Hebrews 10:1

Context

The author of Hebrews is not named in the text, and several views exist, including Pauline authorship. Many interpreters regard the recipients as Jewish Christians who were tempted to return to the old sacrificial system. Chapters 8–10 compare the sacrifices of the Levitical priests with the sacrifice of Christ. Hebrews 10:1 opens the section that concludes this argument (10:1-18). The sacrifices offered "year by year" are generally understood to refer to the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement, observed once a year (Leviticus 16). The author reasons that the very repetition of such sacrifices shows that they "can never ... make the comers thereunto perfect," and he then contrasts them with Christ's sacrifice offered "once for all" (10:10).

Interpretation

• Typological reading: This reading holds that the institutions and events of the Old Testament are types that prefigure the Christ who was to come. The tabernacle and its sacrifices are shadows pointing to the reality, Christ's atonement. This view is widely shared across denominations.
• Eschatological reading: Focusing on the phrase "good things to come," this reading interprets the relationship between shadow and reality as one of promise and fulfillment unfolding over time.
• Reading that emphasizes philosophical background: Some scholars see the terms "shadow" and "image" as connected to the vocabulary of Platonic philosophy and Hellenistic Judaism (such as Philo). Others counter that the author's concern is not philosophy but redemptive history.

Debates and Issues

• Continuity and discontinuity of the law: Covenant theology holds that a single covenant of grace was administered in different ways in successive eras and that the ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ; it therefore reads this verse in terms of continuity. Dispensationalism places greater emphasis on the distinctions between eras.
• Repeated sacrifices and the Eucharist: The Reformers cited this passage's emphasis on the limitations of repeated sacrifices and on Christ's sacrifice "once for all" as grounds for criticizing the understanding of the Mass as a sacrifice. The Catholic Church responds that the Mass is not a new sacrifice but makes present the one sacrifice of the cross. This is treated in more detail in the article Eucharistic controversy.
• Manuscripts and translation: Some ancient manuscripts are reported to read "a shadow and the image" instead of "not the very image." Manuscripts also differ over whether the subject of "can never" is the law (singular) or the priests and sacrifices (plural). Some translations render "very image" with a term closer to "reality."

In the Korean Church

The verse is frequently used as a supporting text in sermons and Bible study that interpret the tabernacle and the sacrificial system as types of Christ. Some, however, caution against excessive allegorical interpretation that assigns symbolic meaning to every detail of the tabernacle.

Related Passages

• Hebrews 8:5
• Hebrews 10:10-14
• Colossians 2:17
• Galatians 3:24
• Leviticus 16:34