Глава VIII

The ministry of our High Priest is above the earth and the Old Testament rites and is performed in the heavenly sanctuary, not the earthly (1-6). The essence of the New Testament, its difference and superiority over the Old (7–13). The thought of the heavenly ministry of Christ (Heb. 7:26) naturally caused the apostle to think about the sacred place where this ministry is performed. Therefore, the apostle speaks further about the heavenly tabernacle, which served as a model for the earthly one, as well as about sacrifices as symbols of the Covenant and about the Covenant itself, both Old and New, of which Christ is the Intercessor. Hebrews 8:1. The main thing about what we are talking about is this: we have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven Hebrews 8:2. and he is the minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. The main essence and value of all the reasoning of the apostle is briefly expressed by him in the statement: “we have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.” Here, in heaven, at the right hand of the throne of God is His tabernacle, His sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, where He ministers for us through His intercession. This is not a tabernacle of human hands, although guided by God, but the “true” tabernacle of the immediate thought of God, a spiritual, heavenly tabernacle, by which we must understand everything that the Lord Jesus accomplished for our salvation in accordance with what was accomplished in the Mosaic tabernacle representatively and what is generally accomplished in the gracious Kingdom of Christ both in heaven and on earth by virtue of the High Priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 8:3. Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; and therefore it was necessary that He also had something to bring. Hebrews 8:4. If He had remained on earth, He would not have been a priest, because here there are priests who, according to the law, bring gifts, Hebrews 8:5. which serve the image and shadow of the heavenly, as it was said to Moses when he began to complete the tabernacle: look, it is said, do everything according to the image shown to you on the mountain. Heb.8:6. But this High Priest received a more excellent service, inasmuch as He was the best intercessor of the covenant, which was established on the best promises. The idea of ​​the said verses can be expressed more clearly as follows: Christ is the High Priest in the heavenly ideal sanctuary, and the priest cannot be without sacrifice, which our High Priest could only have in heaven, because if it were earthly, it would not have taken place, since there are priests here according to the law of Moses. Thus, there must be and indeed is another sanctuary where Christ officiates. And His priestly activity is as much higher than the local legal activity as the covenant concluded through His mediation with its promises is higher than the Old with its sanctuary and institutions. He Himself is both Priest and Victim (more on this in Heb. 9:11–15). The Tabernacle and the Divine Service in it served, in the words of the Apostle, “the image and shadow of the heavenly things,” and the very structure of the tabernacle seems to have been made according to the “image” shown to Moses on the mountain (cf. Exodus 25:40; Heb 9:24). This heavenly (τά επουράνια) in this case is everything in the heavenly world, relating to the high priesthood of Christ and adapted in a special vision to Moses for possible reproduction, display and, so to speak, interpretation under earthly conditions by the institutions and furnishings of the tabernacle. If to Moses this vision seemed to be a detailed and precise plan for the construction, then outside of this vision such a plan, of course, did not exist: it, too, was only “an image and a shadow of the heavenly,” which cannot be translated into earthly language. The crude idea of ​​the Talmudists, who claim that the tabernacle literally stands in heaven to this day and in due time will come to earth along with the heavenly Jerusalem, in no case has any support in the cited passages of the Exodus and the letter of the apostle. Heb.8:7. For if the first covenant had been without deficiency, there would have been no need to look for a place for another. Hebrews 8:8. But the prophet, rebuking them, said: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, The reason for replacing the Old Testament with the New is indicated in the lack of the first. What this shortcoming consisted of is indicated further: that the house of Israel and the house of Judah behaved reproachfully (“reproaching them”), that “they did not continue in that covenant of mine, and I despised them” (Heb. 8:9). Thus, the unfaithfulness of the covenant on the part of Israel introduced a major flaw into the Old Testament - not in the sense that it damaged the covenant itself, but only the guilty people themselves, who lost the preference intended for them (“they ... and I despised them ...”). God Himself remained faithful to His covenant, which is proven by the fact that He now wants to fulfill His goal of salvation, for the fulfillment of which the first covenant was insufficient (through the fault of Israel), through the second covenant, and thus adds another to one mercy (Jer. 31:31 et al.). Thus, a somewhat special (than in Heb. 7:11, 18–19), so to speak, moral reason for the insufficiency of the Old Testament and the need to replace it with another, the New, is indicated here. The Old Testament did not penetrate deeply into the thoughts and hearts of the people, having the character of a more external third-party authority, therefore the New Testament is given, rooting its moral requirements on the internal needs of the mind and heart of the people themselves, on the necessity and salvific nature of these requirements and their agreement with the whole nature and purpose of man. This is the enormous superiority and superiority of the New Testament over the Old. The laws of God are now written not only on tablets of stone, but are embedded in the thoughts and hearts of people and have indisputable authority for them (2 Cor 3:3). At the same time, such a deep penetration of the will of God into the innermost and most hidden secrets of human nature (mind and heart) more unites and brings people closer to God (“I will be their God, and they will be my people...” Heb.8:10), makes Divine revelation internally and directly accessible to the public, and living knowledge of God becomes the lot of everyone, from the least to the greatest (Heb.8:11), that all together will provide people with eternal justification ( Hebrews 8:12). Just as Heb.8:9 indicates the reason for the insufficiency and abolition of the Old Testament, so in accordance with this because Heb.8:11 and Heb.8:12 indicate the reason for the strength and inviolability of the New - eternal living communication with God and justification by Him. As an outstanding advantage of the New Testament over the Old, it should also be noted that the region of the people of God is understood in it much more broadly than the house of Israel and the house of Judah in the literal sense of these words. It says here: “all will know Me...”, the same thing that Jesus Christ said: “all will be taught of God...” (John 6:45; cf. 1 John 2:20, 27; Isaiah 54:13). Thus, in essence, the New Testament is a covenant of grace-filled salvation, and it is concluded in the hearts of all people without exception. Hebrews 8:9. not such a covenant as I made with their fathers at the time when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in that covenant of mine, and I despised them, says the Lord. Hebrews 8:10. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Hebrews 8:11. And every man shall not teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; because everyone, from the least of them to the greatest, will know Me, Hebrews 8:12. because I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:13. By saying “new,” he showed the dilapidation of the first; and the decaying and aging is close to destruction. Referring the prophetic expression New to the Testament of Christ, the apostle uses this expression in order to instill the idea of ​​it as given irrevocably, to turn away readers from devotion to the old as decaying, aging, and therefore close to destruction, and to encourage them under the New Testament to begin a new life in Christ, the New Surety of a better Testament and better promises. You might be interested in: