Chapter 9

  The first therefore also indeed had ordinances of service, and the sanctuary, a worldly one.  

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  For a tabernacle was set up; the first, in which [were] both the candlestick and the table and the exposition of the loaves, which is called Holy;  

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  but after the second veil a tabernacle which is called Holy of holies,  

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  having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant, covered round in every part with gold, in which [were] the golden pot that had the manna, and the rod of Aaron that had sprouted, and the tables of the covenant;  

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  and above over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat; concerning which it is not now [the time] to speak in detail.  

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  Now these things being thus ordered, into the first tabernacle the priests enter at all times, accomplishing the services;  

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  but into the second, the high priest only, once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people:  

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  the Holy Spirit shewing this, that the way of the [holy of] holies has not yet been made manifest while as yet the first tabernacle has [its] standing;  

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  the which [is] an image for the present time, according to which both gifts and sacrifices, unable to perfect as to conscience him that worshipped, are offered,  

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  [consisting] only of meats and drinks and divers washings, ordinances of flesh, imposed until [the] time of setting things right.  

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  But Christ being come high priest of the good things to come, by the better and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, (that is, not of this creation,)  

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  nor by blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, has entered in once for all into the [holy of] holies, having found an eternal redemption.  

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  For if the blood of goats and bulls, and a heifer's ashes sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh,  

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  how much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship [the] living God?  

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  And for this reason he is mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.  

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  (For where [there is] a testament, the death of the testator must needs come in.  

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  For a testament [is] of force when men are dead, since it is in no way of force while the testator is alive.)  

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  Whence neither the first was inaugurated without blood.  

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  For every commandment having been spoken according to [the] law by Moses to all the people; having taken the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,  

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  saying, This [is] the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined to you.  

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  And the tabernacle too and all the vessels of service he sprinkled in like manner with blood;  

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  and almost all things are purified with blood according to the law, and without blood-shedding there is no remission.  

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  [It was] necessary then that the figurative representations of the things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with sacrifices better than these.  

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  For the Christ is not entered into holy places made with hand, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us:  

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  nor in order that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy places every year with blood not his own;  

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  since he had [then] been obliged often to suffer from the foundation of the world. But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for [the] putting away of sin by his sacrifice.  

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  And forasmuch as it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment;  

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  thus the Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear to those that look for him the second time without sin for salvation.  

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