Hebrews Chapter 10:5-10 | |
5. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: | 5. Quapropter egrediens in mundum dicit, Sacrificium et oblationem noluisti, corpus autem aptasti mihi; |
6. In burnt offerings and [sacrifices] for sin thou hast had no pleasure. | 6. Holocausta et victimas pro peccato non probasti; |
7. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. | 7. Tunc dixi, Ecce adsum; in capite libri scriptum est de me, ut faciam, O Deus, voluntatem tuam. |
8. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and [offering] for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure [therein]; which are offered by the law; | 8. Quum prius dixesset, sacrificium et oblationem, holocausta et victimas pro peccato noluisti, neque comprobasti quae secundum legem offeruntur; |
9. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. | 9. Tunc dixit, Ecce adsum ut faciam, O Deus, voluntatem tuam, tollit prius ut secundum statuat: |
10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all]. | 10. In qua voluntate sanctificati sumus per oblationem corporis Iesu Christi semel. |
5.
Everywhere in the Prophets sentences of this kind occur, that sacrifices do not please God, that they are not required by him, that he sets no value on them; nay, on the contrary, that they are an abomination to him. But then the blame was not in the sacrifices themselves, but what was adventitious to them was referred to; for as hypocrites, while obstinate in their impiety, still sought to pacify God with sacrifices, they were in this manner reproved. The Prophets, then, rejected sacrifices, not as they were instituted by God, but as they were vitiated by wicked men, and profaned through unclean consciences. But here the reason is different, for he is not condemning sacrifices offered in hypocrisy, or otherwise not rightly performed through the depravity and wickedness of men; but he denies that they are required of the faithful and sincere worshippers of God; for he speaks of himself who offered them with a clean heart and pure hands, and yet he says that they did not please God.
Were any one to except and say that they were not accepted on their own account or for their own worthiness, but for the sake of something else, I should still say that unsuitable to this place is an argument of this kind; for then would men be called back to spiritual worship, when ascribing too much to external ceremonies; then the Holy Spirit would be considered as declaring that ceremonies are nothing with God, when by men's error they are too highly exalted.
David, being under the Law, ought not surely to have neglected the rite of sacrificing. He ought, I allow, to have worshipped God with sincerity of heart; but it was not lawful for him to omit what God had commanded, and he had the command to sacrifice in common with all the rest. We hence conclude that he looked farther than to his own age, when he said,
There is no small importance in this, that when he professes that he would do the
But the Apostle followed the Greek translators when he said, "A body hast thou prepared;" for in quoting these words the Apostles were not so scrupulous, provided they perverted not Scripture to their own purpose. We must always have a regard to the end for which they quote passages, for they are very careful as to the main object, so as not to turn Scripture to another meaning; but as to words and other things, which bear not on the subject in hand, they use great freedom.1
7.
This passage, however, ought to stimulate us all to render prompt obedience to God; for Christ is a pattern of perfect obedience for this end, that all who are his may contend with one another in imitating him, that they may together respond to the call of God, and that their life may exemplify this saying,
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1 This is no doubt true; but here the identity of meaning is difficult to be made out. See Appendix I 2. -- Ed.
2 "Sanctified," here, as in chapter 2:11, includes the idea of expiation; it is to be sanctified, or cleansed from guilt, rather than from pollution, because it is said to be by the offering of the body of Christ, which was especially an expiation for sins, as it appears from what follows; and the main object of the quotation afterwards made was to show that by his death remission of sins is obtained.
"By the which will," or, by which will, is commonly taken to mean, "By the accomplishing of which will;" or ejn< may be taken as in chapter 4:11, in the sense of kata<, "according to which will we are cleansed (that is, from guilt) through the offering of the body of Christ once made."
"Will" here does not mean the act of willing, but the object of the will, that which God wills, approves and is pleased with, and is set in opposition to the legal sacrifices. And as there is a oiJ in many good copies after ejsme<n, some have rendered the verse thus, "By which will we are cleansed who are cleansed by the offering of the body of Christ once made." Thus "the will," or what pleased God, is first opposed to the sacrifices, and then identified with the offering of Christ's body. -- Ed.
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