“the priest never sat down”
Download discussion questions: Hebrews 10:3-18
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I encourage you to look at the passage in Hebrews before you read this Blog entry. What do you see in the text yourself? What questions come to your mind? How would you interpret what the writer says? After even a few minutes examining and thinking about the text you will be much better prepared to evaluate the comments in the Blog.
A Curious Quotation
Early in our discussion one person raised an awkward question. Comparing Hebrews 10:5b with the Old Testament passage being quoted (Psalm 40:6) is a bit puzzling at best.
Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened
(Psalm 40:6a)
Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me (Hebrews 10:5b)
What are we to make of that difference? The quotation in Hebrews is quite different from the text in Psalms. Does this shake our confidence in the inspiration of Scripture? Should it? Is it better just to ignore the problem and move on?
Ignoring a problem is not helpful, especially if it leaves a nagging question (or doubt, a topic of last week’s discussion) about the trustworthiness of God’s written Word. A bit of research was helpful.
Almost all English versions of the Psalm mention the ear(s).[1] Only two even use the word “body” in that verse, but as more of an interpretive paraphrase.[2] Someone found a note (using quick smartphone search) about the phrase “opened my ears.” The actual words of the Psalm in the Hebrew language were “dug” or even “pierced” my ears. That insight at first did not seem very helpful.
Then we talked about idioms, and what “dug my ears” might intend to communicate. And the translators of English Bibles were agreed that “opened my ears” (NASB1995, etc.) or even “prepared my ears to listen” (ISV) are accurate representations of the original language.
Our group suggested other ways of understanding that foreign idiom: “ready to listen” or “ears to hear” or even the possible paraphrase, “prepared me to obey.” But that is still not quite what the pastor quotes in the sermon to the Hebrews.
Then we talked a bit about the Septuagint (often abbreviated LXX, the Roman numeral for seventy, referring to the tradition of seventy scholars who did the translating). The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures prepared for the largely Greek speaking world at the time. Most (if not all) of the Old Testament quotations in the book of Hebrews were taken from the Septuagint, the Bible most familiar to the original audience. That Greek version is the source of the wording, “a body you have prepared for me.”
Taking the figure of speech as a part (the ear) representing the whole body is not unusual (a “synecdoche” as in “hired hands” for workers). God’s true desire was not for the animal sacrifices, and the New Testament writer saw the figure of speech applied to Jesus, the true Sacrifice. The apparent anomaly turns out to be a reasonable expression of the pastor’s inspired intent.
This was a great example of the importance of dealing with difficult questions in a discussion about a Bible text or a theological or historical question. God’s truth is true, and He can withstand the questions. Awkward questions can lead to uncomfortable discussions but end in even deeper faith and confidence in God’s Word.
New for Old
Our discussion moved on to other topics within the text instead of about the text.
We considered the impact of this passage on a first-century Christian with Jewish heritage. As several people commented, these were Christians who had left that heritage and were facing increasing persecution. Going back to that familiar, comfortable, relatively safe environment was an attractive alternative to following a martyred Messiah.
The text uses strong language, quoting from familiar Scriptures. Returning to that sacrificial system was no longer possible. In fact, it was never what God truly wanted. Instead, the writer wants to return their focus again and again to the superior sacrifice of Jesus. That better hope is the motivation, not an expectation of making life better now.
In this section, the writer emphasizes the contrast between the continual recurrence required by the old system, and the singular sacrifice of Jesus. One person pointed out the numerous references to repetition, such as “year by year” (v. 3) and “time after time” (v. 11). The contrast is dramatic. The emphasis on the work of Jesus as “once for all” (v. 10) and “for all time” (v. 12, 14). The emphasis is highlighted in verse 10.
The importance of the statement is stressed by the use, for the first time in the epistle, of the full name “Jesus Christ.”[3]
Someone pointed out the repeated use of the word “will” in verses 7-10. The writer leaves no ambiguity. God’s will, even from Old Testament times, was to replace the symbolic and shadowy system of successive sacrifices with the single sacrifice of His own Son as the only source of salvation.
“Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:9-10)
Someone asked, “Took away the first what?” Several suggestions resulted based on earlier discussion of the book of Hebrews: the first priesthood, the first covenant, the first way of dealing with sin, the first way of becoming right with God, the first method of seeking holiness.
Sanctified and Sanctifying
The mention of holiness took us to the comments in the passage about sanctification in verse 10 and in verse 14 (which also mentions perfection).
A member of our group brought up the word “perfect” (τελειόω, teleiόō) and its various forms, which we have seen before in Hebrews (as recently as Hebrews 10:1). The person reminded us of the meaning of “complete, finished, fulfilled.”[4] The connection between “perfected” and “sanctified” stirred some discussion.
As is often the case, comparing translations can be helpful.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. (NASB, etc.)
[A marginal note in the NASB offers the suggestion, “Or being sanctified.”]
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. (NKJV)
So who has He “perfected” – those who are sanctified or those who are being sanctified? Is sanctification an accomplished fact or an ongoing process? And to further complicate matters, verse 10 says we have been sanctified.
The first point someone made in response to this potential confusion was a distinction between our theological standards and the biblical writers’ perspective. We often go to great lengths, for example, to differentiate between justification and sanctification. We understand justification as the single, completed action whereby God declares us righteous because of the work of Jesus. We often contrast that with sanctification, the ongoing process whereby the Holy Spirit conforms our actual thoughts and behavior to the example of Jesus. Those kinds of distinctions are important today because of the distortions and misunderstandings that have crept in over the past two thousand years. But holding the biblical writers to those rigid distinctions may not always be appropriate.
