圣经-新约（天主教思高圣经）
不认识圣经，就是不认识基督，不认识基督，就是不认识基督所建立的天主教会。
新约·希伯来书
共13章:
第一章(14)
序言
1:1 天主在古时，曾多次并以多种方式，借着先知对我们的祖先说过话；
1:2 但在这末期内，衪借着自己的儿子对我们说了话。天主立了衪为万有的承继者，并借着衪造成了宇宙。
1:3 衪是天主光荣的反映，是天主本体的真像，以自己大能的话支撑万有；当衪涤除了罪恶之后，便在高天上坐于「尊威」的右边。
1:4 衪所承受的名字既然超越众天使的名字，所以衪远超过众天使之上。
基督超越天使
以圣经为证
1:5 天主曾向那一位天使说过：『你是我的儿子，我今日生了你﹖』或说过：『我要作衪的父亲，衪要作我的儿子﹖』
1:6 再者，当天主引领首生子进入世界的时候，又说：『天主的众天使都要崇拜衪。』
1:7 论到天使固然说过：『天主使自己的天使为风，使自己的仆役为火焰。』
1:8 可是，论到自己的儿子却说：『天主！你的御座，永远常存；你治国的权杖，是公正的权杖。
1:9 你爱护正义，憎恨不法；为此天主，你的天主，用欢愉的油傅了你，胜过你的伴侣。』
1:10 又说：『上主、你！在起初奠定了下地，上天是你手的功绩；
1:11 诸天必要毁灭，而你永远存在；万物必要如同衣裳一样破坏。
1:12 你将它们卷起好似外套，它们必如衣服，都要变换更新；但是你却永存不变，你的寿命无尽无限。』
1:13 又向那一位天使说过：『你坐在我右边，等我使你的仇敌，变作你脚下的踏板﹖』
1:14 众天使岂不都是奉职的神，被派遣给那些要承受救恩的人服务吗﹖
基督超越天使
第二章(18)
2:1 应坚持圣道为此，我们必须更应注重所听的道理，免得为潮流所冲去。
2:2 如果借着天使所传示的话，发生了效力，凡违犯抗命的，都得了公平的报复；
2:3 那么，我们这些忽视这样伟大救恩的人，怎能逃脱惩罚呢﹖这救恩原是主亲自开始宣讲的，是那些听讲的人给我们证实的，
2:4 又是天主以神迹、奇事和各种异能，以及照衪的旨意所分配的圣神的奇恩，所一同证实的。
万物全属于基督权下
2:5 的确，天主没有把我们所讨论的未来的世界，隶属于天使之下，
2:6 但有一个人在圣经某处曾证明说：『人算什么，你竟顾念衪；人子算什么，你竟看顾衪﹖
2:7 你使衪稍微逊于天使，赐给衪尊崇和光荣当冠冕〔令衪统治你手的造化〕，
2:8 将一切放在衪的脚下。』「将一切放在衪的脚下」一句，是说天主没有留下一样，不隶属于衪权下的；但是现今我们还没有看见一切全隶属于衪权下。
2:9 我们却看见了那位「稍微逊于天使」的耶稣，因所受的死亡之苦，接受了尊崇和光荣的冠冕；这原是出于天主的恩宠，使衪为每个人尝到死味。
2:10 其实，那为万物的终向和万物根源的天主，既领导众子进入光荣，借苦难来成全拯救众子的首领，也是适当的，
2:11 因为，祝圣者与被祝圣者都是出于一源；为这个原故，耶稣称他们为弟兄，并不以为耻，说：
2:12 『我要向我的弟兄，宣扬你的圣名；在集会中，我要赞扬你。』又说：『我要依靠天主。』
2:13 又说：『看，我和天主所赏给我的孩子。』
2:14 那么，孩子既然都有同样的血肉，衪照样也取了一样的血肉，为能借着死亡，毁灭那握有死亡的权势者－－魔鬼，
2:15 并解救那些因死亡的恐怖，一生当奴隶的人。
2:16 其实都知道，衪没有援助天使，而援助了亚巴郎的后裔。
2:17 因此，衪应当在各方面相似弟兄们，好能在关于天主的事上，成为一个仁慈和忠信的大司祭，以补赎人民的罪恶。
2:18 衪既然亲自经过试探受了苦，也必能扶助受试探的人。
基督超越梅瑟
第三章(19)
子仆的分别
3:1 所以，有分于天上召选的诸圣弟兄啊！你们应细心想想，我们公认的钦使和大司祭耶稣，
3:2 对那委派衪的是怎样忠信，正如『梅瑟在衪的全家中』一样。
3:3 衪本来比梅瑟堪受更大地光荣，就如修建房屋的人，比那房屋理当更受尊荣。
3:4 不错，每座房屋都由一个人修建，但那创造万有的却是天主。
3:5 梅瑟在天主的全家中的确忠信，不过衪只是臣仆，为给那当要宣布的事作证；
3:6 但基督却是儿子，管理自己的家；衪的家就是我们，只要我们保存由望德所生的依恃和荣耀，【坚定不移，直到最后。】
依恃的心和值得夸耀的希望
警戒切勿背信
3:7 为此，圣神有话说：『今天你们如果听从他的声音，
3:8 不要再心硬了，像在叛乱之时，像在旷野中试探的那一天；
3:9 在那里，你们的祖宗以考验试探了我，虽然见了我的作为，
3:10 共四十年之久。所以我厌恶了那一世代，说：衪们心中时常迷惑，衪们不认识我的道路，
3:11 所以我在怒中起誓说：衪们决不得进入我的安息。』
3:12 弟兄们！你们要小心，免得你们中有人起背信的恶心，背离生活的天主；
3:13 反之，只要还有「今天」在，你们要天天互相劝勉，免得你们有人因罪恶的诱惑而硬了心，
3:14 因为我们已成了有分于基督的人，只要我们保存着起初怀有的信心，坚定不移，直到最后，
3:15 经上所说：『今天你们如果听从衪的声音，不要再心硬了，像在叛乱之时，』
3:16 是谁听了而起了叛乱呢﹖岂不是梅瑟从埃及领出来的众人吗﹖
3:17 四十年之久，天主厌恶了谁呢﹖不是那些犯了罪，而衪们的尸首倒在旷野中的人吗﹖
3:18 衪向谁起了誓，不准进入衪的安息呢﹖不是向那些背信的人吗﹖
3:19 于是我们看出：衪们不得进入安息，是因了背信的缘故。
依恃的心和值得夸耀的希望
第四章(16)
背信必得不到安息
4:1 所以，几时进入衪安息的恩许仍然存在，我们就应存戒心，免得你们中有人得不到安息，
4:2 因为我们也蒙受了喜讯，有如我们的祖先一样；可是衪们所听到的话为衪们毫无益处因为衪们听的时候没有怀着信德。
4:3 所以我们这些信了的人，必得进入安息，就如经上说的：『我在怒中起誓说：他们决不得进入我的安息。』其实天主的化工从创世时已经完成了，
4:4 因为圣经某处论及第七日说：『天主在第七天停止了自己的一切工作，开始安息。』
4:5 但这里又说：『衪们决不得进入我的安息。』
4:6 那么，既然这安息还保留着要一些人进入，而那些先听到喜讯的人，因背信没有进入；
4:7 因此天主重新指定了一个日子，即一个「今天」，就是在很久以后藉达味所宣示的，如上边说过的：『今天你们如果听从衪的声音，不要再心硬了。』
4:8 假使若苏厄实在使祖先安息了，此后天主便不会再论及别的一个日子。
4:9 由此看来，为天主的百姓，还保留了一个安息的时日。
4:10 的确，谁进入了天主的安息，衪也就停止自已的工作而安息，正如天主停止自已的工作而安息一样。
4:11 所以我们要努力进入那安息，免得有人照样因背信而跌倒。
天主的话所有的德能
4:12 天主的话确实是生活的，是有效力的，比各种双刃的剑还锐利，直穿入灵魂和神魂，关节与骨髓的分离点，且可辨别心中的感觉和思念。
4:13 没有一个受造物，在天主面前不是明显的，万物在衪眼前都是袒露敞开的，我们必须向衪交账。
基督为大司祭
大司祭基督同情人的弱点
4:14 我们既然有一位伟大的，进入了诸天的司祭，天主子耶稣，我们就应坚持所信奉的真道，
4:15 因为我们所有的，不是一位不能同情我们弱点的大司祭，而是一位在各方面与我们相似，受过试探的，只是没有罪过。
4:16 所以我们要怀着依恃之心，走近恩宠的宝座，以获得仁慈，寻到恩宠，作及时的扶助。
基督为大司祭
第五章(14)
基督永为大司祭
5:1 事实上，每位大司祭是由人间所选拔，奉派为人行关于天主的事，为奉献供物和牺牲，以赎罪过，
5:2 好能同情无知和迷途的人，因为他自己也为弱点所纠缠。
5:3 因此衪怎样为人民奉献赎罪祭，也当怎样为自己奉献。
5:4 谁也不得自己擅取这尊位，而应蒙天主召选，有如亚郎一样。
5:5 照样，基督也没有自取做大司祭的光荣，而是向他说过：『你是我的儿子，我今日生了你』的那位光荣了他；
5:6 衪又如在另一处说：『你照默基瑟德的品位，永做司祭。』
5:7 当衪还在血肉之身时，以大声哀号和眼泪，向那能救衪脱离死亡的天主，献上了祈祷和恳求，就因衪的虔敬而获得了俯允。
5:8 衪虽然是天主子，却由所受的苦难，学习了服从，
5:9 且在达到完成之后，为一切服从衪的人，成了永远救恩的根源，
5:10 遂蒙天主宣称为按照默基瑟德品位的大司祭。
责读者幼稚愚蒙
5:11 关于这事我们还有许多话要说，但是难以说明，因为你们听不入耳。
5:12 按时间说，你们本应做导师了，可是你们还需要有人来教导你们天主道理的初级教材；并且成了必须吃奶，而不能吃硬食的人。
5:13 凡吃奶的，因为还是个婴孩，还不能了解正义的道理；
5:14 唯独成年人才能吃硬食，因为他们的官能因着练习获得了熟练，能以分辨善恶。
第六章(20)
背信的悲惨结局
6:1 因此，让我们搁下论基督的初级教理，而努力向成全的课程迈进；不必再树立基础，就是讲论悔改、死亡的行为、信赖天主、
6:2 及各种的洗礼、覆手、死者复活和永远审判的道理。
6:3 如果天主准许，我们就这样去作。
6:4 的确，那些曾一次被光照，尝过天上的恩赐，成了有分于圣神，
6:5 并尝过天主甘美的言语，及未来世代德能的人，
