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Hebrews

Hebrewschapter 10

39 verses · BSBHebrews book hub →

Speaks with:Hebrews 10×5Hebrews 9×4Hebrews 12×3Hebrews 8×31 Thessalonians 5×3Hebrews 6×3

Summary

Chapter summary

The law had only a shadow, and 'it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.' Psalm 40 is put in the Son's mouth ('a body didst thou prepare for me… Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God') and by that will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (10:10). Every priest stands daily; this priest sat down (Psalm 110), and Jeremiah 31 returns for the punch line: 'their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.' So draw near, hold fast, provoke one another unto love and good works, for 'it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God' (10:31).

Context

Epistle · Unknown — Hebrews overview

  • A. 1–10 The Shadow Ends: A Body Prepared to Do God's Will
  • B. 11–18 One Offering, and Then He Sat Down
  • C. 19–25 Draw Near, Hold Fast, Stir One Another Up
  • D. 26–31 No Sacrifice Left for Willful Sin
  • E. 32–39 Remember the Former Days; Do Not Shrink Back

The outline

  1. A.The Shadow Ends: A Body Prepared to Do God's Willvv. 1 to 10

    Read vv. 1 to 10 →

  2. B.One Offering, and Then He Sat Downvv. 11 to 18

    Read vv. 11 to 18 →

  3. C.Draw Near, Hold Fast, Stir One Another Upvv. 19 to 25

    Read vv. 19 to 25 →

  4. D.No Sacrifice Left for Willful Sinvv. 26 to 31

    Read vv. 26 to 31 →

  5. E.Remember the Former Days; Do Not Shrink Backvv. 32 to 39

    Read vv. 32 to 39 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The just shall live by his faith

Pattern

Habakkuk asked God why judgment tarried and was told to write the answer plainly: the just shall live by his faith. The New Testament quotes the sentence three times, as the thesis of Romans, the proof in Galatians that no man is justified by the law, and the anchor of endurance in Hebrews.

One sentence from a short prophet carries the doctrine of justification by faith. Luther's own account of his awakening runs through Romans 1:17, and the church has read the verse as the gospel in miniature ever since.

  1. Habakkuk 2:4

    The sentence given to the watchman

    Habakkuk, waiting on his watch for God's answer, receives it: the just shall live by his faith.

  2. Romans 1:17

    The thesis of Romans

    Paul sets the sentence at the head of his fullest statement of the gospel.

  3. Galatians 3:11

    No man justified by the law

  4. Hebrews 10:38 you are here

    Faith holding on under trial

    Hebrews quotes the verse to a church tempted to draw back.

Once for all

Pattern

Against the daily and yearly repetitions of the old sacrifices, Hebrews sets a single word: once. He offered up himself once, entered in once into the holy place, once in the end of the world put away sin, and by one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Repetition was the old system's confession that it could not finish the work; a sacrifice that must be offered again has not taken sin away. The finished, unrepeatable offering is the letter's ground of assurance, and the church's.

  1. Hebrews 7:27

    This he did once

    He needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice; he offered up himself.

  2. Hebrews 9:12

    In once into the holy place

    By his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

  3. Hebrews 9:26

    Once in the end of the world

    He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

  4. Hebrews 10:10 you are here

    The body offered once for all

  5. Hebrews 10:14 you are here

    One offering, perfected for ever

    By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

The world behind this chapter

Hebrews 10
When
The last years before the fall of Jerusalem · c. AD 64–68
Where
The close of the priesthood argument, then a call to endure, addressed to people who had already been robbed
Who first heard it
Believers who had lost property and watched friends jailed, and were tempted to stop meeting

The history

The temple sanctuary had no seats. Priests stood daily, offering the same sacrifices over and over, and the sermon points at the standing as the proof: unfinished work has no chair. Then it says this priest sat down.

The losses the chapter recalls were legal as well as mob-driven. Property confiscation was a recognized Roman penalty, and Jewish believers in Rome had already lived through the emperor Claudius expelling Jews from the city around AD 49, which meant abandoned homes and businesses.

Being 'publicly exposed to insult and persecution' describes a real practice. Public shaming — parading, mocking in the theater, denunciation in the street — was a normal weapon against groups a city disliked, and it did the work that formal prosecution did not.

'Not neglecting to meet together' had a cost attached. Assembling in a private house with people of another loyalty could look like an illegal club to Roman eyes, and staying home was the safe, sensible, quietly fatal choice.

What it meant to them

The hearers had already been brave once. The sermon reminds them of it — you joyfully accepted the seizure of your property — and asks them not to throw away the confidence that carried them then.

Between the reminder and the encouragement sits the second severe warning: no sacrifice remains for those who go on sinning deliberately after receiving the truth. Coming right after the argument that the temple sacrifices could never take sins away, it means there is nothing to go back to.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Hebrews 10. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 5 · Quoted here

'A body hast thou prepared me' (LXX-form); sacrifice and offering superseded by Christ's body.

Psalms 40:6→

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

v. 16 · Bookends: the same words open and close

SECTION. Hebrews brackets its central argument by quoting the new-covenant oracle of Jer 31:31-34 twice (8:8-12 and 10:16-18).

Hebrews 8:8→

But God found fault with the people and said: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

ASV/WEB text; Wikipedia Inclusio example list

v. 16 · Quoted here

'I will put my laws into their hearts': new-covenant reprise proving the new covenant perfects worshippers.

Jeremiah 31:33→

…of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I…

Read the whole verse

“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

v. 20 · A picture of Christ

The barrier veil becomes the torn flesh: 'through the veil, that is, his flesh.' The temple-veil scene.

Exodus 26:31→

Make a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen, with cherubim skillfully worked into it.

Heb 10:19-20; Exod 26:31

This page draws on E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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