Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁵ And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament, so that through death, which effected the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance. ¹⁶ For where there is a testament, there must also be the death of him who makes the testament, ¹⁷ because a testament takes authority when men are dead. It is of no effect as long as he who made it is alive.

¹⁸ For which reason also, neither was that first testament ordained without blood. ¹⁹ For when all the commandments were read by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and purple wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, ²⁰ saying: This is the blood of the testament that God has appointed unto you. ²¹ Moreover, he sprinkled the tabernacle with blood also, and all the ministering vessels. ²² And also almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

²³ It is needful then that the similitudes of heavenly things be purified with such things, but the heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices than are those. ²⁴ For Christ has not entered into the holy places that are made with hands, which are but similitudes of true things, but has entered into very heaven, to appear now in the sight of God for us –