Hebreus 8:3-5

Hebrews 8:4 sounds as though the Jewish priests were presenting offerings in Herod’s Temple when the writer wrote. This understanding of the text has led some students of the book to date its writing before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. However it is more likely that we should take these present tenses as timeless. [Note: See Lane, p. lxiii.] The writer was describing what had been done in Judaism as though it was still going on, for the sake of vividness (cf. Hebrews 7:27-28; Hebrews 9:7-8; Hebrews 9:25; Hebrews 10:1-3; Hebrews 10:8; Hebrews 13:10-11). Nevertheless it seems likely that the epistle does indeed date from before A.D. 70. [Note: See my discussion of the date in the introduction section of these notes.]

God had explained the fact that the tabernacle was a prototype of another temple, the heavenly one, to Moses when God gave him the directions for the construction of the tabernacle (Exodus 25:40; cf. Revelation 4:5-6; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 8:3-5; Revelation 11:19; Revelation 21:22). Moses may have received a vision of God’s heavenly dwelling place then (cf. 1 Chronicles 28:19).

"Probably the conception of the tabhanith, the ’model’ (Exodus 25:9), also goes back ultimately to the idea that the earthly sanctuary is the counterpart of the heavenly dwelling of a deity [in ancient Near Eastern thought]." [Note: Frank M. Cross, "The Tabernacle," Biblical Archaeologist 10:3 (September 1947):62. Cf. G. Ernest Wright, "The Significance of the Temple in the Ancient Near East. Part III: The Temple in Palestine-Syria," Biblical Archaeologist 7:4 (December 1944):66.]

The writer’s point was that Jesus’ priesthood was not an earthly priesthood but one that operated in the realm of heaven. Jesus could have functioned as a priest on earth after the order of Melchizedek, but His real priestly ministry of sacrifice and intercession began when He entered heaven. Jesus interceded for others during His earthly ministry (e.g., Luke 22:32; John 17), but His ministry as our king-priest began with His ascension.

"The contrast developed is not simply between an earthly copy and a heavenly archetype but between a historical situation in the past and one that succeeded it in time. During the former situation, marked by the ministry of the Levitical priests, there was no entrance into the real, heavenly presence of God; full entrance into the eternal presence of God was made possible only with the life and redemptive accomplishment of Jesus." [Note: Lane, p. 207.]

"In Hebrews 8:1-5 the primitive Christian confession of Jesus as the one who has taken his seat at God’s right hand is reinterpreted in the light of the theme of heavenly sanctuary and liturgy. The development of this theme, which dominates the argument in Hebrews 8:1 to Hebrews 9:28, is clearly the central and most distinctive aspect of the writer’s interpretation of the saving work of Christ. . . . By means of a typological interpretation of the OT, the writer asserts that Christ has achieved what the sacrificial action of the high priest on the great Day of Atonement only foreshadowed. His entrance into the heavenly sanctuary, which is the true tabernacle where he has unrestricted access to the eternal presence of God, demonstrates the eschatological superiority of his priestly service to the ministry of the Levitical high priests. The priestly ministry of Christ in the celestial sanctuary is of capital importance in the thought of Hebrews." [Note: Ibid., p. 210.]