Chapter 9

The first covenant also had ritual ordinances and a sanctuary, though an earthly one.

For there was set up a tabernacle in the outer part of which were the lamp-stand and the table and the showbread, and this is called the Holy Place;

but beyond the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,

having a golden censer and the ark of the covenant, overlaid on every side with gold. In the ark was a golden pot containing the manna and the rod of Aaron which had budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat. But of all these we cannot now speak in detail. A Type of the Heavenly Sanctuary

Such then being the arrangements, the priests always used to enter into the first tabernacle to perform the sacred rites;

but into the second tabernacle the high priest alone entered once a year, not without blood, which he offered for his own and the people's sins of ignorance.

The Holy Spirit signified by this that the way into the Holies was not yet thrown open while the first tabernacle was still standing.

The first tabernacle is a figure of the present time, inasmuch as gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshipper in conscience, since they refer only to food and drink

and various ablutions and bodily regulations imposed until a time of reformation. Christ the High Priest and Victim

But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things to come, he entered once for all through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands (that is, not of this creation),

nor again by virtue of blood of goats and calves, but by virtue of his own blood, into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkled ashes of a heifer sanctify the unclean unto the cleansing of the flesh,

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit offered himself unblemished unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Redemption through Christ

And this is why he is mediator of a new covenant, that whereas a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the former covenant, they who have been called may receive eternal inheritance according to the promise.

For where there is a testament, the death of the testator must intervene;

for a testament is valid only when men are dead, otherwise it has as yet no force as long as the testator is alive. The Blood of Victims

Hence not even the first has been inaugurated without blood;

for when every commandment of the Law had been read by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and of the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded for you."

The tabernacle also and all the vessels of the ministry he sprinkled likewise with blood;

and with blood almost everything is cleansed according to the Law, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The Blood of Christ

It was necessary, therefore, that the copies of the heavenly realities should be cleansed by these things; but the heavenly realities themselves require better sacrifices than these.

For Jesus has not entered into a Holies made by hands, a mere copy of the true, but into heaven itself, to appear now before the face of God on our behalf;

nor yet has he entered to offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the Holies year after year with blood not his own;

for in that case he must have suffered often since the beginning of the world. But as it is, once for all at the end of the ages, he has appeared for the destruction of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And just as it is appointed unto men to die once and after this comes the judgment,

so also was Christ offered once to take away the sins of many; the second time with no part in sin he will appear unto the salvation of those who await him.