Chapter 2

009:001 Now even the first Covenant had regulations for divine worship, and had also its sanctuary--a sanctuary belonging to this world.

009:002 For a sacred tent was constructed--the outer one, in which were the lamp and the table and the presented loaves; and this is called the Holy place.

009:003 And behind the second veil was a sacred tent called the Holy of holies.

009:004 This had a censer of gold, and the ark of the Covenant lined with gold and completely covered with gold, and in it were a gold vase which held the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded and the tables of the Covenant.

009:005 And above the ark were the Cherubim denoting God's glorious presence and overshadowing the Mercy-seat. But I cannot now speak about all these in detail.

009:006 These arrangements having long been completed, the priests, when conducting the divine services, continually enter the outer tent.

009:007 But into the second, the High Priest goes only on one day of the year, and goes alone, taking with him blood, which he offers on his own behalf and on account of the sins which the people have ignorantly committed.

009:008 And the lesson which the Holy Spirit teaches is this-- that the way into the true Holy place is not yet open so long as the outer tent still remains in existence.

009:009 And this is a figure--for the time now present--answering to which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, unable though they are to give complete freedom from sin to him who ministers.

009:010 For their efficacy depends only on meats and drinks and various washings, ceremonies pertaining to the body and imposed until a time of reformation.

009:011 But Christ appeared as a High Priest of the blessings that are soon to come by means of the greater and more perfect Tent of worship, a tent which has not been built with hands-- that is to say does not belong to this material creation--

009:012 and once for all entered the Holy place, taking with Him not the blood of goats and calves, but His own blood, and thus procuring eternal redemption for us.

009:013 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have contracted defilement make them holy so as to bring about ceremonial purity,

009:014 how much more certainly shall the blood of Christ, who strengthened by the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God, free from blemish, purify your consciences from lifeless works for you to serve the ever-living God?

009:015 And because of this He is the negotiator of a new Covenant, in order that, since a life has been given in atonement for the offences committed under the first Covenant, those who have been called may receive the eternal inheritance which has been promised to them.

009:016 For where there is a legal `will,' there must also be a death brought forward in evidence--the death of him who made it.

009:017 And a will is only of force in the case of a deceased person, being never of any avail so long as he who made it lives.

009:018 Accordingly we find that the first Covenant was not inaugurated without blood.

009:019 For when Moses had proclaimed to all the people every commandment contained in the Law, he took the blood of the calves and of the goats and with them water, scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

009:020 saying, "This is the blood which confirms the Covenant that God has made binding upon you."

009:021 And in the same way he also sprinkled blood upon the Tent of worship and upon all the vessels used in the ministry.

009:022 Indeed we may almost say that in obedience to the Law everything is sprinkled with blood, and that apart from the outpouring of blood there is no remission of sins.

009:023 It was needful therefore that the copies of the things in Heaven should be cleansed in this way, but that the heavenly things themselves should be cleansed with more costly sacrifices.

009:024 For not into a Holy place built by men's hands--a mere copy of the reality--did Christ enter, but He entered Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

009:025 Nor did He enter for the purpose of many times offering Himself in sacrifice, just as the High Priest enters the Holy place, year after year, taking with him blood not his own.

009:026 In that case Christ would have needed to suffer many times, from the creation of the world onwards; but as a matter of fact He has appeared once for all, at the Close of the Ages, in order to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

009:027 And since it is reserved for all mankind once to die, and afterwards to be judged;

009:028 so the Christ also, having been once offered in sacrifice in order that He might bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, separated from sin, to those who are eagerly expecting Him, to make their salvation complete.

010:001 For, since the Law exhibits only an outline of the blessings to come and not a perfect representation of the things themselves, the priests can never, by repeating the same sacrifices which they continually offer year after year, give complete freedom from sin to those who draw near.

010:002 For then would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, because the consciences of the worshippers--who in that case would now have been cleansed once for all--would no longer be burdened with sins?

