Thus, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not close your hearts as in the time of rebellion, on the day of trial in the desert, when your fathers made trial of me in a test of me, and they had looked on my works for forty years. And therefore I was enraged with that generation, and said: They always go astray in their hearts, and they do not understand my ways. So I swore in my anger that they shall not come into my rest.
See to it, brothers, that there can never be in any of you a heart evil and faithless in forsaking the living God, but keep encouraging each other every day, while it is still called today, so that no one of you may be hardened by the beguilement of sin; for we are partners of the Christ, if only we can keep our original condition firm to the end.
in the saying: Today, if you hear his voice, do not close your hearts as in the time of rebellion, who heard and rebelled? Was it not all who went out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was God enraged for forty years? Was it not with the sinners, whose bodies collapsed in the desert? Against whom, if not the unbelievers, did he swear that they should never come into his rest? And we see that they did not come into his rest, through unbelief.
We should be afraid, then, that, while his promise that we shall come into his rest still remains open, some one of you might be judged to have come short. For we also have received the gospel as those others did, but the word they had heard did them no good, since they had no admixture of faith in what they had heard. For we who do believe are going into his rest; but as he said: So I swore in my anger, that they shall not come into my rest. And yet his works had been done since the beginning of the world; for scripture says at one point concerning the seventh day: And on the seventh day God rested from all his works; and again, in this place: They shall never come into my rest. Since, then, it remains for some to come into it, and those who formerly received the gospel did not come in because of their unbelief, once more he sets a certain day, today; as he says through David after all that time, as has been said here before: Today, if you hear his voice, do not close your hearts.
For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken about another day after that. But there remains a sabbath for the people of God; since one who comes into God's rest also rests from his works, as God rested from his own works.
Let us then strive to enter into that rest, so that none may fall through the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is alive and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and cuts through to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrows, and it can judge the thoughts and purposes of the heart; and there is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and helpless before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Since, then, we have a great high priest, Jesus the son of God, who has passed through the heavens, let us hold fast to our belief ; for the high priest we have is not one who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, since he has suffered all the trials we have, except that he did not sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to rescue us in our time of need.
For every high priest is selected from among men and appointed to perform, on behalf of men, duties before God, to offer gifts and sacrifice for sins committed. He can be moderate with those who are ignorant and go astray because he himself is submerged in weakness, and because of it he is bound to make offerings for sins on his own account also, as well as for the people. And the priest does not take the office upon himself but is called by God, like Aaron. So even the Christ did not do himself the honor of becoming high priest, but rather he who said to him: You are my son, this day I begot you; as he also said in another place: You are priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. And in his days of the flesh he addressed entreaties and supplications to him who could save him from death, with strong outcry and tears; and after being heard because of piety, even though he was the son, he le^ed obedience from his sufferings; and, made perfect, he became for all who obey him the cause of everlasting salvation, being called by God high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
About him we have much to say which is difficult to explain to you, since you have become dull listeners. For by this time you ought to be teachers, but you need to have someone teach you again the elementary first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk, not solid food. For anyone who takes milk is ignorant of the study of righteousness, since he is an infant; solid food is for the mature who have their faculties trained through practice to distinguish good from bad.
Let us therefore pass over the elementary study of the Christ and go on to mature study; not once again laying down the foundations of repentance for dead acts, and belief in God, teaching about baptisms and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and the everlasting judgment. This we shall do, if God permits. For when once men have been enlightened, when they have tasted the gift of heaven and been participators in the Holy Spirit, and known the beautiful language of God and the powers of the age to come, and then fallen away, it is impossible for them to come into a new repentance, since they are crucifying the son of God for themselves and making a spectacle of him. For when the earth drinks the rain constantly falling upon it, and produces an acceptable plant for those by whom it is cultivated, it wins praise from God; but when it bears thorns and thistles it is despised and close to being accursed, and the end is burning.
But concerning you, dear friends, even though we speak as we do, we are convinced of better things, which go with salvation. For God is not unfair, so that he could forget your work and the love you have shown for his name, serving the saints in the past and serving them still. But we desire that each one of you should show the same enthusiasm, to the last, toward the fulfilment of your hope; not to be dull, but to imitate those who, by faith and patience, are given a share in the promise.
