Charles Ellicott Commentary Hebrews 10:1

"For the law having a shadow of the good [things] to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh." — Hebrews 10:1 (ASV)

A Shadow of good things to come.—These words have already been discussed; the “shadow” in Hebrews 8:5, and “the good things to come” in the ordinary reading of Hebrews 9:11.

Not the very image.—The antithesis is hardly what we would have expected. The word “image” is indeed consistent with the closest and most perfect likeness; but why is the contrast to “shadow” expressed by a word that cannot denote more than likeness, and not by a reference to the things themselves? The answer seems to be that, from the very nature of the “good things to come,” the law could not be understood as possessing the things themselves; but if it had possessed “the very image” of them, such a perfect representation might have brought with it equal efficacy.

Can never with those sacrifices.—It is difficult to determine the exact Greek text in the latter half of this verse. With the ordinary reading, the general construction of the sentence is what the Authorized Version represents: For the law . . . can never . . . make perfect. The better manuscripts, however, read “they can,” a change that introduces some irregularity of construction: the pronoun “they” must probably in this case be understood as referring to the priests.

The order of the Greek is also very peculiar. Two translations of the verse (with the changed reading) may be given:

1. They can never with the same sacrifices year by year which they offer continually make them that draw nigh perfect.
2. They can never year by year, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually, make them that draw nigh perfect.

The difference between the two renderings will be easily seen. The former makes the whole sentence relate to the annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, and gives to “continually” almost the same meaning as “year by year.”

The meaning of the latter is that by the annual sacrifices, which are the same as those that the priests are offering for the people day by day (for the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement did not in itself differ from the ordinary sin offering), they cannot make the worshipers perfect. The latter translation agrees best with the original and conveys a very striking thought. It is open, however, to a very serious objection—that it separates the verse into two incongruous parts.

That annual sacrifices not different in kind from the sin offerings that were presented day by day (and that the very institution of the Day of Atonement declared to be imperfect) could not bring to the worshipers what they needed, is an important argument; but it has no connection with the first words of the verse. Hence, though the Greek does not very readily yield the former translation, it is probably to be preferred. With the expression “them that draw nigh” or “approach” (to God), compare Hebrews 7:26, where the same word is used. On “make perfect,” see Hebrews 7:11; Hebrews 9:9.