A new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh:
ην ενεκαινισεν ημιν οδον προσφατον και ζωσαν δια του καταπετασματος τουτ εστιν της σαρκος αυτου
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
“Through the veil,” he says, “that is, His flesh.” This flesh first opened the way, which, as the Apostle says, He renewed and along which He Himself was pleased to pass. The flesh is rightly called a veil, because when it ascended, the heavenly things were opened.
“Through the veil, that is, His flesh.” He renewed this way into heaven for us by His flesh. For when it was lifted up on the Cross and ascended, then the heavenly things were opened to us. Therefore he rightly called it a veil. For the distinguishing property of a veil is that, when it is removed, what lies within is revealed.
Following Paul, who partly discloses the mystery in this, and taking even a small occasion for ourselves from what was said, we affirm that Moses was taught in figure the mystery of the tabernacle, which embraces the universe. Let this tabernacle be Christ, the power of God and the Wisdom of God. By His own nature He is not made with hands, yet He admits construction when this tabernacle had to be fixed in us. Thus in a certain way He is both uncreated and created. As pre-existing, He was not made; but as having received this material composition, He became created.
If any honest Christian wishes to know why He endured death on the Cross and in no other way, we answer as follows. In no other way was it pleasing to the Lord to offer one death for all. This death above all was pleasing to Him.
He came to bear the curse that lay upon us. How could He "become a curse" except by accepting the death of the cursed? This death is on the Cross, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" (Deut 21:23; Gal 3:13).
Again, the death of the Lord is the propitiation for all. By it the dividing wall (Eph 2:4) was broken down, and access for the Gentiles was opened. How could He have called us if He had not been crucified? Only on the Cross does a man die with arms outstretched.
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.
Therefore, brethren, we have boldness to enter the sanctuary, which is our faith. Through His Blood He renewed for us this way of faith. The ancients also had it, but those who came afterward, in the interval between the ancients and us, lost it. Now He has again renewed it in us through the veil, that is, through His flesh.
See verse 19. The Apostle called the Master’s flesh the “veil,” for through it we are deemed worthy of entrance into the Holy of Holies. Just as the high priest under the Law entered the Holy of Holies through the veil, and could not enter in any other way, so those who have believed in the Lord are deemed worthy of citizenship in the heavens through communion in the All-Holy Body.
Now, when by His coming He poured out His grace upon the world, He did not descend in earthquake, nor in fire, nor in a fearful and mighty voice (cf. 3 Kgs 19:11-12). Rather, He came "like rain upon the fleece" and like a drop falling gently upon the earth (Ps 71:6).
He was seen conversing with us in another manner. He hid His majesty, as in a treasury, beneath the veil of flesh, and in it conversed with us among us. By His own command He made this flesh His own in the womb of the Virgin and Theotokos Mary. Thus, seeing Him converse with us as one of our race, we would not be terrified when looking upon Him.
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.
But I speak of those heretics who say that in our present times, and among us, there is no one who can keep the commandments of the Gospel and be as the holy fathers were. First, they say, no one can be faithful and active, though faith is shown in works, just as the likeness of a face appears in a mirror (Jas 2:18). Then, they say, no one can be contemplative or a beholder of God. That is, no one can see God through illumination from the Holy Spirit, or, having received the Spirit, see the Son with the Father by His grace.
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.
“He renewed it for us through the veil, that is, His flesh” (Chrysostom and Theodoret). The Apostle rightly called Christ’s body a veil, because with His Ascension into heaven, the entrance there was also opened.
By the sanctuary is meant here heaven, or the kingdom of Christ, the New Testament Church of God filled with heavenly blessings. For entry into it, the Apostle points to the blood of Christ as the means. How is this means to be used? The answer is found in verse 22, where it says, "having our hearts sprinkled clean."
Therefore, to enter the heavenly kingdom of Christ, sprinkling with the blood of Christ is required. By sprinkling is meant an action in which water or another liquid is scattered, as though divided, and allotted in small portions to many objects or persons.
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.
For this reason, hearers, He was born on earth: to reveal here the heavenly birth. He was born visibly in order to set before our eyes the invisible birth. Since He Who was born in purity and holiness had no need to ascend to another, better birth, He made His very birth according to the flesh only a transparent "veil" (Heb 10:20). Through it we may look upon the new and living way of our spiritual birth.
With this the Apostle also concludes his discourse on the superiority of Christ as High Priest over the Old Testament priests. But to this conclusion he naturally joins an exhortation that the readers firmly confess Christ the Lord.
The Apostle says that two circumstances should move us to this. First, we have confidence that access to the heavenly sanctuary has already been opened to us, thanks to the blood Christ shed for us. Second, we should be moved by the greatness of Christ as Priest.
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.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 15 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS