Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary.
- KJV Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
- BSB Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an 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 25:8Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
- Heb 9:10–11being only (with meats and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.
- Lev 18:30Therefore you shall keep my requirements, that you do not practice any of these abominable customs, which were practiced before you, and that you do not defile yourselves with them. I am Yahweh your God.’”
- Heb 8:2a servant of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
- Lev 18:3–4You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived: and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes.
- Lev 22:9“‘They shall therefore follow my requirements, lest they bear sin for it, and die therein, if they profane it. I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.
- Col 2:8Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.
- Num 9:12They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.
- Heb 8:7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
- Ezek 43:11If they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and its fashion, and its exits, and its entrances, and all its forms, and all its ordinances, and all its forms, and all its laws; and write it in their sight; that they may keep the whole form of it, and all its ordinances, and do them.
- Luke 1:6They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
- Heb 8:13In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing 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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