bending back the neck (tpaxrlXoc) or seizing by the throat. The former sense is quoted from Theophrastus (bending back the sacrificial victim's neck for the fatal stroke). E. K. Simpson quotes examples from Philo and Josephus in support of the rendering "exhausted": "in the wrestler's art teaxxlXtop6g was a grip of the antagonist's throat akin to the bandit's garrote, rendering him limp and powerless.... This characteristic figure then may be held to represent either the denuded or helpless plight of all created persons or forces when brought face to face with their Creator and Lord" ("The Vocabulary of Hebrews," p. 38). For the thought cf. 1 Enoch 9:5, where the chief angels say to God, "Everything is naked and open before you" (navra ivu)mov aou OVEpa Rai axaXunr(t).

58. Gk. l,6yo5, in a different sense from that in which it is used at the beginning of v. 12. Cf. 13:17 (p. 385 with n. 99). The idiom is classical.

59. In the versions of Tyndale and Coverdale (following Luther) 4:14 appears as 5:1a more logical arrangement than our conventional chapter-division. See G. Friedrich, "Das Lied vom Hohenpriester im Zusammenhang von Hebr 4,14-5,10," TZ 18 (1962), pp. 95-115.

60. Gk. eiipo v, omitted from B; according to Zuntz (Text, p. 41) its omission means

55. "The Vocabulary of the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 18 (1946), pp. 37f.

56. Gk. XaQ8royvw0rt5.

61. For the enumeration of heavens (three or seven) cf. 2 Cor. 12:2; Test. Levi 2:7ff.; Ascension of Isaiah 6:13; 7:13ff.; TB Hagigah 12b (seep. 356, n. 150); 3 Enoch 1:1-12. For the view that "the heavens" through which Christ has passed are symbolized by the outer compartment of the earthly sanctuary see p. 208, n. 57.

62. Cf. Eph. 1:21.

63. In the OT "high priest" is literally (for the most part) "great priest" (Heb. kohen gado[); so in 10:21 (p. 253 with n. 97). The unusually full expression here (Gk. (!pxtep65 µeyag) probably marks Jesus out as greater than the Aaronic high priests; it is used in 1 Macc. 13:42 (of Simon Maceabaeus) and in Philo, On Dreams 1.214, 219; 2.183 (of the Logos).

64. Gk. oµo&oyia, as in 3:1.

65. Gk. xao' oµoLottlta, lit. "according to likeness" (RSV "as we are"). The NEB brings out the meaning well: "one who, because of his likeness to us, has been tested every way, only without sin."

66. B. F. Westcott, ad loc.

67. Gk. Xwpic aµapria5. Cf. B. F. C. Atkinson, The Theology of Prepositions (London, 1944), p. 5 ("His sinless nature contained nothing that responded to temptation, as does ours"); J. Moffatt, ICC, ad loc. ("The special reference is to temptations leading to apostasy or disobedience to the will of God. It is true that XwptS bpaptias does exclude some temptations ... a number of our worst temptations arise out of sin previously committed").

68. J. R. Harris ("The Sinless High Priest," ExT 33 [1921-22], pp. 217f.) sees an allusion here to the typological parallel between Jesus and Joshua the high priest of Zech. 3:lff. (p. 109, n. 28; p. 253, n. 97); the parallel is incomplete in that Joshua needed to be cleansed from his own sins (cf. Heb. 7:27), whereas Jesus was xwpic aµap6a5. On the general subject which our author treats here cf. J. K. S. Reid, "Tempted, yet without sin," EQ 21 (1949), pp. 161-67; A. H. Curtis, The Vision and Mission of Jesus (Edinburgh, 1954), pp. 131ff.

69. Gk. napprloia (cf. p. 249 with n. 82, on 10:19). See W. C. van Unnik, "The Christian's Freedom of Speech in the New Testament," BJRL 44 (1961-62), pp. 484f.

70. Gk. Ei5 E'UxaLQov 00tj9EWv. F. Biichsel, TDNT, I, p. 629 (s.v. Potl8rw), cites a close parallel from a Greek inscription: potl9Eiio xata to EvxQLpov, "received timely help" (OGIS 693.12).

71. See on this paragraph W. Schrenk, "Hebriierbrief iv.14-16: Textlinguistik als Kommentierungsprinzip," NTS 26 (1979-80), pp. 242-52.

1. Gk. xa0iotatar. That it is to be construed here (and in 8:3) as a passive is confirmed by the corresponding use of the active xa0io"arv in 7:28 ("the law appoints as high priests men who are subject to frailty"). It might be parsed as middle and transitive, and is so interpreted by Calvin (ad loc.), its object being regarded as to aQoS toy 0e6v ("every high priest ordains the things which pertain to God"); but td sQOS toy 0e6v is an adverbial phrase (cf. 2:17).

2. Gk. WQ& to xat 9voiaS. The particle tE ("both") is omitted by P46 B DC; for its retention cf. G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles (London, 1953), p. 62.

3. Gk. i hQ 6µaptL6)v, for which p46 1739 read awQi 6µaQtrwv (probably under the influence of v. 3). For aepi a taQnuiv cf. 1 Pet. 3:18. This is not precisely the idiomatic LXX use of an 6paptia5 as the equivalent of Heb. hatta't / hata'ah, for which see 10:6 (p. 241, n. 42).

4. Gk. =pi 6twQtLiuv, for which the Byzantine text has iwiQ 6µaptuov (cf. V. 1, and n. 3 above).

5. Cf. p. 88, n. 87.

6. The linking of "gifts" (Gk. &upa) and "sacrifices" (Gk. Ovaiag) by "both ... and" (Gk. LE xai) suggests that the two terms are not sharply disjoined, as though the sense were: "that he may offer (a) gifts and (b) sacrifices for sins"; vnep aµaQTL6 v probably qualifies &upd ie xai Ouaias and not Owiag alone. The phrase "gifts and sacrifices" may be a generic term current in Alexandrian Judaism; cf. Epistle of Aristeas 234: "to honor God, not with gifts or sacrifices (ov &iQoL5 oi& Ouoiar5), but with purity of soul ..." (cf. 8:3; 9:9).

7. Cf. the very different tone of Philo's summary of the high priest's functions: since his vestments symbolize the cosmos, "he who has been consecrated to the Father of the cosmos must needs have that Father's son [the cosmos] with all his fulness of excellence to plead his cause, that sins may be remembered no more and good things be supplied in most lavish abundance" (Life of Moses 2.134).

8. Cf. 9:7 (pp. 206-08).

9. Hasmonaean king and high priest, 103-76 B.C.

10. By combining the indications from Josephus, Ant. 13.372f., and TB Sukkah 48b, we learn that once, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the populace pelted him with citrons because he insisted on performing the ceremony of water-pouring in a way which did not commend itself to them as proper (pouring the water on the ground beside the altar, after the Sadducean manner, and not on the altar itself, in the Pharisaic manner).

11. When Onias III was assassinated (171 B.c.); cf. Dan. 9:26a; 11:22; 2 Macc. 3:34.

12. Gk. µetQLona0eiv. "This striking expression," says E. K. Simpson ("The Vocabulary of the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 18 [19461, pp. 36f.), "traces its genesis to the Peripatetic philosophy, in contradistinction from the Stoic's affectation of a marble apathy of demeanour. Within the bounds of self-respect it advocates a tolerant or sympathetic posture of mind in respect of provocations from others or misfortunes that may have overtaken them. The term µetQLona0sLa is accordingly coupled with npa6TrgS and eULeiXELa, especially by Plutarch, with whom it is a favourite locution. The noble portrait of Achilles limned by Euripides in the Iphigeneia in Aulis (920f.) presents its prototype:

Such a blend of forbearance and condolence was ideally requisite in God's high priest under the old dispensation, both in his sacerdotal and judicial functions. But human infirmity marred the fair vision, till the Eternal Priest, Perfection's real Counterpart, trod the scene. For (and this renders the word almost untranslatable) METptonaOrLa is the golden mean between indifference and mawkish sentimentality. Aaron's fond compliance with Israel's masked idolatry and Eli's lax indulgence of his profligate sons were gross abuses of their lofty office. The true high priest's long-suffering will be duly measured, proportionate to the case in hand and the ignorance or waywardness he has to deal with; it will be adjusted to an equitable standard and free from extravagance no less than insensibility; not gushing, yet unfeignedly gracious (cf. Aristeas, 256: T& np65 toy xarpov npaacELv SEOvrwS MEtQLoncEN xa0eoT&ra).... To treat considerately is an inadequate rendering, yet we can devise no better." Cf. also C. Spicq, L'Epitre aux Hebreux, I (Paris, 1952), p. 43; he mentions several occurrences in Philo.

15. Gk. toic 8yv0015arv xaL n7.avwµev0r5.

13. Cf. Num. 14:5; 16:22, 47f.; Ps. 106:16.

14. Cf. Num. 12:3 (see also pp. 91f.).

16. Cf. Lev. 4:2 et passim; 5:17. The guilt offering of Lev. 6:1-7, making provision for cases of fraud in civil negotiations which involve "a breach of faith against Yahweh," implies less inadvertence than does the sin offering of Lev. 4; the case of Lev. 5:17 "appears when someone feels an obscure sense of guilt weighing upon him through the unintentional transgression of a divine commandment, without being able to give a more exact account of the matter; in this case too he is to bring a guilt-offering, because the transgression might conceivably consist of a `breach of faith' or `trespass' [of the kind mentioned in Lev. 5:15]; but as the extent of the trespass cannot be gauged, there can naturally be no question of making restitution in the proportion of six parts to five" (A. Dillmann, in A. Dillmann and V. Ryssel, Die Bucher Exodus and Leviticus [Leipzig, 31897], p. 478, on Lev. 5:17).

17. Cf. Num: 15:30 (p. 67, n. 2).

18. Ex. 32:11-14, 31f.

19. After the deposition of Onias III in 174 B.c., Jason and later Menelaus were appointed to the high priesthood by Antiochus IV; Alcimus was appointed by Demetrius I in 162 B.C.: the Hasmonaean Jonathan was appointed by Alexander Balas, putative son of Antiochus IV, in 152 B.C.; his brother Simon and his successors were appointed by decree of the Jewish people in 140 B.C. (1 Macc. 14:41). With the fall of the Hasmonaean house the high priests were appointed successively by Herod the Great (37-4 B.c.), Archelaus (4 B.C.-A.D. 6), Roman governors (A.D. 6-41), and members of the Herod family (A.D. 41-66). The last high priest, Phanni, son of Samuel, was appointed by popular ballot during the war against Rome (cf. Josephus, War 4.155-57).

20. Note the collocation of Samuel with Moses in Jer. 15:1; cf. Ps. 99:6 (LXX 98:6). See p. 322 (on Heb. 11:32).

21. Ps. 2:7 (cf. Heb. 1:5a, pp. 53f.).

22. Ps. 110:4 (LXX 109:4). The verb ci ("are"), present in the LXX, is left to be understood here (it is supplied in p46 P 629 pc).

23. Gk. &rlorLS TE xat bxcrrlpiag. The collocation of the two words is quoted from Isocrates, Polybius, and Philo (cf. BAGD, s.v. bcEr71pi(E; Spicq, Hebreux, I, p. 45; II, pp. 112f.). Whereas &rlmg is common in the NT, bxEtrlpba occurs here only (it occurs in the LXX in Job 40:22 [conjoined with berloL5]; 2 Macc. 9:18); it is originally the feminine of the adjective lm QLo5, and such a substantive as eXaba or 66pboS is implied along with it, the olive branch being the regular token of supplication.

24. Gk. xainep i)v vi6g. On the rendering "Son though he was" see p. 130.

25. On the significance for our author of the fact that one and the same person is Son of God and high priest see M. C. Parsons, "Son and High Priest: A Study in the Christology of Hebrews," EQ 60 (1988), pp. 195-215.

26. This distinction, known from the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (cf. G. R. Beasley-Murray, "The Two Messiahs in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs," JTS 48 [1947], pp. 1-12), appears most clearly in the Qumran literature (e.g., 1QS 9.11); cf. A. S. van der Woude, Die messianischen Vorstellungen der Gemeinde von Qumran (Assen, 1957), passim; K. G. Kuhn, "The Two Messiahs of Aaron and Israel," The Scrolls and the New Testament, ed. K. Stendahl (London, 1958), pp. 54-64; F. F. Bruce, Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts (London, 1960), pp. 41-55. See also A. J. B. Higgins, "Priest and Messiah," VT 3 (1953), pp. 321-36; "The Priestly Messiah," NTS 13 (1966-67), pp. 211-39.

27. Cf. Y. Yadin, "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Epistle to the Hebrews," Scripta Hierosolymitana 4 (1958), pp. 36-55; H. Kosmala, Hebraer-Essener-Christen(Leiden, 1959). See pp. 7-9.

28. Cf. B. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic (London, 1961), p. 142.

29. The attempt to establish a Levitical relationship for Jesus through his mother's kinswoman Elizabeth, who was "of the daughters of Aaron" (Luke 1:5), cannot be traced earlier than Hippolytus. According to Hippolytus (on Gen. 49:8) Jesus was descended from Levi as well as from Judah (an inference apparently drawn from Test. Simeon 7:2); he also interprets Moses' blessing of Levi (Deut. 33:8ff.) with reference to Jesus (cf. M. Briere, L. Maries, and B. C. Mercier, Hippolyte de Rome sur les Benedictions d'Isaac, deJacob et de Mosee, in Patrologia Orientalis 27 (1954], pp. 72, 144ff.; also L. Maries, "Le messie issu de Levi chez Hippolyte de Rome," Recherches de science religieuse 39-40 [1951-52], Melanges Lebreton, pp. 381 ff. ). See also J. L. Teicher, "The Damascus Fragments and the Origin of the Jewish Christian Sect,"JJS 2 (1951), pp. 115-43, especially pp. 134ff.

30. Cf. Ps. 76:2, where "Salem" stands in synonymous parallelism with "Zion"; also the interpretation of Salem as Jerusalem in 1Q Genesis Apocryphon 22.13 (1st cent. B.C.) and in Josephus, Ant. 1.180. Others would identify Melchizedek's Salem with Shalem near Shechem (Gen. 33:18, AV/KJV, ERV/ARV mg.; cf. John 3:23, Salim). See p. 159, n. 16.

31. 'El `Ely6n is identified with Yahweh in Gen. 14:22 (MT); `Ely6n and Yahweh also appear repeatedly as synonyms in poetic parallelism in the Psalms and elsewhere (e.g., Ps. 18:13). According to Philo of Byblus, Elioun ("YVtorog, "Most High") was the chief deity among the Phoenicians.

32. Cf. A. R. Johnson, Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel (Cardiff, 1955), pp. 24-33, 4246; H. Ringgren, The Messiah in the Old Testament, SBT 18 (London, 1956), p. 15; A. Serina, La figura di Melchisedeq nel Salmo CX,4: 11 Sacerdozio e it Messianismo Sacerdotale del Re Davide (Trapani, 1970).

33. H. L. Ellison, The Centrality of the Messianic Idea for the Old Testament (London, 1953), p. 11. He continues: "In Ps. 110:4 we see the union re-created." Even if the oracle of Ps. 110:4 was repeated regularly in the coronation ritual of the southern monarchy, it expressed a future ideal rather than a present fact. Zech. 6:13 has frequently been regarded as portraying a Davidic priest-king (so AV/KJV, ERV/ARV, "he [`the man whose name is the Branch'] shall be a priest upon his throne"), but the RSV is preferable: "there shall be a priest by his throne" (cf. LXX, "there shall be a priest at his right hand"). The recognition of two separate persons, a royal governor and a priest, is required by the following clause ("and the counsel of peace shall be between them both"); the reference would be to Zerubbabel and Joshua, "the two anointed ones" of Zech. 4:14.

34. See, however, H. H. Rowley, "Zadok and Nehushtan," JBL 58 (1939), pp. 113-41; "Melchizedek and Zadok," in Festschrift fiir A. Bertholet, ed. W. Baumgartner (Tubingen, 1950), pp. 461-72; "Melchizedek and David," VT 17 (1967), p. 485.

35. The language of the decree of the Jewish people in 1 Macc. 14:41, "that Simon should be their leader and high priest for ever," is probably based on Ps. 110:4 ("high priest for ever" here denoting an hereditary high priesthood). The view that Ps. 110 was actually composed in honor of Simon has now been generally abandoned, together with the attempt to find an acrostic of his name in its opening verses (so G. Margoliouth inAcademy, February 20, 1982; G. W. H. Bickell, ibid., April 9, 1982; R. H. Charles, "The Christ of the New Testament," Exp. VI.v [19021, pp. 252f.; B. Duhm, Die Psalmen, KHC [Tubingen, 1922], pp. 254ff.; R. H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament [New York, 1941], p. 630). "The contention held by some that the psalm belongs to the Maccabaean age because the letters composing the name of Simon, the Maccabaean leader, are the initial ones of the first four lines, can only be described as fantastic; for the fact is that these letters are not the initial ones of the lines in question, and can be made so only by arbitrary manipulation" (W. O. E. Oesterley, The Psalms [London, 1953], p. 461). Cf. H. Gunkel, Die Psalmen (Gottingen, 1926), p. 485. If the Hasmonaeans used this psalm to support their own high-priestly claims, that in itself might account for its nonappearance among the Qumran testimonia.

36. For the Pharisees' attitude cf. Josephus, Ant. 13.288-98; TB Qiddushin 66a.

37. CD 4.1ff.; in the Qumran commentaries the holder of the Hasmonaean high priesthood is referred to as "the wicked priest."

38. So later, during the war of liberation led by the messianic claimant Simeon BenKosebah (A.D. 132-135), the otherwise unknown "Eleazar the priest" is named on the national coinage alongside "Simeon, prince of Israel."