The actual meaning of the word translated “sanctify” is more precisely “make holy” (ἁγιάζω, hagiazō). So, have we been made holy or are we being made holy? Yes. We have already been made holy (justification) and we are in the process (the often slow, frustrating process) of being made holy (sanctification). In the writer’s mind there was no inconsistency in what he was saying.
But once we got past the vocabulary of the verse, the verb tenses drew our attention, and with a fruitful outcome.
“He has perfected” at the beginning of the verse is a Greek tense[5] that signifies “an action that was brought to completion and whose effects are felt in the present – the present, of course, from the time frame of the writer.”[6] The writer is saying that our perfection, our completion, has already been accomplished. That same tense[7] is used with “sanctify” in verse 10, so the writer can say there “we have been made holy.” In other more famous words, “It is finished.”
On the other hand, “sanctified” at the end of the verse, is a present tense participle.[8] That form “describes a continuous action”[9] “occurring at the same time as the main verb.”[10] Our sanctification is the ongoing process of “being made holy.”
The point of this Greek excursion is to confirm that the writer to the Hebrews is applying the work of Jesus, once and for all time, to both our justification and our sanctification. He just doesn’t use our theological vocabulary. He expresses the seeming paradox: You have been made holy, and you are being made holy.
One person in our group commented on the practical importance of that principle. We know we struggle with sin. We know we fail. But because He “has perfected” us and He “has sanctified us,” we don’t constantly have to look over our shoulder to see if God is going to crush us. Our sanctification may not be progressing as well as we would hope. But our justification is complete and we are no longer under the crushing wrath of God.
Contrasting Images
An image in the passage sparked the thinking of one of our members. He described a scene at the temple, including a “cageful of pigeons” being opened constantly for the next sacrifice, and the priest never getting a break, always standing for the next person in line. The priest never sat down. Then we thought about the people coming to offer the sacrifices, just like they did last week, or maybe even yesterday. What an exhausting scene – noise, smells, and near chaos.
And then the scene switches to Jesus, sitting (not standing), and not at an altar covered with animal remains and ashes, but at the right hand of God. The peace and tranquility of an accomplished mission demonstrated that He had done the will of His Father.
That part of the passage (verses 11-12) also provided another illustration of the rhetorical skill of the author, probably a pastor sending a written sermon to be read to his congregation. Look at the structure of his image.
Every priest
stands daily ministering and offering
time after time
the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins;
but He, having offered
one sacrifice for sins
for all time,
sat down at the right hand of God,
Even the construction of his language reinforces the contrast of the better work of Jesus. (The structure of the original text is slightly different because of differences in languages. There is still a definite stylistic structure and symmetry.)
Reminders
The emphasis of this passage began with the role of repeated sacrifices as reminders of sin (v. 3). Someone pointed out that those reminders, day after day, year after year, with no end is sight, kept a person’s focus on themselves. The constant “looking over my shoulder” mentioned earlier is about how well I am doing. Is my behavior good enough to satisfy God? The emphasis is on my faithfulness in performing the rituals and presenting the sacrifices to be offered by the priest. Ultimately, spiritual formation was “all about me.”
Those reminders of sin can be self-defeating. Yes, they kept the Jewish worshipers in the Temple aware of their need for God’s forgiveness. But the worshipers could also become more focused on the sins and the sacrifices than they were on God. That same attitude can affect us today. We can become focused or even obsessed with overcoming our sin. We can forget that the point of overcoming sin is to remove distractions from our relationship with God.
A person suggested the similarity to dieting. If the focus is on losing weight and exactly what food we eat or don’t eat, the process can become discouraging or even self-defeating. We may think about food all the time, which is not helpful. On the other hand, if we keep in mind the higher goal of simply having a healthier life, that desire is more successfully motivating. The higher goal of drawing near to God (Hebrews 4:16, 7:25, 10:22, 11:6) is more motivating than preoccupation with sin.
What is it about drawing near to God that attracts us, or at least should attract us? A suggestion in our group described meeting with a celebrity we admire and respect – perhaps a sports star or a Christian leader. It might be simply the opportunity to “hang out” with someone, to hear what they have to say, to feel at least a bit of relational connection. Perhaps that imagined experience helps apprehend the potential delight of drawing near to God.
Perhaps with that idea (or something similar) in mind, the writer ends this section with a relational promise from God, recorded in Jeremiah 31. The pastor had quoted the same passage more fully before (Hebrews 8:8-12). His audience was surely already familiar with that prophecy, especially the central assertion:
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
11 “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For all will know Me (Hebrews 8:10c-11)
Even from ancient times in the Old Testament, God’s desire was for that relational emphasis of His people “drawing near” to Him.
The passage in Hebrews 10 begins emphasizing a reminder of sins (v. 3). In stark contrast, the text draws to a close “remembering sins no more” (v. 17). The connection between those opposite outlooks is the all-sufficient work of Jesus, who has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. In that accomplished perfection and progressing sanctification, let us draw near to God.
[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Psalm%2040:6
[2] ICB (International Children’s Bible), NCV (New Century Version) in the BibleGateway list.
[3] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews in the New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 505.
[4] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/teleioo
[5] https://biblehub.com/interlinear/hebrews/10-14.htm ; τετελείωκεν, perfect tense, indicative mood.
[6] William D. Mounce, Greek for the Rest of Us: Using Greek Tools without Mastering Biblical Greek (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2003), 162.
[7] https://biblehub.com/interlinear/hebrews/10-10.htm ; ἡγιασμένοι
[8] https://biblehub.com/interlinear/hebrews/10-14.htm ; ἁγιαζομένους.
[9] William D. Mounce, Greek for the Rest of Us: Using Greek Tools without Mastering Biblical Greek (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2003), 179.
[10] William D. Mounce, Greek for the Rest of Us: Using Greek Tools without Mastering Biblical Greek (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2003), 184,