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Heb_9:8. Now follows (apparently as a subordinate thought) the main consideration, with a view to which the author has been led more fully to describe the ἅγιον κοσμικόν and the δικαιώματα λατρείας of Heb_9:1.
τοῦτο δηλοῦντος τοῦ πνεύματος ἁγίου ] the Holy Ghost indicating this very thing (following).
τοῦτο ] has the emphasis, and acquires its development of contents by means of μήπω πεφανερῶσθαι … στάσιν .
τοῦ πνεύματος ἁγίου ] The arrangement of the sanctuary and priesthood prescribed by God to Moses is thought of by our author as carried into effect by Moses under the assistance and guidance of the Holy Ghost; the idea expressed in that arrangement might therefore very easily be represented as an indication designed by the Holy Ghost.
μήπω πεφανερῶσθαι τὴν τῶν ἁγίων ὁδόν , ἔτι τῆς πρώτης σκηνῆς ἐχούσης στάσιν ] that the way of the sanctuary is not yet manifested, so long as the fore-tabernacle still exists.
τῶν ἁγίων ] is erroneously apprehended by the Peshito and Schulz (comp. also Zeger) as masculine. It is neuter. Does not, however, as Heb_9:2, denote the Holy Place, but, as Heb_9:12; Heb_9:24-25; Heb_10:19; Heb_13:11 (comp. also τὸ ἅγιον , Lev_16:16-17; Lev_16:20, al.), the Most Holy Place, and that not the earthly one (Kurtz),—for that would be a trifling statement; whereas surely τοῦτο δηλοῦντος τοῦ πνεύματος ἁγίου prepares the way for a deeper truth, vid. infra,—but the heavenly reality, the throne of the Godhead.
ἡ τῶν ἁγίων ὁδός signifies the way to the Most Holy Place. Comp. Mat_10:5 : εἰς ὁδὸν ἐθνῶν ; Jer_2:18 : τῇ ὁδῷ Αἰγύπτου , al.; Kühner, II. p. 176, Obs. 4; Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 176.
ἔχειν στάσιν further means: to have existence, to exist. We have not, however, with Böhme, to import into it a secondary reference to firmness or legal validity, and ἡ πρώτη σκηνή is not the one first in point of time, i.e. the earthly, Jewish sanctuary in opposition to the heavenly (Hunnius, Seb. Schmidt, Carpzov, Semler, Baumgarten, Bloomfield, al.), still less the tabernacle in opposition to the later temple (Peirce, Sykes), but the fore-tabernacle or Holy Place, in opposition to the interior tabernacle or Most Holy Place. The thought is: by the ordering that the Most Holy Place, the presence-chamber and place of manifestation of God, might not be entered, save on one single day of the year, and by the high priest alone, while the daily Levitical service of the priests is accomplished in the Holy Place, and thus approach to the former debarred and shut off by the latter, the Holy Ghost proclaims that so long as the Levitical priesthood, and consequently the Mosaic law in general, continues, the immediate access to God is not yet permitted; that thus, in order to the bringing about and rendering possible of a full and direct communion with God, the Old Testament covenant-religion must first fall, and the more perfect one brought in by Christ (Heb_9:11) must take its place. Comp. Mat_27:51, as also Josephus, Antiq. iii. 3. 7 : τὴν δὲ τρίτην μοῖραν [ τῆς σκηνῆς ] μόνῳ περιέγραψε τῷ θεῷ διὰ τὸ καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεπίβατον εἶναι ἀνθρώποις .