6:6 如果背弃了正道，再叫他们自新悔改，是不可能的，因为他们亲自又把天主子钉在十字架上，公开加以凌辱。
6:7 就如一块田地，时有雨水降于其上，时受润泽：若出产有益于那种植者的蔬菜，就必蒙受天主的降福；
6:8 但若生出荆棘疾藜来，就必被废弃，必要受诅咒，它的结局就是焚烧。
应有坚固的望德
6:9 可是，亲爱的诸位！我们虽这样说，但对你们，我们确信你们将有更好的表现，更近于救恩，
6:10 因为天主不是不公义的，甚至于忘掉了你们的善工和爱德，即你们为了衪的名，在过去和现在，在服事圣徒的事上所表现的爱德。
6:11 我们只愿你们每一位表现同样的热心，以达成你们的希望，一直到底。
6:12 这样，你们不但不会懈怠，而且还会效法那些因信德和耐心而继承恩许的人。
6:13 当天主应许亚巴郎的时候，因为没有一个比天主大而能指着起誓的，就指着自己起誓，
6:14 说：『我必多多降福你，使你的后裔繁多。
6:15 这样亚巴郎因耐心等待，而获得了恩许。
6:16 人都是指着比自己大的起誓；以起誓作担保，了结一切争端。
6:17 为此天主愿意向继承恩许的人，充分显示自己不可更改的旨意，就以起誓来自作担保，
6:18 好叫我们这些寻求避难所的人，因这两种不可更改的事－－在这些事上天主决不会撒谎－－得到一种强有力的鼓励，去抓住那摆在目前的希望。
6:19 我们拿这希望，当作灵魂的安全而又坚固的锚，深深地拋入帐幔的内部。
6:20 作前驱的耶稣已为我们进入了那帐幔内部，按照默基瑟德品位做了永远的大司祭。
第七章(28)
默基瑟德超过亚巴郎与肋未
7:1 原来这默基瑟德是撒冷王，是至高者天主的司祭；当亚巴郎打败众王回来时，他来迎接，且祝福了他。
7:2 亚巴郎就由所有的一切之中，拿出十分之一分给了他；他的名字默基瑟德，第一可称作「正义之王」，他也可称作「撒冷之王」，就是「和平之王」之意。
7:3 他无父，无母，无族谱，生无始，寿无终：他好象天主子，永久身为司祭。
7:4 你们要想想：这人是多么伟大，连圣祖亚巴郎也由上等的战利品中，取了十分之一献给了他！
7:5 那些由肋未子孙中领受司祭职的，固然有命向人民，按法律征收什一之物，即向他们的弟兄，虽然都是出自亚巴郎的腰中；
7:6 可是不属于他们世系的那一位，却收了亚巴郎的什一之物，并祝福了那蒙受恩许的。
7:7 从来，在下的受在上的祝福，这是无人可反对的。
7:8 在这里那些领受什一之物的，是有死的人；但在那里领受什一之物的，却是一位证明了常活着的人。
7:9 并且可说：连那领受什一之物的肋未，也借着亚巴郎，交纳了什一之物，
7:10 因为当默基瑟德迎接亚巴郎的时候，肋未还在祖先的腰中。
旧约与肋未司祭职是暂时的
7:11 那么，如果借着肋未司祭职能有成全──因为选民就是本着这司祭职接受了法律──为什么还须要兴起另一位，按照默基瑟德品位的司祭，而不称为按照亚郎的品位呢﹖
7:12 如今司祭职一变更，法律也必然变更，
7:13 因为这里所论到的那一位，原是属于另一支派，由这一支派中，没有一个人曾在祭坛前服务过。
7:14 显然我们的主是由犹太支派出生的，关于这一支派，梅瑟从未提到司祭的事。
7:15 既然有另一位司祭，是按照默基瑟德的品级兴起的，那我们所讨论的就更显明了，
7:16 因为衪之成为司祭，并不是按照血统所规定的法则，而是按照不可消灭的生命的德能，
7:17 因为有圣经给他作证：『你照默基瑟德的品位永做司祭。』
7:18 先前的诫命之废除，是由于它的弱点和无用，
7:19 因为法律本来就不能成就什么；可是如今引进了一个更好的希望，因着这希望，我们才能亲近天主。
基督的司祭职是永存的
7:20 再者，耶稣成为司祭是具有天主誓言的，其它的司祭并没有这种誓言就成了司祭。
7:21 耶稣成为司祭，却具有誓言，因为天主向他说：『上主一发了誓，他决不再反悔；你永为司祭。』
7:22 如此，耶稣就成了更好的盟约的担保人。
7:23 再者，肋未人成为司祭的，人数众多，因为死亡阻碍他们长久留任，
7:24 但是耶稣因永远长存，具有不可消逝的司祭品位。
7:25 因此，凡由他而接近天主的人，他全能拯救，因为他常活着，为他们转求。
7:26 这样的大司祭才适合于我们，他是圣善的、无辜的、无玷的、别于罪人的、高于诸天的；
7:27 他无须像那些大司祭一样，每日要先为自己的罪，后为人民的罪，祭献牺牲；因为衪奉献了自己，只一次而为永远完成了这事，
7:28 因为法律所立为大司祭的人是有弱点的；可是在法律以后，以誓言所立的圣子，却是成全的，直到永远。
第八章(13)
基督为真会慕的司祭
8:1 我们所论述的要点即是：我们有这样一位大司祭，衪已坐在天上「尊威」的宝座右边，
8:2 在圣所，即真会幕里作臣仆；这会幕是上主而不是人所支搭的。
8:3 凡大司祭都是为奉献供物和牺牲而立的，因此这一位也必须有所奉献。
8:4 假使衪在地上，衪就不必当司祭，因为已有了按法律奉献供物的司祭。
8:5 这些人所行的敬礼，只是天上事物的模型与影子，就如梅瑟要制造会幕时，曾获得神示说：『要留心──上主说──应一一按照在山上指示你的式样去做。』
基督为更好盟约的中保
8:6 现今耶稣已得了一个更卓绝的职分，因为衪作了一个更好的，并建立在更好的恩许之上的盟约的中保，
8:7 如果那第一个盟约是没有缺点的，那么，为第二个就没有余地了。
8:8 其实天主却指摘以民说：『看，时日将到──上主说──我必要与以色列家和犹大家订立新约，
8:9 不像我昔日握住他们的手，领他们出离埃及时，与他们的祖先所订立的盟约一样，因为他们没有恒心守我的盟约，我也就不照管他们了──上主说。
8:10 这是我在那些时日后，与以色列家订立的盟约──上主说──我要将我的法律放在他们的明悟中，写在他们的心头上；我要做他们的天主，他们要做我的人民。
8:11 那时，谁也不再教训自己的同乡，谁也不再教训自己的弟兄说：「你要认识上主！」因为不论大小，人人都必认识我。
8:12 因为我要宽恕他们的过犯，不再记忆他们的罪恶。』
8:13 一说「新的，」就把先前的，宣布为旧的了；但凡是旧的和老的，都已临近了灭亡。
第九章(28)
基督带自己的血进入天上的圣殿
9:1 第一个盟约固然也有行敬礼的规程，和属于世界的圣殿，
9:2 因为有支搭好了的帐幕，前边的帐幕称为圣所，里面设有灯台、桌子和供饼；
9:3 在第二层帐幔后边，还有一个帐幕，称为至圣所，
9:4 里面设有金香坛和周围包金的约柜，柜内有盛「玛纳」的金罐，和亚郎开花的棍杖及约版。
9:5 柜上有天主荣耀的「革鲁宾」，遮着赎罪盖：关于这一切，现今不必一一细讲。
9:6 这一切既如此安置了，司祭们就常进前边的帐幕去行敬礼；
9:7 至于后边的帐幕，惟独大司祭一年一次进去，常带上血，去为自己和为人民的过犯奉献。
9:8 圣神藉此指明：几时前边的帐幕还存在，到天上圣殿的道路就还没有打开。
9:9 以上所述是现今时期的预表，表示所奉献的供物和牺牲，不能使行敬礼的人，在良心上得到成全，
9:10 因为这一切都是属于外表礼节的规程，只着重食品、饮料和各样的洗礼，立定为等待改良的时期。
9:11 可是基督一到，就作了未来鸿恩的大司祭，衪经过了那更大、更齐全的，不是人手所造，不属于受造世界的帐幕，
9:12 不是带着公山羊和牛犊的血，而是带着自己的血，一次而为永远进入了天上的圣殿，获得了永远的救赎。
9:13 假如公山羊和牛犊的血，以及母牛的灰烬，洒在那些受玷污的人身上，可净化他们得到肉身的洁净，
9:14 何况基督的血呢？衪借着永生的神，已把自己毫无瑕疵的奉献于天主，衪的血岂不更能洁净我们的良心，除去死亡的行为，好去事奉生活的天主﹖
基督以自己的血订立了新约
9:15 为此，衪作了新约的中保以衪的死亡补赎了在先前的盟约之下所有的罪过，好叫那些蒙召的人，获得所应许的永远的产业。
9:16 凡是遗嘱，必须提供立遗嘱者的死亡，
9:17 因为有了死亡，遗嘱才能生效，几时立遗嘱者还活着，总不得生效。
9:18 因此，连先前的盟约也得用血开创。
9:19 当日梅瑟向全民众按法律宣读了一切诫命之后，就用朱红线和牛膝草，蘸上牛犊和公山羊的血和水，洒在约书和全民众身上，说：
9:20 『这是天主向你们所命定的盟约的血。』
9:21 连帐幕和为敬礼用的一切器皿，他也照样洒上了血；
9:22 并且按照法律，几乎一切都是用血洁净的，若没有流血，就没有赦免。
9:23 那么，既然连那些天上事物的模型还必须这样洁净，而那天上的本物，自然更须要用比这些更高贵的牺牲，
9:24 因为基督并非进入了一座人手所造，为实体模型的圣殿，而是进入了上天本境，今后出现在天主面前，为我们转求。
9:25 衪无须再三奉献自己，好象大司祭每年应带着不是自己的血进入圣殿一样，
9:26 否则，从创世以来，衪就必须多次受苦受难了；可是现今，在今世的末期，只出现了一次，以自己作牺牲，除灭了罪过。
9:27 就如规定人只死一次，这以后就是审判；
9:28 同样，基督也只一次奉献了自己，为除免大众的罪过；将来衪要再次显现，与罪过无关，而是要向那些期待衪的人施行救恩。
第十章(39)
旧约的祭献不能赦罪