010:003 But in those sacrifices sins are recalled to memory year after year.

010:004 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

010:005 That is why, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou has not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me.

010:006 In whole burnt-offerings and in sin-offerings Thou hast taken no pleasure.

010:007 Then I said, `I have come--in the roll of the book it is written concerning Me--to do Thy will, O God.'"

010:008 After saying the words I have just quoted, "Sacrifices and offerings or whole burnt-offerings and sin-offerings Thou hast not desired or taken pleasure in"--all such being offered in obedience to the Law--

010:009 He then adds, "I have come to do Thy will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

010:010 It is through that divine will that we have been set free from sin, through the offering of Jesus Christ as our sacrifice once for all.

010:011 And while every priest stands ministering, day after day, and constantly offering the same sacrifices--though such can never rid us of our sins--

010:012 this Priest, on the contrary, after offering for sins a single sacrifice of perpetual efficacy, took His seat at God's right hand,

010:013 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be put as a footstool under His feet.

010:014 For by a single offering He has for ever completed the blessing for those whom He is setting free from sin.

010:015 And the Holy Spirit also gives us His testimony; for when He had said,

010:016 "`This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days,' says the Lord: `I will put My laws upon their hearts and will write them on their minds;'"

010:017 He adds, "And their sins and offences I will remember no longer."

010:018 But where these have been forgiven no further offering for sin is required.

010:019 Since then, brethren, we have free access to the Holy place through the blood of Jesus,

010:020 by the new and ever-living way which He opened up for us through the rending of the veil--that is to say, of His earthly nature--

010:021 and since we have a great Priest who has authority over the house of God,

010:022 let us draw near with sincerity and unfaltering faith, having had our hearts sprinkled, once for all, from consciences oppressed with sin, and our bodies bathed in pure water.

010:023 Let us hold firmly to an unflinching avowal of our hope, for He is faithful who gave us the promises.

010:024 And let us bestow thought on one another with a view to arousing one another to brotherly love and right conduct;

010:025 not neglecting--as some habitually do--to meet together, but encouraging one another, and doing this all the more since you can see the day of Christ approaching.

010:026 For if we wilfully persist in sin after having received the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains in reserve any other sacrifice for sins.

010:027 There remains nothing but a certain awful expectation of judgement, and the fury of a fire which before long will devour the enemies of the truth.

010:028 Any one who bids defiance to the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

010:029 How much severer punishment, think you, will he be held to deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has not regarded as holy that Covenant-blood with which he was set free from sin, and has insulted the Spirit from whom comes grace?

010:030 For we know who it is that has said, "Vengeance belongs to Me: I will pay back;" and again, "The Lord will be His people's judge."

010:031 It is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the ever-living God.

010:032 But continually recall to mind the days now past, when on being first enlightened you went through a great conflict and many sufferings.

010:033 This was partly through allowing yourselves to be made a public spectacle amid reproaches and persecutions, and partly through coming forward to share the sufferings of those who were thus treated.

010:034 For you not only showed sympathy with those who were imprisoned, but you even submitted with joy when your property was taken from you, being well aware that you have in your own selves a more valuable possession and one which will remain.

010:035 Therefore do not cast from you your confident hope, for it will receive a vast reward.

010:036 For you stand in need of patient endurance, so that, as the result of having done the will of God, you may receive the promised blessing.

010:037 For there is still but a short time and then "The coming One will come and will not delay.

010:038 But it is by faith that My righteous servant shall live; and if he shrinks back, My soul takes no pleasure in him."

010:039 But we are not people who shrink back and perish, but are among those who believe and gain possession of their souls.

011:001 Now faith is a well-grounded assurance of that for which we hope, and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see.

011:002 For by it the saints of old won God's approval.

011:003 Through faith we understand that the worlds came into being, and still exist, at the command of God, so that what is seen does not owe its existence to that which is visible.

011:004 Through faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain did, and through this faith he obtained testimony that he was righteous, God giving the testimony by accepting his gifts; and through it, though he is dead, he still speaks.