For when God made his promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself, saying: In my blessing I will surely bless you, and in my multiplying I will multiply you. And thus, after waiting patiently, Abraham gained the promise. For human people swear by one greater than themselves, and the oath is final confirmation in any dispute. God, therefore, wishing to make even plainer to the heirs of his promise how unchangeable was his will, guaranteed it with an oath; so that, by means of two acts in which it is impossible for God to deceive us, we who have taken refuge with him may have strong assurance that we shall grasp the hope that lies before us. This hope we have as an anchor for our life, steady and secure and reaching to the ^wermost place behind the curtain, where Jesus entered as our forerunner, made high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
This Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of God the all- highest, is the one who met Abraham as he reamed from the slaughter of the Kings, and blessed him, the one to whom Abraham allotted a tenth of all the spoils; meaning, when translated, first, King of Righteousness, then King of Salem, that is, King of Peace, fatherless, motherless, without genealogy, with neither a beg^ning of his days nor an end of his life, in the likeness of the son of God, he remains as priest for all time.
Consider how great was this one to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of his spoils. And those from among the sons of Levi who assume the priesthood are commanded by the law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brothers, even though these are the issue of the loins of Abraham; but the one with no genealogy took a tenth from Abraham, and blessed the holder of the promises. Beyond any argument, it is the lesser who receives the blessing of the greater. And here, it is men who perish who take the tenth; but there, it is he of whom it is testified that he lives. And, so to speak, Levi also, who received the tenths, paid his tenth also, through Abraham, being still in the loins of his forefather when Melchizedek encountered him.
If, then, there could be perfection through the Leviti- c
al priesthood, through which the people received the law, what use would there be in having another priest raised up in the order of Melchizedek rather than his being called in the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there comes a change of the law. He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, no member of which approached the altar; for it is evident that our Lord originated from the tribe of Judah, which Moses never mentioned in connection with priests. And the case is still clearer when another priest is raised up in the order of Melchizedek, and has become priest not by decree of human law but through the power of imperishable life; for it is attested: You are priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. The former commandment is canceled because of its weakness and uselessness, since the law brought nothing to perfection; but a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath sworn; for these others became priests without an oath sworn, but he with an oath sworn by the one who said to him: The Lord swore, and he will not change his word, you are priest forever; by so much the more is Jesus the guarantee of a greater covenant. Those priests were many because death prevented any one of them from enduring; but he, because he endures forever, holds a priesthood in which none can succeed him. He can, therefore, forever save those who through him come before God, since he lives forever to intercede for them.
It was fitting that our high priest should be such a one, holy, without evil, without stain, removed from siners and made higher than the heavens. He has no day-by-day need, as the high priests do, to offer sacrifices first for his own sins and then for those of the people. For he did this once for all in offering up himself. For the law appoints as high priests human beings who have their weaknesses; but the word of the oath sworn since the law appoints the son, perfect forever.
11 To summarize what has been said, such is the high priest we have, one who sits at the right of the throne of greatness in the heavens, minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord, not man, set in place. Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; so he too would have to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are those who offer gifts according to the law. These serve the imitation and the shadow of the things in heaven, as Moses was directed to do when he was about to complete the tabernacle; for see to it, God said, that you make everything on the model of what was shown you on the mountain. But Christ has been given a higher ministry, inasmuch as he is mediator of a greater covenant, which is made law on the strength of greater promises. For if that first covenant had been without fault, no place would have been needed for a second; but he does find fault with them when he says: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will compact a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not keep to my covenant, and I have put them out of my mind, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, giving them my laws for their understanding, and I will inscribe them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they must not instruct each other, each man saying to his fellow citizen or his brother: Know the Lord; because all of them, from small to great, will know me; because I shall be merciful to their wrongdoings, and I shall no longer remember their sins.
In speaking of a new covenant he has made the old one antiquated; but what is antiquated and grows old is close to disappearing.
