Lange Commentary - Hebrews 10:1 - 10:4

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Lange Commentary - Hebrews 10:1 - 10:4


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V

The perpetually repeated expiations of the old covenant attest their impotence for any real taking away of sin

Heb_10:1-4

1For the law having a shadow of [the] good things to come, and [om. and] not the very image of the things, Song of Solomon 1 never with those [the same] sacrifices, which they offered [offer, ðñïóöÝñïõóéí ] year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged [having once for all been cleansed] should [would] have had no more conscience [or consciousness] of sins. 3But in those sacrifices [in them] there is a remembrance 4again made [om. made] of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin.

[Heb_10:1— Óêéὰí ãὰñ ἔ÷ùí , for a shadow the law having, etc. The emphasis of the Greek order of words can hardly be reached in English.— êáô ’ ἐíéáõôüí , annually, year by year, is difficult as to position. Ebr., Hofm., Del., Alf. connect with ïὐäÝðïôå äýíáôáé ; Calv., Bl. De W., etc., with ðñïóöÝñïõóéí . The former seems the easier, and, though harsh in construction, very forcible, “year by year with the same sacrifices, etc., can never.” But see below.— ἂò ðñïóöÝñïõóéí , which they offer, not as Eng. ver. offered, the figure of the present time having been kept up from the preceding chapter, and especially as the old covenant sacrifices did undoubtedly still continue. Still, that the writer’s mind is mainly on the past, is shown by the Aor. ἐðáýóáíôï , for which, if he had distinct reference to the present time, the Imperf. ἐðáýïíôï should be used.

Heb_10:2.— ἐðåß , since, viz: in that case, Rom_3:6; 1Co_15:29— óõíåßäçóéí , consciousness=moral consciousness, conscience.— ἅðáî êåêáè ., having been once for all cleansed.

Heb_10:3.— ἐí áὐôáῖò , in them; the addition of the Eng. ver. is unnecessary.— ἀíÜìíçóéò , a calling to mind, remembrance.— êáô ’ ἐíéáõôüí , year by year.

Heb_10:4.— ἀäýíáôïí ãÜñ , for it is impossible, Heb_6:4.—K.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_10:1.—Image.— Åἰêþí is not the essence itself (Peshito, Luth., Grot., Justiniani, etc.); nor the primitive form of the original (Stengel) which is then explained as the substantial essence of the things; nor merely the finished picture in contrast with the slight and shadowy outline (Chrys., Theodoret, etc.); but the living historical form, in which the invisible essence finds its representation.

