οὐδʼ ἵνα πολλάκις … “Nor yet [did He enter in] in order to offer Himself repeatedly,” that is, He did not enter in for a brief stay from which He was to return to renew His sacrifice. Westcott holds that the “offering” corresponds with the offering of the victim upon the altar, not with the bringing of the blood into the Holy of Holies. He refers to Hebrews 9:14 ἑαυτὸν προσήνεγκεν, to Hebrews 9:28, and also to Hebrews 10:10. Similarly Weiss and others. But in Hebrews 9:7 προσφέρει distinctly refers to the bringing in and application of the blood in the Holy of Holies, and the context of the present passage seems decidedly to make for the same interpretation. The sequence of the ἵνα clause after εἰσῆλθεν; the analogy presented in the clause under ὥσπερ; and the consequence stated under ἐπεὶ (Hebrews 9:26) all combine in favouring this meaning. The High Priest enters the Holiest annually, but Christ's entering in was of another kind, not requiring repetition. The reason for the reiterated entering in of the High Priest, as well as the possibility of it, is given in the words ἐν αἵματι ἀλλοτρίῳ. ἐν : “The High Priest was, as it were, surrounded, enveloped, in the life sacrificed and symbolically communicated” (Westcott). It is safer to take ἐν in its common instrumental sense: the blood was the instrument which enabled the High Priest to enter. The reason why the entrance had to be annually renewed is given in Hebrews 10:4. The same contrast between αἷμα ἀλλότριον and αἶμα ἴδιον is found in Hebrews 9:12. A sacrifice of blood not one's own is necessarily imperfect, Christ's entrance to God being διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος and διὰ πνεύματος αἰωνίου had eternal efficacy.

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Old Testament