Hebrews 10:11-18 – There is Forgiveness

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 16 Jun 2019

Omitting the greyed-out text should bring verbal presentation time down to less than 45 minutes.

Intro:

A) The Best Priest Forever: Vs.11-13
Furthermore, every priest (on the one hand) has officiated [day] after day, ministering and frequently offering the same sacrifices, yet [at] no time are such things able to divest sins, but (on the other hand) this Man, after offering one sacrifice for sins, took office in perpetuity at God’s right hand, expectantly-waiting from then on until His enemies shall be set1 to be a footstool under His feet.

Verse 14 summarizes the outcome: “As a result, by means of one offering, He has perfected in perpetuity those who are being sanctified.”

B. The Witness of the Spirit that there is forgiveness forever (vs. 15-18)

V.15 Now, the Holy Spirit is also bearing witness to us, for, after He had made the statement, 16 “‘This is the covenant which I will contract [regard­ing them] after those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will give out my laws upon their heart, even inscribing them upon their understanding...’” 17 There is [this] “...and their sins [and their crimes] I shall never remember again."

V.18 explains the logical conclusion:Now, where there is forgiveness of these matters, an offering for sin is no longer [needed].”

    1. Blood was shed and offered by a priest to obtain that forgiveness, and

    2. Once that forgiveness has been made, there is no need to offer another blood-sacrifice again for it. That sin is gone and nothing else needs to be done about it.

C) Therefore… Let Us Draw Near In Faith! (Vs. 19-22)

    1. The first thing is parrasia/confidence/boldness/open-access

    1. The second thing which we have and which is needed to get to heaven is “a great priest.”

19 Therefore, brothers, having, by means of the blood of Jesus, open-ac­cess into the entrance of the holy places, 20 which He has put to new use with us – a freshly-made and living [entry-]way through the curtain (that is [to say] His flesh), 21 and [having] a great priest over the house of God,

V. 22 gives us the main verb that goes with the “therefore”:let’s keep approaching with sincerity of heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts having been sprinkled-clean from a guilty conscience and our bodies having been washed with pure water.”

Side-by-side Greek Text & English Versions of Heb. 10:11-18A

LXX of Jer. 31

Greek NT

NAW

KJV


11 Καὶ πᾶς μὲν ἱερεὺς ἕστηκε καθ᾿ ἡμέραν λειτουργῶν καὶ τὰς αὐτὰς πολλά­κις προσφέρων θυσίας, αἵτινες οὐδέποτε δύναν­ται περιελεῖν ἁμαρτίας·

11 Furthermore, every priest (on the one hand) has offi­ciated [day] after day, ministering & frequently offering the same sacrifices, yet [at] no time are such things able to divest sins,

11 And every priest standeth X daily minist­ering and offer­ing oftentimes the same sacrifi­ces, which can never take away sins:



Psa 109:1 Εἶπεν ὁ κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ μου Κάθου ἐκ δεξιῶν μου,

12 οὐτὸςB δὲ μίαν ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτιῶν προσ­ενέγκας θυσίαν εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Θεοῦ,

12 but (on the other hand) this Man, after offer­ing one sacrifice for sins took office in perpe­tuity at God’s right hand,

12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;


ἕως ἂν θῶ τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν σου. 

13 τὸ λοιπὸν ἐκδεχόμενος ἕως τεθῶσιν οἱ ἐχθροὶC αὐτοῦ ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ.

13 expectantly-waiting from then on until His ene­mies shall be set to be a footstool under His feet.

13 From hence­forth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool X X.


14 μιᾷ γὰρ προσ­φορᾷ τετελείω­κεν εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς τοὺς ἁγιαζομένους.

14 As a result, by means of one of­fering, He has per­fected in perpetu­ity those who are being sanctified.

14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Jer. 38:33

15 Μαρτυρεῖ δὲ ἡμῖν καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ῞Αγιον· μετὰ γὰρ τὸ Dειρηκέναι,

15 Now, the Ho­ly Spirit is also bearing witness to us, for, after He had made the statement,

15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

ὅτι αὕτη ἡ δια­θήκη ἣν διαθή­σομαι τῷ οἴκῳ Ισραηλ μετὰ τὰς ἡμέρας ἐκείνας φησὶν [נְאֻם] κύ­ριος διδοὺς δώ­σω [נָתַ֤תִּי] νόμ­ους μου εἰς [בּקִרְבָּ֔ם] τὴν διά­νοιαν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπὶ καρδίας αὐτῶν γράψω
[‎אֶכְתֲּבֶ֑נָּה] αὐτούς...