10:1 法律既然只有未来美物的影子，没有那些事物的真相，所以总不能因着每年常献的同样牺牲，使那些愿意亲近天主的人得到成全；
10:2 因为，如果那些行敬礼的人，一次而为永远洁净了，良心不再觉得有罪了，祭献岂不就要停止吗﹖
10:3 可是，正因这祭献才使人每年想起罪过来，
10:4 因为公牛和公山羊的血断不能除免罪过。
10:5 为此基督一进入世界便说：『牺牲与素祭，已非你所要，却给我预备了一个身体；
10:6 全燔祭和赎罪祭，已非你所喜，
10:7 于是我说：看，我已来到！关于我，书卷上已有记载：天主！我来为承行你的旨意。』
10:8 前边说：『祭物和素祭，全燔祭和赎罪祭，已非你所要，已非你所喜；』这一切都是按照法律所奉献的；
10:9 后边他说：『看，我已来到，为承行你的旨意；』由此可见，他废除了那先前的，为要成立那以后的。
10:10 我们就是因这旨意，借耶稣基督的身体，一次而为永远的祭献，得到了圣化。
仅基督的祭献能赦人罪
10:11 况且，每一位司祭，都是天天待立着执行敬礼，并屡次奉献总不能除去罪恶的同样牺牲；
10:12 但是基督只奉献了一次赎罪的牺牲，以后便永远坐在天主右边，
10:13 从今以后，只等待将衪的仇人变作衪脚下的踏板。
10:14 因为衪只借一次奉献，就永远使被圣化的人得以成全。
10:15 圣神也给我们作证，因为衪说过，
10:16 『这是我在那些时日后，与他们订立的盟约──上主说──我要将我的法律放在他们的心中，写在他们的明悟中』这话以后，又说：
10:17 『他们的罪过和他们的邪恶，我总不再追念。』
10:18 若这些罪已经赦了，也就用不着赎罪的祭献了。
应坚持信德
信望爱为教友生活的根基
10:19 所以，弟兄们！我们既然怀着大胆的信心，靠着耶稣的宝血得以进入圣殿，
10:20 即进入由衪给我们开创的一条又新又活，通过帐幔，即衪肉身的道路；
10:21 而且我们既然又有一位掌管天主家庭的伟大司祭，
10:22 我们就应在洗净心灵，脱离邪僻的良心，和用净水洗涤身体以后，怀着真诚的心，以完备的信德去接近天主；
10:23 也应该坚持所明认的望德，毫不动摇。因为应许的那位是忠信的；
10:24 也应该彼此关怀，激发爱德，勉励行善，
10:25 决不离弃我们的集会，就象一些人所习惯行的；反而应彼此劝勉；你们见那日子越近，就越该如此。
10:26 背信的罪难得赦免因为如果我们认识真理之后，还故意犯背信的罪，就再没有另一个赎罪祭了。
10:27 只有一种等待审判的怕情，和势将吞灭叛逆者的烈火。
10:28 谁若废弃梅瑟法律，只要有两三个证人，他就该死，必不得怜恤；
10:29 那么，你们想一想：那践踏了天主子，那自己借以成圣的盟约的血当作了俗物，而又轻慢了赐恩宠的圣神的人，应当受怎样更厉害的惩罚啊！
10:30 因为我们知道谁曾说过：『复仇在乎我，我必要报复；』又说：『上主必要审判自己的百姓。』
10:31 落在永生的天主手中，真是可怕！
应赖信德生活
10:32 请你们回想回想先前的时日，那时你们才蒙光照，就忍受了苦难的严厉打击：
10:33 一方面，你们当众受嗤笑、凌辱和磨难，另一方面，你们与这样受苦的人作了同伴。
10:34 的确，你们同情了监禁的人，又欣然忍受了你们的财物被抢掠，因为你们知道：你们已获有更高贵且常存的产业，
10:35 所以千万不要丧失那使你们可得大赏报的勇敢信心。
10:36 原来你们所需要的就是坚忍，为使你们承行天主的旨意，而获得那所应许的。
10:37 『因为还有很短的一会儿，要来的那一位，就要来到，决不迟缓。
10:38 我的义人靠信德而生活，假使他退缩，他必不会中悦我心。』
10:39 我们并不是那般退缩以致丧亡的人，而是有信德得以保全灵魂的人。
应坚持信德
第十一章(40)
信德的定义和表率
11:1 信德是所希望之事的担保，是未见之事的确证。
11:2 因这信德，先人们都曾得了褒扬。
11:3 因着信德，我们知道普世是藉天主的话形成的，看得见的是由看不见的化成的。
11:4 因着信德，亚伯尔向天主奉献了比加音更高贵的祭品；因这信德，亚伯尔被褒扬为义人，因为有天主为衪的供品作证；因这信德，衪虽死了，却仍发言。
11:5 因着信德，哈诺客被接去了，叫他不见死亡，世人也找不着他了，因为天主已将他接去；原来被接去之前，已有了中悦天主的明证。
11:6 没有信德，是不可能中悦天主的，因为凡接近天主的人，应该信他存在，且信他对寻求他的人是赏报者。
11:7 因着信德，诺厄对尚未见的事得了启示，怀着敬畏制造了方舟，为救自己的家庭；因着信德，衪定了世界的罪，且成了由信德得正义的承继者。
从亚巴郎到若瑟
11:8 因着信德，亚巴郎一蒙召选，就听命往他将要承受为产业的地方去了：他出走时，还不知道要到那里去。
11:9 因着信德，他旅居在所应许的地域，好象是在外邦，与有同样恩许的承继人依撒格和雅各伯寄居在帐幕内，
11:10 因为他期待着那有坚固基础的城，此城的工程师和建筑者是天主。
11:11 因着信德，连石女撒辣虽然过了适当的年龄，也蒙受了怀孕生子的能力，因为她相信那应许者是忠信的。
11:12 为此由一个人，且是由一个已近于死的人，生了子孙，有如天上的星辰那么多，又如海岸上的沙粒那么不可胜数。
11:13 这些人都怀着信德死了，没有获得所恩许的，只由远处观望，表示欢迎明认自己在世上只是外方人和旅客。
11:14 的确，那些说这样话的人，表示自己是在寻求一个家乡。
11:15 如果他们是怀念所离开的家乡，他们还有返回的机会；
11:16 其实他们如今所渴念的，实是一个更美丽的家乡，即天上的家乡。为此，天主自称为他们的天主，不以他们为羞耻，因为衪已给他们预备了一座城。
11:17 因着信德，亚巴郎在受试探的时候，献上了依撒格，就是那承受了恩许的人，献上了自己的独生子；
11:18 原来天主曾向他说过：『只有由依撒格所生的，才称为你的后裔。』
11:19 他想天主也有使人从死者中复活的能力，为此他又把依撒格得了回来以作预像。
11:20 因着信德，依撒格也关于未来的事祝福了雅各伯和厄撒乌。
11:21 因着信德，临死的雅各伯祝福了若瑟的每一个儿子，也扶着若瑟的扙头朝拜了天主。
11:22 因着信德，临终的若瑟提及以色列子民出离埃及的事，并对他自己的骨骸有所吩咐。
梅瑟与选民的信德
11:23 因着信德，梅瑟一诞生就被他的父母隐藏了三个月，因为他们见婴孩俊美，便不怕君王的谕令。
11:24 因着信德，梅瑟长大以后，拒绝被称为法郎公主的儿子，
11:25 他宁愿同天主的百姓一起受苦，也不愿有犯罪的暂时享受，
11:26 因为他以默西亚的耻辱比埃及的宝藏更为宝贵，因为他所注目的是天主的赏报。
11:27 因着信德，他不害怕君王的愤怒，而离开了埃及，因为他好象看见了那看不见的一位，而坚定不移。
11:28 因着信德，他举行了逾越节，行了洒血礼，免得那消灭首生者触犯以色列子民的首生者。
11:29 因着信德，他们渡过了红海，如过旱地；埃及人一尝试，就被淹没了。
11:30 因着信德，耶利哥城墙，被绕行七天之后，就倒塌了。
11:31 因着信德，妓女辣哈布平安地接待了侦探，没有同抗命的人一起灭亡。
由民长到玛加伯时代
11:32 此外，我还要说什么呢﹖我的确没有足够的时间再论述基德红、巴辣克、三松、依弗大、达味和撒慕尔以及众先知的事：
11:33 他们借着信德征服列国，执行正义，得到恩许，杜住狮子的口，
11:34 熄灭烈火的威力，逃脱利剑，转弱为强，成为战争中的英雄，击溃外国的军队。
11:35 有些女人得了她们的死者复活，有些人受了酷刑拷打，不愿接受释放，为获得更好的复活；
11:36 另有些人遭受了凌辱和鞭打，甚至锁押和监禁，
11:37 被石头砸死，被锯死，被拷问，被利剑杀死，披着绵羊和山羊皮到处流浪，受贫乏，受磨难，受虐待。
11:38 世界原配不上他们，他们遂在旷野、山岭、山洞和地穴中漂流无定。
结论 新旧二约的子民同为一家
11:39 这一切人虽然因着信德获得了褒扬，但是没有获得所恩许的，
11:40 因为天主为我们早已预备了一种更好的事，以致若没有我们，他们决得不到成全。
第十二章(29)
基督是我们坚忍的模范
12:1 所以，我们既有如此众多如云的证人，围绕着我们，就该卸下各种累赘和纠缠人的罪过，以坚忍的心，跑那摆在我们面前的赛程，
12:2 双目常注视着信德的创始者和完成者耶稣：衪为那摆在衪面前的欢乐，轻视了凌辱，忍受了十字架，而今坐在天主宝座的右边。
12:3 你们要常想，衪所以忍受罪人对衪这样的叛逆，是怕你们灰心丧志。
12:4 你们与罪恶争斗，还没有抵抗到流血的地步。
天父惩戒的目的
12:5 你们竟全忘了天主劝你们，好象劝子女的话说：『我儿，不要轻视上主的惩戒，也不要厌恶衪的谴责，
12:6 因为上主惩戒衪所爱的，鞭打衪所接管的每个儿子。』
12:7 为接受惩戒，你们应该坚忍，因为天主对待你们，就如对待子女；那有儿子，做父亲的不惩戒他呢﹖
12:8 如果你们缺少众人所共受的惩戒，你们就是私生子，而不是儿子。
12:9 再者，我们肉身的父亲惩戒我们时，我们尚且表示敬畏；何况灵性的父亲，我们不是更该服从，以得生活吗﹖