39. Whatever may be said about the provenience of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, there can be little doubt about the Christian origin of such a passage as that in Test. Levi 8:14: "a king shall arise out of Judah and shall establish a new priesthood ... for all Gentiles." This is dependent on the Epistle to the Hebrews, and not vice versa (cf. also Heb. 7:14, pp. 16567, with nn. 46, 50). The converse prediction in Test. Reuben 6:7ff., where kingship as well as priesthood is granted to the tribe of Levi, suggests a very different provenience. Elsewhere in the Testaments the kingship of Judah and the priesthood of Levi are kept distinct, the kingship being subordinate to the priesthood (as at Qumran). Cf. also Jub. 31:14f. (See p. 123, n. 26.)

40. Cf. 2:17f.; 4:15f.

41. Gk. ev taig flµepats tfs oagxo5 a6 tov (NEB, "in the days of his earthly life").

42. And, for that matter, neither does Paul, whose words about not knowing Christ "after the flesh" in 2 Cor. 5:16 have been misinterpreted in this way (his meaning is excellently reproduced in the NEB: "With us therefore worldly standards have ceased to count in our estimate of any man; even if once they counted in our understanding of Christ, they do so now no longer"). It is unfortunate that the ministry of Christ is given so little place in early Christian confessions of faith: H. B. Swete speaks of the words "and lived among men" in the Creed of Caesarea (Socrates, HE 1.8) as standing alone in such documents as a reference to our Lord's career between his incarnation and passion (The Ascended Christ [London, 1912], p. xv n.). See also A. M. Ramsey, "The Gospel and the Gospels," in SE = TU 73 (Berlin, 1959), pp. 39f.

43. Gk. npoaeveyxa5, from npoa$epm, rendered "offer" also in vv. 2 and 3. But it has no such sacrificial sense here, as though Christ's Gethsemane experience were somehow the coun-

terpart to the Aaronic high priest's offering for himself in v. 3 (so, e.g., A. B. Bruce, The Humiliation of Christ [Edinburgh, 41895], p. 277). See also A. Vanhoye, "L'oblation sacerdotale du Christ dans l'Epitre aux Hebreux,"Didaskalia 14 (1984), pp. 11-30, especially 12-19.

44. A. E. Garvie, "The Pioneer of Faith and of Salvation," ExT 26 (1914-15), p. 549: "While we must not limit the reference to Gethsemane, yet there this element in the passion is most clearly and fully presented to us." See also T. Lescow, "Jesus in Gethsemane bei Lukas and im Hebraerbrief," ZNW 58 (1967), pp. 215-39.

45. In ExT 6 (1894-95), p. 433, A. F. Schauffler is quoted (in an editorial note) for the view that "the `cup' from which He prayed to be delivered was not the death on the Cross, but death in Gethsemane itself. He was praying for strength to reach the Cross, not for grace to escape it." Similarly T. Hewitt in The Epistle to the Hebrews, TNTC (London, 1960), pp. 97101: "If Christ had died in the Garden, no greater calamity could possibly have fallen on mankind" (p. 100). But why? Once he had said "Not my will, but thine, be done," the offering up of his life at any subsequent moment must have constituted "a ransom for many," as he had said it would (Mark 10:45). See the more satisfactory treatment by D. Guthrie, The Letter to the Hebrews, TNTC (Leicester, 1983), pp. 129f.

46. Moreover, the drinking of the cup involved for him the bearing of the world's sin, as it could have done for no one else.

47. The construing of this prayer as a question ("Shall I say, `Father, save me from this hour'?") may be felt to import a slightly histrionic element out of keeping with the spiritual intensity of the moment.

48. Cf. also John 13:31f.; 17:1, 4f.

49. A. B. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 186.

50. It certainly does less than justice to our author's language to regard "the one who was able to save him from death" as little more than a circumlocution for "God" (in the sense of 1 Sam. 2:6, "Yahweh kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up").

51. A. E. Garvie ("The Pioneer of Faith ... p. 549), G. H. Lang (The Epistle to the Hebrews [London, 1951], pp. 91f.), K. S. Wuest (Hebrews in the GreekNew Testament [Grand Rapids, 1947], p. 99), and others emphasize that our Lord prayed to be delivered ix 8avatov, "out of the midst of the death state" (after having entered into it), and not ano 8avatov, "from death" (in the sense that he prayed that he might not die). But in fact no such clear-cut distinction can be made between the two prepositional phrases; Westcott (ad loc.) makes it quite clear that ex 8avatov can cover both these distinct ideas; the prayer was not answered in the one sense, that it might be answered in the other. It is possible that ex 8avatov here is an echo of Hos. 13:14 (LXX), ex xetpos a,ov pvaoµaL, xai ex Oavatov Wrpriiao z i ainov5 ("from the power of Hades I will rescue, and from death I will redeem them").

52. Cf. 2:12 with exposition and notes (pp. 82f.).

53. Gk. etaaxovo8ei5, with which cf. also Ps. 22:2 (21:3, LXX), oix etaaxouon ("thou wilt not hear"). A. Harnack emended our text unnecessarily by insertingoirx before etaaxoua&i5 ("Zwei alte dogmatische Korrekturen im Hebraerbrief," in Studien zur Geschichte des Neuen Testaments and der alten Kirche [Berlin and Leipzig, 19311, pp. 245ff., reprinted from Sitzungsberichte der preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse, 1929, pp. 62ff.); the emendation has been adopted by R. Bultmann in TDNT, II, p. 753 (s.v. evXci r , etc.); cf. H. Windisch, Der Hebraerbrief, HNT (Tubingen, 1931), ad loc., pp. 43f.

54. Gk. etmpcovoe µov (LXX 21:25). Cf. also the occurrence of SetlcL5 (cf. P. 122, n. 23) earlier in this verse of the psalm (LXX). Other passages in the Psalter which may have influ enced our author here are Pss. 31:22 (LXX 30:23); 39:12f. (LXX 38:13f.); 69:1-3 (LXX 68:24), and especially Ps. 116 (LXX 114 and 115), passim (for parallels in the last-named psalm cf. A. Strobel, "Die Psalmengrundlage der Gethsemane-Parallele, Hbr. 5, 7ff.," ZNW 45 [1954], pp. 252-66).

55. Cf. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 106 (in section 99 Justin has interpreted Ps. 22:2 [LXX 21:3] of the agony in Gethsemane).

56. "What gives the reality to the priesthood is that it is no external office, inherited, usurped, or granted by favour, but it is an inward vocation and qualification in experience and character" (A. E. Garvie, ExT 28 [1916-17], p. 463, in an article "Shadow and Substance").

58. Cf. Spicq, ad loc.; O. Michel, MK, ad loc. See also C. Maurer, "`ErhOrt wegen der Gottesfurcht' Heb 5,7," in Neues Testament and Geschichte (0. Cullmann FS), ed. H. Baltensweiler and B. Reicke (Zurich/Tubingen, 1972), pp. 275-84.

59. So Calvin, Beza, and many commentators since. R. Bultmann (TDNT, II, p. 753) conceded that this ("He was heard out of His anxiety, so that He was liberated from anxiety") was the best interpretation of the text as it stands, but as it does not suit the context he preferred Harnack's emendation (see p. 128, n. 53).

60. Cf. the OT designation of God as "the Fear of Isaac" (Gen. 31:42). MM (s.v. 6kdoEta) cite a papyrus of A.D. 505 for the use of the word in the sense of "Your reverence" as a courtesy title.

61. The substantiveev)r&SEta appears in 12:28 (see p. 362, n. 190) and the verb E$?,,aPeoµat in 11:7; the consistent meaning is reverence toward God. The substantive and the verb do not appear in the NT outside this epistle; the adjective Ev?<aft appears in the Lukan writings only, and always of devout Jews (Luke 2:25; Acts 2:5; 8:2; 22:12). "Trench has rescued this noun [6X60ELa] from detraction by showing that the Stoics reckoned it a positive virtue, the golden mean between rashness and poltroonery. According to Diogenes Laertius it is the very antithesis of fearfulness. In Luke's diction ev),aft is the devout, god-fearing soul, and later on in this Epistle the cognate verb is predicated in commendation of Noah's watchfulness. It corresponds with Cicero's cautio, defined in his Tusculans (iv. 6) as a malls declinatio, si cum ratione fit, and is summed up by Plutarch in the dictum: to Ev1<u ria&at ao4xi v L&ov (Mor. 1038). Philo uses the term of Eve's initial scruple to eat of the forbidden tree. It stands then for circumspection, heedfulness, the German Behutsamkeit. IIQOS T6 OEiov e$0&PEta is Plutarch's standing phrase for religious punctiliousness, and yepovtLXi EiXaaEta (Brut. 12) a praiseworthy feature of old age, namely wariness" (E. K. Simpson, Words Worth Weighing in the Greek New Testament [London, 1946], p. 19). See also Westcott, ad loc. The sense of the phrase &no tr15 EOapeiag is exactly conveyed by the Vulgate rendering pro sua reuerentia.

57. Gk. &no rr1S Ev?a& ia5.

63. This was precisely what he refused at his first temptation in the wilderness; having been so recently hailed by the heavenly voice as the Son of God, he was invited to exploit his divine Sonship for his personal advantage in a way that was not open to his people, but would not entertain the suggestion for a moment (Matt. 4:2-4; Luke 4:2b-4).

66. Gk. xaixEQ dw vi65. NEB "son though he was" would be the perfect translation if only "son" were given an initial capital.

67. Gk. iµwOev aq' wv enaOev. The rhyming relation ofnaOrty-paeeiv(xdOoc-paOo5) gave rise to many epigrams in Greek literature to the effect that learning comes by suffering; so, e.g., in Aeschylus, Agamemnon 176ff., Zeus is described as the one "who has marked out the path of wisdom for mortals, and decreed as a sure law that learning comes by suffering (na9rt paOo5)." Cf. H. DOrrie, Leid and Erfahrung: Die Wort- and Sinn-Verbindung'raBeiv-/ta9eiv im griechischen Denken (Wiesbaden, 1956). Spicq (Hebreux, I, pp. 46f.) lists some Philonic parallels.

68. This is the main reason for Harnack's emendation (p. 128, n. 53), which yields the sense: "He was not heard, for all his godly fear, Son though he was." BDF (§ 211) take &ao tfig

62. Cf. M. Rissi, "Die Menschlichkeit Jesu nach Hebr. 5,7 and 8," TZ 11 (1955), pp. 28-45.

64. Cf. Matt. 26:53.

65. As in 1:2.

69. Especially in the LXX; cf. J. Jeremias, "Hbr. 5,7-10," ZNW 44 (1952-53), pp. 10711, reprinted in Abba (Gottingen, 1966), pp. 319-23.

70. So Eusebius says of the martyr Marinus, "having been led off to death, he was perfected (trAwvtar)" (HE 7.15.5). Cf. Heb. 12:23; Luke 13:32.

71. Gk. aitio5 awtt)piac aiwviov.

72. E.g., in Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon 57: "the gods have become the authors of salvation (ti1S µev owtrlpiac ... aitiou5) for the city." Cf. Josephus, Ant. 14.136: "Antipater was the author of their victory and also of their safety (hpa xat tr1S owtrlpiac aitLOV)."

73. Noah's son Ham is reproached for his unfilial conduct toward his father, "the author of his salvation (tov aitwv tr1S awt19pias)" (On the Virtues 202); the brazen serpent was "the author of complete deliverance" (artros owtrlpia5 ... navreko4s) to those who beheld it (Agriculture 96); so also the Red Sea was a means of preservation (awtrleia5 aitLov) to the Israelites but of destruction to the Egyptians (Contemplative Life 86), and God himself is the author of his people's salvation (tr15 awt1qpia5 aitrov) (Special Laws 1.252).

74. Gk. noku5 ipiv 6 k6yo5 ... keye►v, but 6 is omitted in e* D* P 1319. Zuntz (Text, p. 118) prefers the anarthrous reading, and takes the sense to be: "on this subject there is much to say but it would be obscure."

75. Gk. iov bibaoxEiv vp&, TLva. For btbaoxrty vµ85 some authorities (462 1912 with the Latin versions and margin of the Harclean Syriac) have bLbaaxE09aL (spas), "you have need to be taught"; this may have been a change consequential upon the reading of tnva ("someone") as tiva ("what [are the elements]"), a reading found in B2 D2 L and the majority of Byzantine witnesses with the Latin and Coptic versions (it is the reading of the TR, whence AV/KJV "which be the first principles of the oracles of God"). In 424** 1739 tnva in either form is absent; cf. Zuntz, Text, p. 75.

76. Gk. v~ntog yap ioriv. D* has the amplified reading "for he is still (axµgv) a babe"a reading attested also by Origen. For 8xrjv in this sense (cf. Matt. 15:16) see New Docs., II (1977), § 21.

77. E.g., in Heb. 3:7-4:13.

78. Gk. bvaepµrjvevtog. Melchizedek was a subject of much speculation among Jews, as later among Christians. One line of Jewish tradition identified him with Shem (whose life, according to the Masoretic chronology, overlapped Abraham's by more than a century); this removed the difficulty of supposing that outside the line of the holy seed there should be one whom Abraham treated with such veneration. Another line thought of him as the prototype of the great priest of the age to come, but in a way which distinguished him from the Messiah of Ps. 110:1. As a result of polemic with the Christians, however, Judaism tended to take a less favorable view of Melchizedek. His blessing Abraham before he blessed God (Gen. 14:19f.) was reprobated, and it was held that on this account his priesthood was taken away from him and conferred on Abraham. See Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 19; M. R. James, The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament (London, 1920), pp. 17ff.; Strack-Billerbeck, IV (Munich, 1928), pp. 452ff.; M. Friedlaender, "La secte de Melchisedeq et l'Epitre aux Hebreux," REJ 5 (1882), pp. lff., 188ff., 6 (1882), pp. 187ff.; G. Wuttke, Melchisedech der Priesterkonig von Salem, BZNW 5 (Giessen, 1927); M. Simon, "Melchisedech dans la polemique entre juifs et chretiens et dans la legende," RHPR 17 (1937), pp. 58ff.; J. Klausner, The Messianic Idea in Israel (London, 1956), pp. 456, 515; J. J. Petuchowski, "The Controversial Figure of Melchizedek," HUCA 28 (1957), pp. 127-36; 0. Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament (London, 1959), pp. 83-85 (with a useful bibliographical apparatus in the footnotes); R. A. Stewart, Rabbinical Theology (Edinburgh, 1961), pp. 112-18; J. Fitzmyer, "Now this Melchizedek ... (Heb. 7:1)," CBQ 25 (1963), pp. 305ff., reprinted in Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament (London, 1971), pp. 221-43; M. Delcor, "Melchizedek from Genesis to the Qumran Texts and the Epistle to the Hebrews," JSJ 2 (1971), pp. 115-35; F. L. Horton, The Melchizedek Tradition, SNTSM 30 (Cambridge, 1976); R. N. Longenecker, "The Melchizedek Argument of Hebrews," in Unity and Diversity in New Testament Theology, ed. R. A. Guelich (Grand Rapids, 1978), pp. 161-85. The fragmentary Qumran text 11QMelch has little enough in common with our author's exposition. The Qumran text quotes the regulations for the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:13) and the Year of Release (Deut. 15:2) and relates both to the eschatological return from exile. The proclamation of restoration and liberty at that time (cf. Isa. 61:lf.) is the responsibility of Melchizedek, "for that is the epoch of Melchizedek's acceptable year." Ps. 82:1 provides a biblical basis for assigning this proclamation to Melchizedek: Melchizedek is the 'elohim who stands there in the congregation of 'E1 and judges among the 'elohim (he is also the 'elohim who judges the nations in Ps. 7:8). Melchizedek is here promoted to be head of the heavenly court, judging the spirits of Belial's lot, and fulfilling a ministry of liberation for the people of his own lot, the children of light (to whom it is said of him in Isa. 52:7, "your 'elohim reigns!"). See A. S. van der Woude, "Melchisedek als himmlische Erlosergestalt in den neugefundenen eschatologischen Midraschim aus Qumran Hohle XI," OTS 14 (1965), pp. 354-73 (editioprinceps); M. de Jonge and A. S. van der Woude, "110 Melchizedek and the New Testament," NTS 12 (1965-66) pp. 301-26; J. A. Fitzmyer, "Further Light on Melchizedek from Qumran Cave 11," JBL 86 (1967), pp. 25-41, reprinted in Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament, pp.- 245-67; 1. Carmignac, "Le document de Qumran sur Melchisedeq," RQ 7 (1970), pp. 343-78. In the Nag Hammadi text Melchizedek (E.T. by B. A. Pearson and S. Giversen in The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. J. M. Robinson [Leiden, 1977], pp. 399-403) Melchizedek is portrayed as high priest and messianic warrior of the end-time. See pp. 159f., n. 20; p. 161, n. 26.

79. Gk. vwOp65, in the NT only here and in 6:12; in the LXX, Prov. 22:29 (of "slothful men"); Sir. 4:29; 11:12. See p. 151, n. 67.

80. The statement that the recipients of this letter ought by now to have qualified as teachers of others has been made to bear an excessive weight of exegesis; K. Bornhauser used it as one of his arguments for identifying the recipients with the converted priests of Acts 6:7 (Empfanger and Verfasser des Briefes an die Hebraer [Gutersloh, 1932], pp. 16ff.). The idea that ordinary Christians would not be expected to become teachers is quite unwarranted; the word SLSaoxa),os is used here in quite an informal sense, and not of trained catechists or anything like that. It was an axiom of Stoicism that anyone who had mastered true learning was in a position to impart it to others; and it is equally a Christian axiom.

81. Cf. the NEB; Gk. otoLXeta (ARV "rudiments"). In addition to this primary sense of the letters of the alphabet, ototxria is used in the NT of the "elements" which make up the material universe (2 Pet. 3:10, 12) and of the "elemental spirits" of the world which seek to bring men into bondage and from which the gospel delivers them (Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20). Cf. F. F. Bruce, Galatians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids/Exeter, 1982), pp. 193f., 203-5; Colossians-Philemon-Ephesians, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 1984), pp. 99f., 125f.

