Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Hebrews · About this commentary
A Minister of the True Tabernacle
Hebrews 8:1-6
1 Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, · WEB
The writer flags his own main point, and it is about where the priest is seated and which sanctuary he serves.
Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this.
The writer stops to say which of his arguments is the load-bearing one — a courtesy no other New Testament book extends — and the main point turns out to have two halves: a person and a location.
The person: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. The verb is the book's marker of finished work Hebrews 1:3 Hebrews 10:12. And the possessive matters — we have him. Everything argued about Melchizedek lands as a possession, not a theory.
The location: he is a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man.
Both nouns are concrete. The word true here does not mean the earlier tent was false — the whole letter has treated it as genuinely commanded. It means original as against copy, the thing itself as against the representation of it, and the distinguishing mark given is the builder: pitched by the Lord, not by hands.
Verse 3 supplies the logic that makes a heavenly sanctuary necessary rather than decorative: every high priest is appointed to offer... therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. A priest without a sanctuary is a contradiction; if Christ holds the office, there is a place where he exercises it.
And verse 4 is blunter than readers expect: if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all. The earthly system was fully staffed by men with the correct ancestry. There was no vacancy below — his priesthood exists only above, which is where the argument has been pointing since he passed through the heavens Hebrews 4:14.
Verse 5 gives the earthly system its dignity and its limit in one clause: its priests serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. The proof is the instruction to Moses — see, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain. A pattern shown, then copied: the tent was a faithful replica, and a replica points beyond itself by being one.
So verse 6 can draw the comparison without demoting anyone: he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law. Ministry, covenant, promises — three betters in one sentence, and the next paragraph turns to the covenant.
settled What this mark means