12:10 其实，肉身的父亲只是在短暂的时日内，照他们的心意来施行惩戒，但是天主却是为了我们的好处，为叫我们分沾衪的圣善。
12:11 固然各种惩戒，在当时似乎不是乐事，而是苦事；可是，以后却给那些这样受训练的人，结出义德的和平果实。
12:12 为此，你们应该伸直痿弱的手和麻木的膝；
12:13 你们的脚应履行正直的路，叫瘸子不要偏离正道，反叫他能得痊愈。
信友对新约的义务
12:14 你们应设法与众人和平相处，尽力追求圣德；若无圣德，谁也见不到主；
12:15 又应该慬慎，免得有人疏忽天主的恩宠，免得苦根子长出来，而累及你们，使许多人因此蒙受玷污。
12:16 谁也不要成为淫乱和亵圣者，如同厄撒乌一样，他为了一餐饭，竟出卖了自己长子的名分。
12:17 你们知道，后来他纵然愿意承受祝福，也遭到了拒绝；虽流泪苦求，但没有得到翻悔的余地。
12:18 你们原来并不是走近了那可触摸的山，那里有烈火、浓云、黑暗、暴风、
12:19 号筒的响声以及说话的声音，当时那些听见的人，都恳求天主不要再给他们说话，
12:20 因为他们承担不起所吩咐的事：『即使是一只走兽触摸了这山，也应用石头砸死；』
12:21 并且所显现的是这么可怕，连梅瑟也说：『我很是恐慌战憟。』
12:22 然而你们却接近了熙雍山和永生天主的城，天上的耶路撒冷，接近了千万天使的盛会，
12:23 和那些已被登录在天上的首生者的集会，接近了审判众人的天主，接近了已获得成全的义人的灵魂，
12:24 接近了新约的中保耶稣，以及衪所洒的血：这血比亚伯尔的血说话说得更好。
12:25 你们要慬慎，不要拒绝说话的那位！如果从前那些拒绝听衪在地上宣布启示的人，不能逃脱惩罚，何况我们这些背弃由天上说话的那位呢﹖
12:26 从前衪的声音摇动了下地，如今衪却应许说：『还有一次，我不但动摇下地，而且也动摇上天。』
12:27 这『还有一次』一句，是指明那些被动摇的事物，因为是受造的，必起变化，好叫那些不可动摇的事物得以常存。
12:28 为此，我们既然是蒙受一个不可动摇的国度，就应该感恩，藉此怀着虔诚和敬畏之情，事奉天主，叫衪喜悦，
12:29 因为我们的天主实是吞灭的烈火。
第十三章(25)
劝信友善尽各种义务
13:1 弟兄相爱之情应当常存。
13:2 不可忘了款待旅客，曾有人因此于不知不觉中款待了天使。
13:3 你们应怀念被囚禁的人，好象与他们同被囚禁；应怀念受虐待的人，好象你们也亲身受了一样。
13:4 在各方面，婚姻应受尊重，床第应是无污玷的，因为淫乱和犯奸的人，天主必要裁判。
13:5 待人接物不应爱钱；对现状应知足，因为天主曾亲自说过：『我决不离开你，也决不弃舍你。』
13:6 所以我们可放心大胆地说：『有上主保护我，我不畏惧；人能对我怎样﹖』
13:7 你们应该记念那些曾给你们讲过天主的道理，作过你们领袖的人，默想他们的生死，好效法他们的信德。
13:8 耶稣基督昨天、今天、直到永远，常是一样。
13:9 不可因各种异端道理而偏离正道；最好以恩宠来坚固自己的心，而不要以食物：那靠食物而行的人，从未得到好处。
13:10 我们有一座祭坛，那些在帐幕内行敬礼的人，没有权利吃上面的祭物，
13:11 因为那些祭牲的血，由大司祭带到圣所内当作赎罪祭，祭牲的尸体却应在营外焚烧尽；
13:12 因此耶稣为以自己的血圣化人民，就在城门外受了苦难。
13:13 所以我们应离开营幕，到衪那里去，去分受衪的凌辱，
13:14 因为我们在此没有常存的城邑，而是寻求那将来的城邑。
13:15 所以我们应借着耶稣，时常给天主奉献赞颂的祭献，就是献上我们嘴唇的佳果，颂扬衪的圣名。]
13:16 至于慈善和施舍，也不可忘记，因为这样的祭献是天主所喜悦的。
13:17 你们应信服并听从你们的领袖，因为他们为了你们的灵魂，常醒寤不寐，好象要代你们交账的人；你们要使他们喜欢尽此职分，而不哀怨，因为他们若有哀怨，为你们决无好处。
最后嘱托问安与祝福
13:18 请为我们祈祷！因为我们确信，我们有一个纯正的良心，愿意在一切事上举止完善。
13:19 我还恳切劝勉你们格外行祈祷，使我快回到你们那里。
13:20 赐平安的天主曾由死者中领出了那位因永远盟约的血，作群羊伟大司牧的我们的主耶稣，
13:21 愿衪成全你们行各种善工，好承行衪的旨意；愿天主在我们身上，借着耶稣基督行衪眼中所喜悦的事！愿光荣归于衪，至于无穷之世！阿们。
13:22 弟兄们！我劝你们容纳这劝慰的话，因为我只是简略地给你们写了这封信。
13:23 你们要知道，你们的弟兄弟茂德已被释放了；如果他来的快，我就同他一起来看你们。
13:24 问候你们的诸位领袖和众圣徒！意大利的弟兄们问候你们。
13:25 愿恩宠与你们众人同在！
BOOK ENDS. Seraphim, April 2009.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 1
A LETTER ADDRESSED TO A JEWISH-CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
PROLOGUE
The greatness of the incarnate Son of God
1:1 At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but
1:2 in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit everything and through whom he made everything there is.
1:3 He is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of his nature, sustaining the universe by his powerful command; and now that he has destroyed the defilement of sin, he has gone to take his place in heaven at the right hand of divine Majesty.
1:4 So he is now as far above the angels as the title which he has inherited is higher than their own name.
- THE SON IS GREATER THAN THE ANGELS
Proof from the scriptures
1:5 God has never said to any angel: You are my Son, today I have become your father;[*a] or: I will be a father to him and he a son to me.[*b]
1:6 Again, when he brings the First-born into the world, he says: Let all the angels of God worship him.[*c]
1:7 About the angels, he says: He makes his angels winds and his servants flames of fire,[*d]
1:8 but to his Son he says: God, your throne shall last for ever and ever; and: his royal sceptre is the sceptre of virtue;
1:9 virtue you love as much as you hate wickedness. This is why God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness, above all your rivals.[*e]
1:10 And again: It is you, Lord, who laid earth’s foundations in the beginning, the heavens are the work of your hands;
1:11 all will vanish, though you remain, all wear out like a garment;
1:12 you will roll them up like a cloak, and like a garment they will be changed. But yourself, you never change and your years are unending.[*f]
1:13 God has never said to any angel: Sit at my right hand and I will make your enemies a footstool for you.[*g]