Can never, etc.—The ðñïóöÝñïíôåò are the priests, the ðñïóåñ÷üìåíïé are the members of the congregation to whom the offering belongs. Êáô ’ ἐíéáõôüí is connected by Ebr., Hofm., Del., Alf., with ïὐäÝðïôå äýíáôáé , by Calv., Bl., De W., etc., with ἂò ðñïóöÝñ . by most intpp. with ôáῖò áὐôáῖò èõóßáéò =the same year by year, or annual offerings. Hofm. also connects, with Paulus and Lachm., åἰò ôὸ äéçíåêÝò with ôåëåéῶóáé , and further makes the ðñïóåñ÷üìåíïé the subject of ðñïóöÝñ . We should thus have the statement that the individual members of the congregation, by the fact of their continuing throughout the year to bring offerings for themselves, and these of the same kind as those brought by the high-priests, viz.: animal offerings, furnished a practical proof of the insufficiency of the law, and of the expiatory offerings ordained by the law, and annually offered by the high-priest in behalf of the whole congregation, to produce any real and permanent perfection. In favor of this we may indeed be pointed to the like connection, ôåëåéïῦí åἰò ôὸ äéçíåêÝò Heb_10:14, and to the sharp contrast of this idea “perfecting in perpetuum” with the ïὐäÝðïôå ; but, on the other hand, we may urge with Bleek, and others the tameness of the relative clause, ἃò ðñïóöÝñïõóéí when standing without åἰò ôὸ äéçí ., and the forcible suggestion of Tholuck, that the very combination êáô ’ ἐíéáõôὸí ôáíò áὐôáῖò èõóßáéò åἰò ôὸ äéçíçêÝò , in connection with the ïὐäÝðïôå , presents, as in a vivid picture, an endlessly recurring round of painful and unavailing ceremonies (as at Heb_10:11). The individual expressions will not aid in solving the problem. Åἰò ôὸ äéçíåê ́ ò (an Ionic form for the Attic äéáíåêÝò , which found its way into familiar use) harmonizes well with the idea that the offering of sacrifices, under the dominion and in accordance with the purposes of the law, continues on indefinitely and endlessly into the future—a point unsuccessfully combated by Hofmann. Nor again does the word ëáôñåýåéí , Heb_10:2, necessitate our adoption of Hofmann’s view; for though we grant, indeed, that the term here denotes no priestly function, (as Este., etc.), but refers to the service of the private members of the congregation; yet this service again does not here as at Heb_9:9, refer to the offering of gifts and sacrifices, but to the general religious worship of the congregation who, by means of priestly offerings, were drawing near to God. On the other hand, we must concede (comp. Heb_11:4; Heb_11:17, with Sept., at Num_31:50) that the statement of Del., that ðñïóöÝñåéí , in our Epistle, denotes exclusively an official and priestly offering, must be accepted with limitation. The decision then of the question turns upon this. The author is assigning the ground for the declaration, made but a little before, of Christ’s having entered, once for all, with His high-priestly offering of Himself into the heavenly holy of holies. He finds this ground in the utter inefficacy of the annually recurring expiatory sacrifices of the Levitical high-priest, which were ordained by the law, and which were of ever unvarying quality, and which had, therefore, but one significance in their bearing on the establishment of the New Covenant, which was at once promised and typified in the old. The law, in consequence of its peculiar nature—a nature inseparable from its purpose and destination—has not the power, by its annually recurring and prescribed expiatory offerings, to secure for the congregation perfection, i.e., that substantial and abiding purification which brings them into relationship with God. Could such have been the effect of these offerings on the congregation, the annual sin-offerings, and with these the Old Covenant itself would have ceased, and been done away; there would have been such a removal and doing away of the sense of guilt, as could take place only on the basis of completely satisfactory, and hence final and unrepeated sacrifice. This view of Hofm. thus becomes, in every way, improbable. It is discountenanced alike by the fact that even in the New Covenant the individual members of the church may not cease to seek, on the basis of the expiation once for all accomplished by Christ, individual reconciliation and continued forgiveness of their sins, and also that even in the Old Covenant the continued service and offerings of individuals were no less studiously and explicitly enjoined than the annual sin-offering of the high-priest.

Heb_10:2.—For otherwise would they not have ceased, etc.—If we omit the ïὐê , the sentence must be taken as an affirmation; the better reading with ïὐê makes it interrogative. The construction of ðáýåóèáé , with the Particip., is entirely classical. Hofm. refers ἀëëÜ to the main negative statement of Heb_10:1, and translates, by “sondern,” making it simply the counterpart of that negative statement (viz: cannot make perfect, but, instead of that, there is a remembrance). But it is more natural to refer it to Heb_10:2 as=on the contrary. ἈíÜìíçóéò might mean (with Vulg., Calov, and others) commemoration, or (as Schlicht. Grot., Beng., etc.) commemoratio publica, in allusion to the three penitential acknowledgments of the high-priest on the day of atonement. But the common signification in memoriam revocatio is to be preferred as the more comprehensive. Del. has given in full the three penitential prayers in his history of Heb. poesy, p. 186 ff. Óõíåßäçóéò ἁìáñô . is not the consciousness of sin in general, but that which brings back upon the man the personal criminality, responsibility, and punishableness involved in his sins. Com. Güder. (Stud. und Krit., 1857 II. 279 ff. Inquiry into the Scriptural Doctrine of Conscience).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The heavenly good things are even to Christians still in the future; but because, and from the time when, Christ appeared as high-priest of those good things (Heb_9:11), we are brought into actual fellowship with them, and we have, as already tasting (Heb_6:5) the powers of the world to come, the pledge and the assurance that we shall yet, as children of God entitled to their inheritance, enter into their full possession. The Gospel renders possible not merely a clear and sharp expression of them, but also the formation of heavenly relations upon earth; the introduction and setting forth, the use and enjoyment of the heavenly good things even in the world, of which the law was able to furnish only an unsubstantial and shadowy image. “Christ stands, as it were, in the meridian light of the great day of time, and casts His shadow backwards over the whole Old Covenant. But as the shadow is seen only in the light, and comes out all the more clearly and sharply in proportion to the brightness of the light, so it is only in the light of the New Covenant that we recognize clearly the typical character of the old.” (Bisping).

