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Hebrews

Hebrewschapter 8

13 verses · BSBHebrews book hub →

Speaks with:Jeremiah 31×4Hebrews 7×6Hebrews 10×3Galatians 3×2Hebrews 5×2Hebrews 12×2

Summary

Chapter summary

The chief point: we have such a high priest, seated on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man. Earthly priests serve a copy and shadow: Moses was warned to make all things according to the pattern showed him in the mount. Christ's covenant is better, enacted upon better promises. Then the longest Old Testament quotation in the New: Jeremiah 31:31-34 entire, a new covenant with the house of Israel, laws written on the heart, all knowing him from the least to the greatest, sins remembered no more. In calling it new, he made the first old.

Context

Epistle · Unknown — Hebrews overview

  • A. 1–6 A Priest Seated in the True Tabernacle
  • B. 7–13 The New Covenant Makes the First Old

The outline

  1. A.A Priest Seated in the True Tabernaclevv. 1 to 6

    Read vv. 1 to 6 →

  2. B.The New Covenant Makes the First Oldvv. 7 to 13

    Read vv. 7 to 13 →

Threads

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

The better things

Pattern

Hebrews argues its whole case with one word: better. The Son is better than the angels, surety of a better testament, mediator of a better covenant upon better promises, purifying with better sacrifices, and his blood speaketh better things than that of Abel.

The word falls a dozen times across the letter, and the beats show the ladder: person, covenant, sacrifice, country, blood. Readers pressed to drift back to the old order are answered by comparison rather than scolding; everything they would return to has been surpassed.

  1. Hebrews 1:4

    Better than the angels

    The Son has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

  2. Hebrews 7:22

    Surety of a better testament

  3. Hebrews 8:6 you are here

    A better covenant upon better promises

  4. Hebrews 9:23

    Better sacrifices than these

    The heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices than the patterns required.

  5. Hebrews 11:16

    A better country

    They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly, and God hath prepared for them a city.

  6. Hebrews 12:24

    Blood that speaketh better things

    The blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel.

A new covenant

Pattern

Jeremiah promises a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, its law written in the heart and its sins remembered no more. The Lord takes its word for his own table, this cup is the new testament in my blood, and Hebrews quotes the promise at full length.

It is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. The covenant is made with named Israel and Judah in the text itself, and the church drinks of its cup at every communion; both facts stand in the words, and the page shows both.

  1. Jeremiah 31:31-34

    A new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah

    The law in their inward parts; their sin remembered no more.

  2. Luke 22:20

    This cup is the new testament in my blood

  3. 1 Corinthians 11:25

    The cup handed on to the church

  4. Hebrews 8:8-13 you are here

    The promise quoted at full length

    In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.

The world behind this chapter

Hebrews 8
When
The last years before the fall of Jerusalem · c. AD 64–68
Where
The argument that the earthly sanctuary was always a copy of a greater one
Who first heard it
People who could walk to Jerusalem and watch the original priesthood at work

The history

A covenant in the ancient Near East was a formal treaty, and treaties were cut, not signed. Animals were killed, terms were read out, witnesses were named, blessings and curses were attached, and copies were deposited in a sanctuary. Israel's covenant at Sinai followed that shape.

Moses was told to build the tabernacle according to the pattern shown him on the mountain, and the sermon leans on that word. The tent in the wilderness — and the temple that replaced it — was a model made to a design, which means the design existed first.

The chapter quotes Jeremiah's promise of a new covenant, the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Jeremiah spoke it as Jerusalem was about to fall to Babylon, when the first covenant arrangement was visibly collapsing.

The tense of the chapter matters for dating the sermon. It speaks of priests who 'offer gifts according to the law' as a going concern. The temple was still standing and its sacrifices still running; within a few years of this letter both would end.

What it meant to them

For hearers homesick for the temple, the sermon does not attack it. It says the temple was a true copy of something real — and that a copy is not where you settle.

The Jeremiah quotation ends with the promise that God will remember their sins no more. That sentence, read aloud to people wondering whether they still had access to atonement, is the whole point of the chapter.

Sources cited

  • F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews
  • Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Hebrews 8. 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

'Make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the mount': the heavenly-sanctuary argument.

Exodus 25:40→

See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

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

v. 5 · A picture of Christ

The tabernacle is 'a copy and shadow (hypodeigma kai skia) of the heavenly'; the earthly tent is a copy of the true tent.

Exodus 25:9→

You must make the tabernacle and design all its furnishings according to the pattern I show you.

Heb 8:5

v. 8 · 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 10:16→

“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”

ASV/WEB text; Wikipedia Inclusio example list

v. 8 · Quoted here

'I will make a new covenant': the longest OT quotation in the NT; Hebrews' pivot from old tent to new.

Jeremiah 31:31→

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.

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

This page draws on C. F. Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.

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