16 αὕτη ἡ διαθήκη ἣν διαθήσομαι πρὸς αὐτοὺς μετὰ τὰς ἡμέρας ἐκείνας, λέγει Κύριος· διδ­οὺς νόμους μου ἐπὶ καρδίας αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπὶE τὴν διάνοιανF αὐτῶν ἐπιγράψω αὐτούςG,

16 “‘This is the covenant which I will contract [regarding them] after those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will give out my laws upon their heart, even inscribing them upon their un­derstanding...’”

16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

34...ὅτι ἵλεως ἔσομαι ταῖς ἀδι­κίαις [‎עָוֹן] αὐτῶν καὶ τῶν ἁμαρτι­ῶν αὐτῶν οὐ μὴ μνησθῶ ἔτι

Heb. 10:17 καὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν καὶ τῶν ἀνομιῶνH αὐτῶν οὐ μὴ μνησθῶI ἔτι.

17 There is [this:] “...and their sins [and their crimes] I shall never re­member again.”

17 And their sins and X iniquities will I remember no more.

Heb. 10:16-17 does not appear to be a quote from the Septuagint, but rather a loose translation from the Hebrew.

18 ὅπου δὲ ἄφεσις τούτων, οὐκέτι προσ­φορὰ περὶ ἁμαρτίας.

18 Now, where there is forgive­ness of these matters, an offer­ing for sin is no longer [needed].

18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.


19 ῎Εχοντες οὖν, ἀδελφοί, παρρησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ αἵματι ᾿Ιησοῦ,

19 Therefore, brothers, having, by means of the blood of Jesus, open-access into the entrance of the holy places,

19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to X enterXJ into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,


20 ἣνK ἐνεκαίνι­σεν ἡμῖν ὁδὸν πρόσφατονL καὶ ζῶσαν διὰM τοῦ καταπετάσματος, τοῦτ᾿ ἔστι τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ,

20 which He has put to new use with us – a fresh­ly-made and living [entry-] way through the curtain (that is [to say] His flesh),

20 [By] a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;


21 καὶ ἱερέα μέγανN ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον τοῦ Θεοῦ,

21 and [having] a great priest over the house of God,

21 And having an high priest over the house of God;

22

22 προσερχώ­μεθα μετὰ ἀληθινῆς καρ­δίαςO ἐν πληρο­φορίᾳ πίστεως, ἐρραντισμένοι τὰς καρδίας ἀπὸ συνειδήσεως πονηρᾶς καὶ λελουμένοιP τὸ σῶμα ὕδατι καθαρῷ·

22 let’s keep approaching with sincerity of heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts having been sprinkled-clean from a guil­ty conscience and our bodies having been washed with pure water.

22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.



1The Greek subjunctive mood of this verb translated “made/set to be a footstool” connotes an unknown time, just as Jesus said, “...concerning that day and hour, no one except My Father alone [can] perceive – not even the angels of the heavens [not even the Son].” (Matthew 24:36, NAW)

210:1 For it is a shadow of the good things that are going to happen which the law has, not the shape itself of the matters, and [at] no time is it able to perfect those who approach with the same sacrifices which they are offering in perpetuity [year] after year. (NAW)

3It also shows up in the book of Acts when people would “cast off” from a port or “remove” the ship’s anchors.

4The Greek verb here is a compound of ana (“up”) and airew (“lift/carry”), whereas the verb at the end of v. 11 is a compound of peri (“around”) and airew, so there is a relationship between these words in Greek, even if English translations do not choose the same English root for both of these words.

5Mark 1:14-15 “Jesus came into Galilee preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and saying that the time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near, ‘Y’all keep on repenting [μετανοεῖτε] and believing in [πιστεύετε] the good news.’” (NAW)
1 John 1:8-2:1If we say that we have no sin, we lead ourselves astray and the truth is not in us. If we are confessing our sins, He is faithful and righteous in order to send away from us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we are making Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My children, I am writing these things to you so that you might not sin, yet if someone sins, we have an advocate before the Father: righteous Jesus Christ." (NAW)

6Jeremiah 38 [Eng. 31] :27 “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Juda with the seed of man, and the seed of beast.” (Brenton)

