▼ Grk “the main point of the things being said.”

▼ An allusion to Ps 110:1; see Heb 1:3, 13.

▼ Grk “there are those who offer.”

▼ Grk “who serve in,” referring to the Levitical priests, but focusing on the provisional and typological nature of the tabernacle in which they served.

▼ Or “prototype,” “outline.” The Greek word ὑπόδειγμα (hupodeigma) does not mean “copy,” as it is often translated; it means “something to be copied,” a basis for imitation. BDAG 1037 s.v. 2 lists both Heb 8:5 and 9:23 under the second category of usage, “an indication of someth. that appears at a subsequent time,” emphasizing the temporal progression between the earthly and heavenly sanctuaries.

▼ There are two main options for understanding the conceptual background of the heavenly sanctuary imagery. The first is to understand the imagery to be functioning on a vertical plane. This background is Hellenistic, philosophical, and spatial in orientation and sees the earthly sanctuary as a copy of the heavenly reality. The other option is to see the imagery functioning on a horizontal plane. This background is Jewish, eschatological, and temporal and sees the heavenly sanctuary as the fulfillment and true form of the earthly sanctuary which preceded it. The second option is preferred, both for lexical reasons (see [T] above) and because it fits the Jewish context of the book (although many scholars prefer to emphasize the relationship the book has to Hellenistic thought).

▼ The word τύπος (tupos) here has the meaning “an archetype serving as a model, type, pattern, model” (BDAG 1020 s.v. 6.a). This is in keeping with the horizontal imagery accepted for this verse (see [S] on “sketch” earlier in the verse). Here Moses was shown the future heavenly sanctuary which, though it did not yet exist, became the outline for the earthly sanctuary.

▼ A quotation from Exod 25:40.

▼ The Greek text indicates a contrast between vv. 4–5 and v. 6 that is difficult to render in English: Jesus’ status in the old order of priests (vv. 4–5) versus his superior ministry (v. 6).

▼ Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (Jesus) has been specified for clarity.

▼ Grk “to the degree that.”

▼ Grk “which is enacted.”

▼ This linkage of the change in priesthood with a change in the law or the covenant goes back to Heb 7:12, 22 and is picked up again in Heb 9:6–15 and 10:1–18.

▼ Grk “no occasion for a second one would have been sought.”

▼ Grk “for,” but providing an explanation of the God-intended limitation of the first covenant from v. 7.

▼ The “fault” or limitation in the first covenant was not in its inherent righteousness, but in its design from God himself. It was never intended to be his final revelation or provision for mankind; it was provisional, always pointing toward the fulfillment to come in Christ.

▼ Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

▼ ‡ Several witnesses (א* A D* I K P Ψ 33 81 326 365 1505 2464 al latt co Cyr) have αὐτούς (autous) here, “[in finding fault with] them, [he says],” alluding to Israel’s failings mentioned in v. 9b. (The verb μέμφομαι [memfomai, “to find fault with“] can take an accusative or dative direct object.) The reading behind the text above (αὐτοίς, autois), supported by Ƥ⁴⁶ א² B D² 0278 1739 1881 Maj., is perhaps a harder reading theologically, and is more ambiguous in meaning. If αὐτοίς goes with μεμφόμενος (memfomenos, here translated “showing its fault”), the clause could be translated “in finding fault with them” or “in showing [its] faults to them.” If αὐτοίς goes with the following λέγει (legei, “he says”), the clause is best translated, “in finding/showing [its] faults, he says to them.” The accusative pronoun suffers no such ambiguity, for it must be the object of μεμφόμενος rather than λέγει. Although a decision is difficult, the dative form of the pronoun best explains the rise of the other reading and is thus more likely to be original.

▼ Grk “not like the covenant,” continuing the description of v. 8b.

▼ Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”

▼ Grk “mind.”

▼ Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.

▼ Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”

▼ Grk “from the small to the great.”

▼ A quotation from Jer 31:31–34.

▼ Grk “when he says, ‘new,’” (referring to the covenant).

▼ Grk “near to disappearing.”