Hebrews 9:11-12

Christ’s Service in the Heavenly Sanctuary

9:11 But now Christ has come ¹  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 ²  eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:15-17

9:15 And so he is the mediator ³  of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, ⁴  since he died ⁵  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. ⁶  9:17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it carries no force while the one who made it is alive.

[9:11]  ¹ 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.

[9:12]  ² 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.”

[9:15]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Grk “the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

[9:15]  ⁵ tn Grk “a death having occurred.”

[9:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “there is a necessity for the death of the one who made it to be proven.”