Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Hebrews 9:11 - 9:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Heb_9:11-12. Antithesis to Heb_9:9-10. What the religion of the Mosaic covenant was unable to effect, that has been accomplished by Christ.
παραγενόμενος ἀρχιερεὺς τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ] having appeared as High Priest of the good things to come. The verb in the same sense as Mat_3:1, 1Ma_4:46; synonymous with ἀνίστασθαι , Heb_7:11; Heb_7:15. Strangely misapprehending the meaning, Ebrard: παραγενόμενος is to be looked upon as an “adjectival attribute” to ἀρχιερεύς , and the thought is, “as a present High Priest,”—an acceptation which is incompatible with the participle of the aorist.
High Priest of the good things to come (comp. Heb_10:1) is Christ called, inasmuch as these good things are the consequence and result of His high-priestly activity. They are the blessings of everlasting salvation, which the author, Heb_9:12, sums up in the expression αἰωνία λύτρωσις ; and they are called future, inasmuch as they are proper to the αἰὼν μέλλων (Heb_6:5), or the οἰκουμένη μέλλουσα (Heb_2:5), and the full enjoyment of them will first come in at the consummation of the kingdom of God, to be looked for with the return of Christ.
διὰ τῆς μείζονος καὶ τελειοτέρας σκηνῆς κ . τ . λ .] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, which is not made with hands—that is to say, not of this world. The words belong to εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὰ ἅγια , Heb_9:12, and διά is used in the local sense: “through” (not instrumentally, as the διά , Heb_9:12). To join the words to that which precedes, and find in them an indication of that by means of which Christ became ἀρχιερεὺς τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν (Primasius, Luther, Dorscheus, Schulz, Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 1, pp. 409, 412 f., 2 Aufl.,—which latter will accordingly also take the διά , Heb_9:12, in both cases along with ἀρχιερεὺς τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ; otherwise, however, in the Comm. p. 337,
Moll, and others), is erroneous, because by virtue of οὐδέ , Heb_9:12, the existence of an already preceding link in the nearer definition of εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὰ ἅγια is presupposed.
But to interpret the σκηνή through which Christ has entered into the Most Holy Place as the body of Christ, or His human nature (so, on account of Heb_10:20, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Primasius, Clarius, Calvin, Beza, Estius, Piscator, Jac. Cappellus, Grotius, Hammond, Owen, Bengel, Peirce, Sykes, Ernesti, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Friederich, Symbolik des Mos. Stiftshütte, Leipz. 1841, p. 296 ff., and others; also Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 1, p. 415, 2 Aufl., who, however, will have us think of the glorified human nature of Christ), or as the holy life of Christ (Ebrard), or as the (militant) church upon earth (Cajetan, Corn. a Lapide, Calov, Wittich, Braun, Wolf, Rambach, Michaelis, ad Peirc., Cramer, Baumgarten), or, finally, as the world in general (Justinian, Carpzov), is inconsistent with the point of comparison suggested by the comparatives μείζονος and τελειοτέρας in accordance with the foregoing disquisition, in general is opposed to the connection with Heb_9:1-10, and has against it the antithesis in which τὰ ἅγια , Heb_9:12, stands to σκηνή , Heb_9:11, as also the addition οὐ ταύτης τῆς κτίσεως . The lower spaces of the heavens are intended—corresponding to the πρώτη σκηνή of the earthly sanctuary (Heb_9:2; Heb_9:6; Heb_9:8)—as the preliminary stage of the heavenly Holy of Holies. Comp. Heb_4:14 : διεληλυθότα τοὺς οὐρανούς .
μείζονος καὶ τελειοτέρας ] sc. than the Mosaic σκηνή .
οὐ χειροποιήτου ] Comp. Heb_8:2 : ἣν ἔπηξεν ὁ κύριος , οὐκ ἄνθρωπος , Act_7:48; Act_17:24; Mar_14:58; 2Co_5:1.
οὐ ταύτης τῆς κτίσεως ] not belonging to the earthly created world (the earth) lying before one’s eyes ( ταύτης ). Wrongly Erasmus, Luther, Clarius, Vatablus, Beza, Jac. Cappellus, Wolf, Bengel, Kuinoel, Friederich, l.c. p. 296, and others: not of this kind of building, sc. the same as the earthly sanctuary; or: as earthly things in general.