Hebrews 13:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see the clear type? There, he says, “outside the camp” (Heb 13:11), and here, “outside the gates.” Just as the sacrifices offered for sins were a kind of type and were burned outside the camp, so Jesus, who offered Himself for our sins, suffered outside the gates. Therefore we too must imitate Him who suffered for us and be outside the world, or rather, outside worldly deeds. [...] Then the Apostle explains the typological sacrifice and turns the discourse to the archetype: “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His own Blood, suffered outside the gates.” Consequently, the first was a type of the latter.

Having shown that what the Jews revered was a type of our worship, he says that the sacrifices in which the people could not share were nothing. In our sacrifice, the high priests of the Old Testament law also have no share, for those sacrifices were types of this one. For as the blood of the animals offered for the sins of the people was brought by the high priest into the sanctuary, while their bodies were burned outside the camp...

But as the bodies of those animals, whose blood the high priest brought within the Holy of Holies for sin and cleansing, were burned outside the camp...

Look at the type, compare it with the truth, and behold the likeness. The Law commanded that a red heifer be slain, that the high priest take some of its blood and sprinkle it seven times with his finger before the mercy seat. The heifer itself was burned outside the camp. Its ashes were taken, and by them those called unclean were purified (Num 19:2-9). This was a type of the saving Passion. Here also the body taken from Adam, whose name in Hebrew means “red,” was nailed to the Cross outside the gate. His Blood cleanses our souls, and the ashes are replaced for us by the very life-giving Body.

“Whose,” that is, of the animals offered in sacrifice for sins, for the remission of sins. The book of Leviticus speaks of this in detail (Lev 16). Thus the divine Apostle applies the historical type to the truth, for he says:

For Christ, our Pascha, has been sacrificed for us (1 Cor 5:7), as the apostle says. God the Son was crucified as the new and true redeeming sacrifice to the Father, but not within the Temple, whose worship had already come to an end. Nor was Christ crucified within the walls of the city, which awaited destruction for its crimes, but outside the camp. Thus, when the mystery of the old sacrifices was exhausted, a new sacrifice was offered upon a new altar. The Cross of Christ is the altar not of the Church alone, but now of the whole world.

This is said for those who ask in perplexity, “How do you say that you have an altar? What was offered on it?” This is Christ Himself, whom you despise from top to bottom and do not see that He was offered as a sacrifice. He is the Sacrifice accomplished for the whole world, and the offering, although He was not offered on your altar. For it is evident that He suffered outside the city of Jerusalem (Heb 13:12). Therefore Paul says to them: “Yes, He suffered outside. Yet precisely through this it came about that we have an altar. For among you also the bodies of sacrificial animals are not burned on the altars themselves, but outside the camp. For this further reason Jesus suffered outside the gates of Jerusalem, that all, and not only the priests, might be sanctified.

The bodies are burned outside the camp. On the Day of Atonement, the bodies of the bullock and the goat offered for sin were burned outside the camp, or outside the city (Lev 16:27). To this circumstance the Apostle adapts the fact that Christ suffered outside the city.

To implant this truth in the hearts of his readers, the Apostle shows that Christianity and Judaism’s discrimination about foods exclude one another. He also shows that it is very fitting for Christians to renounce their former Jewish habits. We Christians, says the Apostle, have our own sacrificial altar, θυσιαστήριον, that is, the place where Christ was slain, namely the Cross on Golgotha. The people of the Old Testament have no right to share with us in the fruits of Christ’s death on this altar, that is, to eat. They served God by their sacrifices in the tabernacle and then enjoyed the right to eat from the remains of those sacrifices.