1:14 The truth is they are all spirits whose work is service, sent to help those who will be the heirs of salvation.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 2
An exhortation
2:1 We ought, then, to turn our minds more attentively than before to what we have been taught, so that we do not drift away.
2:2 If a promise that was made through angels[*a] proved to be so true that every infringement and disobedience brought its own proper punishment,
2:3 then we shall certainly not go unpunished if we neglect this salvation that is promised to us. The promise was first announced by the Lord himself, and is guaranteed to us by those who heard him;
2:4 God himself confirmed their witness with signs and marvels and miracles of all kinds, and by freely giving the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Redemption brought by Christ, not by angels
2:5 He did not appoint angels to be rulers of the world to come, and that world is what we are talking about.
2:6 Somewhere there is a passage that shows us this. It runs: What is man that you should spare a thought for him, the son of man that you should care for him?
2:7 For a short while you made him lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and splendour.
2:8 You have put him in command of everything.[*b] Well then, if he has put him in command of everything, he has left nothing which is not under his command. At present, it is true, we are not able to see that everything has been put under his command,
2:9 but we do see in Jesus one who was for a short while made lower than the angels and is now crowned with glory and splendour because he submitted to death; by God’s grace he had to experience death for all mankind.
2:10 As it was his purpose to bring a great many of his sons into glory, it was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation.
2:11 For the one who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified, are of the same stock; that is why he openly calls them brothers
2:12 in the text: I shall announce your name to my brothers, praise you in full assembly;[*c] or the text:
2:13 In him I hope; or the text: Here I am with the children whom God has given me.[*d]
2:14 Since all the children share the same blood and flesh, he too shared equally in it, so that by his death he could take away all the power of the devil, who had power over death,
2:15 and set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.
2:16 For it was not the angels that he took to himself; he took to himself descent from Abraham.[*e]
2:17 It was essential that he should in this way become completely like his brothers so that he could be a compassionate and trustworthy high priest of God’s religion, able to atone for human sins.
2:18 That is, because he has himself been through temptation he is able to help others who are tempted.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 3
- JESUS THE FAITHFUL AND MERCIFUL HIGH PRIEST
Christ higher than Moses
3:1 That is why all you who are holy brothers and have had the same heavenly call should turn your minds to Jesus, the apostle and the high priest of our religion.
3:2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just like Moses, who stayed faithful in all his house;
3:3 but he has been found to deserve a greater glory than Moses. It is the difference between the honour given to the man that built the house and to the house itself.
3:4 Every house is built by someone, of course; but God built everything that exists.
3:5 It is true that Moses was faithful in the house of God, as a servant, acting as witness to the things which were to be divulged later;
3:6 but Christ was faithful as a son, and as the master in the house. And we are his house, as long as we cling to our hope with the confidence that we glory in.
