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Heb_8:2. Declaration of the capacity in which Christ has sat down at the right hand of God: as a sacrificing priest of the true sanctuary and tabernacle, which the Lord erected, not a man. Heb_8:2 is to be joined without any comma to Heb_8:1. For only the qualification of the ἐκάθισεν κ . τ . λ ., Heb_8:1, which is first added by means of Heb_8:2,—not merely the fact of the καθίσαι in itself, since this had already been often mentioned in the epistle,—contains the new main feature which the author aims at bringing into prominence.
τῶν ἁγίων ] is not masculine (Oecumenius: ἀρχιερεύς φησι τῶν ἡγιασμένων παρʼ αὐτοῦ ἀνθρώπων · ἡμῶν γάρ ἐστιν ἀρχιερεύς , Primasius, Cajetan, Schulz, Paulus, Stengel) but neuter; it denotes, however, neither the holy things (Luther, Hunnius, Balduin), nor that which is required for the priestly service (Seb. Schmidt, Braun, Rambach, Ewald), nor “such holy things as stand in essential relation to the σκηνὴ ἀληθινή ” (Kurtz), but the sanctuary (according to Erasmus, Jac. Cappellus, Böhme, Stuart, Bloomfield, Bisping, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 513; Alford, Maier, and others, specially: the Most Holy Place), in which (or: in regard to which) the priestly service is performed. Comp. Heb_9:8; Heb_9:12; Heb_9:24-25, Heb_10:19, Heb_13:11.
Synonymous with τῶν ἁγίων is the τῆς σκηνῆς , added by way of elucidation; and from the adjective of the latter, τῆς ἀληθινῆς , we have also to supply in thought the corresponding adjective τῶν ἀληθινῶν (comp. Heb_9:24) to the foregoing τῶν ἁίγων . For even the earthly high priest was a τῶν ἁγίων λειτουργός ; only a τῶν ἁγίων τῶν ἀγηθινῶν λειτουργός he was not.
λειτουργός ] Comp. λειτουργεῖν , Heb_10:11, and λειτουργία , Heb_8:6; Heb_9:21; Php_2:17; Luk_1:23. With the classic writers, λειτουργός denotes the bearer of any public office, or office of the State. In the general sense of a “servant” it stands Heb_1:7; Rom_13:6; Php_2:25. But already with the LXX. (Neh_10:39; cf. Sir_7:30, al.) it is spoken specially of him who discharges priestly service. In accordance therewith it has here, too (comp. Heb_8:3), as well as Rom_15:16, the signification: sacrificing priest.
τῆς ἀληθινῆς ] The σκηνή is called true, not in opposition to the false, but as the archetype[85] existing in heaven in contrast with the earthly image of the same (Heb_8:5), which latter, as is always the case with the copy in relation to the original, could be only something imperfect.
ἣν ἔπηξεν ] Comp. Exo_33:7.
Ὁ ΚΎΡΙΟς ] is here God, as elsewhere in our epistle only in the O. T. citations.
ὁ κύριος , οὐκ ἄνθρωπος ] Comp. ΣΚΗΝῆς Οὐ ΧΕΙΡΟΠΟΙΉΤΟΥ , Heb_9:11; Οὐ ΧΕΙΡΟΠΟΊΗΤΑ ἍΓΙΑ , Heb_9:24.
[85] Comp. Wis_9:8 : εἶπας οἰκοδομῆσαι ναὸν … καὶ … θυσιαστήριον , μίμημα σκηνῆς ἁγίας , ἣν προητοίμασας ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς .