If it could, would not the offerings have ceased? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt the guilt of their sins.
Parallel translations
- WEB Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins?
- KJV For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
- NKJV For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
- NASB Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?
- NLT If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If those sacrifices truly cleansed, they would have stopped, since the worshipers would have no more guilt. Their continuation proved their inadequacy.
Overview
The author reasons that genuinely effective sacrifices would have ended once and for all, leaving a cleansed conscience. The fact that they continued shows they could not finally remove sin. This contrasts sharply with Christ's offering, which truly cleanses and so is never repeated.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Isa 43:25I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
- Mic 7:19He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.
- Ps 103:12As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
- Isa 44:22I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
- Heb 10:17Then He adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
- Heb 9:13–14For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,
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Christ at the center
Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 10:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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