82. For details see Moffatt, Michel, and Spicq, ad loc.; also Spicq, I, pp. 53-56. For the periphrasis yeyovate Xpeiav exovrcg yaxaxrog, lit. "you have become having need of milk" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14a), see BDF § 354 (p. 180).

83. Gk. &QX>j, here and in 6:1. In the phrase to acoLXEta tr15 apxtil5 here, tiffs apxflc may be taken as a genitive of definition; one cannot well press a distinction between the oroixeta and the aexti.

84. Gk. )r6yo5 btxatoovv11S (cf. the 6pe65 k6yo5 of Philo and Marcus Aurelius). The rendering "a principle of righteousness" is suggested by H. P. Owen, "The `Stages of Ascent' in Hebrews v. 11-vi. 3," NTS 3 (1956-57), pp. 243-53. He distinguishes two phases in the stage of full growth: (a) the phase of ethical maturity, in which a "principle of righteousness" is acquired through experience; (b) the phase in which those who have thus had "their senses exercised to discern good and evil" are supplied with solid food such as the doctrine of Christ's high priesthood (this latter phase being the "perfection" of 6:1). This threefold ascent (infancy, moral maturity, spiritual illumination) he finds paralleled in Philo and the Stoics (but not Epictetus, who makes no room for the last phase). Cf. E. Percy, Probleme der Kolosser- and Epheserbriefe (Lund, 1946), p. 323. See further on 6:1 (p. 138). G. Delling (TDNT, I, p. 188, s. v. aiaOavoµat) takes the meaning to be that only to Christians of developed moral character can the doctrine of justification by faith (?6yo5 brxaLoauv c) be imparted; vrjntor so easily misunderstand it. This does not suit the context.

85. Gk. bta trly ei rv. The el iS is the habitus, experience, or skill acquired through practice.

3. The reading adopted is Parrnoµwv b&baXt v (V46 B latd(e) syrpesh), although the reading Dan Loµwv btbaXf1S is much more widely attested (K A C D K P 0122 byz sat19 syncd arm). It is more likely that an original accusative (&baXrjv) was assimilated to the adjacent genitives than that an original genitive was altered to an accusative. If the accusative be preferred (so G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles [London, 1953], p. 93), it is parallel, and probably in apposition to 9EµikLov ("foundation"); and the following genitives int9ioews ("imposition"), avaotaaew5 ("resurrection"), and xpiµatos ("judgment") are probably, like 0anrt0µ5rv ("baptisms"), dependent on &&aX>jv. Cf. F. W. Beare, "The Text of the Epistle to the Hebrews in p46,"JBL 63 (1944), p. 394; R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel in the Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1950), p. 25; B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London/New York, 1971), p. 666.

4. Gk. n0u1OOI EV, for which a handful of authorities (notably A C D) have nou iowt v ("let us do").

5. Lit. "have tasted... ," an echo of Ps. 34 (LXX 33):8 (cf. 1 Pet. 2:3). What the psalmist says of God is here predicated of his word.

6. Gk. SuvaµELg tE µe?LXovrog aiCbvog. A Greek text having bvvovrog in place of µe)J.ovtos seems to be implied by Tertullian's quotation of this passage in On Modesty 20: "For it is impossible that those who ... have tasted the word of God and found it sweet, when-their age already setting (occidente iam aeuo)-they have fallen away, should be recalled again unto repentance"; but this reading probably arose through the accidental omission of letters inbuv(aµEtc tE i JJ)OVrOg.

1. Lit. "the word of the beginning of Christ" (ERV/ARV mg.).

2. Gk. OE WOa, of swift and energetic movement.

7. AV/KJV and ERV/ARV "crucify ... afresh," where the adverb "afresh" is intended to convey the force of the prefix ava- in avaotaupovvrag. But it is more probable that avaotaupow (not found elsewhere in biblical Greek) has the meaning "crucify" here which it has in nonbiblical writers (ava- denoting "up," not "again"). So the RSV ("they crucify the Son of God on their own account") and the NEB ("with their own hands they are crucifying the Son of God"). The dative eavrol5 ("to themselves") may mean "to their own hurt" (cf. pp. 322f., n. 5, on 12:3). But the sense "crucify again" was accepted here by the Greek fathers and ancient versions (cf. Vg. rursum cruci figentes), possibly because of a feeling that this sense was especially appropriate to Jewish Christians (see also p. 149, n. 57).

8. 1 Cor. 3:2.

9. Cf. H. P. Owen, "The `Stages of Ascent' in Hebrews v. 11-vi. 3," NTS 3 (1956-57), pp. 243-53.

10. Cf. 0. Michel, MK, ad loc.

11. Seep. 137, n. 3.

12. "This renouncing of a past way of life, whether it be a Jewish or a pagan way, and this turning to God in faith to receive new power from him were symbolized, in early Christian practice, in the initiation ceremonies of `baptism and the laying-on-of-hands'; and the outstanding characteristics of the new life that a Christian sought to live were the new sense of purpose and the increased sense of seriousness which were imparted to it by the certainty that, because Christ had been raised from the dead, there would be `a resurrection of the dead' followed by a `judgment' which would have eternal consequences" (R. V. G. Tasker, Gospel in Hebrews, p. 25). According to G. Zuntz (Text, p. 93), " btbaXtjv is defined by the genitives Panuopiuv and enffleaewg, just as 9eµelvtov is defined by tztavoi sg and niorewg. The two concluding genitives, `resurrection' and `judgment', denote the main subjects of the teaching."

13. The Epistle of Priesthood (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 15. Cf. G. H. Lang, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), pp. 95f.

14. They have been taken in this sense, however, by able expositors, such as A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve (Edinburgh, 1883), p. 81; cf. also R. V. G. Tasker, Gospel in Hebrews, p. 25 (where he describes this repentance as "an abandonment of the attempt to obtain righteousness by seeking to obey the precepts of a lifeless moral code").

15. Didache 1:1-5:2; Ep. Barn. 18:1-20:2. As it appears in these documents, the ethical treatise of the "Two Ways"-the Way of Life and the Way of Death (or the Way of Light and the Way of Darkness)-is a slightly Christianized edition of an originally Jewish manual, going back to the pre-Christian era. Traces of it appear in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Judah 20:1-5; Asher 1:3-6:6) and in the Qumran literature (1QS 3.18-4.26). On the use of the "Two Ways" in early Judaeo-Christian baptismal instruction see J. V. Bartlet, TheApostolicAge (Edinburgh, 1929), pp. 250-59, 313.

18. In Paul's epistles repentance does not figure soteriologically as faith does; other language is used to express the same "responding in kind to the creative effort of reconciliation" (C. F. D. Moule, "Obligation in the Ethic of Paul," Essays in New Testament Interpretation [Cambridge, 1982], pp. 271f.).

16. Didache 5:1.

17. CD 4.2.

19. Quoted in 10:38 (see pp. 272-75).

20. The form pa3rrroµa is peculiar to Christian writers. In 9: 10 Pamroµ65 is used in the plural of ablutions associated with the OT cultus; in Mark 7:4 of the Jewish purification of "cups and pots and vessels of bronze." In Col. 2:12 there is weighty textual evidence forpamroµ4 (p46 X2 B D* G) as against ParrtiaµatL (X* A C2 D2 T byz) in the sense of Christian baptism. But the plural speaks against a straightforward interpretation in terms of Christian baptism in Heb. 6:2.

21. Cf. also Zech. 13:1. See W. Brandt, Die jiidischen Baptismen, BZAW 18 (Giessen, 1910); J. Thomas, Le mouvement baptiste en Palestine et Syrie (Gembloux, 1935).

22. MS 3.4-9; 5.13f. Josephus's account of the baptism of John is evidently colored by the historian's knowledge of Essene doctrine and practice: according to him, John "taught that baptism would be regarded as acceptable by God provided that people underwent it not to procure pardon for certain sins but for the purification of the body when once the soul had been purified by righteousness" (Ant. 18.117). Cf. p. 210, n. 65; p. 215, n. 88.

23. "And let those who are to be baptized be instructed to wash and cleanse themselves on the fifth day of the week" (The Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus, ed. G. Dix [London, 219681, p. 31). Cf. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, "On the Baptismal Rite according to St. Hippolytus," Studia Patristica 2 = TU 64 (Berlin, 1957), pp. 93-105.

24. Cf. J. Danielou, "La communaute de Qumran et l'organisation de l'Eglise ancienne," RHPR 35 (1955), pp. 104-16; M. Black, The Scrolls and Christian Origins (London, 1961), pp. 99-101, 114f.

25. D. Daube, The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism (London, 1956), p. 109, points to the high importance attached to baptism among leading first-century members of the school of Hillel, some of whom were prepared to say that baptism alone (not as a ceremonial purification but as a rite with a deep moral and spiritual meaning) was sufficient to make a Gentile (whether male or female) a Jewish proselyte. M. Black (Scrolls, p. 51) compares Justin Martyr's "baptizing Pharisees" (Dialogue with Trypho 80).

26. Cf. Acts 6:6; 8:17; 9:12, 17; 19:6, with accompanying exposition and notes in NICNT.

27. Cf. G. W. H. Lampe, The Seal of the Spirit (London, 1951), pp. 70-93; T. W. Manson, "Entry into Membership of the Early Church," JTS 48 (1947), pp. 25-35; R. E. O. White, The Biblical Doctrine of Initiation (London, 1960), pp. 195-99.

28. Cf. references to the Holy Spirit in v. 4; 2:4; 10:29.

29. Cf. Num. 27:18, 23; Deut. 34:9.

30. Cf. Lev. 1:4; 3:2; 4:4; 8:14; 16:21, etc. See also p. 207, n. 56.

31. Cf. Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4.4. See J. Behm, Die Handauflegung im Urchristentum (Leipzig, 1911); J. Newman, Semikhah (Manchester, 1950); A. A. T. Ehrhardt, "Jewish and Christian Ordination," in The Framework of the New Testament Stories (Manchester, 1964), pp. 132-50.

32. Cf. Acts 23:8, with exposition and notes ad loc. in NICNT.

33. It is here called "eternal judgment" (xpi to a6vrov) because it is the judgment which is valid for the whole coming age (ahuv), as distinct from the temporal judgments of the present age.

34. Gk. Mvnep emipenrl 6 9t;, in which we should see more than a conventional expression of piety.

35. According to C. Spicq, aSuvarov in Philo, "when understood of man and in relation to the moral plane, should be translated by `incapable'; the impossibility in question is subjective and relative, due reservation being made with regard to divine intervention, and it is in this sense that Hebrews conceives the impossibility, not of the apostate's pardon, but of his turning" (L'EpItre aux Hebreux [Paris, 1952], I, pp. 57f.). There is a closer parallel in Hermas, Shepherd, Similitude 9.26.6 ("it is impossible [aSuvaiov] for him who will now deny his Lord to be saved"); but this is probably dependent on our present passage in Hebrews. According to J. Behm (TDNT, III, p. 451, n. 1, s.v. avaxavvig(o), the point is that it is impossible for a Christian teacher like the author to bring back such an apostate to repentance-not for God or for the apostate himself.

36. Comparisons have been drawn with our Lord's words about the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29) and John's words about a "sin unto death" for which prayer should not be offered (1 John 5:16). The sin spoken of by our Lord cannot be apostasy in the ordinary sense; it was rather a deliberate closing of eyes to the light, resisting the kingdom of God refusing to accept the evidence of God's visitation and ascribing the work of the Spirit of God to the power of Beelzebul. The sin of I John 5:16 could well be apostasy; cf. C. H. Dodd, The Johannine Epistles, MNTC (London, 1946), pp. 135-37, for the view that John, like the writer to the Hebrews, "is thinking of apostasy or denial of Christ as the sin that places a man beyond the pale. We know that he traced the presence and power of Antichrist in the denial of the Incarnation (4:2-5), and if a man had become identified with Antichrist it was perhaps natural to feel that he was past praying for."

37. Mark 4:3-8 and parallels. See p. 94 above.

38. Cf. the lessons drawn from the Israelites' day of testing in the wilderness in 3:7ff. It may be that the wilderness narrative is still in our author's mind. The Israelites who failed to enter Canaan failed in spite of the fact that they had been baptized in the Red Sea and had their camp illuminated by heavenly light, in spite of the provision of bread from heaven and water from the rock, and God's "good Spirit to instruct them" (cf. Neh. 9:20), in spite of their hearing the oracles of God and seeing his mighty works in their midst (cf. G. H. Lang, Hebrews, pp. 98107).

39. It is so translated in the Syriac Peshitta here and in 10:32. Justin (First Apology 61:12f.; 65:1) uses the verb 4it w and the noun 4wnoµo5 to describe baptism, and does so in a way which indicates that this was a current usage among the Christians of his acquaintance.

40. Especially with Johannine teaching about Christ as the Light. Cf. the quotation in Eph. 5:14, frequently taken to be a snatch of a baptismal hymn, in which the convert is invited to wake up from the darkness of spiritual death into the light of Christ. The rhythm of the words was the characteristic rhythm of initiation chants in the Greek world (see F. F. Bruce, Colossians-Philemon-Ephesians, NICNT [Grand Rapids, 19841, pp. 376-78). The Greek text of Ps. 34:5a (LXX 33:6a), "Come to him and be enlightened (~urria9rlte )," was early used in the Christian baptismal liturgy (it is probably reflected in 1 Pet. 2:4).

41. Cf. Origen, On Martyrdom 30, for the point that one cannot be baptized a second time. See also J. A. T. Robinson, "The One Baptism," in Twelve New Testament Studies, SBT 34 (London, 1962), p. 162.

42. For yevoµat ("taste") in a eucharistic context cf. Acts.20:11. There is ample evidence of the eucharistic association of Ps. 34:8 (LXX 33:9) in the early church (cf. Apostolic Constitutions 8.13; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 23.20; Jerome, Ep. 71.6); the earliest instance of this association may be I Pet. 2:3. C. Spicq (Hebreux, 1, p. 57) adduces examples in an attempt to show that "to taste the heavenly gift (Heb. 6:4) is an Alexandrinism, and to taste the word of God (Heb. 6:5) is a Philonism." On the former point he refers to Wisdom 16:3, where the quails of Num. 11:31ff. are described as devil ye15oL5, "an unaccustomed delicacy." This is not a very impressive parallel, but it might be added to the wilderness parallels mentioned on p. 145, n. 38.

43. Moffatt (ad loc.) draws attention to Philo, On Flight and Finding 139, for the foodmetaphor following upon the light-metaphor (as here): "The divine ordinance both enlightens and sweetens the soul that has vision, flashing forth the beam of truth, and with persuasion, that sweet virtue, imparting sweetness to those who hunger and thirst after nobility of character." Philo has immediately before (ibid., 137) explained the manna as being the "utterance of God and divine Word" (putt Oeofi xai Xoyov Oeiov).

44. Cf. Paul's application of the spiritual food and drink of the wilderness wanderings in 1 Cor. 10:3ff.

45. "Partakers" represents Gk. µeToXoL (cf. 3:1, 14). Cf. the "distributions of the Holy Spirit" in 2:4.

46. Cf. exposition and notes in Acts, NICNT, pp. 165-68, 170-72: A. Ehrhardt, "Chi :tianity before the Apostles' Creed," in The Framework of the New Testament Stories, pp. 15199 (especially p. 161).

47. Gk. xak6v yruoaµevouc OEoU O% La, with the adjective in predicative position. Cf. Philo's interpretation of the manna, quoted on p. 146, n. 43.

48. Gk. 8vvapEtg, used in this sense here as in Acts 8:13; cf. Heb. 2:4 (pp. 68f.), I =m which it is evident that these "Hebrews" all had experience of such hvvapet; in the days w: en the gospel was first brought to them.

49. The parallel passage in Luke 11:20 has "finger of God" where Matthew has "Spirit of God." In the apostolic age such 8uvaµeL5 continue to be ministered by the Spirit (Gal. 3:5), who is the firstfruits of the coming age (Rom. 8:23). Cf. p. 71, n. 18 (on 2:5).

50. Gk. Svvapet5.

51. Gk. napaneoovrag. The verb napanirrrw, found here only in the NT (by contrast with the cognate noun naparrrwµa, which is frequent in the sense of "trespass"), means "fall aside" or "go astray"; it is not its root meaning but its context which indicates that its reference here is to apostasy-the same sin as is expressed by anoar~var in 3:12. See G. C. Berkouwer, Faith and Perseverance, E.T. (Grand Rapids, 1958); I. H. Marshall, Kept by the Power of God (London, 1969), especially pp. 135-41; P. E. Hughes, "Hebrews 6:4-6 and the Peril of Apostasy," WTJ 35 (1972-73), pp. 37-55; R. R. Nicole, "Some Comments on Hebrews 6:4-6 and the Doctrine of the Perseverance of God with the Saints," in Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation (M. C. Tenney FS), ed. G. F. Hawthorne (Grand Rapids, 1975), pp. 355-64; N. Weeks, "Admonition and Error in Hebrews," WTJ 39 (1976-77), pp. 72-80.

52. "Hebrews Six in the Greek New Testament," Bibliotheca Sacra 119 (1962), pp. 45- 53 (quotation on p. 52); cf. his Hebrews in the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1947), pp. 113ff.

53. In a review of A. E. Brooke's commentary on The Johannine Epistles (ICC) in the Cambridge Review, November 14, 1912, quoted with disapproval by A. Nairne, The Epistle of Priesthood, p. 130.

54. Burkitt, of course, unlike Tertullian, did not adopt as his own viewpoint what he believed the writer to the Hebrews to mean.

