Exodus 24:8

24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on ¹  the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant ²  that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Zechariah 9:11

9:11 Moreover, as for you, because of our covenant relationship secured with blood, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.

John 6:53

6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ³  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ⁴  you have no life ⁵  in yourselves.

John 6:1

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

6:1 After this ⁶  Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias). ⁷ 

Colossians 1:16

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ⁸  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

Colossians 1:25

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ⁹  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ¹⁰  the word of God,

Hebrews 9:15-23

9:15 And so he is the mediator ¹¹  of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, ¹²  since he died ¹³  to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant. 9:16 For where there is a will, the death of the one who made it must be proven. ¹⁴  9:17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it carries no force while the one who made it is alive. 9:18 So even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. ¹⁵  9:19 For when Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 9:20 and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.” ¹⁶  9:21 And both the tabernacle and all the utensils of worship he likewise sprinkled with blood. 9:22 Indeed according to the law almost everything was purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 9:23 So it was necessary for the sketches ¹⁷  of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, ¹⁸  but the heavenly things themselves required ¹⁹  better sacrifices than these.

Hebrews 13:20-21

Benediction and Conclusion

13:20 Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ, 13:21 equip you with every good thing to do his will, working in us ²⁰  what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. ²¹  Amen.

[24:8]  ¹ tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).

[24:8]  ² sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.

[6:53]  ³ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[6:53]  ⁴ sn Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. These words are at the heart of the discourse on the Bread of Life, and have created great misunderstanding among interpreters. Anyone who is inclined toward a sacramental viewpoint will almost certainly want to take these words as a reference to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, because of the reference to eating and drinking. But this does not automatically follow: By anyone’s definition there must be a symbolic element to the eating which Jesus speaks of in the discourse, and once this is admitted, it is better to understand it here, as in the previous references in the passage, to a personal receiving of (or appropriation of) Christ and his work.

[6:53]  ⁵ tn That is, “no eternal life” (as opposed to physical life).

[6:1]  ⁶ tn Again, μετὰ ταῦτα (meta tauta) is a vague temporal reference. How Jesus got from Jerusalem to Galilee is not explained, which has led many scholars (e.g., Bernard, Bultmann, and Schnackenburg) to posit either editorial redaction or some sort of rearrangement or dislocation of material (such as reversing the order of chaps. 5 and 6, for example). Such a rearrangement of the material would give a simple and consistent connection of events, but in the absence of all external evidence it does not seem to be supportable. R. E. Brown (John [AB], 1:236) says that such an arrangement is attractive in some ways but not compelling, and that no rearrangement can solve all the geographical and chronological problems in John.

[6:1]  ⁷ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. Only John in the New Testament refers to the Sea of Galilee by the name Sea of Tiberias (see also John 21:1), but this is correct local usage. In the mid-20’s Herod completed the building of the town of Tiberias on the southwestern shore of the lake; after this time the name came into use for the lake itself.

[1:16]  ⁸ tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.

[1:25]  ⁹ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ¹⁰ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

[9:15]  ¹¹ tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.

[9:15]  ¹² tn Grk “the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

[9:15]  ¹³ tn Grk “a death having occurred.”

[9:16]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “there is a necessity for the death of the one who made it to be proven.”

[9:18]  ¹⁵ sn The Greek text reinforces this by negating the opposite (“not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood”), but this double negation is not used in contemporary English.

[9:20]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “which God commanded for you (or in your case).”

[9:23]  ¹⁷ tn Or “prototypes,” “outlines,” referring to the earthly sanctuary. See Heb 8:5 above for the prior use of this term.

[9:23]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “with these”; in the translation the referent (sacrifices) has been specified for clarity.

[9:23]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”

[13:21]  ²⁰ tc Some mss (C P Ψ 6 629* 630 1505 pm latt sy^h) read ὑμῖν (Jumin, “in you”) here, but ἡμῖν (Jhmin) has stronger external support (Ì⁴⁶ א A D^vid K 0243 0285 33 81 104 326 365 629^c 1175 1739 1881 pm sy^p co). It is also more likely that ἡμῖν would have been changed to ὑμῖν in light of the “you” which occurs at the beginning of the verse than vice versa.

[13:21]  ²¹ tc ‡ Most mss (א A [C*] 0243 0285 33 1739 1881 Ï latt) include the words “and ever” here, but the shorter reading (supported by Ì⁴⁶ C³ D Ψ 6 104 365 1505 al) is preferred on internal grounds. It seemed more likely that scribes would assimilate the wording to the common NT doxological expression “for ever and ever,” found especially in the Apocalypse (cf., e.g., 1 Tim 1:17; 2 Tim 4:18; Rev 4:9; 22:5) than to the “forever” of Heb 13:8. Nevertheless, a decision is difficult here. NA²⁷ places the phrase in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.