11The first covenant did have its rules for service and a sanctuary on earth. A tabe^cle was set up, the first one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the display of the showbread; this is called the Holy. And beyond the next curtain is the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, containing a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, entirely overlaid with gold; and there is a golden jar containing the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded and the tablets of the covenant, and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the seat of mercy; concerning which things it is not now possible to speak in detail. Such being their arrangement, the priests enter the first tabernacle constantly in the performance of their duties; but only the high priest enters the second, once a year, not without blood offering which he brings for his own errors and those of the people. And this is what the Holy Spirit shows us: that while the first tabernacle is still in place the way to the sanctuaries is not revealed. It is a symbol for our present time, when gifts and sacrifices are brought which cannot make the worshipper conscious of perfection, but it is only a matter of things eaten andand various
washings, regulations for the flesh applied until the time of the new order.
But Christ arrived as high priest of all the good things which have come about through the greater and more final tabernacle not made by human hands, that is, not of this world; and not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered once for all into the holy place, having found everlasting redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkled ashes of a heifer can hallow those who are defiled for the lustration of their flesh, how much more will the blood of the Christ, who through his everlasting spirit offered himself without fault to God, purify our conscience, away from dead acts to the service of the living God. And for this reason he is the mediator of a new testament, so that, with his death coming for absolution from their sins under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promise of an everlasting inheritance. For in the case of a testament, the death of the testator must be involved; since a testament has force after death has occurred, but it has no force while the testator is still living.
Even the first covenant, therefore, was not established without blood; for when the whole commandment had been declared by Moses to all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled the book itself and all the people, saying: This is the blood of the covenant which God decreed for you. And in the same way he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of service. And, by the law, practically everything is purified by blood, and without bloodshed there is no remission.
It must be, then, that while the copies of things in heaven are purified by these means, the actual things in heaven must be purified by sacrifices greater than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands which was a copy of the real thing, but he entered heaven itself, to appear before the face of God for our sake. Not to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the sanctuary once every year with blood that is not his own, since then he must have suffered again and again since the beginning of the world; but now, once for all at the conclusion of the ages, he has appeared, to abolish sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is the lot of man to die once, with the judgment coming after that, so the Christ was offered once for the taking away of the sins of many, and will appear a second time, without relation to sin, to those who look for his coming, for their salvation.
I The law, possessing the shadow of the good things to come, not the actual form of the things, cannot, by the same sacrifices which they offer, continually year by year, ever bring to perfection those who come to God. Otherwise, would not these have ceased to be offered? Since, once absolved, the worshippers would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices is the yearly remembrance of sins, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take sins away.
So, coming into the world, Christ says: You did not want sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. in whole burnt offerings even for sin, you took no delight. Then I said: Behold, I come; in the scroU of a book it is written concerning me; to do, О God, your will. And, while he said above that you di
d not want sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings even for sin, which are offered according to the law, nor take delight in them, then he said: Behold, I come to do your will. He takes away the first so that the second may stand. By which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.
And every priest stands day by day performing services and again and again offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, after offering for sins one sacrifice for all time, sat downwn on the right hand of God, waiting henceforth for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet; for with one offering he has made those who are consecrated perfect for all time. And our witness to this is the Holy Spirit; for after saying: This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, giving them my laws for their hearts, and I will inscribe them upon their understanding. And I shaU no longer remember their sins and their transgressions. But where there is remission of these, there is no longer any offering for sins.
Having therefore confidence, brothers, for entrance into the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way he has made for us through the curtain, that is, his flesh, and having a great priest set over the house of God, let us approach with true heart in abundance of faith, our hearts purged of bad conscience, our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold fast to our belief in the hope, for he who gave us the promise is to be trusted. And let us study each other to stimulate love and good works, not failing to attend our own meetings, as is the way of some, but encouraging each other, all the more so inasmuch as you see the Day coming nearer.
For when we willingly sin after having received perception of the truth, there is no longer left any sacrifice for sin, only the terrible expectation of judgment, and of fire eager to devour its opponents. If one has broken the law of Moses he dies without pity on the word of two or three witnesses; how much worse do you suppose will be the punishment accorded to one who has trampled down the son of God, and called unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the spirit of grace? We know who it was who said: Mine is the vengeance, I will repay. And again: The Lord will judge his people. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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