55. On Modesty 20. Tertullian is here criticizing the Shepherd of Hermas (the "Shepherd of the adulterers," as he scathingly calls it), which conceded one (but only one) opportunity of repentance and forgiveness for postbaptismal sin. See the exposition of 10:26ff. on p. 263, with nn. 144-46. On our author's perspective here see C. E. Carlston, "Eschatology and Repentance in the Epistle to the Hebrews,"JBL 78 (1959), pp. 296-302; N. H. Young, "Hebrews 6:1-8: Pastoral Nonsense?" Colloquium 15 (1982-83), pp. 52-57.

56. Cf. 2:2; 5:2 (with exposition and notes).

57. Cf. E. Menegoz, La theologie del'Epitre aux Hebreux (Paris, 1894), pp. 21f. On the question whether avaotavpocu here means "crucify" or "crucify again" see p. 138, n. 7. Taking it to mean "crucify again," J. A. T. Robinson ("One Baptism," p. 172) says: "Baptism means being put on the Cross once with Christ: it is absurd to think of renewing it for those who for their own ends are actually crucifying the Son of God again (cf. 10:29)." Among the LXX occurrences of napa&Lyµaiit;w ("put to an open shame") is Num. 25:4, where it is used of the leaders of the Baal-peor apostasy who were hung up "in the sun before Yahweh." See A. T. Hanson, Studies in Paul's Technique and Theology (London, 1974), pp. 4-7.

58. Cf. Hermas, Shepherd (Mandate 10.1.5): "Even as good vineyards when they are neglected become unfruitful because of the thorns and various kinds of weeds, so men who have believed and fall into the many aforementioned preoccupations [secular business, moneymaking, pagan friendships, etc.], wander from a right mind and have absolutely no understanding of righteousness."

59. Gk. ab6xtµo5 (ERV/ARV "rejected"; RSV, NEB "worthless"). Compare those people who are described in Tit. 1:16 as "unfit for any good deed." E. K. Simpson, discussing the meaning of ab6xtµo5 in 1 Cor. 9:27 (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5), says, "Paul is thinking of spurious pretensions ... we might construe: `lest, after preaching to others, I myself should prove base metal"' (Words Worth Weighing in the Greek New Testament [London, 1946], pp. 17f.).

60. And therefore "on the point of being cursed" (Gk. xatupag eyyv5), for in Gen. 3:17f. thorns and thistles are a consequence of the cursing of the land for sake of the human race. So in the "Two Ways" the way of death is xatupas µeot i, "fraught with a curse" (Didache 5:1; Ep. Barn. 20:1). Cf. Luke 13:6ff.; John 15:6.

61. Gk. ixoµeva owrrlpia5, "things that belong to salvation" (RSV); the presence of those things in the readers' lives was a token of the presence of salvation too, since they were so closely and invariably bound up with salvation.

62. AV/KJV "your work and labour of love" represents an assimilation to the text of 1 Thess. 1:3, found in K L with most minuscules and the TR.

63. Gk. aXpt ti?<ov5, with which cf. 3:14, OXpr ti?ov5.

66. Chrysostom (Homilies on Hebrews 10.5) draws attention to the writer's "fatherly affection" here.

67. Gk. vwOQ6g (cf. 5:11). The warning here is against the deadly sin of accidie (axTSera), described in Dante's Purgatorio 17.76-18.145. Dorothy L. Sayers, in her edition of Dante, mentions such modern forms of it as false tolerance, "disillusionment," and escapism. Cf. Sir John C. Hawkins, "The Use of Dante as an Illustrator of Scripture," ExT 16 (1904-5), pp. 548f. The antidote to vwOpeia is µaxpoOrpia, "perseverance." In this context (cf. v. 12) the forms µaxpo8vltew/ ttaxpo0uµia are used for perseverance; later (10:32-12:7) our author prefers vrro thvw/vnoµov~. See 0. Michel, Der Brief an die Hebrlier, MK (Gottingen, 1949), p. 155 with n. 3.

64. Ignatius, To the Romans, preface.

65. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 4.23.10.

68. Gen. 22:16f.

69. Gk. eµeaite xi v, lit. "mediated" (this is the only NT occurrence of the verb; for the noun µeaitr1S from which it is derived cf. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24).

70. Gk. bta, for which p46 and D have µeta, probably under the influence of µera in the following 8µesaOermv, and possibly independently in the two MSS (cf..Zuntz, Text, p. 41).

71. Gk. 9e6v, according to B D and the majority of later authorities, but p46 K * A 1739 and a few other minuscules, with citations in Eusebius (2/4), Didymus (2/2), Chrysostom, Cyril, and Theodoret (1/4), have the articulated toy 9e6v. According to Zuntz (Text, p. 130), the addition of the article is an early Alexandrian corruption from which, however, B is free; the force of the anarthrous reading is that "it is impossible for one who is God to lie."

72. Gk. eXoµev, for which D (Gk., not Lat.) and a few other authorities have the subjunctive exwiEv, probably under the influence of the subjunctive after'iva in the previous verse.

73. D* adds "Christ."

74. T. W. Manson, Studies in the Gospels and Epistles (Manchester, 1962), p. 249.

75. ERV/ARV more literally: "in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed," where "in blessing" and "in multiplying" are intended as equivalents of the Hebrew absolute infinitive, which intensifies the force of the accompanying finite verb; cf. the present passage in the NEB ("I vow that I will bless you abundantly and multiply your descendants"). In the LXX (as in the MT) the divine promise is preceded by an explicit oath ("by myself I have sworn"); in the present quotation the oath is expressed simply by the Septuagintal asseverative Ei RT v, "verily" (here only in the NT), preceding the verbal construction.

76. With "he obtained the promise" (Gk. eaetugrv trig enayyEkiag [cf. 11:33]) here may be contrasted "not having received the promises" (Gk. ph ?46vreg tag enayyOdag) in 11:13 (cf. "these all ... received not [oi c exoµiaavro] the promise" in 11:39); but in 11:13 the reference is to the full realization of the promise of which the birth and, later, the restoration of Isaac were initial pledges. Cf. also 11:17 (pp. 302-05).

77. Cf. Philo, Leg. Alleg. 3.203: "Well did he confirm his promise by an oath [Gk. opxw &sarwaar, with which cf. aipas ei5 Pn aiwoty 6 opxo;, "the oath is final for confirmation," v. 16], and by an oath worthy of God; for, you see, God does not swear by another, for there is nothing greater than he, but by himself, who is the best of all" (in reference to the oath of Gen. 22:16f.).

79. Leg. Alleg. 3.205f.; cf. also On Abraham 273ff.; On the Sacrifices ofAbel and Cain 91ff.

80. As in 11:9, where Abraham is described as a tent-dweller "with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise"; they are so called because they came next to Abraham in the line of promise, but here those who have inherited the fulfilment of the promise are meant. See p. 153, n. 76. Cf. also the reference in 9:15 to "the promise of the eternal inheritance" realized under the new covenant.

78. Cf. 7:20ff. (pp. 170f.).

81. A. B. Davidson, ad loc.; his comment on the anchor simile is a model of sanity. For the "veil" (xataneraoµa) see p. 199, n. 14; pp. 250f., n. 87.

82. The adjectives "secure and stable" (ao4aA1) to xai OeOaiav) might grammatically refer either to "hope" or to "anchor"; the construction slightly favors the latter (so probably the AV/KJV, and certainly the RSV and the NEB, as against the ERV/ARV). But since our hope is our "anchor," it is in reality our hope that is "secure and stable."

83. "The Vocabulary of the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 18 (1946), p. 187; he adduces instances from Arrian, Aristophanes, Euripides, Plutarch, Theophrastus, and the elder Pliny; and compares "Julius Caesar's antecursores, one of whose chief functions was that of selecting and staking out stations for encampment."

84. An attempt to identify Philonic affinities in the section now concluded is made by C. Spicq, "L'Epitre aux Hebreux et Philon: Un Cas d'Insertion de la litterature sacree dans la Culture profane du let siecle (Nebr. V,11-VI,20 et le'De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini' de Philon)," ANRW 11.25.4 (Berlin, 1987), pp. 3602-18.

1. Gk. tov 6eo15 tov inpiotou, the LXX rendering of Heb. 'el `elyon (cf. p. 124, n. 31). Since (9e6g) inpLotog was current as a divine title among Jews and Greeks alike (among the latter it was a designation of Zeus), it provided them with a common denominator in referring to the supreme God. Cf. Acts 7:48; 16:7; see also C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks (London, 1935), pp. 11-13. See New Does., I (1976), § 5.

2. Gk. 6 ovvavrijoa5 (p46 C* Byz); the authority for the dittographic variant 65 ovvavrrjoa5, however, is so weighty (K A B D and a few others) that the former (grammatical) reading was regarded as secondary, or as a successful Byzantine conjecture, until it was found in X46.

3. The minuscules 456 and 460 add, "because he pursued the foreigners and rescued Lot with all the captivity" (otr ebiwi ev TO* etkkgv1<oug xai e~eiXato Awu [era namlg aLylok(oaiag).

4. D* 330 440 823 continue, "and Abraham having been blessed by him ..." (xat ' APpaaµ evloyqOrLS $n' attrov ...

5. Gk. navrwv (for which )i46 B read the singular navrog).

6. Gk. enema Se xai (146 and a few other authorities omit & xai).

7. Gk. etg To burlvexeg (in the Greek Bible only in this epistle, the other occurrences being in 10:1, 12, 14), here synonymous with eig tov atwva of Ps. 110:4 (LXX 109:4, for Heb. leolam). The adjective brrlvexrjg is classical from Homer onward. See New Does., II (1977), § 38.

8. Heb. 'N 'elyon g6neh .r"amayim wa-'ares (where goneh probably means "creator" or "maker"; so LXXos ext O ). A similar divine designation appears on a bilingual Hittite-Phoenician inscription (discovered by H. T. Bossert in 1946) of Azitawandas, king of Danuna (Karatepe) in the Taurus foothills (9th cent. B.C.): h7 9mm w'l qwn 'rs ("the lord [ba'al] of heaven and god ['el] creator [or possessor] of earth"). Cf. R. Marcus and I. J. Gelb, "The Phoenician Stele Inscription from Cilicia," JNES 8 (1949), pp. 111-20; A. M. Honeyman, "Epigraphic Discoveries at Karatepe," PEQ 81 (1949), pp. 21-39.

9. This last clause is ambiguous as it stands-who gave whom a tenth of all?-but in the context, as our author has no difficulty in seeing, it must be Abraham who gives a tenth to Melchizedek. See p. 162, n. 27.

10. That the bread and wine were for Abraham's refreshment is more probable, in the circumstances, than that they constituted a sacrificial offering, being the food of the gods (so Spicq, ad loc., citing A. Vincent, La religion des judeo-arameens d'Elephantine [Paris, 1937], p. 129). In Test. Levi 8:5 a meal of bread and wine forms part of the consecration of the priest (cf. G. Widengren, "Royal Ideology and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs," in F. F. Bruce (ed.), Promise and Fulfilment [S. H. Hooke FS, Edinburgh, 1963], pp. 207f.). See pp. 378-80 (on 13:10).

11. Cf. Cyprian, Epistle 62:4: "For who is more a priest of God Most High than our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and offered that same thing which Melchizedek had offered, namely bread and wine-that is, his body and blood?" So also Ambrose, Mysteries 45f.; Christian Faith 3.87f.; cf. Canon of the Roman Mass (quoted p. 14, n. 55 above). More recently a Lutheran scholar, W. Vischer, has seen in Melchizedek's bread and wine a pointer to the sacrament of the new covenant (Das Christuszeugnis des Alten Testaments, I [Zurich, 19431, p. 164).

12. Deut. 23:4.

13. Leg. Alleg. 3.82. "The Existing One" as in Ex. 3:14, LXX (6 6v).

14. Leg. Alleg. 3.79 (cf. Josephus, War 7.438; Ant. 1.180). Here Philo goes on to say that Melchizedek (i.e., Reason) is a king, not a tyrant, the author of laws, not of lawlessness (6@068 vows [cf. p. 136, n. 84], not tvpnvvo5 vows). Elsewhere he interprets the five "kings" of the circuit of the Jordan as denoting the five senses and the four kings who conquered them as the four passions: pleasure, desire, fear, and grief (On Abraham 236-44).

15. Heb. sedeq. Cf. the name of Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem (Josh. 10:1ff.). It is debated whether in these names the first element ("my king is righteous"; "my lord is righteous") or the second ("Zedek is my king"; "Zedek is my lord") should be regarded as the divine title (cf. the Phoenician deity Sydyk mentioned by Philo of Byblus); see A. R. Johnson, Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel (Cardiff, 1955), pp. 31-34, where the words of another king of Jerusalem, Abdi-hiba, are quoted from Tell el-Amarna Tablet No. 287, I1. 32f.: "Behold, my lord the king, I am in the right (sadduq) with regard to the Kashi people."

16. PaOLAEUlS ti"js Eiptjvrjs (Philo). The name Jerusalem (MT yerusalaim, Akk. uru-salim) may mean originally "Shalem has founded," Canaanite warawa-Salem (J. Gray, The Canaanites [London, 1964], p. 125). Shalem is attested as a divine name at Ugarit (cf. A. R. Johnson, Sacral Kingship, p. 46); even so it is cognate with Heb. saldm ("peace"), and our author's etymology is well founded. Cf. Ps. 85:10 (LXX 84:11), where sedeq and sal6m kiss each other. A later etymology, connecting the first element in Jerusalem with Heb. ra'ah ("see"), explains the name as "vision of peace"; compare the hymn urbs beata uera pacis uisio Jerusalem ("Blessed city, vision bright/Of true peace, Jerusalem!"). W. F. Albright suggested that we should read in Gen. 14:18 not melek Salem ("king of Salem") but melek selomoh ("king of his peace," i.e., "a king allied to him"); the emendation, even if it be, as he says, "the simplest possible haplography," seems quite unnecessary ("Abram the Hebrew," BASOR 163 [October 1961], p. 52). Cf. p. 124, n. 30).

17. Cf. Isa. 32:17 ("the work of righteousness shall be peace"); Rom. 5:1 ("having therefore been justified by faith, we have peace with God").

18. The argument from silence plays an important part in rabbinical interpretation of Scripture where (for exegetical purposes) nothing must be regarded as having existed before the time of its first biblical mention (cf. Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud undMidrasch, III [Munich, 1926], pp. 694f.). The argument is used extensively by Philo for allegorical purposes; thus Sarah is "without mother" (htultwQ, the word here used of Melchizedek) because her mother is nowhere mentioned (cf. Gen. 20:12, where Abraham says: "she is ... not the daughter of my mother"); this means that Sarah, "the virtue-loving mind," was not born "from perceptible matter which is always in a state of formation and dissolution, . . . but from the Author (aftto5) and Father of all" (On Drunkenness 59ff.). See G. Quell, TDNT, V, pp. 1019-21 (s v. &nataip).

19. The meaning of anatwp aµrlrwp here is well brought out in the Syriac Peshitta: "his father and mother are not listed in genealogies." Attempts have been made to link this description of Melchizedek with the words used of himself by Abdi-hiba, king of Jerusalem (14th cent. B.C.), in Amarna Tablet No. 288, 11. 14f. (cf. p. 158, n. 15): "Neither my father nor my mother but the mighty arm of the king [of Egypt] set me in the house of my father." There is no connection at all bet-. -,en the two documents. Abdi-hiba means that his sacral kingship was not so much hereditary as conferred by his overlord. There is not even any real connection between this passage and Philo's statement that "the high priest is not a human being but a divine logos, having no part in any unrighteousness whether intentional or otherwise; for Moses says that he cannot be defiled either for his father, the mind, or for his mother, sense-perception [Lev. 21:11], because, to my mind, he has parents most pure and incorruptible, his Father being God, who is also the Father of all, and his mother Wisdom, through whom the universe came into being" (On Flight and Finding 108f.). There is a contact in these words of Philo with Melchizedek, whom he elsewhere (seep. 158) explains as being Reason (logos); but our author attaches to the fatherless and motherless condition of Melchizedek quite another significance, which appears plainly from the course of his argument.

20. In the early centuries A.D. some gnostic circles regarded Melchizedek as an angeli power superior to all others (Hippolytus, Refutation 7.36; Epiphanius, Panarion 55). In Pistis Sophia Melchizedek rules the realm of light as the Receiver (nagak~lurrwp) of Light (33a-35a, 179b-180a, 265b-266a, 295b, 302a-b, 324b-325a). Orthodox Christians had little difficulty in identifying him with the Son of God before his incarnation; for the persistence of this view cf. J. B. McCaul: "Cunaeus ... believes, as Ewald does, and I do, that Melchizedek was the second person in the Ever Blessed Trinity, the Divine angel of the Lord, who continually appeared to the Fathers under the Old Testament dispensation ... if Melchizedek was `without beginning of days or end of life,' but `abideth a priest continually,' how can it be believed of him that he was a mere mortal? ... Melchizedek, as the Divine Logos, existed from eternity" (The Epistle to the Hebrews [London, 1871 ], pp. 75, 80). A. T. Hanson argues that the writer to the Hebrews himself made this identification (Jesus Christ in the Old Testament [London, 1965], pp. 6582)-but Melchizedek, "resembling the Son of God" (Heb. 7:3), is distinguished from him as certainly as Aaron is (cf. Heb. 7:11).

21. For the Aaronic priest, on the other hand, the establishment of proper parentage was an essential qualification; as late as the Hasmonaean dynasty any uncertainty on this score could invalidate a man's claim to the office (Lev. 21:13f.; Ezra 2:62; Neh. 7:64; Josephus,Ant. 13.292; TB Qiddushin 66a). It was therefore necessary that the identity of an Aaronic priest's father and mother should be publicly known. This contrast between the two orders of priesthood may have been present to our author's mind.