How to reach God’s land of rest
3:7 The Holy Spirit says: If only you would listen to him today;
3:8 do not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, on the Day of Temptation in the wilderness,
3:9 when your ancestors challenged me and tested me, though they had seen what I could do
3:10 for forty years. That was why I was angry with that generation and said: How unreliable these people who refuse to grasp my ways!
3:11 And so, in anger, I swore that not one would reach the place of rest I had for them.[*a]
3:12 Take care, brothers, that there is not in any one of your community a wicked mind, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God.
3:13 Every day, as long as this ‘today’ lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin,
3:14 because we shall remain co-heirs with Christ only if we keep a grasp on our first confidence right to the end.
3:15 In this saying: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion,
3:16 those who rebelled after they had listened were all the people who were brought out of Egypt by Moses.
3:17 And those who made God angry for forty years were the ones who sinned and whose dead bodies were left lying in the wilderness.[*b]
3:18 Those that he swore would never reach the place of rest he had for them were those who had been disobedient.
3:19 We see, then, that it was because they were unfaithful that they were not able to reach it.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 4
4:1 Be careful, then: the promise of reaching the place of rest he had for them still holds good, and none of you must think that he has come too late for it.
4:2 We received the Good News exactly as they did; but hearing the message did them no good because they did not share the faith of those who listened.
4:3 We, however, who have faith, shall reach a place of rest, as in the text: And so, in anger, I swore that not one would reach the place of rest I had for them. God’s work was undoubtedly all finished at the beginning of the world;
4:4 as one text says, referring to the seventh day: After all his work God rested on the seventh day.[*a]
4:5 The text we are considering says: They shall not reach the place of rest I had for them.
4:6 It is established, then, that there would be some people who would reach it, and since those who first heard the Good News failed to reach it through their disobedience,
4:7 God fixed another day when, much later, he said ‘today’ through David in the text already quoted: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts.
4:8 If Joshua had led them into this place of rest, God would not later on have spoken so much of another day.
4:9 There must still be, therefore, a place of rest reserved for God’s people, the seventh-day rest,
4:10 since to reach the place of rest is to rest after your work, as God did after his.
4:11 We must therefore do everything we can to reach this place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of disobedience and be lost.
The word of God and Christ the priest
4:12 The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely: it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts.
4:13 No created thing can hide from him; everything is uncovered and open to the eyes of the one to whom we must give account of ourselves.
4:14 Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must never let go of the faith that we have professed.
4:15 For it is not as if we had a high priest who was incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us; but we have one who has been tempted in every way that we are, though he is without sin.
4:16 Let us be confident, then, in approaching the throne of grace, that we shall have mercy from him and find grace when we are in need of help.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 5
Jesus the compassionate high priest
5:1 Every high priest has been taken out of mankind and is appointed to act for men in their relations with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; and so
5:2 he can sympathise with those who are ignorant or uncertain because he too lives in the limitations of weakness.
5:3 That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.
5:4 No one takes this honour on himself, but each one is called by God, as Aaron was.
5:5 Nor did Christ give himself the glory of becoming high priest, but he had it from the one who said to him: You are my son, today I have become your father,[*a]
5:6 and in another text: You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever.[*b]
5:7 During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard.
5:8 Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering;
5:9 but having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation
5:10 and was acclaimed by God with the title of high priest of the order of Melchizedek.
III. THE AUTHENTIC PRIESTHOOD OF JESUS CHRIST
Christian life and theology
5:11 On this subject we have many things to say, and they are difficult to explain because you have grown so slow at understanding.
5:12 Really, when you should by this time have become masters, you need someone to teach you all over again the elementary principles of interpreting God’s oracles; you have gone back to needing milk, and not solid food.
5:13 Truly, anyone who is still living on milk cannot digest the doctrine of righteousness because he is still a baby.
5:14 Solid food is for mature men with minds trained by practice to distinguish between good and bad.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 6
The author explains his intention
6:1 Let us leave behind us then all the elementary teaching about Christ and concentrate on its completion, without going over the fundamental doctrines again: the turning away from dead actions and towards faith in God;
6:2 the teaching about baptisms and the laying-on of hands; the teaching about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement.
6:3 This, God willing, is what we propose to do.
6:4 As for those people who were once brought into the light, and tasted the gift from heaven, and received a share of the Holy Spirit,
6:5 and appreciated the good message of God and the powers of the world to come
6:6 and yet in spite of this have fallen away – it is impossible for them to be renewed a second time. They cannot be repentant if they have wilfullycrucified the Son of God and openly mocked him.
6:7 A field that has been well watered by frequent rain, and gives the crops that are wanted by the owners who grew them, is given God’s blessing;
6:8 but one that grows brambles and thistles is abandoned, and practically cursed. It will end by being burnt.
Words of hope and encouragement
6:9 But you, my dear people – in spite of what we have just said, we are sure you are in a better state and on the way to salvation.
6:10 God would not be so unjust as to forget all you have done, the love that you have for his name or the services you have done, and are still doing, for the saints.[*a]
6:11 Our one desire is that every one of you should go on showing the same earnestness to the end, to the perfect fulfilment of our hopes,
6:12 never growing careless, but imitating those who have the faith and the perseverance to inherit the promises.
6:13 When God made the promise to Abraham, he swore by his own self, since it was impossible for him to swear by anyone greater:
6:14 I will shower blessings on you and give you many descendants.[*b]
6:15 Because of that, Abraham persevered and saw the promise fulfilled.
6:16 Men, of course, swear an oath by something greater than themselves, and between men, confirmation by an oath puts an end to all dispute.
6:17 In the same way, when God wanted to make the heirs to the promise thoroughly realise that his purpose was unalterable, he conveyed this by an oath;
6:18 so that there would be two unalterable things in which it was impossible for God to be lying, and so that we, now we have found safety, should have a strong encouragement to take a firm grip on the hope that is held out to us.
6:19 Here we have an anchor for our soul, as sure as it is firm, and reaching right through beyond the veil[*c]
6:20 where Jesus has entered before us and on our behalf, to become a high priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 7
- CHRIST’S PRIESTHOOD HIGHER THAN LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD
Melchizedek[*a]
7:1 You remember that Melchizedek, king of Salem, a priest of God Most High, went to meet Abraham who was on his way back after defeating the kings, and blessed him;
7:2 and also that it was to him that Abraham gave a tenth of all that he had. By the interpretation of his name, he is, first, ‘king of righteousness’ and also king of Salem, that is, ‘king of peace’;
7:3 he has no father, mother or ancestry, and his life has no beginning or ending; he is like the Son of God. He remains a priest for ever.
Melchizedek accepted tithes from Abraham
7:4 Now think how great this man must have been, if the patriarch Abraham paid him a tenth of the treasure he had captured. [*b]
7:5 We know that any of the descendants of Levi who are admitted to the priesthood are obliged by the Law to take tithes from the people, and this is taking them from their own brothers although they too are descended from Abraham.
7:6 But this man, who was not of the same descent, took his tenth from Abraham, and he gave his blessing to the holder of the promises.
7:7 Now it is indisputable that a blessing is given by a superior to an inferior.
7:8 Further, in the one case it is ordinary mortal men who receive the tithes, and in the other, someone who is declared to be still alive.
7:9 It could be said that Levi himself, who receives tithes, actually paid them, in the person of Abraham,
7:10 because he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek came to meet him.
From levitical priesthood to the priesthood of Melchizedek
7:11 Now if perfection had been reached through the levitical priesthood because the Law given to the nation rests on it, why was it still necessary for a new priesthood to arise, one of the same order as Melchizedek[*c] not counted as being ‘of the same order as’ Aaron?
7:12 But any change in the priesthood must mean a change in the Law as well.
7:13 So our Lord, of whom these things were said, belonged to a different tribe, the members of which have never done service at the altar;
7:14 everyone knows he came from Judah, a tribe which Moses did not even mention when dealing with priests.
The abrogation of the old Law
7:15 This[*d] becomes even more clearly evident when there appears a second Melchizedek, who is a priest
7:16 not by virtue of a law about physical descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.
7:17 For it was about him that the prophecy was made: You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever.
7:18 The earlier commandment is thus abolished, because it was neither effective nor useful,
7:19 since the Law could not make anyone perfect; but now this commandment is replaced by something better – the hope that brings us nearer to God.
