Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 8

In this opening verse the author picks out his principal “point” (GK 3049) and proceeds to develop it. We have, he says, a high priest who is so great that he took his seat at God’s right hand. “The Majesty in heaven” is a reverent way of referring to God, and to be at his right hand is to be in the place of highest honor . The posture of sitting suggests a completed work. “Heaven” can be used in a variety of ways, but here it clearly means the dwelling place of God.

Christ is one “who serves” (GK 3313) in “the sanctuary” (lit., “the holy things”; GK 41). The former word is actually a noun, used of one who performed a variety of forms of public service. In the Bible, it is confined to the service of God, whether by angels (1:7) or by people (Romans 15:16). It can even include what is done by pagan officials (Romans 13:6). It speaks of Christ in his capacity as servant, which is striking, as it immediately follows the reference to his high place in heaven.

The “tabernacle” (GK 5008) takes us back to the wilderness days. The word means no more than “tent” and could be used of tents that people lived in. But it was also used of the tent used for worship during the wilderness wanderings (e.g., Exodus 27:21). That earthly tent corresponds to a heavenly reality, and it is in this heavenly reality that Christ’s ministry is exercised. “True” (GK 240) means authentic, insofar as the reality is possessed only by the archetype and not by its copies. This is further brought out with the statement that “the Lord” pitched the tabernacle, “not man.” Sin is dealt with in the way and place determined by God.

Earlier, the author said that high priests are appointed to offer sacrifices (5:1). Now we see Christ as high priest ministering in the real tabernacle (v.2). Thus it is “necessary” that Christ have something to offer. As he has already indicated, the author has in mind the one offering made once for all , not a continuous offering always being made in heaven. Even though Christ is eternally High Priest, he is not eternally offering up a sacrifice. Characteristically, he does not say at this point what is offered; that subject he will explain more fully later (9:14).

We must be clear that Christ’s priesthood is not one of this earth (even though his offering of himself took place here). There are divinely appointed earthly priests, but Jesus has no place among them. On earth he was a layman, who performed no priestly functions in any earthly sanctuary. Those functions were performed by the priests to whom God had entrusted them. Christ’s priestly functions must obviously, then, be exercised elsewhere, in the true sanctuary in heaven.

The earthly priests serve in a sanctuary they value highly, though it is no more than “a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.” There has been much discussion as to how “Platonic” this idea is. Some remind us that Plato thought of heavenly “ideas” as the archetypes of all things earthly; they argue that the author has used the idea of an earthly sanctuary as the imperfect actualization of a Platonic heavenly sanctuary. Much can be said for the idea that his language is that of the Alexandrian modification of Platonism. But this means only that he is using popular terminology. His main thought accords with the OT, though he has added to his thinking the idea that the earthly is imperfect and the heavenly is real. Inevitably the ministry of the Levitical priests was defective; they could serve only the “copy and shadow.” So we are reminded of the Lord’s words to Moses that he must make everything “according to the pattern shown [him] on the mountain” (Exodus 25:40).