Hebrews 8:2

a minister From this word leitourgos(derived from λεώς "people," and ἔργον, "work") comes our "liturgy."

of the sanctuary This (and not "of holy things," or "of the saints") is the only tenable rendering of the word in this Epistle.

and The "and" does not introduce something new; it merely furnishes a more definite explanation of the previous word.

of the true tabernacle Rather, "of the genuine tabernacle" (alethinçsnot alethous). The word alethinosmeans "genuine," and in this Epistle "ideal" "archetypal." It is the antithesis not to what is spurious, but to what is material, secondary, and transient. The Alexandrian Jews, as well as the Christian scholars of Alexandria, had adopted from Plato the doctrine of Ideas, which they regarded as divine and eternal archetypes of which material and earthly things were but the imperfect copies. They found their chief support for this introduction of Platonic views into the interpretation of the Bible in Exodus 25:40; Exodus 26:30 (quoted in Hebrews 8:5). Accordingly they regarded the Mosaic tabernacle as a mere sketch, copy, or outline of the Divine Idea or Pattern. The Idea is the perfected Reality of its material shadow. They extended this conception much farther:

"What if earth

Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein

Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought?"

The "genuine tabernacle" is the Heavenly Ideal (Hebrews 9:24) shewn to Moses. To interpret it of "the glorified body of Christ" by a mere verbal comparison of John 2:19, is to adopt the all-but-universal method of perverting the meaning of Scripture by the artificial elaborations and inferential afterthoughts of a scholastic theology.

pitched Lit. "fixed."

and not man Omit "and." Not a man, as Moses was. Comp. Hebrews 9:11; Hebrews 9:24.