Hebrews 9:11
New Catholic Bible
11 Christ Has Come.[a] But now Christ has arrived as the high priest of the good things that have come. He has passed through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by human hands, that is, not a part of this creation,
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- Hebrews 9:11 The whole of Jewish hope, which was revived on the Day of Atonement, now finds its definitive fulfillment in the Passover of Christ. His is the true sacrifice. This time, a human being sheds his own blood, i.e., willingly gives his life to God for the benefit of his brothers and sisters; this time, a human being purifies the human conscience from within by his obedience; this time, a human being has access to God. The risen Christ remains in this relationship of giving and presence, once and for all, definitively and eternally. There is no longer any other sacrifice to perform. This is the future, filled with “the good things that have come” (v. 11).
Hebrews 9:11-15
New Catholic Bible
11 Christ Has Come.[a] But now Christ has arrived as the high priest of the good things that have come. He has passed through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by human hands, that is, not a part of this creation, 12 and he has entered once for all into the sanctuary not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
13 The blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of ashes of a heifer sanctify those who have been defiled and restore bodily purity. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from acts that lead to death so that we may worship the living God.
15 A Covenant Sealed with the Blood of Christ.[b] For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who have been called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since his death has served to redeem the sins that were committed under the first covenant.
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- Hebrews 9:11 The whole of Jewish hope, which was revived on the Day of Atonement, now finds its definitive fulfillment in the Passover of Christ. His is the true sacrifice. This time, a human being sheds his own blood, i.e., willingly gives his life to God for the benefit of his brothers and sisters; this time, a human being purifies the human conscience from within by his obedience; this time, a human being has access to God. The risen Christ remains in this relationship of giving and presence, once and for all, definitively and eternally. There is no longer any other sacrifice to perform. This is the future, filled with “the good things that have come” (v. 11).
- Hebrews 9:15 In the Jewish mind sacrifice and blood were reminders of atonement and Covenant (see Ex 24). The New Covenant is accomplished by the Paschal Mystery of Christ. In Greek, the word diathêkê signified both “covenant” and “testament”; it was easy to move from the one meaning to the other, as the author does in vv. 15 and 16.