22. There is no real analogy here with Dan. 3:25 (Gk. 3:92), where the fourth man in the furnace is simply "like an angel" ("like a son of the gods"). The Son of God at his coming into the world had Lo be "made like (oµorwenvar) his brothers" (Heb. 2:17) because they were al- ready "sharers in flesh and blood" before his incarnation; but as regards his eternal person Melchizedek was "made like" (alwµotwEVOS) him, because he already existed before Melchizedek came on the scene. The language here rules out the idea that Melchizedek "was the pre-existent Christ"-an idea which A. T. Hanson thinks our author did not express outright "because he did not have quite the courage to do so" (Jesup Christ in the Old Testament, pp. 69, 71).

23. Gk. ovro5, omitted by D* 1739 424** (perhaps by the independen' operation of homoeoteleuton; cf. G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles [London, 1953], p. 87). This shorter text is perhaps implied in RSV "See how great he is!" and NEB "Consider how great he must be...."

24. Gk. w ("to whom"), to which X A with the Latin versions, the Harclean Syriac, the bulk of the later MSS, and the TR add xai ("to whom indeed"), influenced perhaps by w xai at the beginning of v. 2.

25. Gk. w5 ino5 eureiv, a classical phrase qualifying what might otherwise be an exaggeration, not found elsewhere in the Greek Bible, but common in Philo.

26. That Melchizedek should be greater than Abraham, as Gen. 14 so clearly indicates, constituted a problem for Jewish exegetes. Some of them identified him with Shem, whose life, according to the MT, overlapped Abraham's-he survived the Flood by some 500 years (Gen. 11:11), and may even have been reckoned to have outlived Abraham. If Abraham paid respect to such a venerable ancestor by giving him tithes and accepting his blessing, no offense would be caused to any reader, however great Abraham might appear in his eyes. But later it was felt necessary to modify the honor thus implicitly ascribed to Shem. So Rabbi Zechariah said in the name of Rabbi Ishmael: "God wanted to derive the priestly line from Shem, as it is said, `He was priest of God Most High.' But God derived it [the priestly line] from Abraham, when Shem placed the blessing of Abraham before the praise of God, as it is said, `Blessed be Abram ... and blessed be God Most High . . .' (Gen. 14:19). Abraham said to him: `Does one place the blessing of a servant before that of his master?' Straightway it [the priesthood] was given to Abraham, as it is said, 'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool' (Ps. 110:1). And after this it is written, 'The LORD has sworn, and will not repent: You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,' 'al dibratI malki-sedeq (Ps. 110:4). This means: 'on account of what Melchizedek had said.' And hence it is written, 'he was priest of God Most High'-he was priest, but his descendants were not priests" (TB Nedarim 32b). This remarkable exegesis, which takes "You are a priest for ever" as addressed to Abraham, and regards Melchizedek's priesthood as superseded by Abraham's (and consequently by that of Levi, who "was still in his forefather's body when Melchizedek came to meet him"), might almost have been designed as a deliberate rebuttal of the argument in Heb. 7:4-10. See p. 134, n. 78, with bibliography at the end of that note.

27. Gk. axpoOivLa. That the "tenth of all" which Abraham gave Melchizedek (Gen. 14:19) was the tenth part of the spoils is implied, but not stated, in the Old Testament narrative. According to the GenesisApocryphon from Qumran Cave 1, Abraham "gave him a tithe of all the goods of the king of Elam and his companions" (col. 22,1. 17). Philo says that Abraham, "being declared the winner of the trophies by God, the giver of victory, dedicated the tithes to him as a thank-offering for his victory" (Preliminary Studies 93), and that "when the great priest of the all-great God saw him approaching, bearing his trophies ... he honored him with prayers and offered up sacrifices in celebration of the victory (eniv(xta)" (On Abraham 235). So too Josephus says that Abraham offered Melchizedek "the tithe of the plunder" (Ant. 1.181). But according to Eupolemus and other Jewish writers it was Melchizedek who paid tithes to Abraham. See R. H. Smith, "Abram and Melchizedek," ZAW 77 (1965), pp. 129-52: Melchizedek surrenders his city to the conquering Abram; cf. Merneptah's victory stele, where "the princes lie prostrate, saying `Salaam!"' (DOTT, p. 139).

28. See Herodotus, History 1.89; Xenophon, Anabasis 5.3; Hellenica 4.3 (for Greek practice); Livy, History 5.21 (for Roman practice); cf. also Pindar, Olympian Odes 11.51; Xenophon, Cyropaedia 7.5.

29. Cf. Deut. 20:16-18; Josh. 6:21, 24. See G. von Rad, Der heilige Krieg im alten Israel (Zurich, 1951), pp. 13f.; C. H. W. Brekelmans, De Herem in het Oude Testament (Nijmegen, 1959); R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, E.T. (London, 1961), pp. 260f.

30. Cf. R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, pp. 140f., 360, 380-82, 403-5.

31. So E. Schiirer, History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, II (Edinburgh, 1979), p. 270, infers from Josephus, Life 63, 80; Ant. 20.181, 206f.

32. That this higher status is permanent may be indicated by the two perfect tenses of v. 6: Melchizedek "has taken tithes" (6e&exat(uxev) and "has blessed" (evAoyiqxev).

33. Cf. Jacob and Esau (Gen. 25:23; Mal. 1:2f.; Rom. 9:11ff.), and preeminently Adam (Rom. 5:12, where "all sinned" is a way of indicating what happened when Adam sinned). (Adam, however, incorporates his posterity as no other biblical figure does.)

34. On these ten verses see B. A. Demarest, A History of Interpretation of Hebrews 7,110 from the Reformation to the Present, BGBE 19 (Tubingen, 1976).

35. Gk. && tr1S Ae1VLtrxf15 iepwairvrg. The adjective occurs in the LXX only in the title of the book of Leviticus; it is used by Philo (e.g., he refers to "the Levitical tribe" in On Flight and Finding 93). Here and in vv. 12, 24, iepwavvrl is used for "priesthood"; in v. 5 LrQateia was used (there only in this epistle; cf. Luke 1:9). Both words are used in the LXX, iepateia being the commoner. Cf. p. 171, n. 72.

36. 6 ).ubS yap in' avrt)S vevo11o8et1tar. p46 omits yap. For en' ait g (p46 N A B C D* L P rY an D2 byz read in' ainp (see G. Schrenk, TDNT, III, p. 277, s. v, apXrEQ El~ ); a few minuscules read in' ain~v. For the perfect vevoµooeritat (so also at 8:6) D2 K LT byz read the pluperfect ivoµoOittlro. Since voµoOetiw means "legislate," its passive use with 6 ).a65 as the subject is curious; BALD can cite only one instance of the active verb with a personal object, and that from Pseudo-Galen. See New Docs., I (1976), § 2.

37. Gk. E~ &v&yxrls xai, a Philonic formula (cf. Spicq, Hebreux, I, p. 42).

38. Gk. µera0eoi5, which here (as in 12:27) implies not merely change but abrogation (cf. h9itrlIL5 in v. 18).

39. Gk. µerewXrlxev, "has partaken of"; cf. 2:14 for the aorist µeteaXev, which is read here in p46. (See p. 78, n. 55).

40. Gk. npooioXilxev ("has attended to"), so 8 B D and the majority of MSS, as against npooeoXev, the reading of p46 1739 A C 33 1288 2004 (the "minor Alexandrians"). G. Zuntz prefers the aorist here after the perfect µeteoxrlmv in the preceding clause: "the differentiation is excellent; it intimates that no one of the tribe of Judah had ever attended to the altar (npooeoXr) and that Jesus `has permanently a share in' (µFteoXilm, `belongs to') that tribe" (Text, p. 79).

42. Or "has risen": Gk. avarexaXxev, here a synonym of avioraooat in v. 11, but chosen perhaps because it echoes the rising of the star out of Jacob in Num. 24:17 (where, interestingly enough, LXX avaie?,et appears in parallelism to avaor>j(etai in the following clause); cf. also the messianic associations of avato)<>1 in Zech. 6:12 (for Heb. semah, ARV "branch"), identified with the Logos by Philo (Confusion of Tongues 62f.). Num. 24:17 probably also underlies Matt. 2:2, "we have seen his star at its rising" (gv tp avatol4i). Cf. the reproduction of avate?J w from Num. 24:17 in Test. Judah 24:1 (cf. Test. Dan 5:10; Test. Gad 8:1).

45. The new priest is designated in v. 11 erepov ... iepea ("a different priest") and not merely dkkov ("another"), if one may press the distinction betweenetepo5 and ax?.o5. See A. Vanhoye, Pretres anciens, pretre nouveau selon le Nouveau Testament, Parole de Dieu 20 (Paris, 1980).

46. Such an expectation finds expression in Qumran literature, influenced probably by the description of the new commonwealth in Ezek. 40-48, where the priesthood takes practical precedence over "the prince." The Qumran community evidently envisaged the high priest (the "Messiah of Aaron") as head of state in the coming age of restoration, taking precedence over the Davidic prince (the "Messiah of Israel"). Thus in 1QSa, col. 2, 1. 12, precedence over "the Messiah of Israel" is accorded to "the priest who is head of the whole congregation of Israel." But he is a Levitical (probably Zadokite) priest, and fulfils Moses' blessing of Levi in Deut. 33:8-11 (cf. 4Q Testimonia, 11. 14ff.). We might compare the "new priest" of Test. Levi 18:2ff.,

41. Gk. np661kov, "obvious."

43. DC K L with TR "priesthood" (k omtvg5 ); cf. AV/KJV.

44. For such an argument cf. p. 161, n. 26.

47. Cf. H. Windisch: Hebrews views the law "not as a prescription for the behavior of the individual, but as the sum of sacrificial regulations for the ancient cultic community" (Der Hebraerbrief, HNT [Tubingen, 1931], p. 66).

48. This does not mean that the distinction is not a valid one, but it does not come to the fore in either the OT or the NT.

49. Cf. Acts 2:29-31; 13:23; Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:8; Rev. 22:16 (not to mention the Matthaean and Lukan nativity narratives).

50. If the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs speak of a priest of the tribe of Judah (Test. Levi 8:14), that is one of the clearest signs of Christian influence in the extant recensions (cf. p. 166, n. 46). The normal arrangement is that expressed by Judah when he says of himself and Levi: "To me the Lord gave the kingdom, and to him the priesthood, and he set the kingdom beneath the priesthood" (Test. Judah 21:2). Cf. p. 126, n. 39).

51. As far as the Pentateuchal legislation is concerned, at least. David and Solomon are said to have offered sacrifice on various occasions (cf. 2 Sam. 6:13, 17f.; 24:25; 1 Kings 3:4; 8:62-64), and "David's sons were priests" (2 Sam. 8:18).

52. Cf. p. 124, n. 29. Our author's position is much more satisfactory, and could have been established on historical grounds as well as by the arguments he uses, had he been minded to appeal to the former (Jesus, as Son of David, is the true heir to Melchizedek's office).

53. In some Jewish Christian circles James the Just and his successors appear to have been regarded as constituting a new priestly line by virtue of their relation xata aapxa to Jesus. It is this situation that probably underlies the curious statement of Hegesippus that James the Just "alone was accustomed to enter the sanctuary (va65) and be found kneeling and praying for the people's forgiveness" (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.23.6). He certainly did not have the entree into the literal sanctuary. See A. Ehrhardt, The Apostolic Succession in the First Two Centuries of the Church (London, 1953), p. 1 et passim.

54. Gk. axat Xuros (ARV mg. "indissoluble"; RSV "indestructible"; NEB "that cannot be destroyed").

55. Ps. 110:4 (LXX 109:4).

56. Gk. a9etrloLs, a stronger word than µeta9EOns in v. 12. "The earlier rules are cancelled" (NEB). The noun occurs once again in the NT, in Heb. 9:26, of the cancellation of sin by the self-oblation of Christ (see p. 231 with n. 165). See A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, E.T. (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. 228f.; NewDocs., I1(1977), § 29. The verb aoEtiw appears about a dozen times (cf. Heb. 10:28), being used, e.g., in Mark 7:9 of those who "set aside the commandment of God" (NEB) in order to maintain their own tradition. E. K. Simpson points out that its Hellenistic sense of "an act of supersession or setting aside" appears in its technical use by "the Alexandrian grammarians to signify the obelizing of a suspected passage counted spurious (Luc. V.H. ii.20) and therefore to be expunged from an author's text. In this sense of deletion we find it in the papyri with reference to annulled decrees and even paid-off loans. The Palestinian writer Philodemus (Rhet. i.43) writes of certain locutions `not easily to be discarded' (ovx av 6abiw5 aO tilaaL); and there are passages such as Gal. 2:21; 3:15, in the New Testament where this translation would be plausible" ("The Vocabulary of the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 18 [1946], p. 190).

57. Gk. etELaaywyrj, where the prefix eni may retain something of its classical force "in addition," "over and above" (Moffatt, ICC, ad loc. quotes its use by Josephus in Ant. 11.196 for the "replacement" of Vashti by another wife in the Persian king's affections).

58. The Aaronic priesthood itself is described as "an everlasting priesthood" (Ex. 40:15; cf. Jer. 33:18), but no individual member of the priesthood is described as an everlasting priest. When the language of Ps. 110:4 was applied to Simon the Hasmonaean (1 Macc. 14:41), "a priest for ever" was evidently understood in the weaker sense of "founder of an hereditary priesthood." See p. 125, n. 35; cf. also p. 172.

59. Cf. the RSV rendering of v. 16: "not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent."

60. Cf. 10:19-22 (pp. 249-56).

61. Gk. opxwµoaia (rendered "oath" twice in v. 21); this word was a neuter plural in classical Greek (with proparoxytone accent) but appears as a feminine singular in the Hellenistic idiom (three instances are quoted from the LXX).

62. Our author uses the elegant periphrasis eiaiv ... yeyovotrg (cf. v. 23).

63. Gk. Sta with the genitive (ERV/ARV mg. "through"), but nevertheless it is the agent, not the intermediary (God, not the psalmist), that is intended.

64. See p. 63, n. 104.

65. The Western and Byzantine texts complete the quotation from Ps. 110:4 by adding "after the order of Melchizedek" (cf. AV/KJV).

66. Cf. p. 154, with n. 77.

67. Moffatt points out (ad loc.) that "Roman readers could understand from their former religion how oaths were needful in such a matter," quoting Suetonius (Life of Claudius 22) to the effect that the Emperor Claudius nominated no one to membership of the priestly colleges without swearing (nisi iuratus) that he was suitable. The parallel is worth recording, but the present commentary (unlike Moffatt's) is not written in the belief that the "former religion" of the addressees of this epistle was the old Roman religion.

68. The construction of this long sentence, with the parenthesis and inserted quotation of v. 21, is characteristically Philonic. For the a fortiori argument cf. 2:1-3 (p. 68, n. 4).

69. Gk. bLaOijxxJ ("settlement"). Cf. the title of articles by G. Vos, "Hebrews, the Epistle of the Diatheke," PTR 13 (1915), pp. 587-632, 14 (1916), pp. 1-61. Seep. 221 with nn. 115-17.

71. Gk. eiaiv yryovoTEg, as in v. 21.

72. Gk. ieowavvriv (irpateiav in D*); cf. p. 164, n. 35.

73. ERV/ARV mg.: "hath a priesthood that doth not pass to another." The Greek adjective is aaapi aco5 (see p. 172, n. 76).

70. Gk. Eyyuog, here only in the NT; it occurs three times in the LXX (Sir. 29:15f.; 2 Macc. 10:28). In common Greek it is found frequently in legal and other documents in the sense of a surety or guarantor. The iyyuoS undertakes a weightier responsibility than the µeatnr or mediator (cf. Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24); he is answerable for the fulfilment of the obligation which he guarantees. Moffatt (ICC, ad loc.) draws attention to the close association between the roles of surety and savior in Sir. 29:15f.:

The old covenant had a mediator (cf. Gal. 3:19) but no surety; there was no one to guarantee the fulfilment of the people's undertaking: "All that Yahweh hath spoken will we do, and be obedient" (Ex. 24:7). But Jesus guarantees the perpetual fulfilment of the covenant which he mediates, on the manward side as well as on the Godward side. As the Son of God, he confirms God's eternal covenant with his people; as his people's representative, he satisfies its terms with perfect acceptance in God's sight.

76. "Vocabulary of Hebrews," pp. 187f., on the word anago crro5 (see p. 171, n. 73). Simpson (p. 188) points out that "Epictetus (Enchir. 51) urges his pupil to let all that is best be to him a v6µo5 dmapWro5 and Josephus (Contra Ap. ii.41) asks what is a fairer spectacle than etiaefera axaQ ato5; moreover, the adverb equals without fail in Vettius Valens."

74. As in Ex. 40:15; Num. 25:13. Cf. p. 125, n. 35.

75. Ant. 20.227.

77. On Flight and Finding 116f., in a discussion of Num. 35:25, where the unintentional homicide stays in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest.

78. Gk. Fig to navre)..eg, "completely" (ERV/ARV mg.), "absolutely" (NEB), "for all time" (RSV); the phrase appears in one other place in the NT (Luke 13:11).

79. Isa. 53:12. An intercessory ministry is implied in Acts 7:56, where Stephen sees the Son of Man standing at God's right hand as his witness or advocate (cf. Acts, NICNT, p. 155 with n. 106). Cf. Luke 12:8, where the Son of Man confesses in heaven those who confess him on earth. Cf. p. 30.