7Matthew 13:44 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure-chest which had been hidden in the field which a man found, then hid, and then, out of his joy, he goes on and sells all of however much he possesses and buys that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a merchant man seeking fine pearls, 46 who, after finding one highly-valued pearl, went off selling all of however much he had possessed, and he bought it. (NAW)

8Leviticus 6:25-27...This is the instruction concerning the sin-offering: In the place where the whole-burnt-offering is slaughtered, the sin offering shall be slaughtered before the face of Yahweh. It is a holy thing among holy things… Everyone who comes into contact with its flesh will be holy, including that which it sprinkles from its blood. Even the garment that it sprinkles upon must be washed in a holy place.” (NAW)

9Numbers 19:17-18 “And they shall take for the unclean of the burnt ashes of purification [ἁγνισμοῦ], and they shall pour upon them running water [ ὕδωρ ζῶν] into a vessel. And a clean [καθαρὸς] man shall take hyssop, and dip it into the water, and sprinkle it upon the house, and the furniture, and all the souls that are therein, and upon him that touched the human bone, or the slain man, or the corpse, or the tomb.” (Brenton)

10ὕδωρ καθαρόν does occur in two other places in the LXX, but as somewhat less-than-accurate translations of different Hebrew words: Numbers 5:15‎ מַ֥יִם קְדֹשִׁ֖ים (“holy water”) and Job 11:15 ‎ מִמּ֑וּם (“without defect”).

AThe Greek is the Majority text, edited by myself to follow the majority of the earliest-known manuscripts only when the early manuscript evidence is practically unanimous. My original document includes notes on the NKJV, NASB, NIV, & ESV English translations, but since they are all copyrighted, I cannot include them in my online document. Underlined words in English versions indicate a standalone difference from all other English translations of a certain word. Strikeout usually indicates that the English translation is, in my opinion, too far outside the range of meaning of the original Greek word. The addition of an X indicates a Greek word left untranslated – or a plural Greek word translated as an English singular. [Brackets] indicate words added in English not in the Greek. Key words are colored consistently across the chart to show correlations.

BAll seven pre-8th century manuscripts and practically all ancient versions read “this” but most manuscripts afterward read “he,” thus the Textus Receptus and the Greek Orthodox editions read autos. Curiously, the KJV translated according to the reading of the modern critical text and the modern versions translated according to the traditional Byzantine text! Clearly, however, they are all talking about the same person, so it makes no difference in meaning.

CThe LXX rendering of Psalm 109/110 is not followed exactly as it was in Heb. 1:13. Here the persons are changed from the original first-person speech “I set your enemies” to a third-person narrative, “He sets His enemies,” and the verb “set/made/put” is passivized and “enemies” is spelled nominatively (instead of accusatively) to stand as the subject of the verb (“His enemies shall be put” instead of the original “I shall put Your enemies”). Perhaps this is to avoid the trinitarian controversy from entering the minds of Jewish readers and distracting from the author’s main point of the powerful position of the Son of God at this point in the argument.

DAfter the 9th century, the majority of Greek manuscripts started adding the preposition “pro-” before this verb to clarify that it was stated “beforehand.” This made it into the traditional Greek Orthodox editions and the Textus Receptus, but it is not in a single one of the 6 manuscripts from the first eight centuries, and it does not seem to be a part of the earliest versions either. The fact that this communication was in the past, however, is already obvious from the context, so it makes no difference in meaning.

EThe previous time that the author of Hebrews quoted this same passage in Jeremiah, he used the same preposition in the LXX (eis = “into”), but it doesn’t create an essentially different meaning.

FThis is the reading of both the Greek and the Hebrew of the original quote in Jeremiah, and it is the reading of all six pre-9th century Greek manuscripts of Hebrews 10 and of the 1904 Patriarchal edition and the contemporary critical editions of the Greek NT. It appears that in the 9th Century, scribes pluralized the noun to match the plural possessive pronoun “their minds” instead of “their mind,” and the majority of scribes followed that, so that’s the reading of the Textus Receptus and the contemporary Greek Orthodox edition, but attributing a singular heart or mind to a plurality of persons is consistent with Biblical expression and means the same thing.

