9
“The Messiah...Passed through the Superior and More Perfect Tabernacle”
1 Now then, the first covenant was also characterized by requirements for worship and by a sanctuary, located on the earth.
2 Furnished and set up in two sections was a tabernacle,+ in the first section of which were located+ the lampstand and the table with the Bread of the Presence. This first and outer section+ is called the Holy Place.
3 Behind the second curtain, in turn, was the inner part of the sanctuary,+ called the Most Holy Place,
4 which had for burning incense an altar adorned with gold,+ and the ark of the covenant, covered on all sides with gold. Inside the ark+ were the gold jar containing the manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant,
5 and above it were the cherubim of the Glory, whose wings+ overshadowed the atonement cover. But now is not the time+ to explain these things in detail.+
6 Now, with these things in this way set up, it is+ the first section of the tabernacle+ into which the priests enter regularly,+ to+ carry out their sacred duties.+
7 The inner part of the sanctuary,+ however, may be entered+ only once a year by the high priest alone, who must take with him+ the blood of a sin offering, which he sprinkles+ to atone for his own sins+ and for the sins that the people themselves+ had committed in ignorance,
8 the Holy Spirit making it clear by this arrangement+ that entrance into that which the inner+ part of the sanctuary represented+ was still closed,+ as long as the first tabernacle remained standing.+
9 The first tabernacle+ was a parable pointing symbolically to the present time,+ according to which sacrifices and offerings are presented that+ are unable to fully and finally consecrate the worshiper with respect to the conscience,+
10 but deal only with foods and drinks and various kinds of ceremonial washing—requirements pertaining to the body,+ imposed until the time set by God for a better order to be established.+
11 The Messiah, however, when he made his public appearance+ as high priest with respect+ to the good things that have come,+ passed through the superior and more perfect tabernacle not made by human hands, that is, not of the earth.+
12 And it was+ not with the blood of goats and young bulls that he entered once and for all into the original sanctuary, but with his own blood, having found a payment for release from slavery that endures forever into the very+ ages.+
13 If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ritually defiled,+ you see, set them apart to God with respect+ to the cleansing of the body,+
14 how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice+ to God through the eternal Spirit,+ cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,+ so that we may serve and worship the living God?
15 That is the reason why it is+ a new+ covenant of which he is the intermediary, so that, there+ having taken place a death to release them by payment from the slavery brought on because of their violations+ under the first+ covenant, those who have been summoned+ may receive what was promised, namely,+ that+ inheritance that endures forever into the ages.+
16 In the case of a covenant, you see, it is necessary for the death+ of the covenant-sacrifice to be presented.+
17 Indeed, a covenant: It is+ on the basis of sacrificial victims+ that its reliability is put beyond doubt,+ since it is never strong while the covenant-sacrifice is still alive.+
18 That is why not even+ the first covenant was put into effect without blood.
19 Indeed, after all the commandments stipulated in Torah had been declared by Moses to all the people, Moses+ took the blood of young bulls, mixed with water, and, using hyssop branches tied together with scarlet wool,+ sprinkled it on these:+ Both the scroll+ itself and all the people.+
20 As he did so, he said,+ “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded ᵖyou to obey.”+
21 He also sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels used in worship.+
22 Sacrificial blood is Torah’s cleansing provision, in fact,+ for just about+ everything,+ and apart from the blood of a sacrifice being poured out+ there is no forgiveness of sins.+
23 Whereas in the case of the sketches of the heavenly originals, therefore, it was+ these things with which they had to be cleansed, the heavenly originals themselves had to be cleansed with sacrifices superior to these.
24 It wasn’t+ a sanctuary made by human hands that the Messiah entered, you see, a mere representation of the original, but heaven itself, so as now to appear+ in the presence of God+ on our behalf.
25 Nor was it his purpose+ to offer himself again and again, in the way the Aaronic+ high priest enters the inner part of the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own,
26 because in that case+ he would have had to suffer death+ many times since the foundation of the world. As things stand,+ however, it is+ in a unique and decisive event,+ at the culmination of the ages, that the Messiah+ has appeared, for the purpose of removing the guilt+ of sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And just as surely+ as it is appointed for people to die once,+ and after this to face judgment,+
28 so too the Messiah, having been offered in sacrifice once+ for all time to “bear the sins of many,+”+ will appear a second+ time, not for the purpose of atoning for sin,+ but to bring salvation to those who are so+ eagerly waiting for him.