80. H. B. Swete, The Ascended Christ (London, 1912), p. 95. See further G. Rupp, "The Finished Work of Christ in Word and Sacrament," in The Finality of Christ, ed. D. Kirkpatrick (Nashville/New York, 1966), pp. 175-92, especially pp. 187-90; P. Giles, Jesus, the High Priest (Bognor Regis, 1984). The significance and efficacy of our Lord's intercessory presence in heaven have never been better expressed than in Charles Wesley's hymn, "Arise, my soul, arise"-especially in the stanza:

81. These words have the solemn style of a cultic hymn; O. Michel suggests that in "such a high priest became us, / holy, guileless, undefiled, / separated from sinners, / made higher than the heavens" we have a quatrain from an early hymn in praise of Christ (MK, p. 177; cf. H. Windisch, HNT, p. 67). The last phrase, 4TlX6tepos t6 v ovpavwv yev6µevo5, has been compared with words about the divine Logos in the Orphic fragment 274, I. 34: aino5 enoupaVLOS xai eni XOovi Xavra teb.EVrd, "he himself being above the heavens also accomplishes all upon earth"but these words may reflect Jewish or Christian influence; see H. Traub, TDNT, V, pp. 538f. (s.v. inoupavLoS); cf. A. Ehrhardt, "Goethe, Johannes and Palaiphatos," EvTh 30 (1960), pp. 579f., and The Beginnorg (Manchester, 1968), p. 13.

82. Gk. ionai; (cf. 9:12; 10:10), a more emphatic form of anal (6:4; 9:7, 26, 27, 28; 10:2; 12:26, 27), "once for all"-used repeatedly in this epistle to convey the finality and perfection of the self-offering of Christ.

83. A few authorities, including p46 (apparently) and D, read "priests" instead of "high priests."

84. Gk. 6otos, used of Christ also in Acts 2:27; 13:35. In both these places the words of Ps. 16:10 (LXX 15:10), "Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption," are viewed as fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. In the LXX oaLos most often represents Heb. hasId, a word which can be used both of the godly person (as in Ps. 16:10) and of God himself (as in Ps. 145 [LXX 144]:17; cf. olLoc in Rev. 15:4; 16:5). The Hebrew word is cognate with hesed ("lovingkindness," "steadfast love") and has the basic sense of "loyal to covenant obligations."

85. Gk. &xaxoc (cf. Rom. 16:18, where it has the sense, not present here, of being so guileless as to be unsuspecting and easily led astray). According to W. Grundmann, if ootoc denotes Christ's "religious qualification-being 80LoS He is the true priest before God-and aµiavroc the cultic-no µiao sa attaches to Him to cause cultic disqualification-axaxoc is the moral. As High-priest He is one who has done no evil. The sense here is active; aµiavrog expresses the passive side" (TDNT, III, p. 482, s.v. axoxoc).

86. Gk. dpiavro5, the same word as our author uses here (cf. Philo, Special Laws 1.113; similarly On Flight and Finding 108-12). But Philo is concerned to present the undefiled character of the Logos as the truth denoted allegorically by the law forbidding the high priest to touch a corpse or mourn for the dead (Lev. 21:10f.).

87. Rom. 8:3; cf. exposition by C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to theRomans, ICC (Edinburgh, 1975), pp. 379-82.

88. Gk. xEXwproµevo5 ano thy aas twMov. The high priest of Israel, while not personally free from sin, was ceremonially set apart from his fellows for the proper discharge of his sacred functions. But Jesus has no need to be set apart in any such ceremonial manner; his separation is, on the one hand, inward and moral, and, on the other hand, the consequence of his being now exalted to the right hand of God, withdrawn from the midst of a sinful world.

89. W. Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), pp. 116f.

91. Special Laws 3.131; cf. his reference in Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? (174) to "the permanent sacrifices, both the oblation of flour which the priests offer for themselves and the oblation of two lambs which they are directed to offer on behalf of the nation." The oblation of flour which the priests were directed to offer for themselves (Lev. 6:19ff.) was not a proforma sin offering, and indeed it might be inferred from the terms of the prescription that it was presented only on the day of their anointing (in that case "perpetually" in Lev. 6:20 would mean "when each new priest is anointed in his turn"). But quite clearly it came to be observed as a daily ceremony, whatever its original intention was; cf. Sir. 45:14, concerning Aaron: "His sacrifices (9voiat) shall be wholly burned twice every day continually" (xa6' f th av Ev&AEX* Sig).

92. A. B. Davidson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Edinburgh, 1882), p. 144. It is doing violence to the natural sense of the Greek to interpret it, with Westcott (ad loc.), as meaning: "The characteristic High-priestly office of the Lord is fulfilled `daily,' `for ever,' and not only, as that of the Levitical High-priest, on one day in the year." That is true, but it is not what our author says here. Cf. "daily" (xa9' hµepav, as here) in 10:11.

93. See W. Zimmerli and J. Jeremias, TDNT, V, pp. 654-717 (s.v. nai5 Oeov). See further on 9:28 (p. 232 with nn. 169-72). The word translated "offering for sin" in Isa. 53:10 is Heb. 'asam, the reparation offering or "guilt offering" (RSV) of Lev. 5:6ff.; 7:lff. This passage may form the OT background for Paul's statements that Jesus was sent "as an offering for sin" (Rom. 8:3) and that he was "made to be sin on our behalf' (2 Cor. 5:21); perhaps also for our Lord's own words about giving his life "a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). On the relation of the Isaianic Servant of the Lord to Jesus see Acts, NICNT, pp. 174-76 with nn. 66-70.

94. See M. de Jonge, "Jesus' Death for Others and the Death of the Maccabean Martyrs," in Text and Testimony: Essays in Honour of A. F. J. Klijn, ed. T. Baarda and others (Kampen, 1988), pp. 142-5 1. In his article "The Background of Mark 10:45," in New Testament Essays: Studies in Memory of T. W. Manson, ed. A. J. B. Higgins (Manchester, 1959), pp. 1-18, C. K. Barrett quotes these passages from 2 and 4 Maccabees as containing the doctrine of kapparah, and suggests that a creative mind working upon such a background as these passages provide could produce a saying like that recorded in Mark 10:45. He concludes also "that the connection between Mark 10:45 and Isa. 53 is much less definite and more tenuous than is often supposed" (p. 15). It is indeed an exaggeration of that connection to speak and write, as some have done, as though Mark 10:45 were practically a quotation from Isa. 53. But Jesus and the Evangelists certainly knew and were influenced by the book of Isaiah; there is little if any evidence for their acquaintance with 2 and 4 Maccabees. Moreover, that the Son of Man "should suffer many things and be treated with contempt" is something which is written (Mark 9:12; cf. 14:21). This expression implies canonical Scripture; Isa. 52:13-53:12 will satisfy the terms of reference, but scarcely the martyrologies of Maccabees. True, when Jesus spoke of his life as being Arvrpov 8vri no)J4 v he did not say so simply because this was written "in the volume of the book" but because it was his own fixed purpose and ardent desire in accordance with what he knew to be God's will. Indeed, it may be held, not only did he by his acceptance of the death of the cross fulfil the prophecy of Isa. 52:13-53:12 but he knew that he was fulfilling it.

95. Cf. 1QS 3.6-12; 4.20f.; 5.6f.; 9.3-5; see F. F. Bruce, Biblical Exegesis in the Qumran Texts (London, 1960), pp. 57-63. Cf. p. 193 with n. 66; pp. 209f., n. 63.

96. The self-offering of Christ, as Priest and Sacrifice, Victor and Victim, in one, is further elaborated in 9:11-14; 10:5-14.

97. This is the sense of his being "perfected" (tare?erwµevov); cf. 2:10; 5:9.

98. As in 5:5f., our author brings together Ps. 2:7 and 110:4 (LXX 109:4) in the collocation of the words "Son ... for evermore" (Gk. viov ri toy akuva). For the anarthrous "Son" cf. Heb. 1:2; 5:8.

1. Or, "Now to sum up what we are saying" (ARV mg.). Moffatt (ad loc.) aptly refers to Coverdale's rendering: "Of the thinges which we haue spoken, this is the pyth." The question is whether x4Okatov should be understood here as meaning "chief point" (so in the classical writers and Philo) or "sum," "summary" (Coverdale's "pith"). The former rendering is preferred by the RSV and the NEB. But our author may feel that his argument about the superiority of the Melchizedek priesthood has been too involved for some of his readers to follow, so he sums it up by saying: "What all this amounts to, what it all leads up to, is this: it is a high priest of this superior order and quality that we have." W. Manson, on the other hand, thinks that the rendering "point," or even "sum" or "gist," "throws us too much back on the past course of the argument, and fails to bring out the transcendent character of the vista which here opens to our eyes"; he offers the paraphrase "to crown the argument"-which certainly does justice to the preposition in the phrase iXi toig ?,,Eyo9vot5 (The Epistle to the Hebrews [London, 1951], p. 123).

2. "The Majesty in heaven" (Gk. it µfyal„wavvrl ev toi5 ovpavoi5) is a reverential periphrasis for the name of God, like "the Majesty on high" in 1:3. (See p. 49, n. 33.) The expression used here is fuller than that in 1:3 because of the addition of "the throne" between "right hand" and the surrogate for the divine name; for the fuller expression cf. also 12:2 ("the right hand of the throne of God").

3. Gk. uuv &yiwv AEttougy6g, which might equally well be rendered "a minister of the holy things"; the principal reason for preferring the rendering "sanctuary" is that this is the regular sense of the neuter plural (t&) &yta in this epistle (cf. 9:2, 8, 12, 24, 25; 10:19; 13:11). The substantive?,.Ettoupyo5 (which refers to angels in 1:7) is used in Rom. 13:6 of civil rulers as servants of God, in Rom. 15:16 of Paul in his apostleship to the Gentiles, in Phil. 2:25 of Epaphroditus ministering to Paul's need as the Philippian church's representative; in the LXX the verb AEttoupyew and the nomen actionis ?ettoupyia (cf. v. 6) are frequently used in the Pentateuch of the ministration of the priests and Levites in the wilderness tabernacle.

4. Gk. tlv emliev o xvptos, an echo of Num. 24:6, LXX, where Balaam describes the Israelite encampment as being "like tents which the Lord pitched" (6)afi oxrlvai 4 enrol ev xvpto5).

5. Gk. xa9iozaraL, as in 5:1 (cf. p. 118, n. 1).

6. The "gifts and sacrifices" (W to xat 9uaiar) are not distinguished here any more than they are in 5:1 (see p. 118).

7. Gk. Ei ov ovv, for which K L with the majority of later MSS and TR have Ei µev yap (whence AV/KJV "For if...").

11. Ex. 25:40, LXX. Here navra, "all things," is added to the LXX text (as in Philo, Leg. Alleg. 3.102); LXX Cod. F (Ambrosianus), which includes navra, is probably influenced by the text of our present passage. This quotation has the aorist participle SELX6evra as against the perfect b&SELyµevov of the LXX.

12. Gk. teruXrv (p46 X * A D * K L and 9 minuscules), for which B and many Byzantine witnesses have terevXev, and P rP 33 1739 and many other minuscules tetUXiqxev (see G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles [London, 1953], pp. 119f.).

13. Gk. Xeitoupyia. Cf. P. 180, n. 3.

14. Gk. vevoµoOer,1rat. Cf. 7:11 (p. 164, n. 36), where the subject of the verb (in the passive, as here) is "the people."

15. Gk. bevrepag, for which B* reads itepa5 ("another"), a reading "unbelievable in the context," according to Zuntz (Text, p. 41).

8. Gk. ovrwv c6v npoa$epovrwv. K L, with the majority of later MSS, the Peshitta, and the TR, add iepewv after ovrwv (whence AV/KJV, "seeing that there are priests that offer ...").

9. Gk. xEXprlµatloruL Mwvai1S. Cf. Heb. 11:7; 12:25; Matt. 2:12, 22; Luke 2:26; Acts 10:22 for Xprlµatit w meaning "give a divine oracle" (cf. also X@glLatLaµos in Rom. 11:4). The perfect tense probably implies that the oracle, once given, now stands on permanent record (compare the perfects 6QT1xEv, yeypantar, used to introduce OT quotations, e.g., in Heb. 4:4; 10:7).

10. Gk. i'smte).ely (ARV mg., "complete").

16. Cf. 9:11, 24. In early Christian usage "not made with hands" (&Xetponoirlroc, or an equivalent phrase), as distinct from "made with hands" (Xetponoirlrog, or an equivalent phrase), is used to distinguish the new order inaugurated by Christ from all earlier religious entities, whether objects of worship (Acts 19:26), sacred buildings (Mark 14:58; Acts 7:48; 17:24), ordinances (e.g., circumcision, as in Col. 2:11; Eph. 2:11), the resurrection body as distinct from the body of flesh and blood (2 Cor. 5:1).

17. Gk. alvi1Orvo5. Cf. 9:24 (and 10:22, which is not such an apt parallel). While the classical distinction is that (WIN; means "true" as opposed to "false," and ak1JOLvo5 "real" as opposed to merely "apparent," it would be precarious to press this distinction in the NT, as a comparison of the two adjectives in John's Gospel will show. In this epistle ak1q9i1S is not found. As God himself is real-toy µovov &klgotvov 9e6v of John 17:3 (cf. Paul's solitary use of a),rl9Lv6S, in relation to God, in 1 Thess. 1:9)-so other entities are real insofar as they are associated with his reality.

18. Cf. especially 10:19-25 (pp. 249-60); 12:22-24 (pp. 355-61).

19. The additional phrase "for sins" (cf. p. 118, n. 3) is missing here; but it is our Lord's presenting of himself as a sin offering that our author has principally in mind (cf. 1:3; 7:27).

20. The infinitive "to offer" at the end of v. 3 (unlike the identical phrase in the first clause of the verse, which represents Gk. ei5 to npoagipetv), renders the adjective clause o npoaeveyxp with its antecedent TL ("something"). The fact that npoaeveyxrI is aorist (subjunctive) is consistent with our author's repeated emphasis on the singularity of the sacrifice which Christ offered (cf. 7:27; 10:12).

21. Gk. 8vayxaiov iXELV to xai tovrov o apoorveyxn. The verb "to be" is not expressed here with the adjective "necessary" ((!vayxaiov); this is indicated in the AV/KJV (but not in the ERV/ARV) by the italicization of "it is. " One might therefore translate "it was necessary" as readily as "it is necessary" ("it was necessary" referring to the once-for-all self-offering of Calvary).

22. J. B. Phillips, Letters to Young Churches (London, 1947), p. 170; The New Testament in Modern English (London, 1958), ad loc. But Phillips cannot be charged with any ulterior motive in so translating. (The wording was corrected to "something to offer" in the revised edition of 1972.)

23. Cf. 7:14.

24. Cf. lQpHab 2.6-10, where "the priest into whose heart God has put wisdom to interpret all the words of his servants the prophets" is probably the Rightful Teacher.

25. Gk. $no&Lyµa, used in 9:23 in a similar sense to this, and in 4:11 in the sense of a moral example (so also in all its other NT occurrences, John 13:15; Jas. 5:10; 2 Pet. 2:6). In Ezek. 42:15 (LXX) the prophet's angel-guide is said to have "measured the plan (vno&Lyµa) of the house [the temple of the new commonwealth] round about in order." In Attic Greek napa&ELyµa was preferred to i ro&ELyµa, but whereas here it is the earthly copies of the heavenly realities that are the uno&iyµata, in Attic Greek the heavenly exemplars themselves are called the napa&iyµata (cf. pp. 184f., n. 32). Cf. T. F. Torrance, Royal Priesthood (Edinburgh, 1955), pp. 20f.

26. Gk. oxtd (cf. 10:1 and see pp. 184f., n. 32).

27. Gk. tvmog, rendering Heb. tabnft ("building," "construction"); the implication is that Moses was shown something like a scale model of the sanctuary which was to be erected.

28. In the Hebrew text of Ex. 25:40 the phrase "which is being shown you" means literally "which you are caused to see" ('user 'attah mor'eh, where mor'eh is the Hoph'al participle of ra'ah, "see").

29. Cf. F. M. Cross, Jr.: "Probably the conception of the tabnith, the `model' (Exodus 25:9), also goes back ultimately to the idea that the earthly sanctuary is the counterpart of the heavenly dwelling of a deity" ("The Tabernacle," BA 10 [1947], pp. 45-68, esp. p. 62). In Wisdom 9:8 Solomon's temple is "a copy ([titLWa) of the holy tent which thou didst prepare from the beginning." (Cf. 1 Chron. 28:19.) See also G. E. Wright, "The Temple in Palestine and Syria," BA 7 (1944), pp. 66-88.

30. As early as the Babylonian Enuma elish there is a heavenly ubsukkinaku or "court of assembly" corresponding to the earthly temple (3.61, 119, 131). Cf. W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Baltimore, 31953), pp. 142ff. (where cosmic significance is attached to the pillars, sea, altar-base, etc., of the temples of Solomon and Ezekiel); also p. 88, for the point that in Phoenician "it would seem that the words betu, `house,' and hekalu, `temple,' refer both to a residence in heaven and to temples on earth." The antiquity of the cosmic interpretation of the tabernacle and temple is illustrated by its appearance in Josephus (Ant. 3.123; War 5.212f.); cf. 2 Baruch 4:2-7; Ascension of Isaiah 7:10. See also E. Burrows, "Some Cosmological Patterns in Babylonian Religion," in The Labyrinth, ed. S. H. Hooke (London, 1935), pp. 45ff., especially 59ff.; R. E. Clements, God and Temple (Oxford, 1965). On the other hand, R. de Vaux expresses considerable skepticism with regard to the cosmic symbolism of the sanctuary in Israel (Ancient Israel, E.T. [London, 1961], pp. 328f.). See 12:22 (pp. 355-58).

31. Gk. katpeixu, preeminently of worship or priestly service (cf. 9:9, 14; 10:2; 12:28; 13:10, with the related substantive ?atQcia in 9:1, 6).

