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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 8:13 - 8:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
In that he saith a new covenant (ἐν τῷ λέγειν καινήν)
Lit. “in his saying new.”
He hath made the first old (πεπαλαίωκεν τὴν πρώτην)
Παλαιοῦν to make old, only in Hebrews and Luk 12:33. Comp. Heb 1:11.
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old (τὸ δὲ παλαιούμενου καὶ γηράσκον)
Rend. but that which is becoming old and waxing aged. Γηράσκειν (only here and Joh 21:18) adds the idea of infirmity to that of age.
Is ready to vanish away (ἐγγύς ἀφανισμοῦ)
Lit. is nigh unto vanishing. Ἀφανισμός vanishing, N.T.o. Often in lxx. Class. rare and late. The whole statement indicates that the writer regarded the Sinaitic covenant, even in Jeremiah's time, as obsolete, and that Jeremiah himself so regarded it. When God announced a new covenant he proclaimed the insufficiency of the old, and the promise of a new covenant carried with it the promise of the abrogation of the old. The new covenant is so shaped as to avoid the defects of the old one, and some one has remarked that, in one aspect, it is a criticism of the Sinaitic covenant. The following are its provisions: (1) The law will no more be merely external, but a law written in the heart. Comp. 2Co 3:8. (2) The people will be on intimate and affectionate terms with God, so that the knowledge of God will be general. (3) Sin will be dealt with more radically and effectively.