2. With the certainty of an atonement actually accomplished, and truly acknowledged of God, comes a completed transformation of the moral and religious conscience and consciousness of man. No longer is this consciousness filled with sin and with the fear of righteous punishment, under the sense of unremoved guilt; but it enjoys reconciliation in consequence of the forgiveness of sin wrought through grace, and by virtue of an atonement. The subjects of this reconciliation, inasmuch as they are not yet brought to a state of perfection, need, it is true, the continuous appropriation of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, and of its influences; but inasmuch as they have been, once for all, brought into the new relation of salvation and peace with God, they have no need of the successive repetitions of that sacrifice. In fact, the repetition of the sin-offering shows, that it does not accomplish that which it signifies; that it is thus not the true sin-offering, as the animal sacrifices in pagan religions show indeed the need of an atonement, but are inadequate to the satisfaction of that need.

3. The idea of the sacrifice in the mass, as a bloodless repetition of the bloody sacrifice on the cross, is entirely irreconcilable with this passage of Scripture, which lays its emphasis upon the fact that the repetition of the atoning sacrifice points back to its objective insufficiency, which would thus only strengthen and deepen our longing after that perfect and effectual expiatory system which the old economy only prefigured and paved the way for.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The actual deliverance of the conscience from the stain and burden of sin, is accomplished neither through human services, nor through legal sacrifices, but only through the blood of Jesus Christ.—The connection between the service of God, approach to God, and human perfection.—The pain and the blessing of a remembrance of sin.—The means for the purification of the conscience in our religious services.

Starke:—All religious service must tend to this end, viz., the perfection of man.—The forgiveness of sin takes away all guilt and punishment, but not the root and entire stain of sin.—Conscience accuses and bears testimony that we are ever, repeatedly, sinning and needing forgiveness.—Alike the days of feasting, of fasting and of prayer, ordained by Christianity, serve for a memorial of the Divine benefits and of our sins.

Rieger:—Even the shadowy outline given by the law, is to be regarded as a great benefaction on the part of God.—The purification of the conscience is an inestimable good.

Menken:—So long as man does not possess the offering itself, but only a shadow of it, so long he must fail of true reconciliation. A shadow can never give that which lies only in the substance.

Heubner:—How great was the veneration of the Jews for the shadow! Do Christians hold in equal veneration the truth and reality?—What the blood of animals could not, the blood of Christ could effect.

Footnotes:

Heb_10:1.—The meaningless Plur. äýíáíôáé in Sin. A. C. D**. and many minusc. is to be regarded as a clerical error. In order to explain it Lachm. put a point after ðñáãìÜôùí , and omitted in his small ed. the relative before ðñïóöÝñ . with A., 2, 7*, 17, 47, while A*. 31, Philox. introduce áἵ before ïὐäÝðïôå . The Sing. is found in D*. D***. E. K. L. and many minusc., also Vulg. Itala. Copt.

Heb_10:1.—Instead of ἅò Bl., Tisch., Alf., read (after Sin. D*. L. (?) N. Lat. ver. before D. and E., also minusc. 73,173) áἴò , which, however, might have easily sprung from the endings of the three immediately preceding words.

Heb_10:2.—For ἐðåὶ ἄí all authorities require the reading ἐðåὶ ïὐê ἄí .

Heb_10:2.—The reading êåêáèáñéóìÝíïõò deserves the preference, as is also indicated by the reading êåêáèåñéóìÝíïõò in A. and C., (whether this orthography be a mere blunder in copying, or more probably, a conformity of the spelling to a careless pronunciation.)