32. Cf. Paul's description of the Jewish laws regarding food and festivals as "only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ" (Col. 2:17). This is a different use of the "shadow" concept from Philo's: he interprets the name Bezaleel as "in the shadow of God" and explains that Bezaleel constructed the copies (IuInlt (rta) whereas Moses constructed the exemplars (napa&iyµara); "therefore the one drew an outline as it were of shadows (ola (xLa5 1 ypa4rro), whereas the other fashioned no shadows, but the archetypal entities themselves" (On Dreams 1.206; cf. Leg. Alleg. 3.101-3). (Cf. Plotinus, Enneads 1.6.8.) For the conception of the earthly sanctuary as a copy of the sanctuary in heaven cf. also Rev. 11:19; 14:17; 15:5f. (in Rev. 4-7 heaven itself is the temple of God). The conception, while much earlier than Plato, lends itself to a Platonic interpretation. Cf. O. Procksch in TDNT, I, pp. 96f. (s.v. ayLo5).

36. "The Vocabulary of the Epistle to the Hebrews," EQ 18 (1946), p. 188.

37. Gk. RE(Av (once in the LXX, in Job 9:33, where Job wishes that there were such an intermediary between himself and God). See p. 152, n. 69.

33. Life of Moses 2.74.

34. Gk. vnepoupavLog tono5 (Plato, Phaedrus 247c). See p. 33 with n. 136.

35. Plato, Republic 9.592b.

42. Codd. A D IF have "this is my covenant."

44. Gk. nolvitrly, for which P 1912 with the Latin versions, the margin of the Harclean Syriac, and the TR have nlrloiov (AV "neighbour"), by way of assimilation to the sense of the Hebrew text.

45. Gk.'Acwc eaoµat, translating Heb. 'eslah, "I will forgive."

47. See pp. 224-26.

48. Heb..i rirut libbam (hard'), a characteristic Jeremianic phrase (elsewhere in the OT only in Deut. 29:29 and Ps. 81:12), used of those who disregard the divine covenant; found also repeatedly in the Qumran texts, e.g., CD 3.5, etc., in the context of the new covenant established "in the land of Damascus." Cf. p. 350, n. 107.

49. A view expressed as early as Jerome (Commentary on Ezekiel 1:1).

50. Cf. J. Skinner, Prophecy and Religion (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 89-107; G. A. Smith, Jeremiah (London, 41929), pp. 134-61; H. H. Rowley, "The Prophet Jeremiah and the Book of Deuteronomy," in Studies in Old Testament Prophecy presented to T. H. Robinson, ed. H. H. Rowley (Edinburgh, 1950), pp. 157-74; W. Rudolph, Jeremia2, HAT (Tubingen, 1958), p. 73; J. Bright, Jeremiah, AB (Garden City, NY, 1965), pp. xci-xcvi.

51. "The Prophecy of Jeremiah," EQ 34 (1962), p. 162.

52. Its authenticity was denied by B. Duhm, on the ground that there is nothing here worthy of Jeremiah-that this "new covenant" does not go beyond that of Deuteronomy, and that even the promise that Israel and Judah would know it by heart does not add anything to the provision for memorizing the ancient law laid down in Deut. 6:6ff. (Das Bach Jeremia Erkldrt [Tubingen/Leipzig, 1901], pp. 36ff.); for its authenticity cf. J. Skinner, Prophecy, pp. 325-34; G. A. Smith,Jeremiah, pp. 374-80; J. A. Bewer, The Prophets (New York/London, 1955), p. 260 ("Its Jeremian authorship has been validated over against critical doubts"); J. Bright, Jeremiah, p. 287 ("its authenticity ... ought never to have been questioned ... it represents what might well be considered the high point of his [Jeremiah's] theology").

53. G. A. Smith maybe right in dating the oracle in the brief period of Gedaliah's governorship at Mizpah (Jeremiah, pp. 292f.).

54. The original wording of Jer. 31:33 is: "I will put my torah within them." Heb. torah means more than statutory law; it embraces the ideas of guidance, direction, and instruction. The NT fulfilment of this promise is nowhere better expressed than in Paul's words in Rom. 8:1-4 of the work of the indwelling Spirit of God in the believer.

55. Cf. Ex. 29:45; Jer. 7:23; 30:22; Ezek. 11:20; Hos. 2:23; Zech. 8:8; 13:9.

56. Note the plural (GkAaoi); for in the event the new covenant is not restricted to Israel and Judah.

57. In the OT knowledge of God frequently connotes acknowledgment of his holiness and obedience to his will. When it is said (1 Sam. 3:7) that "Samuel did not yet know Yahweh," the reason is simply that he had not yet revealed himself to Samuel; but when it is said (1 Sam. 2:12) that the sons of Eli "did not know Yahweh," it is a reflection on their character and conduct: as the RSV has it, "they had no regard for the LORD."

58. Cf. Gal. 4:9 ("now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God"); 1 Cor. 8:3 ("but if one loves God, one is known by him"); 13:12 ("now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood").

59. Cf. Isa. 43:25; 44:22.

60. Mic. 7:18f.

61. See O. Michel, TDNT, IV, pp. 675-78 (s.v. µLµvpaxop uL).

62. For vassal treaties see G. E. Mendenhall, Law and Covenant in Israel and the Ancient Near East (Philadelphia, 1955); J. A. Thompson, The Ancient Near Eastern Treaties and the Old Testament (London, 1964); D. J. McCarthy, Treaty and Covenant, AnBib 21A (Rome, 1978). But Jeremiah's prophecy and the NT fulfilment give a new depth of meaning to the old term "covenant." In any case, the biblical covenant is much more than "a compact between God and man" (Skinner, Prophecy, p. 333); it is not a avv9ijxrl, an agreement between parties who are more or less equal in status, but a btaOrjxrl, a settlement by a superior on inferiors, "tendered on the one hand for acceptance on the other" (E. K. Simpson, "Vocabulary of Hebrews," p. 189). See further on 9:15-20 (pp. 220-24 with nn. 114-33).

63. Perhaps both these analogies are present in Jer. 31:32 (MT); "on the day I took them by the hand" may suggest a father leading his children (cf. Hos. 11:1, 3f.); "although I was a husband to them" suggests the marriage relationship (cf. Jer. 2:2; Hos. 2:7, 14-20).

64. CD 6.19; 8.21; cf. 20.12.

66. 1QS 8.5f.; 9.3f. (for the former context see also p. 94, n. 18; for the latter context see also pp. 383f.).

67. This is the plain force of the words nUaiau and a0vroµ65 in v. 13. Tyndale does not go beyond the due sense of the former word in his rendering: "In that he sayth a new testament he hath abrogat the olde." The latter word (with the verb a$avi. (O) is used in classical Greek of legislation which becomes inoperative because it is no longer relevant to the changed circumstances.

65. Cf. R. North, "The Damascus of Qumran Geography," PEQ 87 (1955), pp. 34-48.

68. John 4:23f., another passage where worship is liberated from external restrictions of time and place.

69. Matt. 26:28 adds, "for the forgiveness of sins." Neither Mark nor Matthew (according to the most probable reading) records the adjective "new" before "covenant" in this word of institution, as is done by Paul (1 Cor. 11:25) and the longer text of Luke (Luke 22:20); but the new covenant is intended, whether "new" is expressed or only implied. The phrase "for many" may echo Isa. 53:1 If. (cf. the phrase "a covenant of the people" in association with the first and second Servant Songs, Isa. 42:6; 49:8); J. Jeremias (The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, E.T. [Oxford, 1955], p. 151) interprets the phrase as meaning "for the whole world," Gentiles as well as the house of Israel (cf. John 6:51; 1 John 2:2). Cf. also H. Kosmala, Hebrder-Essener-Christen (Leiden, 1959), pp. 174-91.

70. Cf. G. A. Smith, Jeremiah, p. 380.

71. On this passage see C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC, I (Edinburgh, 1975), pp. 378-95.

72. Thus in Isa. 42:6 the Servant is given not only "for a covenant to the people" but also "for a light to the nations" (cf. Isa. 49:6). See also the catena of OT texts in Rom. 15:9-12 in which Paul finds the Gentile mission adumbrated; and, perhaps most impressive of all, Isa. 19:24f.: "In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, `Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage."'

73. H. L. Ellison, Men Spake from God (London, 1958), p. 92.

74. See P. E. Hughes, Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 1962), pp. 93-106; C. K. Barrett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, HNTC (New York, 1973), pp. 109-26; V. P. Furnish, II Corinthians, AB (Garden City, NY, 1984), pp. 201-33.

75. See J. de Vuyst, Oud en Nieuw Verbond in de Brief aan de Hebreeen (Kampen, 1964).

76. Cf. Mark 13:2; John 2:19.

77. Cf. Acts 6:14.

78. Cf. W. Manson, Hebrews, pp. 25-46.

79. See p. 99 (on 3:9).

1. Gk. Stxatwµata (cf. v. 10), "regulations."

2. "Worship" represents Gk. Xatpeia (cf. the cognate verb ?,atpev(o in 8:5).

3. Gk. T6 to aytov xooµtxov, where xoaµtx6g means "mundane" or "material" (the temptation to render it "cosmic" and relate it to the cosmological symbolism referred to on p. 184, n. 30, should be resisted). The adjective xoaµtxos indicates that the Mosaic tabernacle (unlike its heavenly archetype) did belong to "this creation" (v. 11). The only other NT occurrence of xooµtx65 is in Tit. 2:12, of "worldly lusts." Both aytov and xooµtxov are adjectives in the neuter gender, but here one of them must be taken as filling the role of a substantive qualified by the other. By general agreement aytov is taken as the substantive here, qualified by xooµtxov, although elsewhere in this epistle it is not the neuter singular aytov but the neuter plural ayta that is used in the sense of "sanctuary" or "holy place." In a letter dated March 9, 1959, Dr. B. F. C. Atkinson made the interesting suggestion that to tr aytov xooµtxov might mean "and the holy ritual." "It seems to me," he wrote, "(i) to fit the immediate context much better, (ii) to agree better with the order of words, (iii) that xooluxov is not the right word to use for earthly."

4. Gk. ayra (neuter plural, as is plain from the reading of B, to ayia). Elsewhere in the epistle the simple ayLa is used for the holy of holies on earth and for its heavenly prototype.

5. Gk. AvXvia, "lampstand" (so the LXX for Heb. menorah).

6. Cod. B and the Sahidic Coptic version insert here "and the golden incense-altar" (transposing it from v. 4).

7. Gk. ayta ayiwv (both neuter plural). N C B De K L read to ayta tci v ayiwv. p16 has ayta here and ayta ayiwv in v. 2! This points to some primitive disturbance of the text.

8. The Hebrew plural -im is preserved in the Greek transliteration Xepou3Eiv.

9. Gk. xata µepos (RSV "in detail").

10. Cf. Acts, NICNT (Grand Rapids, 21988), pp. 146-49.

11. The seven-branched menorah on the Arch of Titus has been adopted as the coat of arms of the modern State of Israel. The appearance of non-Jewish figures in relief on the base of this menorah has occasioned some doubt as to its identity with the lampstand which stood in the temple; see, however, M. Kon, "The Menorah of the Arch of Titus," PEQ 82 (1950), pp. 2530. Cf. also E. R. Goodenough, "The Menorah among Jews in the Roman World," HUCA 23.2 (1950-51), pp. 449-94. According to Philo, Who is the Heir ofDivine Things? 221, and Josephus, Ant. 3.146, the seven branches of the menorah represent the seven planets.

12. Gk. f1 ng6Oeais twv aptwv, a transposition of the LXX of aptol ails npoOeaews ("the loaves of proposition," in the literal rendering of the Douay Bible in Ex. 25:30, etc.). The Hebrew expression is lehem happanfm, "bread of the face," i.e., bread set before the face or presence of God (Ex. 25:30; 35:13; 39:36, etc.), otherwise lehem hattamid, "the continual bread" (Num. 4:7), or lehem hamma'dreket lit. "bread of setting in order" (1 Chron. 9:32, etc.).

13. Cf. 1 Sam. 21:1-6, where the priest of Nob gave David and his companions "holy bread" to eat: "for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before Yahweh, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away" (with our Lord's reference to this incident in Mark 2:25f.).

14. Gk. to &urrepov xatawrtaoµa. In the LXX x atwn tao a is also used for the screen at the entrance into the holy place (Ex. 26:37; 37:5 [corresponding to 36:37 of the MT and the EVV], etc., although in Ex. 26:36 another Greek word, inianaorpov, is used); hence our author distinguishes the curtain at the entrance into the holy of holies as "the second curtain." Two distinct words are used in Hebrew; whereas "the second curtain" is the paroket the screen at the outer entrance is a masak. Philo distinguishes the two by reserving xatanttaoµa for the inner curtain and calling the outer screen a xd i, u (Life of Moses 2.101). The Mishnah tractate Yoma (5.1) records a dispute between rabbis on the nature of the inner curtain in the Second Temple: whereas one school of thought held that it was a single curtain (which is in agreement with such historical evidence as we have), another held that it was double, the two curtains of which it was composed being a cubit apart. Cf. the excursus by H. Laible in Strack-Billerbeck, III (Munich, 1926), pp. 733-36, with C. Schneider, TDNT, III, pp. 628-30 (s.v. xaranet(tolsa). See also pp. 250f., n. 87.

15. It appears three times in the LXX: in 2 Chron. 26:19 and Ezek. 8:11 it represents Heb. migteret ("censer"); and in 4 Macc. 7:11, where Aaron is described as being "equipped with a Ot uatlpeov," the word plainly has the same sense. But Theodotion and Symmachus use it in Ex. 30:1 of the incense-altar (Heb. mizbeah migtar getoret).

18. War 5.218; Ant. 3.147, 198 (the former reference being to the incense-altar in the temple which fell in A.D. 70, the two latter references to the one in the Mosaic tabernacle).

19. The "firepans" of Ex. 27:3; 38:3, while designated by a Hebrew word (mahtah, LXX nueEtov) which can also denote a censer (as in Lev. 10:1; 16:12), were not censers but utensils belonging to the altar of burnt offering in the tabernacle court.

20. According to TB Yoma 47a, the "censer heaped with incense" (mahtdh gedugdh gel getoret) was brought to the high priest on the Day of Atonement "out of the chamber in the house of Abtinas (Euthinos)" (cf. J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, E.T. [London, 1969], p. 25).

21. Its interpretation as "altar of incense" certainly underlies its transposition in Cod. B and the Sahidic version to v. 2, among the furnishings of the holy place. In the one place in the NTwhere a "censer" is unambiguously mentioned (Rev. 8:3-5) the Greek term used is ktpavono5.

16. Cf. Herodotus, Hist. 2.162; Aelian, Varia Historia 12.51. It occurs in this sense in a Smyrnaean inscription of the first century A.D. (CMRDM 1.28); see New Docs., III (1978), § 40.

17. Who Is Heir of Divine Things? 226f.; Life of Moses 2.94, 101 (in reference each time to the incense-altar in the Mosaic tabernacle).

22. The words "before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony" are absent from the LXX and the Samaritan Bible. In the Samaritan Bible, indeed, the whole section dealing with the incense-altar, Ex. 30:1-10, comes between vv. 35 and 36 of Ex. 26. P. E. Kahle has suggested that our author used a text of the LXX which had the same order as the Samaritan Bible, and that this explains his assigning the incense-altar to the holy of holies (The Cairo Geniza [London, 119471, pp. 146f.). It is true that in this order the incense-altar is brought into closer association with the inner curtain and the ark (for which directions are given in Ex. 26:31-34), but even so it is separated from them by Ex. 26:35, in which directions are given for the placing of the table and lampstand in the outer sanctuary.

23. On the other hand, it does suggest that the incense-altar stood near the curtain, whereas in the Second Temple it apparently was nearer the outer screen, since we are told that it was the first piece of furniture on which the priest came when he entered the holy place, before he came to the lampstand (TB Yoma 33a). Josephus, in his description of the Mosaic tabernacle, says that the incense-altar stood between the lampstand and the table of showbread (Ant. 3.147); both in this description and in his description of the Second Temple (War 5.216) he makes it clear that the incense-altar stood in the holy place.

24. The Samaritan Bible adds "before Yahweh" in Ex. 40:27, where incense is burned on the golden altar for the first time ("he burnt fragrant incense upon it before Yahweh"). On the problem of the altar in Lev. 16 see N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers, NCBC (London, 1967), pp. 114f.

25. This verse is absent from the LXX. In 2 Baruch 6:7 the incense-altar is included among the objects removed by an angel from the holy of holies before the destruction of Solomon's temple by the Chaldaeans. In a Canaanite temple of the Mosaic period excavated at Hazor the incense-altar was in the debIr or "holy of holies." In Rev. 8:3 the golden altar from which the prayers of the saints ascend as incense is "before the throne"; but there is no inner curtain separating two compartments in the heavenly sanctuary as portrayed in Revelation.

26. Gk. XQvaofiv €xouaa 0 i uaTi iov. Cf. A. S. Peake, The Epistle to the Hebrews, CentB (Edinburgh/London, 1902), p. 175.

27. Speculations on whether the directions about the incense-altar may have been a later addition to the description of the tabernacle in Exodus are irrelevant to the exegesis of this epistle, together with all other questions concerning the composition of the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch as our author knew it had the same contents as the Pentateuch known to us, although it was probably arranged in the LXX order (which in Ex. 35-40 particularly differs from the order of the MT). See D. W. Gooding, The Account of the Tabernacle: Translation and Textual Problems of the Greek Exodus (Cambridge, 1959); also the same writer's article "Tabernacle," in NBD2.

