Verse 20
By a new and living way - It is a new way; no human being had ever before entered into the heaven of heavens; Jesus in human nature was the first, and thus he has opened the way to heaven to mankind, his own resurrection and ascension to glory being the proof and pledge of ours.
The way is called ὁδον προσφατον και ζωσαν , new or fresh, and living. This is evidently an allusion to the blood of the victim newly shed, uncoagulated, and consequently proper to be used for sprinkling. The blood of the Jewish victims was fit for sacrificial purposes only so long as it was warm and fluid, and might be considered as yet possessing its vitality; but when it grew cold, it coagulated, lost its vitality, and was no longer proper to be used sacrificially. Christ is here, in the allusion, represented as newly slain, and yet living; the blood ever considered as flowing and giving life to the world. The way by the old covenant neither gave life, nor removed the liability to death. The way to peace and reconciliation, under the old covenant, was through the dead bodies of the animals slain; but Christ is living, and ever liveth, to make intercession for us; therefore he is a new and living way.
In the Choephorae of Aeschylus, ver. 801, there is an expression like this of the apostle: -
Αγετε, των παλαι πεπραγμενων
Αυσασθ ' ἁιμα προσφατοις δικαις .
Agite, olim venditorum
Solvite sanguinem recenti vindicta .
This way, says Dr. Owen, is new,
- Because it was but newly made and prepared.
- In opposition to the way into the holiest under the tabernacle, which was by death; nothing could be done in it without the blood of a victim.
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