Hebrews 10:3
in Hebrews 10Instead, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year.
KJV
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
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This verse in Hebrews 10
Commentary
13 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year - The reference here is to the sacrifices made on the great day of atonement. This occurred once in a year. Of course as often as a sacrifice was offered, it was an acknowledgment of guilt on the part of those for whom it was made. As these sacrifices continued to be offered every year, they who made the offering were reminded of their guilt and their desert of punishment.
This site's exposition
an annual reminder of sins
on Hebrews 10:3-4
The yearly sacrifices were an annual reminder of sins, anamnesis in Greek, so each Day of Atonement recalled guilt again. Verse 4 gives the reason, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, and the adunaton names that impossibility.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
"But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins." In them, he says, those sacrifices are only a reminder and a proof of sins, but there is no longer any forgiveness. And the proof that there is no forgiveness is the continual existence of …
For, he says, not only are the sacrifices offered for the sins that arise, but rather for all, as they have not been forgiven, for the sins that have already occurred.
A commentator
Ephrem the SyrianCOMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS · Written before 373.
proposed
If they had become perfect, their priesthood would have ceased, because they should have abstained from their sacrifices. And if their conscience was cleansed from sin, at the same time they would have been cleansed from the impurity of flesh. But "in these sacrifices there …
He showed both the law's limitations and its usefulness: while it cannot remove sins, it mounts an accusation against them, instills fear and obliges one to have recourse to grace.
"For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year." What then? do not we offer every day? We offer indeed, but making a remembrance of His death, and this remembrance is one and not many. How is it one, and not many? Inasmuch as that Sacrifice was once for all offered, and carried into the Holy of Holies. This is a figure of that sacrifice and this remembrance of that. For we always offer the same, not one sheep now and to-morrow another, but always the same thing: so that the sacrifice is one. And yet by this reasoning, since the offering is made in many places, are there many Christs? but Christ is one everywhere, being complete here and complete there also, one Body. As then while offered in many places, He is one body and not many bodies; so also He is one sacrifice. He is our High Priest, who offered the sacrifice that cleanses us. That we offer now also, which was then offered, which cannot be exhausted. This is done in remembrance of what was then done. For (saith He) "do this in remembrance of Me." (Luke xxii. 19.) It is not another sacrifice, as the High Priest, but we offer always the same, or rather we perform a remembrance of a Sacrifice.
6 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church2 voices
Sacrifices, he says, produce nothing else except a remembrance of sins, that is, an exposure. They do not provide forgiveness of sins, but by the fact that they are always offered, they show that the sins of the people remain unforgiven. For if sins had …
The second thing he prefaced is that in the Old Testament a commemoration was made of his own sins and those of the people every year. Therefore, they were abolished. Hence, he says, in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
There is a public commemoration of the sins both of the last and of all the preceding years; a clear proof that the guilt thereof is not perfectly purged away.
But in those sacrifices,....
He raises and exalts the priesthood of Christ very high, that he might effectually recommend him and his gospel to them,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The Gospel remission, on the contrary, is so complete, that sins are "remembered no more" (Heb 10:17) by God. It is unbelief to "forget" this once-for-all purgation, and to fear on account of "former sins" (2Pe 1:9). The believer, once for all bathed, needs only to "wash" his hands and "feet" of soils, according as he daily contracts them, in Christ's blood (Joh 13:10).
The words behind it
7 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἀλλ᾽ | all᾽ | But | G235 → | 635 times |
| ἐν | en | in | G1722 → | 2738 times |
| αὐταῖς | autais | these | G846 → | 5565 times |
| ἀνάμνησις | anamnesis | [there is] a reminder | G364 → | |
| ἁμαρτιῶν | hamartion | of sins | G266 → | 173 times |
| κατ᾽ | kat᾽ | every | G2596 → | 468 times |
| ἐνιαυτόν· | eniauton | year; | G1763 → | 14 times |
ἀλλ᾽But
all᾽G235 →635 times
ἐνin
enG1722 →2738 times
αὐταῖςthese
autaisG846 →5565 times
ἀνάμνησις[there is] a reminder
anamnesisG364 →
ἁμαρτιῶνof sins
hamartionG266 →173 times
κατ᾽every
kat᾽G2596 →468 times
ἐνιαυτόν·year;
eniautonG1763 →14 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Leviticus 16:34This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement once a year for the Israelites because of all their sins.” And all this was done as the LORD had commanded Moses.
it leads to
- Hebrews 9:25
Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 30:10
Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on the horns of the altar. Throughout your generations he shall make atonement on it annually with the blood of the sin offering of atonement. The altar…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hebrews 9:7
But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
- Hebrews 9:25
Through
Hebrews 9:7But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
it leads to
- Leviticus 16:34
This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement once a year for the Israelites because of all their sins.” And all this was done as the LORD had commanded Moses.
- Leviticus 5:18
He is to bring to the priest an unblemished ram of proper value from the flock as a guilt offering. Then the priest will make atonement on his behalf for the wrong he has…
- Hebrews 10:19–20
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
- Leviticus 16:34
Through
Exodus 30:10Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on the horns of the altar. Throughout your generations he shall make atonement on it annually with the blood of the sin offering of atonement. The altar…
it leads to
- Leviticus 16:18
Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He is to take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and…
- Hebrews 9:22–23
According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
- Leviticus 16:18
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies42
On this verse
On this chapter
- The General Epistles
- The Covenants
- The Day of Atonement
- Eternal Security, and the Five Warnings of Hebrews
- Faith
- The Hall of Faith
Show the next 6 titles
- The Fall Feasts
- Hope
- The Anchor of the Soul
- Entertaining Angels Unaware
- Jephthah's vow
- The Joy Set Before Him
Show the next 6 titles
- The Messianic Psalms
- Nadab and Abihu: the unauthorized fire
- Patience and the Impulse
- The Farmer Waits for the Rain
- The Scarlet Thread
- The Tabernacle
Show the next 6 titles
- The Appointed Times Read as a Calendar of Prophecy
- The Ark of the Covenant
- The Ascension: Acts 1:1-11 · Luke 24:50-53
- The Blood
- The Bronze Laver
- The Burnt Offering
Show the next 6 titles
About Hebrews
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Hebrews 17; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews; Theodoret of Cyrus, INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 10; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Hebrews and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Hebrews.