And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal.
Parallel translations
- WEB nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own,
- KJV Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
- BSB Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
- NKJV not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—
- NASB nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year by year with blood that is not his own.
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
Christ did not need to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest did each year with blood not his own. His was a different kind of offering altogether.
Overview
The author contrasts the high priest's yearly entry with borrowed (animal) blood against Christ's offering of himself. Repetition was the mark of the old system's insufficiency. Christ's sacrifice needs no repeating, setting up the decisive statement of the next verse.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Heb 9:12nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.
- Heb 9:7but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people.
- Heb 9:14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
- Heb 9:26or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
- Heb 10:19Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
- Exod 30:10Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh.”
- Lev 16:2–34and Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother, not to come at all times into the Most Holy Place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark; lest he die: for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.
- Heb 10:10by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 9:25 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.