² a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent^[a] that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.^(A)

Christ’s Sacrifice Takes Away Sin

²³ Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.^(A)

5 For we know that, if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.^(A)

⁸ For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the ancestors^(A)

The Tent outside the Camp

⁷ Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.^(A)

¹⁰ For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.^(A)

²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God,^(A)

⁸ By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary has not yet been disclosed as long as the first tent^[a] is still standing.^{(A) 9} This is a symbol^[b] of the present time, indicating that gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper^{(B) 10} but deal only with food and drink and various baptisms, regulations for the body imposed until the time comes to set things right.^(C)

¹¹ But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come,^[c] then through the greater and more perfect tent^[d] (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation),^{(D) 12} he entered once for all into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.^(E)

¹¹ In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision,^[a] by the removal of the body^[b] of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;^(A)

⁴⁴ Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”^(A)