Hebrews 9:1–10

Section Overview: The Old Covenant’s Earthly Tent

Having introduced the Sinai covenant, Israel’s breach of it, and its divinely promised replacement by a new and better covenant (Heb. 8:7–13), our author discusses that first covenant’s provisions for worshipers’ approach to God. That aging, obsolescent covenant included regulations governing who could approach God, how near they could come, and what service they were to offer him. It also had an earthly sanctuary, with a floor plan and furniture shown to Moses when he met God on the mountain (8:5). After a brief survey of the tabernacle’s design and contents (9:2–5), the discussion proceeds to the priests’ and the high priest’s respective ministries in the tabernacle’s two chambers (9:6–7). The restrictions limiting access to God’s Most Holy Place were the Holy Spirit’s demonstration, via symbolism, that the new covenant promise of access to God for all his people would not arrive as long as the earthly sanctuary functioned as the focal point of worship. Levitical priests executed physical rites that could not cleanse worshipers’ consciences, and the regulations directing those rites were designed to be temporary, lasting only “until the time of reformation” promised by God would arrive (9:10).

TABLE 1.4: Contrasting Ministries of the Holy and Most Holy Place (Heb. 9:6–7)

In the “first” (outer) section, priests “regularly” (dia pantos = always) performed several worship tasks. The lampstand burned continuously, so priests replenished its oil regularly (Ex. 27:20–21). The bread of the Presence was replaced each Sabbath (Ex. 25:30; Lev. 24:5–9). Incense was burned twice a day on the altar in front of the curtain leading to the Most Holy Place (Ex. 30:6–8; cf. Luke 1:8–9).

9:7 The plurality of the priests and the regularity of their activities in the outer section were in stark contrast to the high priest’s solitary and infrequent entrance into the tabernacle’s second chamber, the Most Holy Place. Three differences set apart worship performed in the first section from that in the second: (a) Into the former many priests entered, whereas the high priest alone entered the latter (Lev. 16:17). (b) In the former, priests fulfilled their tasks “regularly” (daily and weekly), whereas the high priest entered the latter “but once a year,” on the Day of Atonement (Ex. 30:10; Lev. 16:34). (c) Those familiar with the regulations would know that the regular tasks in the former (attending the lampstand, the table, and the incense altar) involved no shedding of blood,³ whereas the high priest entered the latter “not without blood” (AT) for the atonement of his own and Israel’s sins (Lev. 16:11, 14–15). This offering of blood foreshadows Christ’s offering of “his own blood” when he entered the “greater and more perfect tent,” the heavenly Most Holy Place (Heb. 9:11–14).

9:8–10 The significance of the contrast between the tabernacle’s two chambers is now interpreted, but in a way that is difficult both linguistically and conceptually. The linguistic difficulties focus on the meaning of the Greek represented in the ESV by “not yet opened” (mēpō pephanerōsthai), “the first section” (tēs prōtēs skēnēs), “still standing” (echousēs stasin), and “for the present age” (eis ton kairon ton enestēkota).

With respect to “not yet opened,” since the subject is a “way,” we might expect a verb meaning “open,” such as anoigō. Instead we have a verb (phaneroō) meaning “manifest” or “reveal.” The regulations restricting who could enter the OT tabernacle’s two chambers were the Holy Spirit’s way of revealing that the route by which all God’s people could draw near to God had not yet appeared in redemptive history. That “new and living way” of access would arrive only through the priestly ministry of Christ (Heb. 10:19–22).

With respect to “the first section,” the ESV rightly indicates that in verses 2, 3, 6, and 7 the first and second tents (skēnē) are the outer and inner “sections” or chambers of the tabernacle—the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. Scholars debate whether the reference in verse 8 is to the Holy Place only (so ESV) or to the entire earthly sanctuary associated with the first covenant. The most likely solution to the text’s conceptual challenges (as we will see) supports the ESV’s consistency in interpretation: the disclosure of the way into the Most Holy Place depends on the removal of the “first section”—that is, of the Holy Place populated by many priests in ceaseless activity—as the locus of worship.

With respect to “is still standing,” an unusual Greek word (stasin) suggests that the issue is probably not whether the first “section” still exists but whether it still functions as the divinely appointed site of worship. As long as that first section still “has standing” as the divinely authorized venue for worship, the restrictions remain, barring any but the high priest from God’s presence.

With respect to “for the present age,” the question is whether the author has in view the age that was present when the first covenant’s sanctuary served as Israel’s worship venue or the age that is now present by virtue of Christ’s priestly mediation. Put another way, is “the present age” prior to or identified with “the time of reformation,” which Christ has inaugurated (v. 10)? Our author’s frame of thought, as well as the sense of similar expressions elsewhere in the NT (Matt. 12:32; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:21), favor the conclusion that “the present age,” symbolized by the first section and its regulations, was brought to an end by the arrival of “the time of reformation.”

Drawing together our linguistic conclusions, we can trace the author’s reasoning: The Holy Spirit (who speaks in Scripture [10:15] and acts in the apostolic church [2:4; 6:4]) has now shown that the tabernacle’s two sections symbolize (parabolē) two ways of worship, befitting two successive covenants and ages in God’s redemptive plan. Our discussion has referred to the Holy Place and Most Holy Place, respectively, as the tabernacle’s “outer” and “inner” sections, but Hebrews calls them “first” and “second.” Their spatial relationship—the high priest must move through “the first” to enter “the second”—also symbolizes chronological succession.

The first section (outer chamber), in which many priests repeatedly performed actions that could not cleanse consciences, illustrates the insufficiency of the old covenant’s entire earthly sanctuary with its sacrifices—a system beset with the imperfections of “the present age.” The “gifts and sacrifices” offered by the many priests “cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper.” The ceremonial regulations concerning food and drink and washings, like goats’ and bulls’ blood, touch only “the body” (sarx, rendered “flesh” in v. 13) and cannot remove sin’s defilement from the conscience. As long as that system functions, the way into God’s Most Holy Place remains hidden.

On the other hand, the second section, entered by a solitary high priest once a year with atoning blood, provides a preview of Christ’s entrance into heaven, “the greater and more perfect tent,” bringing his own blood, shed once for all to cleanse the consciences of believers (9:11–14). His appearance in history “at the end of the ages” (v. 26) has inaugurated “the time of reformation,” for his sacrifice and exaltation have opened unrestricted communion between the Lord and his people. The route of access for all into God’s presence is “set right” (diorthōsis = “reformation”; ESV) and displayed at last. This term represents the rectifying of something damaged or defective. A related term refers to political or social reforms in Acts 24:2, and the cognate verb appears in Jeremiah 7:3–5 LXX with the sense of “to correct.” The restrictions surrounding access to the first covenant’s sanctuary were the Holy Spirit’s signal that radical repair was needed if God’s people were ever to make their way into his presence.