Hebrews 8:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Paul, always imitating his Teacher, speaks now of lowly things and now of lofty things. Thus the lowly prepares the way to the lofty, and the latter leads back to the former.

In this way those who see the lofty things know that the lowly things were the work of Christ's condescension. He does the same here.

Having said that He "offered Himself as sacrifice," and having shown that He is High Priest, the Apostle continues: "The chief point in what we are saying is this: we have such a High Priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in the heavens."

This no longer belongs to a priest, but to Him whose priest He is. [...] "The chief point," he says, "in what we are saying." The chief point is always called the most important thing.

Here he again brings his discourse down. Having spoken of lofty things, he now speaks without danger about lowly things.

The chief point is always called the most important thing. When someone wants to express the essence briefly, he says that he directs attention to this as the head of all.

So too the head, though small in size, is the most important part of the body. Thus the Apostle now says, "The chief point in what we are saying," that is, I will state the most important thing, which briefly embraces much.

We have as High Priest God. For sitting belongs to no one else but God. Notice how, after saying many humble things, namely, that He is High Priest and intercedes before the Father, and things proper to humanity, he rises to what is lofty and proper to the Godhead.

If someone gives the Father the higher place of presiding, but says that the Only-begotten Son sits lower, then all bodily notions will follow from such a construction of thought.

These notions belong to men whose mind has been clouded by wine and disordered by madness. Is it pious, then, not to worship and glorify together with the Father the One united with the Father in nature, glory, and dignity?

Those taught by Him Himself know that whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father (Jn 5:23). What shall we say? What just defense shall we have at the dread judgment common to all creation?

The chief point in what is being said, that is, concerning the priesthood and the law, is this, as I have said: we have such a Presbyter of presbyters, who stands not before the ark of the covenant, but who, having ascended, sat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

The Apostle reserved the greatest honor for last and said that He sits "at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty." Aaron, the ancestor of the priests and the first to receive the rank of high priesthood, entered God's tabernacle with fear and trembling. But Christ has His sitting at the right hand.

"The chief point of what is being said." The summary, and as it were the compressed, brief statement of all that has been said about Christ, will be what the Apostle is now about to say. Or "chief point" is used for "the most important thing." "We have such a High Priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." The standing before God of the other priests belongs to servants. But this One, having completed the work of the divine economy, sat together with the Father as Son, "at the right hand." The Apostle used this expression to show His nearness to the Father. By the throne of Majesty, the Apostle meant the royal and transcendent rest and blessed abiding in the heavens.

"The chief point of what has been said." Having disclosed the advantages of Jesus Christ over the Old Testament priests, the Apostle points to the most important of these advantages. It is that He ascended into heaven and abides at the right hand of God the Father. Or, speaking in terms suited to the high-priestly ministry, He became minister of the true tabernacle, made by God and not by men. This indication of the true Heavenly Tabernacle is important because the tabernacle of Moses, as Paul observes further on, was only an image and shadow of the tabernacle seen by Moses on the mountain and shown by God Himself (Ex 25:40). On this the Apostle bases his conclusion that the Old Testament priesthood served the shadow, not the body.

The Lord Jesus Christ, being the most perfect High Priest, for whose sake the Old Covenant high priesthood ceased, is the minister of the most perfect sanctuary, the true tabernacle, which was raised by God and not by men.

After this, are temples built by men unnecessary? Are they false in comparison with the true tabernacle? But the word "true," as applied to the tabernacle in the Apostle's words, is opposed not to anything false or deceitful, but to what is typological or imitative.

The heavenly temple, the heavenly chamber of the Godhead, is true because it is the model according to which the Old Covenant tabernacle was built.

When Moses began to make the tabernacle, it was said to him, "See that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain" (v. 5).

Nearness to the heavenly throne of God the Father. According to the Apostle's own observation, the chief point in Christ's high priesthood is that He sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. That is, He performs His ministry not in an earthly temple or earthly sanctuary, but in heaven (see Heb 1:3 above). The tabernacle in which He performs His sacred rites was made not by human hands, but by the Lord Himself. By the tabernacle the Apostle here evidently means the Church of the Lord, consisting of the innumerable multitude of those saved by faith in Christ Jesus.

Now explaining precisely what Christ, the great High Priest, did for men, the Apostle recognizes as the most important point of his inquiry that Christ sat at the right hand of God. He performs His ministry in the sanctuary, τῶν ἁγίων, and specifically, καί being explanatory, in the true tabernacle. This tabernacle is the heavenly prototype of the earthly tabernacle, the true dwelling of God, fully corresponding to the exalted being of the true God. This is already evident from its having been fashioned by God Himself.

Let men know and understand why the Most High God willed to clothe Him in flesh and blood. He permitted His Messenger and Herald, sent to convey the commandments of righteousness to mortals, to suffer death after being crucified on the cross.

Since there was no righteousness on earth, the Lord sent the Teacher as the living law of the Spirit of life (Rom 8:2). He did this to establish a new name and a new temple, and to sow the whole earth with seeds of new, true, and pious worship of God.

Yet, to make certain that He was God's envoy, He was not to be born as men are born, from two mortals. Rather, to show clearly that a heavenly principle was also present in this Man, He was born without a father's part in conception.