Hebrews 10:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Again, "Sacrifices and offerings Thou didst not desire" (Heb 10:5). The former was made with hands, this one not made with hands. The former had the blood of goats, this one the blood of the Master. The former had a priest standing, this one a Priest sitting.

Since all those things are lesser and these are greater, the Apostle says, "Having boldness." Why "boldness"? Because of the remission of sins. As shame comes from sins, so boldness comes from the forgiveness of them all. It comes not only from this, but also from our becoming fellow heirs of Christ and being deemed worthy of such love from Him.

"To enter the sanctuary." What does he mean by this entrance? Entrance into heaven and access to the spiritual mysteries. "Which He opened for us," that is, which He prepared and through which He Himself first passed. The beginning of use is called an opening. He Himself, he says, prepared it and passed through it.

"By a new and living way." Here he expresses the fullness of hope. "New," he says, striving to show that we have everything higher, since the gates of heaven are now opened. This did not exist even in the time of Abraham. He rightly said, "a new and living way." The first way was a way of death, leading down into Hades. This way is a way of life. He did not say "of life," but called it "living," expressing that it remains so continually.

That is, through the blood. For having been deemed worthy of forgiveness of sins through the Cross and blood of Christ, we have received boldness.

"By a new (πρόσφατον, recent) and living way, which He opened for us."

With regard to the entrance into the Sanctuary, He Himself opened the way for us. That is, He Himself made the way new, beginning it Himself and passing through it first. Instead of calling the way new, νέαν, he called it πρόσφατον, recent, opened for our times. It is a praise for us that we have been deemed worthy of what Abraham was not deemed worthy. Heaven has now been opened to us.

He called it living because the first way into the Sanctuary, according to the law, was deadly. That way no longer has place, but becomes a cause of death for those who accept it. This way leads to life, and it itself lives and will remain so continually. Or understand "living" in the same sense as "recent," πρόσφατον, meaning new and flourishing, as opposed to the entrance into the Old Testament Sanctuary. For that way was a way of death.

Here again we see the fittingness of His death in His outstretched hands. This was so that He might draw His ancient people on the one side, and the Gentiles on the other, and unite them together in Himself. He foretold the manner of His death for redemption: "When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to Myself" (Jn 12:32; cf. Is 65:2).

The air is the sphere of the devil, the enemy of our race. Having fallen from heaven, he tries with the other evil spirits, who shared his disobedience and hold souls back from the truth, to hinder the progress of those who follow it. Discussing this, the Apostle says, "according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience" (Eph 2:2).

But the Lord came to overthrow the devil, cleanse the air, and open the way for us to the heavens. As the Apostle says, this was "through the veil, that is, His flesh." This had to be accomplished through death. By what other kind of death could it have been accomplished, except by death in the air, that is, on the Cross?

Here again you see how right and natural it was for the Lord to suffer in this way. For being lifted up in this way, He cleansed the air from all the evil influences of the enemy. "I saw Satan falling like lightning" (Lk 10:18), He says. Thus He again opened the way to heaven, saying, "Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors" (Ps 24:7).

For the Word Himself did not need the gates to be opened. He is Lord of all, and none of His works is closed to its Creator. No, this was needed for us, whom He Himself raised up in His own body. The body which He first handed over to death for all then opened the way to the heavens.

By the word "Holies" the Apostle means heaven. He had said earlier, "For Christ entered not into holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself" (Heb 9:24). He calls the noble life and the resurrection from the dead the "way into the Holies."

The "opening" of the way means the first passage into the Holies, because the Master, having risen from the dead, was the first to ascend into the heavens. Therefore the Apostle called the way both "new" and "living": "new," because it was then opened for the first time, and "living," because death has been abolished. Those who have obtained the resurrection cannot fall again under death.

"By the blood of Jesus Christ." For what reason do we have boldness? Clearly, because of the blood of Christ, shed for the remission of our sins. For as sins stir up a feeling of shame in a person, so deliverance and cleansing from them stir up the opposite feeling.

"Which He opened for us." Christ has newly laid open for us this entrance into heaven and has now prepared it for us. He was the first to ascend into heaven with His flesh, and He made the entrance into it accessible for us.

"By a new and living way." This way is "new" for the time that follows, because it was newly laid by His human nature. It is living because it is eternal and leads into true life.

