Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary.
- BSB Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.
- NKJV Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.
- NASB Now even the first covenant had regulations for divine worship and the earthly sanctuary.
- NLT That first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth.
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
The first covenant did have genuine, God-given regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. These were real but provisional.
Overview
The author begins describing the tabernacle to show that even the old covenant's worship was divinely ordained yet earthbound. Its 'ordinances of divine service' and 'earthly sanctuary' were legitimate but pointed beyond themselves. This sets up the contrast with Christ's heavenly and superior ministry developed in the rest of the chapter.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Exod 25:8And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
- Heb 9:10–11Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
- Lev 18:30Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
- Heb 8:2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
- Lev 18:3–4After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
- Lev 22:9They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I the LORD do sanctify them.
- Col 2:8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
- Num 9:12They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it.
- Heb 8:7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
- Ezek 43:11And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.
- Luke 1:6And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
- Heb 8:13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
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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 9:1 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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