7:11 So if perfection had in fact been possible through the Levitical priesthood – for on that basis 1 the people received the law – what further need would there have been for another priest to arise, said to be in the order of Melchizedek and not in Aaron’s order? 7:12 For when the priesthood changes, a change in the law must come 2 as well.
8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one. 3 8:8 But 4 showing its fault, 5 God 6 says to them, 7
“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
8:9 “It will not be like the covenant 8 that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.
8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put 9 my laws in their minds 10 and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. 11
8:11 “And there will be no need at all 12 for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. 13
8:12 “For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.” 14
8:13 When he speaks of a new covenant, 15 he makes the first obsolete. Now what is growing obsolete and aging is about to disappear. 16
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. 17 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 18 no further consciousness of sin? 10:3 But in those sacrifices 19 there is a reminder of sins year after year. 10:4 For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. 20 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: 21 I have come – it is written of me in the scroll of the book – to do your will, O God.’” 22
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” 23 (which are offered according to the law), 10:9 then he says, “Here I am: I have come to do your will.” 24 He does away with 25 the first to establish the second.
3:15 Brothers and sisters, 28 I offer an example from everyday life: 29 When a covenant 30 has been ratified, 31 even though it is only a human contract, no one can set it aside or add anything to it.
1 tn Grk “based on it.”
2 tn Grk “of necessity a change in the law comes to pass.”
3 tn Grk “no occasion for a second one would have been sought.”
4 tn Grk “for,” but providing an explanation of the God-intended limitation of the first covenant from v. 7.
5 sn The “fault” or limitation in the first covenant was not in its inherent righteousness, but in its design from God himself. It was never intended to be his final revelation or provision for mankind; it was provisional, always pointing toward the fulfillment to come in Christ.
6 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tc ‡ Several witnesses (א* A D* I K P Ψ 33 81 326 365 1505 2464 al latt co Cyr) have αὐτούς (autous) here, “[in finding fault with] them, [he says],” alluding to Israel’s failings mentioned in v. 9b. (The verb μέμφομαι [memfomai, “to find fault with”] can take an accusative or dative direct object.) The reading behind the text above (αὐτοίς, autoi"), supported by Ì46 א2 B D2 0278 1739 1881 Ï, is perhaps a harder reading theologically, and is more ambiguous in meaning. If αὐτοίς goes with μεμφόμενος (memfomeno", here translated “showing its fault”), the clause could be translated “in finding fault with them” or “in showing [its] faults to them.” If αὐτοίς goes with the following λέγει (legei, “he says”), the clause is best translated, “in finding/showing [its] faults, he says to them.” The accusative pronoun suffers no such ambiguity, for it must be the object of μεμφόμενος rather than λέγει. Although a decision is difficult, the dative form of the pronoun best explains the rise of the other reading and is thus more likely to be original.
8 tn Grk “not like the covenant,” continuing the description of v. 8b.
9 tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”
10 tn Grk “mind.”
11 tn Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.
12 tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”
13 tn Grk “from the small to the great.”
14 sn A quotation from Jer 31:31-34.
15 tn Grk “when he says, ‘new,’” (referring to the covenant).
16 tn Grk “near to disappearing.”
17 tn Grk “those who approach.”
18 tn Grk “the worshipers, having been purified once for all, would have.”
19 tn Grk “in them”; the referent (those sacrifices) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 tn Grk “for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
21 tn Grk “behold,” but this construction often means “here is/there is” (cf. BDAG 468 s.v. ἰδού 2).
22 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.”
23 sn Various phrases from the quotation of Ps 40:6 in Heb 10:5-6 are repeated in Heb 10:8.
24 tc The majority of
25 tn Or “abolishes.”
26 tn Grk “render inoperative.”
27 tn Grk “but” (Greek ἀλλά, alla).
28 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.
29 tn Grk “I speak according to man,” referring to the illustration that follows.
30 tn The same Greek word, διαθήκη (diaqhkh), can mean either “covenant” or “will,” but in this context the former is preferred here because Paul is discussing in vv. 16-18 the Abrahamic covenant.
31 tn Or “has been put into effect.”
32 tc Most