Hebrews 10:19

Ἔχοντες οὖν, ἀδελφοί.… “Having then, brethren, confidence for the entrance into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, a way which He inaugurated for us fresh and living, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” For the form of the sentence cf. Hebrews 4:14. παρρησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον, cf. Hebrews 3:6 and Hebrews 4:16 προσερχώμεθα μετὰ παρρησίας, also Ephesians 3:12. ἐν ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν παρρησίαν καὶ τὴν προσαγωγὴν. εἴσοδος may either mean an entrance objectively considered, or the act of entering. Weiss adopts the former meaning, compelled as he supposes by the ὁδὸν which follows in apposition and referring to Jude 1:24 and Ezekiel 27:3. He would therefore translate “boldness as regards the entrance”. The objection to this interpretation is the meaning put upon εἰς which more naturally expresses the object or end towards which the παρρησία is directed, the entering in, not merely the object about which the παρρησία is exercised. Cf. 2 Corinthians 7:10, μετάνοιαν εἰς σωτηρίαν. But cf. Winer on εἰς. The expression in Hebrews 9:8, τὴν τῶν ἁγίων ὁδὸν, also favours Weiss's interpretation. τῶν ἁγίων as the Greek commentators remark, here means “heaven”. ἐν τ. αἵματι Ἰησοῦ, on the whole, it is better to join these words not with παρρησίαν but with εἴσοδον. Bleek sees a reference to Hebrews 9:25, ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς εἰσέρχεται εἰς τὰ ἅγια ἐν αἵματι ἀλλοτρίῳ. ἣν ἐνεκαίνισεν ἡμῖν ὁδὸν … “The new and living way which He inaugurated [or dedicated] for us.” The antecedent of the clause is εἴσοδον, and this way into the holiest is here further described as first used by Christ that it might be used by us. For ἐγκαινίζειν means to handsel, to take the first use of a new thing. See Deuteronomy 20:5. He has entered within the veil as our πρόδρομος (Hebrews 6:19-20) and has thus opened a way for us. It is πρόσφατον, recent, fresh. The lexicographers are agreed that, originally meaning fresh-slain and applied to νεκρός, πρόσφατος came to be used of flowers, oil, snow, misfortune, benefits, in Sirac. Hebrews 9:10, of a friend; in Ecclesiastes 1:9 οὐκ ἔστι πᾶν πρόσφατον ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον. It was a way recently opened. Christ was the first who trod that way. Wetstein, who gives many examples of the use of the word, cites also from Floras, i. 15, 3, an interesting analogy: “Alter [Decius Mus] quasi monitu deorum, capite velato, primam ante aciem diis manibus se devoverit, ut in confertissima se hostium tela jaculatus, novum ad victoriam iter sanguinis sui semita aperiret”. καὶ ζῶσαν, not as a way that abides (Chrys., etc.) nor as leading to life eternal (Grotius, etc.), nor as a way which consists in fellowship with a Person (Westcott), but as effective, actually bringing its followers to their goal. Cf. Hebrews 4:12. So Davidson and Weiss. διὰ τοῦ καταπετάσματος, a further characteristic of the way, it passed through the veil, that is, His flesh, which must first be rent before Christ could pass into the holiest. “This beautiful allegorizing of the veil cannot, of course, be made part of a consistent and complete typology. It is not meant for this. But as the veil stood locally before the holiest in the Mosaic Tabernacle, the way into which lay through it, so Christ's life in the flesh stood between Him and His entrance before God, and His flesh had to be rent ere He could enter” (Davidson).