More of the excellence of the priesthood of Christ and of the New
Testament.
8:1. Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have
such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of
majesty in the heavens,
8:2. A minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle, which the
Lord hath pitched, and not man.
The holies.... That is, the sanctuary.
8:3. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices:
wherefore it is necessary that he also should have some thing to offer.
8:4. If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest: seeing that
there would be others to offer gifts according to the law.
If then he were on earth, etc.... That is, if he were not of a higher
condition than the Levitical order of earthly priests, and had not
another kind of sacrifice to offer, he should be excluded by them from
the priesthood, and its functions, which by the law were appropriated
to their tribe.
8:5. Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things. As it
was answered to Moses, when he was to finish the tabernacle: See (saith
he) that thou make all things according to the pattern which was shewn
thee on the mount.
Who serve unto, etc.... The priesthood of the law and its functions
were a kind of an example and shadow of what is done by Christ in his
church militant and triumphant, of which the tabernacle was a pattern.
8:6. But now he hath obtained a better ministry, by how much also he is
a mediator of a better testament which is established on better
promises.
8:7. For if that former had been faultless, there should not indeed a
place have been sought for a second.
8:8. For, finding fault with them, he saith: Behold the days shall
come, saith the Lord: and I will perfect, unto the house of Israel and
unto the house of Juda, a new testament:
8:9. Not according to the testament which I made to their fathers, on
the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt: because they continued not in my testament: and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord.
8:10. For this is the testament which I will make to the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my laws into their
mind: and in their heart will I write them. And I will be their God:
and they shall be my people.
8:11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man
his brother, saying: Know the Lord. For all shall know me, from the
least to the greatest of them.
They shall not teach, etc.... So great shall be light and grace of the
new testament, that it shall not be necessary to inculcate to the
faithful the belief and knowledge of the true God, for they shall all
know him.
8:12. Because I will be merciful to their iniquities: and their sins I
will remember no more.
8:13. Now in saying a new, he hath made the former old. And that which
decayeth and groweth old is near its end.
A new.... Supply ‘covenant’.