Hebrews 10:1

The one Sacrifice and the many Sacrifices

1. of good things to come Of thegood things which Christ had now brought into the world (Hebrews 9:11).

not the very image of the things "The Law," says St Ambrose, "had the shadow; the Gospel the image; the Reality itself is in Heaven." By the word image is meant the true historic form. The Gospel was as much closer a resemblance of the Reality as a statue is a closer resemblance than a pencilled outline.

can never This may be the right reading, though the plural "theyare never able," is found in some mss. If this latter be the true reading the sentence begins with an unfinished construction (anakoluthon).

with those sacrifices … Rather, "with the same sacrifices, year by year, which they offer continuously, make perfect them that draw nigh," i.e. the Priests can never with their sacrifices, which are the same year by year, perfect the worshippers. Some have given a fuller sense to the words "the same," as though it meant that even the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement cannot make any one perfect, being as they are, after all, the samesacrifices in their inmost nature as those which are offered every morning and evening.