Christ’s priesthood is unchanging
7:20 What is more, this was not done without the taking of an oath. The others, indeed, were made priests without any oath;
7:21 but he with an oath sworn by the one who declared to him: The Lord has sworn an oath which he will never retract: you are a priest, and for ever.[*e]
7:22 And it follows that it is a greater covenant for which Jesus has become our guarantee.
7:23 Then there used to be a great number of those other priests, because death put an end to each one of them;
7:24 but this one, because he remains for ever, can never lose his priesthood.
7:25 It follows, then, that his power to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him.
The perfection of the heavenly high priest
7:26 To suit us, the ideal high priest would have to be holy, innocent and uncontaminated, beyond the influence of sinners, and raised up above the heavens;
7:27 one who would not need to offer sacrifices every day, as the other high priests do for their own sins and then for those of the people, because he has done this once and for all by offering himself.
7:28 The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 8
- THE SUPERIORITY OF THE WORSHIP, THE SANCTUARY AND THE MEDIATION PROVIDED BY CHRIST THE PRIEST
The new priesthood and the new sanctuary
8:1 The great point of all that we have said is that we have a high priest of exactly this kind. He has his place at the right of the throne of divine Majesty in the heavens,
8:2 and he is the minister of the sanctuary and of the true Tent of Meeting which the Lord, and not any man, set up.[*a]
8:3 It is the duty of every high priest to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so this one too must have something to offer.
8:4 In fact, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are others who make the offerings laid down by the Law
8:5 and these only maintain the service of a model or a reflection of the heavenly realities. For Moses, when he had the Tent to build, was warned by God who said: See that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.[*b]
Christ is the mediator of a greater covenant
8:6 We have seen that he has been given a ministry of a far higher order, and to the same degree it is a better covenant of which he is the mediator, founded on better promises.
8:7 If that first covenant had been without a fault, there would have been no need for a second one to replace it.
8:8 And in fact God does find fault with them; he says: See, the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when I will establish a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah,
8:9 but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They abandoned that covenant of mine, and so I on my side deserted them. It is the Lord who speaks.
8:10 No, this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel when those days arrive – it is the Lord who speaks. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people.
8:11 There will be no further need for neighbour to try to teach neighbour, or brother to say to brother, ‘Learn to know the Lord’. No, they will all know me, the least no less than the greatest,
8:12 since I will forgive their iniquities and never call their sins to mind.[*c]
8:13 By speaking of a new covenant, he implies that the first one is already old. Now anything old only gets more antiquated until in the end it disappears.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 9
Christ enters the heavenly sanctuary
9:1 The first covenant also had its laws governing worship, and its sanctuary, a sanctuary on this earth.
9:2 There was a tent which comprised two compartments: the first, in which the lamp stand, the table and the presentation loaves were kept, was called the Holy Place;
9:3 then beyond the second veil, an innermost part which was called the Holy of Holies
9:4 to which belonged the gold altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant, plated all over with gold. In this were kept the gold jar containing the manna, Aaron’s branch that grew the buds, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
9:5 On top of it was the throne of mercy, and outspread over it were the glorious cherubs. This is not the time to go into greater detail about this.
9:6 Under these provisions, priests are constantly going into the outer tent to carry out their acts of worship,
9:7 but the second tent is entered only once a year, and then only by the high priest who must go in by himself and take the blood to offer for his own faults and the people’s.
9:8 By this, the Holy Spirit is showing that no one has the right to go into the sanctuary as long as the outer tent remains standing;
9:9 it is a symbol for this present time. None of the gifts and sacrifices offered under these regulations can possibly bring any worshipper to perfection in his inner self;
9:10 they are rules about the outward life, connected with foods and drinks and washing at various times, intended to be in force only until it should be time to reform them.
9:11 But now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, which is better than the one made by men’s hands because it is not of this created order;
9:12 and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption for us.
9:13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer are sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement and they restore the holiness of their outward lives;
9:14 how much more effectively the blood of Christ, who offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, can purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.
Christ seals the new covenant with his blood
9:15 He brings a new covenant, as the mediator, only so that the people who were called to an eternal inheritance may actually receive what was promised: his death took place to cancel the sins that infringed the earlier covenant.
9:16 Now wherever a will is in question, the death of the testator must be established;
9:17 indeed, it only becomes valid with that death, since it is not meant to have any effect while the testator is still alive.
9:18 That explains why even the earlier covenant needed is something to be killed in order to take effect,
9:19 and why, after Moses had announced all the commandments of the Law to the people, he took the calves’ blood, the goats’ blood and some water, and with these he sprinkled the book itself and all the people, using scarlet wool and hyssop;
9:20 saying as he did so: This is the blood of the covenant that God has laid down for you.[*a]
9:21 After that, he sprinkled the tent and all the liturgical vessels with blood in the same way.
9:22 In fact, according to the Law almost everything has to be purified[*b] with blood; and if there is no shedding of blood, there is no remission.
9:23 Obviously, only the copies of heavenly things can be purified in this way, and the heavenly things themselves have to be purified by a higher sort of sacrifice than this.
9:24 It is not as though Christ had entered a man-made sanctuary which was only modelled on the real one; but it was heaven itself, so that he could appear in the actual presence of God on our behalf.
9:25 And he does not have to offer himself again and again, like the high priest going into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own,
9:26 or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. Instead of that, he has made his appearance once and for all, now at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself.
9:27 Since men only die once, and after that comes judgement,
9:28 so Christ, too, offers himself only once to take the faults of many on himself,[*c] and when he appears a second time, it will not be to deal with sin but to reward with salvation those who are waiting for him.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 10
SUMMARY: CHRIST’S SACRIFICE SUPERIOR TO THE SACRIFICES OF THE MOSAIC LAW
The old sacrifices ineffective
10:1 So, since the Law has no more than a reflection of these realities, and no finished picture of them, it is quite incapable of bringing the worshippers to perfection, with the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year.
10:2 Otherwise, the offering of them would have stopped, because the worshippers, when they had been purified once, would have no awareness of sins.
10:3 Instead of that, the sins are recalled year after year in the sacrifices.
10:4 Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins,
10:5 and this is what he said, on coming into the world: You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me.
10:6 You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;
10:7 then I said, just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book, ‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.'[*a]
10:8 Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them;
10:9 and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second.
10:10 And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
The efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice
10:11 All the priests stand at their duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking sins away.
10:12 He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his place forever, at the right hand of God,
10:13 where he is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him.[*b]
10:14 By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying.
10:15 The Holy Spirit assures us of this; for he says, first:
10:16 This is the covenant I will make with them when those days arrive;[*c] and the Lord then goes on to say: I will put my laws into their hearts and write them on their minds.
10:17 I will never call their sins to mind, or their offences.
10:18 When all sins have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.
- PERSEVERING FAITH
The Christian opportunity
10:19 In other words, brothers, through the blood of Jesus we have the right to enter the sanctuary,
10:20 by a new way which he has opened for us, a living opening through the curtain, that is to say, his body.
10:21 And we have the supreme high priest over all the house of God.
10:22 So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart and filled with faith, our minds sprinkled and free from any trace of bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
10:23 Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the promise is faithful.
10:24 Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.
10:25 Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage each other to go; the more so as you see the Day drawing near.
The danger of apostasy
10:26 If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them.
10:27 There will be left only the dreadful prospect of judgement and of the raging fire that is to burn rebels.[*d]
10:28 Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three;[*e]
10:29 and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who treats the blood of the covenant which sanctified him as if it were not holy, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment.
10:30 We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will repay.[*f] And again: The Lord will judge his people.
10:31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Motives for perseverance
10:32 Remember all the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier days;
10:33 sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to insults and violence, and sometimes as associates of others who were treated in the same way.
10:34 For you not only shared in the sufferings of those who were in prison, but you happily accepted being stripped of your belongings, knowing that you owned something that was better and lasting.
10:35 Be as confident now, then, since the reward is so great.
10:36 You will need endurance to do God’s will and gain what he has promised.
10:37 Only a little while now, a very little while, and the one that is coming will have come; he will not delay.[*g]
10:38 The righteous man will live by faith, but if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.[*h]
10:39 You and I are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faithful until our souls are saved.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 11
The exemplary faith of our ancestors
11:1 Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.
11:2 It was for faith that our ancestors were commended.
11:3 It is by faith that we understand that the world was created by one word from God, so that no apparent cause can account for the things we can see.