011:005 Through faith Enoch was taken from the earth so that he did not see death, and he could not be found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken we have evidence that he truly pleased God.

011:006 But where there is no faith it is impossible truly to please Him; for the man who draws near to God must believe that there is a God and that He proves Himself a rewarder of those who earnestly try to find Him.

011:007 Through faith Noah, being divinely taught about things as yet unseen, reverently gave heed and built an ark for the safety of his family, and by this act he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which depends on faith.

011:008 Through faith Abraham, upon being called to leave home and go into a land which he was soon to receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going to.

011:009 Through faith he came and made his home for a time in a land which had been promised to him, as if in a foreign country, living in tents together with Isaac and Jacob, sharers with him in the same promise;

011:010 for he continually looked forward to the city which has the foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

011:011 Through faith even Sarah herself received strength to become a mother--although she was past the time of life for this-- because she judged Him faithful who had given the promise.

011:012 And thus there sprang from one man, and him practically dead, a nation like the stars of the sky in number, and like the sands on the sea shore which cannot be counted.

011:013 All these died in the possession of faith. They had not received the promised blessings, but had seen them from a distance and had greeted them, and had acknowledged themselves to be foreigners and strangers here on earth;

011:014 for men who acknowledge this make it manifest that they are seeking elsewhere a country of their own.

011:015 And if they had cherished the remembrance of the country they had left, they would have found an opportunity to return;

011:016 but, as it is, we see them eager for a better land, that is to say, a heavenly one. For this reason God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has now prepared a city for them.

011:017 Through faith Abraham, as soon as God put him to the test, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had joyfully welcomed the promises was on the point of sacrificing his only son

011:018 with regard to whom he had been told, "It is through Isaac that your posterity shall be traced."

011:019 For he reckoned that God is even able to raise a man up from among the dead, and, figuratively speaking, it was from among the dead that he received Isaac again.

011:020 Through faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even in connexion with things soon to come.

011:021 Through faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and, leaning on the top of his staff, worshipped God.

011:022 Through faith Joseph, when he was near his end, made mention of the departure of the descendants of Israel, and gave orders about his own body.

011:023 Through faith the child Moses was hid for three months by his parents, because they saw his rare beauty; and the king's edict had no terror for them.

011:024 Through faith Moses, when he grew to manhood, refused to be known as Pharaoh's daughter's son,

011:025 having determined to endure ill-treatment along with the people of God rather than enjoy the short-lived pleasures of sin;

011:026 because he deemed the reproaches which he might meet with in the service of the Christ to be greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt; for he fixed his gaze on the coming reward.

011:027 Through faith he left Egypt, not being frightened by the king's anger; for he held on his course as seeing the unseen One.

011:028 Through faith he instituted the Passover, and the sprinkling with blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the Israelites.

011:029 Through faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing over dry land, but the Egyptians, when they tried to do the same, were swallowed up.

011:030 Through faith the walls of Jericho fell to the ground after being surrounded for seven days.

011:031 Through faith the notorious sinner Rahab did not perish along with the disobedient, for she had welcomed the spies and had sheltered them.

011:032 And why need I say more? For time will fail me if I tell the story of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and of David and Samuel and the Prophets;

011:033 men who, as the result of faith, conquered whole kingdoms, brought about true justice, obtained promises from God, stopped lions' mouths,

011:034 deprived fire of its power, escaped being killed by the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put to flight foreign armies.

011:035 Women received back their dear ones alive from the dead; and others were put to death with torture, refusing the deliverance offered to them--that they might secure a better resurrection.

011:036 Others again were tested by cruel mockery and by scourging; yes, and by chains and imprisonment.

011:037 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tried by temptation, they were killed with the sword. They went from place to place in sheepskins or goatskins, enduring want, oppression and cruelty.