GAn ellipsis occurs here which passes over the following text in the LXX: “καὶ ἔσομαι αὐτοῖς εἰς θεόν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἔσονταί μοι εἰς λαόν καὶ οὐ μὴ διδάξωσιν ἕκαστος τὸν πολίτην αὐτοῦ καὶ ἕκαστος τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ λέγων γνῶθι τὸν κύριον ὅτι πάντες εἰδήσουσίν με ἀπὸ μικροῦ αὐτῶν καὶ ἕως μεγάλου αὐτῶν

HThis phrase “and of their lawlessness” is practically undisputed in the manuscripts here, whereas it is greatly disputed as to whether it was included in the same quote in Heb. 8:12. It does not, however, appear to be in the original Hebrew quote or the Septuagint translation of the quote in Jeremiah 31. Either way, it doesn’t change the meaning (“sin is lawlessness” – 1 Jn. 3:4).

IThis subjunctive aorist is the same as the undisputed reading of the same quote in Heb. 8:12 and is the reading of the Septuagint of the quote from Jeremiah (Qal Imperfect in the Hebrew) and is the reading of the Majority of Greek manuscripts of Hebrews 10 (including P46, the oldest-known one), all the Greek Orthodox editions and the Textus Receptus. However, half the Papyri and almost all the Uncial manuscripts read μνησθήσομαι – Future Indicative, so the modern critical editions prefer it. Both can be translated into English as “will,” so it makes no difference, but I prefer the traditional reading because I think the subjunctive implies volition on the part of God to forget, not merely predicting a future state of things.

JThe change of this Greek prepositional phrase containing a definite noun into an English infinitive verb is, strangely-enough, a well-established tradition among all English translations, dating back at least to the Geneva Bible, and it has come into other language versions such as the Spanish LBLA (“entrar”). The Latin Vulgate, on the other hand, apparently kept the Greek grammar, because “in the entering/in to the entring” is the reading of the Douay-Reims and Wycliffe; this was also preserved in the French Louis Segond version “une libre entrée.

KThis Accusative Feminine Singular relative pronoun matches parrasian/boldness/confidence/open-access (or perhaps eisodon/entry from the previous verse).

LThayer and Strong explain the component roots of this compound word as “before” + “slaughtered. It only occurs 6 other places in the Greek Bible, four in the OT, and 2 in the Apocrypha, twice regarding “freshly-pressed” wine (Num. 6:3, Sir. 9:10), thrice regarding false “johnny-come-lately” gods (Deut. 32:17; Ps. 80:10; Odes 2:1), and once regarding “novel” events (Eccl. 1:9).

MThe word “through/diahas the breadth of meaning to support both literally “a way to penetrate through the curtain into the holy of holies” and figuratively “a way to God’s holiness through the instrumentality (or means) of Christ’s human body sacrificed” - both of which this word is used for in this verse 20.

NThis is the only time that this phrase “great priest” occurs in the NT. The literal phrase “great priest” (cohen gadol) is the usual way of designating the High Priest in the Old Testament (20 out of 21 times), the one exception being 2 Chron. 24:11, where it is cohen harosh “chief priest,” but the Septuagint still translated that one as ἱερέως τοῦ μεγάλου “great priest,” so it is clearly interchangeable.). Curiously, in the NT, usage is flip-flopped, with archierius (“chief priest”) being the most common (over 120 times – translated into English about half the time as “high priest” and a little more than half the time as “chief priest” in the KJV), the one exception being this passage in Heb. 10:20 which reads hierius megas (literally “great priest”). Interpreters have to decide whether this is mere interchangeable use of synonymous terms (especially considering how a Hebrew audience could see them as synonymous), or whether a special meaning is intended here. The singularity of this use in the New Testament (once out of over 120 times) and the uniqueness of Jesus’ priesthood emphasized in Hebrews leads me towards the latter.

OThe only other place this phrase occurs in the Greek Bible is Isaiah 38:3 “Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, with a true heart [καρδίᾳ ἀληθινῇ], and have done that which was pleasing in thy sight. And [H]Ezekias wept bitterly.” (Brenton) Could it be an allusion?

PThe two perfect passive participles in this verse “sprinkled” and “washed” have been spelled with some variations over the millennia. I kept the spellings of the traditional text of the majority of Greek manuscripts, the Textus Receptus, and the Greek Orthodox editions of the GNT. The oldest-known Greek manuscripts together with the contemporary Critical editions read εραντισμένοι… λελουσμένοι (and several other old manuscripts and editions mix it up: for instance, A & C read εραντισμένοι… λελουμένοι, and the 1904 Patriarchal edition reads ἐρραντισμένοι… λελουσμένοι), but they mean the same thing.