11:4 It was because of his faith that Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain, and for that he was declared to be righteous when God made acknowledgement of his offerings. Though he is dead, he still speaks by faith.
11:5 It was because of his faith that Enoch was taken up and did not have to experience death: he was not to be found because God had taken him.[*a] This was because before his assumption it is attested that he had pleased God.
11:6 Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who try to find him.
11:7 It was through his faith that Noah, when he had been warned by God of something that had never been seen before, felt a holy fear and built an ark to save his family. By his faith the world was convicted, and he was able to claim the righteousness which is the reward of faith.
11:8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going.
11:9 By faith he arrived, as a foreigner, in the Promised Land, and lived there as if in a strange country, with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
11:10 They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God.
11:11 It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise would be faithful to it.
11:12 Because of this, there came from one man, and one who was already as good as dead himself, more descendants than could be counted, as many as the stars of heaven or the grains of sand on the seashore.[*b]
11:13 All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them,recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth.
11:14 People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of their real homeland.
11:15 They can hardly have meant the country they came from, since they had the opportunity to go back to it;
11:16 but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them.
11:17 It was by faith that Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac.[*c] He offered to sacrifice his only son even though the promises had been made to him
11:18 and he had been told: It is through Isaac that your name will be carried on.[*d]
11:19 He was confident that God had the power even to raise the dead; and so, figuratively speaking, he was given back Isaac from the dead.
11:20 It was by faith that this same Isaac gave his blessing to Jacob and Esau for the still distant future.
11:21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, leaning on the end of his stick as though bowing to pray.[*e]
11:22 It was by faith that, when he was about to die, Joseph recalled the Exodus of the Israelites and made the arrangements for his own burial.
11:23 It was by faith that Moses, when he was born, was hidden by his parents for three months; they defied the royal edict when they saw he was such a fine child.
11:24 It was by faith that, when he grew to manhood, Moses refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter
11:25 and chose to be ill-treated in company with God’s people rather than to enjoy for a time the pleasures of sin.
11:26 He considered that the insults offered to the Anointed were something more precious than all the treasures of Egypt, because he had his eyes fixed on the reward.
11:27 It was by faith that he left Egypt and was not afraid of the king’s anger; he held to his purpose like a man who could see the Invisible.
11:28 It was by faith that he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood to prevent the Destroyer from touching any of the first-born sons of Israel.
11:29 It was by faith they crossed the Red Sea as easily as dry land, while the Egyptians, trying to do the same, were drowned.
11:30 It was through faith that the walls of Jericho fell down when the people had been round them for seven days.
11:31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies and so was not killed with the unbelievers.
11:32 Is there any need to say more? There is not time for me to give an account of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, or of David, Samuel and the prophets.
11:33 These were men who through faith conquered kingdoms, did what is right and earned the promises. They could keep a lion’s mouth shut,
11:34 put out blazing fires and emerge unscathed from battle. They were weak people who were given strength, to be brave in war and drive back foreign invaders.
11:35 Some came back to their wives from the dead, by resurrection; and others submitted to torture, refusing release so that they would rise again to a better life.
11:36 Some had to bear being pilloried and flogged, or even chained up in prison.
11:37 They were stoned, or sawn in half,[*f] or beheaded; they were homeless, and dressed in the skins of sheep and goats; they were penniless and were given nothing but ill-treatment.
11:38 They were too good for the world and they went out to live in deserts and mountains and in caves and ravines.
11:39 These are all heroes of faith, but they did not receive what was promised,
11:40 since God had made provision for us to have something better, and they were not to reach perfection except with us.
JB HEBREWS Chapter 12
The example of Jesus Christ
12:1 With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily in the race we have started.
12:2 Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne.
12:3 Think of the way he stood such opposition from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage.
12:4 In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.
God’s fatherly instruction
12:5 Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you.
12:6 For the Lord trains the ones that he loves and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons.[*a]
12:7 Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him?
12:8 If you were not getting this training, as all of you are, then you would not be sons but bastards.
12:9 Besides, we have all had our human fathers who punished us, and we respected them for it; we ought to be even more willing to submit ourselves to our spiritual Father, to be given life.
12:10 Our human fathers were thinking of this short life when they punished us, and could only do what they thought best; but he does it all for our own good, so that we may share his own holiness.
12:11 Of course, any punishment is most painful at the time, and far from pleasant; but later, in those on whom it has been used, it bears fruit in peace and goodness.
12:12 So hold up your limp arms and steady your trembling knees[*b]
12:13 and smooth out the path you tread;[*c] then the injured limb will not be wrenched, it will grow strong again.
Unfaithfulness is punished
12:14 Always be wanting peace[*d] with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord.
12:15 Be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble;[*e] this can poison a whole community.
12:16 And be careful that there is no immorality, or that any of you does not degrade religion like Esau, who sold his birthright for one single meal.
12:17 As you know, when he wanted to obtain the blessing afterwards, he was rejected and, though he pleaded for it with tears, he was unable to elicit a change of heart.
The two covenants
12:18 What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire,[*f] or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm;
12:19 or trumpeting thunder or the great voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them.
12:20 They were appalled at the order that was given: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.
12:21 The whole scene was so terrible that Moses said: I am afraid,[*g] and was trembling with fright.
12:22 But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival,
12:23 with the whole Church in which everyone is a ‘first-born son’ and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with spirits of the saints who have been made perfect;
12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s.
12:25 Make sure that you never refuse to listen when he speaks. The people who refused to listen to the warning from a voice on earth could not escape their punishment, and how shall we escape if we turn away from a voice that warns us from heaven?
12:26 That time his voice made the earth shake, but now he has given us this promise: I shall make the earth shake once more and not only the earth but heaven as well.[*h]
12:27 The words once more show that since the things being shaken are created things, they are going to be changed, so that the unshakeable things will be left.
12:28 We have been given possession of an unshakeable kingdom. Let us therefore hold on to the grace that we have been given and use it to worship God in the way that he finds acceptable, in reverence and fear.
12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.[*i]
JB HEBREWS Chapter 13
APPENDIX
Final recommendations
13:1 Continue to love each other like brothers,
13:2 and remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
13:3 Keep in mind those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; and those who are being badly treated, since you too are in the one body.
13:4 Marriage is to be honoured by all, and marriages are to be kept undefiled, because fornicators and adulterers will come under God’sjudgement.
13:5 Put greed out of your lives and be content with whatever you have; God himself has said: I will not fail you or desert you,[*a]
13:6 and so we can say with confidence: With the Lord to help me, I fear nothing: what can man do to me?[*b]
Faithfulness
13:7 Remember your leaders, who preached the word of God to you, and as you reflect on the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.
13:8 Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever.
13:9 Do not let yourselves be led astray by all sorts of strange doctrines: it is better to rely on grace for inner strength than on dietary laws which have done no good to those who kept them.
13:10 We have our own altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
13:11 The bodies of the animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for the atonement of sin are burnt outside the camp,[*c]
13:12 and so Jesus too suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people with his own blood.
13:13 Let us go to him, then, outside the camp, and share his degradation.
13:14 For there is no eternal city for us in this life but we look for one in the life to come.
13:15 Through him, let us offer God an unending sacrifice of praise,[*d] a verbal sacrifice that is offered every time we acknowledge his name.
13:16 Keep doing good works and sharing your resources, for these are sacrifices that please God.
Obedience to religious leaders
13:17 Obey your leaders and do as they tell you, because they must give an account of the way they look after your souls; make this a joy for them to do, and not a grief – you yourselves would be the losers.
13:18 We are sure that our own conscience is clear and we are certainly determined to behave honourably in everything we do; pray for us.
13:19 I ask you very particularly to pray that I may come back to you all the sooner.
EPILOGUE
News, good wishes and greetings
13:20 I pray that the God of peace, who brought our Lord Jesus back[*e] from the dead to become the great Shepherd of the sheep[*f] by the blood that sealed an eternal covenant,[*g]
13:21 may make you ready to do his will in any kind of good action; and turn us all into whatever is acceptable to himself through Jesus Christ, towhom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.
13:22 I do ask you, brothers, to take these words of advice kindly; that is why I have written to you so briefly.
13:23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been set free. If he arrives in time, he will be with me when I see you.
13:24 Greetings to all your leaders and to all the saints. The saints of Italy send you greetings.
13:25 Grace be with you all.
END OF JB HEBREWS [13 Chapters].