011:038 (They were men of whom the world was not worthy.) They wandered across deserts and mountains, or hid themselves in caves and in holes in the ground.

011:039 And although by their faith all these people won God's approval, none of them received the fulfilment of His great promise;

011:040 for God had provided for them and us something better, so that apart from us they were not to attain to full blessedness.

012:001 Therefore, surrounded as we are by such a vast cloud of witnesses, let us fling aside every encumbrance and the sin that so readily entangles our feet. And let us run with patient endurance the race that lies before us,

012:002 simply fixing our gaze upon Jesus, our Prince Leader in the faith, who will also award us the prize. He, for the sake of the joy which lay before Him, patiently endured the cross, looking with contempt upon its shame, and afterwards seated Himself-- where He still sits--at the right hand of the throne of God.

012:003 Therefore, if you would escape becoming weary and faint-hearted, compare your own sufferings with those of Him who endured such hostility directed against Him by sinners.

012:004 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted so as to endanger your lives;

012:005 and you have quite forgotten the encouraging words which are addressed to you as sons, and which say, "My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, and do not faint when He corrects you;

012:006 for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines: and He scourges every son whom He acknowledges."

012:007 The sufferings that you are enduring are for your discipline. God is dealing with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

012:008 And if you are left without discipline, of which every true son has had a share, that shows that you are bastards, and not true sons.

012:009 Besides this, our earthly fathers used to discipline us and we treated them with respect, and shall we not be still more submissive to the Father of our spirits, and live?

012:010 It is true that they disciplined us for a few years according as they thought fit; but He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character.

012:011 Now, at the time, discipline seems to be a matter not for joy, but for grief; yet it afterwards yields to those who have passed through its training a result full of peace--namely, righteousness.

012:012 Therefore strengthen the drooping hands and paralysed knees,

012:013 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put entirely out of joint

012:014 but may rather be restored. Persistently strive for peace with all men, and for that growth in holiness apart from which no one will see the Lord.

012:015 Be carefully on your guard lest there be any one who falls back from the grace of God; lest any root bearing bitter fruit spring up and cause trouble among you, and through it the whole brotherhood be defiled;

012:016 lest there be a fornicator, or an ungodly person like Esau, who, in return for a single meal, parted with the birthright which belonged to him.

012:017 For you know that even afterwards, when he wished to secure the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no opportunity for undoing what he had done, though he sought the blessing earnestly with tears.

012:018 For you have not come to a material object all ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and storm and trumpet-blast and the sound of words--

012:019 a sound of such a kind that those who heard it entreated that no more should be added.

012:020 For they could not endure the order which had been given, "Even a wild beast, if it touches the mountain, shall be stoned to death;"

012:021 and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, "I tremble with fear."

012:022 On the contrary you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the ever-living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts of angels,

012:023 to the great festal gathering and Church of the first-born, whose names are recorded in Heaven, and to a Judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,

012:024 and to Jesus the negotiator of a new Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks in more gracious tones than that of Abel.

012:025 Be careful not to refuse to listen to Him who is speaking to you. For if they of old did not escape unpunished when they refused to listen to him who spoke on earth, much less shall we escape who turn a deaf ear to Him who now speaks from Heaven.

012:026 His voice then shook the earth, but now we have His promise, "Yet again I will, once for all, cause not only the earth to tremble, but Heaven also."

012:027 Here the words "Yet again, once for all" denote the removal of the things which can be shaken--created things--in order that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

012:028 Therefore, receiving, as we now do, a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us cherish thankfulness so that we may ever offer to God an acceptable service, with godly reverence and awe.

012:029 For our God is also a consuming fire.

013:001 Let brotherly love always continue.

013:002 Do not neglect to show kindness to strangers; for, in this way, some, without knowing it, have had angels as their guests.

013:003 Remember prisoners, as if you were in prison with them; and remember those suffering ill-treatment, for you yourselves also are still in the body.

013:004 Let marriage be held in honour among all, and let the marriage bed be unpolluted; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.