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Hebrews 9:4  (Amplified® Bible)
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<< Hebrews 9:3   Hebrews 9:5 >>


Hebrews 9:1-25

Hebrews 9 opens with a description of the earthly sanctuary and its contents. Instructions from Leviticus 16 begin in verse 7: “But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance.” Verses 11-15 show Christ's fulfillment of the cleansing ritual and how He entered the Most Holy Place in heaven with His own blood. Verse 15 points out that our promise of eternal inheritance is based on His mediation; neither He nor we are awaiting Satan to fulfill any part of the sin offering. Verses 22-25 also explain Christ's cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary with His own blood, once for all, in contrast to the yearly purification of the physical sanctuary.

Comparing these explanations with the instruction in Leviticus 16, we see that both passages follow the same general order. Leviticus 16 begins with the instructions for the high priest on Atonement, just as Hebrews 2-9 presents Christ's superior High Priesthood. Next, Leviticus 16 proceeds to the slaughter of the first goat and the use of its blood to cleanse the sanctuary and holy objects. The bulk of Hebrews 9 explains Christ's role in fulfilling that.

David C. Grabbe
Who Fulfills the Azazel Goat— Satan or Christ? (Part Three)



What Did the Ark of the Covenant Contain (Hebrews 9:4)?

I Kings 8:9 and Hebrews 9:4 do seem to contradict each other. One verse says that only the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments were in the ark. The other verse lists several additional objects which apparently were also in the ark. However, God's Word does not contradict itself.

The original Greek word translated "in which" (wherein, KJV) in Hebrews 9:4 is hou. Biblical lexicons say that hou means "at which place." Hou is a general word that does not necessarily mean "wherein," "within," or "in." It simply means "in the same location as."

With this in mind, notice Deuteronomy 31:24-26:

So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book [not the Ten Commandments which God had written on two tables of stone, but the civil law which Moses had written in a book—the law of Moses], when they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying: "Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there as a witness against you. "

Notice that the Book of the Law was not placed inside the ark, but "beside" (by the side of, RSV) the ark. This is why the Book of the Law is not mentioned in I Kings 8:9 as being in the ark. The Book of the Law, along with the pot of manna (Exodus 16:33-34) and Aaron's rod, was kept beside the ark, not in it. All of these items could properly be described as being hou—in the same place as—the ark.

Commentator Albert Barnes, writing on Hebrews 9:4, brings out another possibility:

It is clear from the passage in I Kings 8:9, that they were not in the ark in the temple, but there is no improbability in the supposition that before the temple was built they might have been removed from the ark and lost. When the ark was carried from place to place, or during its captivity by the Philistines, it is probable that they were lost, as we never hear of them afterward.

In any case, there is no contradiction between I Kings 8:9 and Hebrews 9:4. The author of I Kings describes the ark's contents when it was installed in the First Temple, while Paul speaks of what Moses had put in it or with it in the wilderness several hundred years before the Temple was built.

Additional Reading:
Have the Ten Commandments Passed Away?
Have You Had Your Manna Today?
The Oracles of God
Deuteronomy (Part 1)
Deuteronomy Opening
Deuteronomy (Part 1) (1994)
Eden, The Garden, and The Two Trees (Part Three)


 
<< Hebrews 9:3   Hebrews 9:5 >>



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