Consider how great was this one to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of his spoils. And those from among the sons of Levi who assume the priesthood are commanded by the law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brothers, even though these are the issue of the loins of Abraham; but the one with no genealogy took a tenth from Abraham, and blessed the holder of the promises. Beyond any argument, it is the lesser who receives the blessing of the greater. And here, it is men who perish who take the tenth; but there, it is he of whom it is testified that he lives. And, so to speak, Levi also, who received the tenths, paid his tenth also, through Abraham, being still in the loins of his forefather when Melchizedek encountered him.
If, then, there could be perfection through the Leviti- cal priesthood, through which the people received the law, what use would there be in having another priest raised up in the order of Melchizedek rather than his being called in the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there comes a change of the law. He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, no member of which approached the altar; for it is evident that our Lord originated from the tribe of Judah, which Moses never mentioned in connection with priests. And the case is still clearer when another priest is raised up in the order of Melchizedek, and has become priest not by decree of human law but through the power of imperishable life; for it is attested: You are priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. The former commandment is canceled because of its weakness and uselessness, since the law brought nothing to perfection; but a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath sworn; for these others became priests without an oath sworn, but he with an oath sworn by the one who said to him: The Lord swore, and he will not change his word, you are priest forever; by so much the more is Jesus the guarantee of a greater covenant. Those priests were many because death prevented any one of them from enduring; but he, because he endures forever, holds a priesthood in which none can succeed him. He can, therefore, forever save those who through him come before God, since he lives forever to intercede for them.
It was fitting that our high priest should be such a one, holy, without evil, without stain, removed from siners and made higher than the heavens. He has no day-by-day need, as the high priests do, to offer sacrifices first for his own sins and then for those of the people. For he did this once for all in offering up himself. For the law appoints as high priests human beings who have their weaknesses; but the word of the oath sworn since the law appoints the son, perfect forever.
11 To summarize what has been said, such is the high priest we have, one who sits at the right of the throne of greatness in the heavens, minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord, not man, set in place. Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; so he too would have to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there are those who offer gifts according to the law. These serve the imitation and the shadow of the things in heaven, as Moses was directed to do when he was about to complete the tabernacle; for see to it, God said, that you make everything on the model of what was shown you on the mountain. But Christ has been given a higher ministry, inasmuch as he is mediator of a greater covenant, which is made law on the strength of greater promises. For if that first covenant had been without fault, no place would have been needed for a second; but he does find fault with them when he says: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will compact a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not keep to my covenant, and I have put them out of my mind, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, giving them my laws for their understanding, and I will inscribe them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they must not instruct each other, each man saying to his fellow citizen or his brother: Know the Lord; because all of them, from small to great, will know me; because I shall be merciful to their wrongdoings, and I shall no longer remember their sins.
In speaking of a new covenant he has made the old one antiquated; but what is antiquated and grows old is close to disappearing.
11The first covenant did have its rules for service and a sanctuary on earth. A tabe^cle was set up, the first one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the display of the showbread; this is called the Holy. And beyond the next curtain is the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, containing a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, entirely overlaid with gold; and there is a golden jar containing the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded and the tablets of the covenant, and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the seat of mercy; concerning which things it is not now possible to speak in detail. Such being their arrangement, the priests enter the first tabernacle constantly in the performance of their duties; but only the high priest enters the second, once a year, not without blood offering which he brings for his own errors and those of the people. And this is what the Holy Spirit shows us: that while the first tabernacle is still in place the way to the sanctuaries is not revealed. It is a symbol for our present time, when gifts and sacrifices are brought which cannot make the worshipper conscious of perfection, but it is only a matter of things eaten and and various
washings, regulations for the flesh applied until the time of the new order.
But Christ arrived as high priest of all the good things which have come about through the greater and more final tabernacle not made by human hands, that is, not of this world; and not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered once for all into the holy place, having found everlasting redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkled ashes of a heifer can hallow those who are defiled for the lustration of their flesh, how much more will the blood of the Christ, who through his everlasting spirit offered himself without fault to God, purify our conscience, away from dead acts to the service of the living God. And for this reason he is the mediator of a new testament, so that, with his death coming for absolution from their sins under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promise of an everlasting inheritance. For in the case of a testament, the death of the testator must be involved; since a testament has force after death has occurred, but it has no force while the testator is still living.
Even the first covenant, therefore, was not established without blood; for when the whole commandment had been declared by Moses to all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled the book itself and all the people, saying: This is the blood of the covenant which God decreed for you. And in the same way he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of service. And, by the law, practically everything is purified by blood, and without bloodshed there is no remission.
It must be, then, that while the copies of things in heaven are purified by these means, the actual things in heaven must be purified by sacrifices greater than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands which was a copy of the real thing, but he entered heaven itself, to appear before the face of God for our sake. Not to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the sanctuary once every year with blood that is not his own, since then he must have suffered again and again since the beginning of the world; but now, once for all at the conclusion of the ages, he has appeared, to abolish sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is the lot of man to die once, with the judgment coming after that, so the Christ was offered once for the taking away of the sins of many, and will appear a second time, without relation to sin, to those who look for his coming, for their salvation.