"Through the veil, that is, His flesh." He opened this way for us and laid this new way in us by His flesh, after it ascended into heaven, because of the inseparability of its union with the Godhead. The Apostle now calls the flesh a "veil" because it served as a covering for His Godhead. At the same time, when it was lifted up on high, heavenly things became visible on earth.

Therefore everyone who has put on that garment of humility, in which the Creator Himself was seen when He put on our body, has put on Christ Himself. For in his inner man he too wished to put on that likeness in which Christ was seen by His creation and lived with it. In this likeness He is seen by His fellow servants (cf. Phil 2:7), and with it He adorned Himself instead of a garment of honor and outward glory.

Therefore rational and irrational creation, looking upon any man clothed in this likeness, bows before him as before a master, in honor of its own Master. It saw Him clothed in this same likeness and living in it. For what creature will not stand in reverence when it beholds the humble-minded man?

Yet before the glory of humble-mindedness was revealed to all, this sight, filled with holiness, was despised. Now its majesty has shone before the eyes of the world, and every person honors this likeness wherever it is seen. Through this mediation creation was deemed worthy to receive the vision of its Creator and Maker.

Therefore humble-mindedness is not despised even by the enemies of truth. Even if the one who has acquired it is poorer than every creature, he who has espoused it is adorned by it as with a crown and purple robe.

Those who consider this impossible are heretics. They do not have merely some one particular heresy, but, one may say, all heresies. For this heresy surpasses and darkens all others by its impiety and blasphemy. Whoever speaks this way tears down all the divine Scriptures to their foundation.

It seems to me that such a vain talker says: in vain is the holy Gospel now proclaimed; in vain are the writings of Basil the Great and the rest of our holy fathers read, or even written. For if it is impossible for us to do and keep what God says, and what all the saints say, who first practiced it and then wrote it down and left it for our instruction (1 Cor 10:11), why did they labor to write it then? Why is it still read now in the churches?

Is it not clear that those who say this shut the heaven which Christ the Lord opened for us by His descent to earth? They block the ascent to heaven which the same Christ the Lord opened for us. For when God, Who is over all (Rom 9:5), stands above as though in the gates of heaven, looks down, and is seen by faithful Christians, He cries through the holy Gospel: "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Mt 11:28). Yet these fighters against God, or rather antichrists, cry out: It is impossible, impossible.

Thus Moses sprinkled all the Israelites with the blood of the covenant, so that by falling upon them in small drops it made each of them a participant in the covenant. According to the Apostle's teaching, the same sprinkling is required in the New Testament, which is established on the blood of Jesus Christ.

It is not enough that this blood be contained in the human nature of the Redeemer as in a single vessel. It is not enough that it was once poured out on Golgotha. It must be communicated and allotted to each of us, to each one of the countless multitude of the Christian people.

This sprinkling with the blood of Christ is accomplished in the mystery of the Eucharist. In it the Body of Christ is broken and the Blood is divided for the multitude of believers, so that each of them may become a partaker of the divine nature.

They will say that the sprinkling must be accomplished through faith in the saving sufferings of Christ. But the Apostle mentions faith separately and does not confuse it with sprinkling: "with full faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean." In addition, the Apostle adds, "and our bodies washed with pure water."

Here he speaks of bodily washing, by which nothing other than Baptism can be understood. The washing of the body cannot be accomplished by faith; it requires perceptible water. Correspondingly, the sprinkling must also be understood as a visible, bodily action through which a portion of the covenant blood is given to each Christian.

This action is called sprinkling by relation to the Old Testament sprinklings (Heb 9:13). Among us there can be no sprinkling in the strict sense, since the precious Blood of Christ must not be scattered and fall upon the ground. It must be received into the being of man.

At the same time, the Apostle notes that Christ opened for us a new way through the veil, that is, through His flesh. This means that Christ, by giving His flesh, that is, His bodily life, over to death, completely blotted out our sins. He tore the veil that closed the heavenly sanctuary from mankind.

The Old Testament high priest did not enter the Holy of Holies through the veil, but moved it aside. So too Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary not through His flesh, but because He handed His flesh over to death. By this He set it aside and deprived all fleshly impulses of their power. Since the same has taken place in us, He thereby opened for us the road to the throne of God.