Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 9:13 - 9:13

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 9:13 - 9:13


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

13. εἰ γὰρ τὸ αἶμα κ.τ.λ. The writer has designedly chosen the two most striking sacrifices and ceremonials of the Levitical Law, namely the calf and the goat offered for the sins of people and priest on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), and “the water of separation,” or rather “of impurity,” i.e. “to remove impurity” “as a sin-offering,” described in Num 19:1-22 (comp. Heb 7:26). The blood of Christ is described as having at once a cleansing (1Jn 1:7, Rev 7:14) and an atoning efficacy, and by blending the two distinct types of the great yearly Atonement and of the Red Heifer, the writer here combines this twofold efficacy of expiation and purification into one.

δαμάλεως. The Jews have the interesting legend that nine such red heifers had been slain between the time of Moses and the destruction of the Temple.

τοὺς κεκοινωμένους. Those that have become ceremonially defiled, especially by having touched a corpse.

πρὸς τὴν τῆς σαρκὸς καθαρότητα, i.e. if these things are adequate to restore a man to ceremonial cleanness which was a type of moral purity. So much efficacy they had; they did make the worshipper ceremonially pure before God: their further and deeper efficacy depended on the faith and sincerity with which they were offered, and was derived from the one offering of which they were a type.