Hebrews 6:19

as an anchor of the soul An anchor seems to have been an emblem of Hope being something which enables us to hope for safety in danger from very early days (Aesch. Agam.488), and is even found as a symbol of Hope on coins. The notion that this metaphor adds anything to the argument in favour of the Pauline authorship of the Epistle, because St Paul too sometimes uses maritime metaphors, shews how little the most ordinary canons of literary criticism are applied to the Scriptures. St Paul never happens to use the metaphor of "an anchor," but it might have been equally well used by a person who had never seen the sea in his life.

"Or if you fear

Put all your trust in God: that anchor holds."

Tennyson, Enoch Arden.

and which entereth into that within the vail This expression is not very clear. The meaning is that the hawser which holds the anchor of our Christian hope passeth into the space which lies behind the veil, i.e. into the very sanctuary of Him who is "the God of Hope" (Romans 15:13). "The veil" is the great veil (Parocheth) which separated the Holy from the Holy of Holies (Exodus 26:31-35; Hebrews 10:20; Matthew 27:51, &c.) The Christian's anchor of hope is not dropped into any earthly sea, but passes as it were through the depths of the aerial ocean, mooring us to the very throne of God.

"Oh! life as futile then as frail!

What hope of answer or redress?

Behind the veil! Behind the veil!"

In Memoriam.

The word katapetasmausually applies to this veil before the Holy of Holies, while kalumma(as in Philo) is strictly used for the outerveil.