28. Cf. the passage from 2 Baruch referred to in n. 25 above, where the ark and the curtain, with other objects belonging to the holy of holies, are removed by an angel. According to Tosefta Yoma 3.7 (cf. TB Yoma 52b; TJ Sota 3.22c, 6), the ark and the objects which accompanied it in the holy of holies (cf. p. 204, n. 37) were hidden at that time (since the pot of manna was one of these objects, the "hidden manna" of Rev. 2:17 may be recalled here); according to Mekhilta 59b (on Ex. 16:33), Elijah will bring them to light when he comes. In 2 Macc. 2:4-8 Jeremiah is said to have hidden "the tent and the ark and the altar of incense" in a cave in "the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God"; they will he revealed again by God when he "gathers his people together again and shows his mercy." In Samaritan tradition the ark and the holy vessels of the tabernacle were hidden on Mount Gerizim at the beginning of the epoch of divine displeasure (fanuta); they will he restored by the Taheb, the Prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15-19), when he comes to inaugurate the new epoch of divine favor (rahuta). This belief was held by them in NT times, as is clear from the incident recorded in Josephus,Ant. 18.85-87.

29. Cf. Josephus, War 1.152f.; Ant. 14.71 f.; Tacitus, Hist. 5.9; Ps. Sol. 2:1 ff., 30f. In the postexilic holy of holies the position of the ark was marked by a slab called "the stone of foundation" (Heb. 'eben sattiyydh).

30. Cf. Deut. 10:1-5; these tablets were the two which replaced those previously broken by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex. 32:19). Cf. M. G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King (Grand Rapids, 1963), pp. 13-26.

31. Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, E.T., II (Edinburgh, 1862), p. 57.

32. Heb. sinsenet ("receptacle"), Gk. otaµvo5 ("jar," especially for racking off wine). This jar or "urn" (RSV) is said to have been of gold in the LXX (followed by Philo, Preliminary Studies 100), but not in the MT.

33. This incident belongs to the sequence of lessons prescribed for the season of Pentecost in the third year of the triennial synagogue lectionary (cf. A. E. Guilding, The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship [Oxford, 1960], p. 224; see p. 26 above).

34. Hebrews, p. 57.

35. For example, it is used of the incense-altar in Lev. 16:18 (see p. 201).

36. Cf. G. H. Lang, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), p. 144.

37. Cf. J. O. Boyd, "What was in the Ark?" EQ 11 (1939), pp. 165-68. Rabbinical tradition placed in the ark (in addition to the two tablets of stone) two silver columns belonging to the tablets of stone, the fragments of the original tablets of stone which Moses broke at the foot of Sinai, a copy of the Torah, and the names of God (TB Baba Bathra 14a). (The tradition about the copy of the Torah probably goes back to Deut. 31:26, where the Levites are commanded by Moses to "take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh." Cf. CD 5.2, which speaks of "the sealed book of the law" as being "in the ark.") But in rabbinical tradition the jar of manna and Aaron's rod were not in the ark but stood beside it, along with the coffer of golden jewels which (according to 1 Sam. 6:4, 8, 11, 15) the Philistines sent as a guilt offering along with the ark when they returned it to Israel (Tosefta Yoma 3.7). On the general biblical significance of ark and sanctuary see G. von Rad, "The Tent and the Ark," E.T. in The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (Edinburgh, 1966), pp. 103-24.

38. Gk. D aoirlprov, so the LXX for Heb. kapporet That Heb. kapporet means more than "lid" or "cover," and is akin in sense to the Pi`el conjugation kipper, "make atonement," is suggested by the emphasis which is placed upon it (in its own right) in the ritual for the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:2, 13-16). Cf. Heb. 2:17 (p. 78, n. 57); 4:16 (pp. 116f.).

39. Cf. Rom. 9:4 ("who are Israelites, whose is ... the glory").

40. Later they appear to have symbolized, more generally, the powers of creation. Ac- cording to Philo the two cherubim "are allegorical representations of the two most august and highest potencies of Him Who Is, the creative and the kingly" (Life of Moses 2.99; cf. Questions and Answers on Exodus, no. 62). In his treatise On the Cherubim (which deals mainly with the cherubim of Gen. 3:24) he suggests alternatively that the two cherubim represent "the outermost sphere of the fixed stars" and "the inner contained sphere" in which are set the seven planetary zones; or the two hemispheres (23-26).

42. Moreover, the bull-calves were associated with the fertility cults of Israel's nearest neighbors.

43. The much later golden cherubim from Herod's temple are said to have been exhibited on one of the gates of Antioch as trophies of the Roman triumph over Jerusalem; so John Malalas, Chronographia, book x. (Cf. W. L. Duliere, "Les Cherubins du troisieme Temple a Antioche," Zeitschrift fur Religions- and Geistesgeschichte 13 [1961], pp. 201-19.)

44. Philo does enlarge on them in various places, and especially in his Life of Moses 2.71-108.

45. Gk. larpeia (in plural); cf. v. 1, where the singular is translated "worship" (p. 197, n. 2).

41. Cf. Ben Sira's encomium on Ezekiel (Sir. 49:8f.):

46. Gk. 8yvorjµata, "sins of ignorance" (cf. 5:2, pp. 120f., nn. 15, 16). The ARV mg. compares Sir. 23:2, where Ben Sira prays not to be spared in his ayvorjµata, lest they be multiplied and be his undoing. At Qumran sins of inadvertence incurred penance, but deliberate sins excommunication (cf. 1QS 9.1f.).

47. Gk. Srlkoimo5, "showing."

48. Gk. iXo6ar1S ot&JLv, lit. "having a standing," a literary phrase for "being in existence," or (more appropriately here) "retaining its status." It is not necessarily implied that the earthly sanctuary, as a material structure, no longer existed; what is implied is that, with Christ's passing "through the heavens" (4:14) into the presence of God, the earthly structure has lost its sanctuary status.

49. Gk. xa9' ijv (the antecedent being perhaps nagapo? ), for which later manuscripts (e.g., DC K L P) and the TR read xa9' ov, as though the antecedent were xaLpov, "time."

50. For this phrase cf. 5:1; 8:3 (see p. 119, n. 6).

51. Gk. Xatpeuo, as in 8:5 (seep. 184, n. 31); but there the priests are the subject, whereas here the ordinary worshiper is intended.

52. Gk. bLXauuµaia, as in v. 1. They are 8txartµata aapx65, lit. "ordinances of flesh" (cf. v. 13), with which may be compared "the law of a `fleshly' (a6.pxLvo5) commandment" regulating the high-priestly succession in 7:16.

55. Cf. 5:3; 7:27.

56. And therefore it is no part of the exegesis of this epistle to investigate the origin and purpose of the setting aside of a goat "for Azazel" (AV/KJV "scapegoat," Lev. 16:8, 10, 26). In the Epistle of Barnabas (7:7-11) the scapegoat is treated as a type of Jesus bearing the curse and yet wearing the crown (the crown being the fillet of scarlet wool said to have been placed on the scapegoat's head; cf. p. 225, n. 137). Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 40) regards the driving of the scapegoat into the wilderness as a type of the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish leaders. Some features of the scapegoat ceremony, especially the imposition of the high priest's hands on its head and the confession of the national sins over it, by which these sins were transferred to it (Lev. 16:21), have passed into the language of Christian devotion, as in Isaac Watts's lines:

There is also the classic account of Charles Simeon's conversion in 1779, as told by himself, which has had such a profound influence ever since on the thought and language of Anglican evangelicalism: "But in Passion Week, as I was reading Bishop Wilson on the Lord's Supper, I met with an expression to this effect-`That the Jews knew what they did, when they transferred their sin to the head of their offering.' The thought came into my mind, What, may I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an Offering for me, that I may lay my sins on His head? Then, God willing, I will not bear them on my own soul one moment longer. Accordingly I sought to lay my sins upon the sacred head of Jesus" (H. C. G. Moule, Charles Simeon [London, (1892) 1948], pp. 25f.). (The work which Simeon was reading was Short and Plain Instructions for the Better Understanding of the Lord's Supper, by Thomas Wilson, bishop of Sodor and Man [London, 1736].) The relation of the scapegoat to the NT presentation of the atonement is

53. Ex. 28:31-35 (in the wider context of vv. 2-38).

54. Ex. 28:39-43; Lev. 6:10; 16:4.

57. Josephus (Ant. 3.123, 181) regards the holy of holies as symbolic of heaven, reserved for God alone, and the holy place (which in the tabernacle covered double the area of the holy of holies) as symbolic of earth and sea, which are accessible to human beings. So H. Koester, ("'Outside the Camp'; Heb. 13.9-14,"HTR 55 [19621, p. 309) interprets the "tent" (i.e., the foretent) as "a symbol for the heavenly regions through which Christ was to pass to enter the heavenly sanctuary itself." This may well be our author's view. Cf. v. 11 below (pp. 211-13); also 4:14 (p. 115).

58. In Lev. 16 the outer compartment is called "the tent of meeting" in distinction from the inner compartment, which is there simply referred to as "the holy place" (vv. 16f., 20, 23) or "the holy sanctuary," migdas haggode. (v. 33). N. H. Young ("The Gospel according to Hebrews 9," NTS 27 [1980-81], pp. 198-210, especially pp. 200-202) argues that "the first tent" is to be understood here in Heb. 9:8, as in vv. 2 and 6, of "the old covenant order now in process of dissolution."

59. Moffatt (ICC, ad loc., p. 118) takes "the first tabernacle" in v. 8 in the same sense as in vv. 2, 6; according to him, our author "calls the fore-tent a napapokrj" (similarly N. H. Young, cited in n. 58 above). It is perhaps more likely, however, that the whole structure with its appropriate ritual is called a napooAtij.

60. Gk. rjtL; taL)COOk h ei5 toy X Lpov toy evearrlxota (the antecedent of ijtL5 may be the whole situation of vv. 6-8, ijn5 being attracted to the gender and number of xap i o? ).

63. This was appreciated by men and women of spiritual insight throughout Israel's history. That is plain enough from Ps. 51:16f., in the course of a prayer for forgiveness and restoration to fellowship with God. In later times the rabbis insisted that the repentance and confes

61. W. Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London, 1951), p. 132. That is to say, the real meaning of the tabernacle can only now be understood, in the light of the work of Christ.

62. Cf. v. 14; 10:2, 22; 13:18. Gk. avvet8g(Yt; ("conscience") is not a classical word. It belonged to vernacular Greek and only a short time before the beginning of the Christian era did it attain literary status; even then it was not generally adopted by philosophic writers. It was probably Paul who baptized it into its deeper sense of "moral conscience"; the word appears several times in his letters and was taken over from him by later NT and other Christian writers. We may compare Philo's use of to auvrL66g to denote a faculty which examines and passes judgment on conduct, "established in the soul like a judge" (On the Creation 128). See C. A. Pierce, Conscience in the New Testament, SBT 15 (London, 1955); J. Stelzenberger, Syneidesis im Neuen Testament (Paderborn, 1961).

64. The expression "food and drink" (ini PQ61wovv xai noµaoty) denotes food-laws in general; we need not inquire too precisely which forms of "drink" our author had in mind (for n6pa cf. also 1 Cor. 10:4; 12:13 v.l.). Moffatt (ICC, ad loc., p. 119) compares a few passages from the Epistle ofAristeas: "I suppose that most men feel some curiosity about the injunctions in the law with regard to meats and drinks and the animals which are considered unclean" (128); "our lawgiver ... fenced us around on every side with prescribed purifications with regard to meats and drinks..." (142); "in the matter of meats and drinks he commands us first to offer a part as sacrifice, and only then to use the rest for ourselves" (158). For N6pata cf. 13:9 (p. 377, n. 60).

65. Gk. Sia0QOL5 Pamroµoi5 (cf. 6:2). We may think also of the Qumran purifications in water; these indeed were of no avail for the man who was defiled at heart, but nonetheless they were obligatory for members of the community. (Cf. 1QS 3.4f.; see p. 142 with n. 22 and p. 215, n. 88.)

66. Gk. &6gOwmg, here only in the NT; we might render it the new order."

67. In Hebrews the law is a pattern or preliminary blueprint of the redemptive order introduced by Christ; cf. Col. 2:17 (with E. Percy, Die Probleme der Kolosser- and Epheserbrief. [Lund, 1946], pp. 287f.).

68. The majority reading is riuv [wkXovrwv ayaO6 v, "the good things that are to come, but the weight of the evidence favors t6 v yevoµr•vwv aya96 v, "the good things that have come" (so pat, B D* 1611 1739 2005 with the Syriac versions, Chrysostom, and Cyril of Jerusalem). "The combination of the oldest Greek and Latin with the Syriac evidence is in itself almost irresistible" in support of yevoµevwv rather than &1, 6vrwv (G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles [London, 1953], p. 119); the reading geX?„ovtwv is probably due to the influence of 10:1. See p. 235.

69. Gk. 8La nvevarog alwviov (the ARV mg. suggests "his eternal spirit"). A few witnesses (D* P, with the Latin and Coptic versions) have "holy spirit" (nvetiµatog ayiov) for "eternal spirit."

70. Codex B is not extant from this point onward.

71. The textual evidence is rather evenly divided between i iuv ("your") and t)sbv (`bur"): the latter is the reading of the ERV/ARV mg., the RSV mg., and the NEB.

72. A few witnesses add xai aAr1eLvcu ("and true") after ;riwtt ("living"), under the influence of 1 Thess. 1:9. (For "the living God" cf. Heb. 3:12; 10:31; 12:22.)

73. Cf. Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:26, 32.

74. The first, tenth, and fifteenth days of Tishri respectively.

77. While the words of Mark 14:58 are put into Jesus' mouth by "false witnesses," they are not a fabrication but a misrepresentation of something which he really said.

78. Cf. Acts, NICNT, pp. 149-51, 336.

75. See, e.g., S. Mowinckel, He That Cometh, E.T. (Oxford, 1956), pp. 21-95; and for a contrary view N. H. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival (London, 1947), pp. 195-203, 205-19.

76. See A. Vanhoye, "' Par la tente plus grande et plus parfaite . . .' He 9,11," Biblica 46 (1965), pp. 1-28. N. H. Young, "The Gospel according to Hebrews 9," pp. 202-5, argues that Sta with oxrlvr1S here has the same instrumental force ("by means of") as it has with a1tAato5 (twice) in v. 12. For the tent "not made with hands" (cf. p. 182, n. 16) see A. Cole, The New Temple (London, 1950); R. J. McKelvey, The New Temple (London, 1969); E. P. Sanders,Jesus and Judaism (London, 1985), pp. 77-90; 1. H. Marshall, "Church and Temple in the New Testament," TynB 40.2 (1989), pp. 203-22.

79. The plural is generalizing. "Calves" (Gk. µooXoS) is used here as a variation on "bulls" (Gk. iavpo5, as in v. 13); the animal which Aaron was to sacrifice as a sin offering for himself and his house was "a young bull" (Lev. 16:3) and might therefore be designated in Greek either by µoo)oS (so the LXX in Lev. 16) or by iavoo5.

80. Gk. bta, with both occurrences of a`iµato5.

81. Cf. v. 7 ("not without blood"), v. 25 ("with [iv] blood not his own"-where iv is probably instrumental in force, as in 10:19; 13:20, implying that the sacrificial blood carried by the high priest was his title to enter the inner sanctuary).

82. K. M. Monroe, EQ 5 (1933), p. 404 (in an article "Time Element in the Atonement," pp. 397-408, which was answered by T. Houghton, "The Atonement," EQ 6 [1934], pp. 13746). Monroe argued that our Lord, after his resurrection, ascended immediately into heaven to sprinkle his blood on "the heavenly capporeth" and therefore could not allow Mary Magdalene to hinder him (John 20:17) until he had completed this essential stage of his atoning work. The ascension of John 20:17 is thus quite distinct from the ascension of Acts 1:9. This thesis had been sustained nearly half a century earlier by C. E. Stuart in a number of papers, especially Propitiation by Blood (London, 1887) and A Few Remarks as to Atonement, Propitiation, and the Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ (London, 1888). But it serves only to warn those who require such a warning against basing doctrines on types, instead of using types (if at all) to illustrate securely based doctrines. See also N. H. Young, "The Gospel according to Hebrews 9."

83. Gk. E4ana~ (as in 7:27; 10:10).

84. Cf. 5:9, where Christ is called "the source of eternal salvation." In the present verse "redemption" represents Gk. ?inpwxLs, found elsewhere in the NT only in Luke 1:68; 2:38. The word is derived from ltirpov, "ransom" (used of the Son of Man in Matt. 20:28 par. Mark 10:45), whence also we have the derivatives .trrpovkOar, "to ransom" (Luke 24:21; Tit. 2:14; 1 Pet. 1:18),1vvrganr15, "redeemer," "ransomer" (Acts 7:35), and avri.utpov, "counter-ransom" (1 Tim. 2:6). The compound substantive &no?ingwatS is more common in the NT than the simple 1.inpwatg ; it occurs in Heb. 9:15; 11:35, and in eight other NT passages, of which Rom. 3:24 is of outstanding importance for our understanding of the word as applied to the work of Christ. Cf. B. B. Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ (Philadelphia, 1950), pp. 325-48 ("`Redeemer' and `Redemption"' [1916]), pp. 429-75 ("The New Testament Terminology of 'Redemption"' [1917]); F. Biichsel, TDNT, IV, pp. 340-56 (s.v. lwtpov, Xinp(Oar5, anoautpwar5, etc.); W. Mundle, J. Schneider, and C. Brown, NIDNTT III, pp. 177-223 (s.v. "Redemption"); L. Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London, 31965), pp. 11-62.

85. Gk. b64wXt5, as in the LXX of Num. 19, where the Hebrew word is simply parch, "cow." (The Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan has 'eg1d, "heifer.")

86. Here "sanctify" (Gk. &.yra~ety) means little more than "purify"; the person who had been defiled was by this means restored to a state in which he was no longer religiously tabu but could take part once more in the prescribed ordinances of worship. According to R. Yohanan (Num. Rabbit 19.8), "neither does the dead body defile, nor does the water purify; but the Holy One, blessed be He, says, `I have laid down a statute, I have issued a decree; you shall not transgress my decree"' (on Num. 19:2)-i.e., "This ritual is something that God has ordained, and so we carry it out."

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