Hebrews 9:10-12

9:10 They served only for matters of food and drink ¹  and various washings; they are external regulations ²  imposed until the new order came. ³ 

Christ’s Service in the Heavenly Sanctuary

9:11 But now Christ has come ⁴  as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, 9:12 and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured ⁵  eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:23-24

9:23 So it was necessary for the sketches ⁶  of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, ⁷  but the heavenly things themselves required ⁸  better sacrifices than these. 9:24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands – the representation ⁹  of the true sanctuary ¹⁰  – but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us.

¹ tn Grk “only for foods and drinks.”

² tc Most witnesses (D¹ Ï) have “various washings, and external regulations” (βαπτισμοῖς καὶ δικαιώμασιν, baptismoi" kai dikaiwmasin), with both nouns in the dative. The translation “washings; they are… regulations” renders βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα (baptismoi", dikaiwmata; found in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א* A I P 0278 33 1739 1881 al sa) in which case δικαιώματα is taken as the nominative subject of the participle ἐπικείμενα (epikeimena). It seems far more likely that scribes would conform δικαιώματα to the immediately preceding datives and join it to them by καί than they would to the following nominative participle. Both on external and internal evidence the text is thus secure as reading βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα.

³ tn Grk “until the time of setting things right.”

⁴ tn Grk “But Christ, when he came,” introducing a sentence that includes all of Heb 9:11-12. The main construction is “Christ, having come…, entered…, having secured…,” and everything else describes his entrance.

⁷ tn This verb occurs in the Greek middle voice, which here intensifies the role of the subject, Christ, in accomplishing the action: “he alone secured”; “he and no other secured.”

¹⁰ tn Or “prototypes,” “outlines,” referring to the earthly sanctuary. See Heb 8:5 above for the prior use of this term.

¹¹ tn Grk “with these”; in the translation the referent (sacrifices) has been specified for clarity.

¹² tn Grk “the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”

¹³ tn Or “prefiguration.”

¹⁴ tn The word “sanctuary” is not in the Greek text at this point, but has been supplied for clarity.