The Heavenly Tabernacle in Hebrews 8 and 9

In Hebrews 4:14 through 7:28, the writer draws an extended comparison between the priests of Israel, especially the high priests, and Christ, who is portrayed as a superior high priest. 7:26 through 8:2 provides a fitting summary of the previous section and an introduction to the next. The passage refers to the superior sacrifice of Christ, the better covenant that God inaugurated through Christ, and the heavenly sanctuary in which Christ serves as the perfect high priest:

Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever. The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man  (7:26--8:2, NIV).

Those verses lead directly into the discussion in chapters 8 and 9, where the author compares the literal tabernacle, constructed by the ancient Israelites under the direction of Moses, and a heavenly tabernacle. Later in this section, the author refers to the "first tabernacle," implying that there is a second (9:8). Finally, he speaks of "the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands" (9:11).

Getting a Handle on Hebrews

In the New International Version of the Bible, the New Testament contains forty-one occurrences of the word better. Of those occurrences, eleven, more than one fourth of the total, appear in the book that was known in the Early Church as To the Hebrews. The word superior occurs five times among the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. Three of the five occurrences of superior are in Hebrews.[1]

The relatively high frequency of better and superior in the Epistle to the Hebrews points to the author's use of comparisons. He sets out to compare God's dealings with the human race in two different periods of time, specifically before and after the redemptive work of Christ. The first four verses of the epistle point to its before-and-after perspective:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs (Heb. 1:1-4, NIV).

As the writer explains, prior to the coming of Christ, God spoke to humanity "through the prophets." But ever since the Incarnation, the same God has been speaking to humanity "by his Son." The superiority of the messenger, Jesus Christ, implies the superiority of the dispensation in which the readers are living, the Christian age.

So, if the people of God prior to the time of Christ were expected to devote themselves to the Lord and to their covenant obligations, how much more should believers living in the Christian age devote themselves to following the ways of God? To use the language of Hebrews, if the message from God before the coming of Christ "was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (2:2-3).

These patterns of both continuity and discontinuity permeate the rhetoric of the Epistle to the Hebrews and provide a key to understanding its content.[2] 

Notes

[1] Word statistics are taken from the Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance, ed. Edward W. Goodrick and John R. Kohlenberger III (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999). Still one of the better discussions of the title of this book in the ancient church is provided by Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan and Company, 1892), xxvii-xxx.

[2] The discussion here of comparisons and of patterns of continuity and discontinuity in the Epistle to the Hebrews was informed mainly by Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), ch. 20 titled "The Letter to the Hebrews."