Text -- Hebrews 10:1-20 (NET)

Concluding Exposition: Old and New Sacrifices Contrasted

10:1 For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. 10:2 For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have no further consciousness of sin? 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 10:4 For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. 10:5 So when he came into the world, he said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. 10:6 “Whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you took no delight in. 10:7 “Then I said, ‘Here I am: I have come– it is written of me in the scroll of the book– to do your will, O God.’” 10:8 When he says above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you did not desire nor did you take delight in them” (which are offered according to the law), 10:9 then he says, “Here I am: I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first to establish the second. 10:10 By his will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 10:11 And every priest stands day after day serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again– sacrifices that can never take away sins. 10:12 But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God, 10:13 where he is now waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. 10:14 For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy. 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after saying, 10:16 “This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts and I will inscribe them on their minds,” 10:17 then he says, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no longer.” 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Drawing Near to God in Enduring Faith

10:19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 10:20 by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Heb 10:1

¹ tn Grk “those who approach.”

NET Notes: Heb 10:2

¹ tn Grk “the worshipers, having been purified once for all, would have.”

NET Notes: Heb 10:3

¹ tn Grk “in them”; the referent (those sacrifices) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Heb 10:4

¹ tn Grk “for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

NET Notes: Heb 10:7

¹ tn Grk “behold,” but this construction often means “here is/there is” (cf. BDAG 468 s.v. ἰδού 2).

² sn A quotation from Ps 40:6-8 (LXX). The phrase a body you prepared for me (in v. 5) is apparently an interpretive expansion of the HT reading “ears you have dug out for me.”

NET Notes: Heb 10:8

¹ sn Various phrases from the quotation of Ps 40:6 in Heb 10:5-6 are repeated in Heb 10:8.

NET Notes: Heb 10:9

¹ tc The majority of mss, especially the later ones (א² 0278^vid 1739 Ï lat), have ὁ θεός (Jo qeo", “God”) at this point, while most of the earliest and best witnesses lack such an explicit addressee (so Ì⁴⁶ א* A C D K P Ψ 33 1175 1881 2464 al). The longer reading is a palpable corruption, apparently motivated in part by the wording of Ps 40:8 (39:9 LXX) and by the word order of this same verse as quoted in Heb 10:7.

² tn Or “abolishes.”

NET Notes: Heb 10:10

¹ tn Grk “by which will.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

NET Notes: Heb 10:11

¹ tn Or “daily,” “every day.”

NET Notes: Heb 10:12

¹ tn Grk “this one.” This pronoun refers to Jesus, but “this priest” was used in the translation to make the contrast between the Jewish priests in v. 11 and Jesus as a priest clearer in English.

² sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.

NET Notes: Heb 10:13

¹ tn Grk “from then on waiting.”

² sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.

NET Notes: Heb 10:15

¹ tn Grk “after having said,” emphasizing the present impact of this utterance.

NET Notes: Heb 10:16

¹ tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”

² sn A quotation from Jer 31:33.

NET Notes: Heb 10:17

¹ tn Grk “and.”

² sn A quotation from Jer 31:34.

NET Notes: Heb 10:19

¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

NET Notes: Heb 10:20

¹ tn Grk “that he inaugurated for us as a fresh and living way,” referring to the entrance mentioned in v. 19.

² sn Through his flesh. In a bold shift the writer changes from a spatial phrase (Christ opened the way through the curtain into the inner sanctuary) to an instrumental phrase (he did this through [by means of] his flesh in his sacrifice of himself), associating the two in an allusion to the splitting of the curtain in the temple from top to bottom (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). Just as the curtain was split, so Christ’s body was broken for us, to give us access into God’s presence.