Hebrews 9:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“And with foods and drinks, and various washings and ordinances.” This, he says, you may drink. Although nothing had been commanded concerning drinking, the Apostle spoke this way to express the insignificance of these things. “And various washings and ordinances pertaining to the flesh, imposed only until the time of correction.” Behold what fleshly justification consists in. Here he rejects the sacrifices, showing that they had no power and existed only “until the time of correction,” that is, until the time which corrects all things.

They, he says, were established only for the people of that time and were joined to instructions about foods and drinks.

Eat this, he says, and do not eat that. Why did he say "drinks"? The Law said nothing about distinctions among drinks.

He says this either with reference to the priest, that he must not drink wine when he is about to enter the sanctuary, or with reference to those who took vows, that is, promises of abstinence from wine, such as the Nazirites.

Or he said it simply in order to depreciate and humble these ordinances.

There were various washings. If someone touched a corpse or a leper, or if someone suffered a discharge of seed, he washed and in this way seemed to be cleansed.

but they consisted in foods and drinks and various washings of hands, vessels, and other objects. For these were ordinances concerning the flesh, or commandments of the priesthood, not of the Godhead.

The Apostle says that by the tabernacle we are taught in a parable that the Law is useful in this life and suited to those who still have a mortal nature.

For this reason "the priests entered the first tabernacle" and performed the prescribed service, but they did not enter the Holy of Holies.

Only the "one" high priest entered, presenting the image of the Master Christ, who first ascended into heaven and made it accessible to us.

By these words the Apostle also clearly taught us that he does not reject the whole Law, but only the prescriptions concerning foods and drinks, the man with a discharge, the leper, the woman in childbirth, and the woman with an issue of blood.

For they were washed and cleansed by sprinkling. None of these means had power to make the conscience pure.

“Only in foods and drinks,” that is, the sacrifices could perfect and cleanse only one who had eaten or drunk something unclean. “And various washings,” that is, they cleansed the flesh. Therefore he adds further, “and ordinances of the flesh,” in cleansings that concerned the flesh. They cleansed neither adultery, nor sacrilege, nor any other spiritual sin. “Imposed until the time of correction.” By the time of correction the Apostle means the time of Christ’s coming in the flesh and of His teaching. The ordinances concerning gifts and sacrifices, which were in force until that time, finally ceased. They were insufficient and could not wash the soul.

Hearing that the Apostle regards "gifts and sacrifices," "foods and drinks, washings and rites" as imperfect, the Stundists apply this to the mysteries of the New Testament Church, to the sacrifice and table of the Eucharist, and to water baptism.

By "the present time" they understand the time of Orthodoxy's dominion, and by "the time of correction" the time when their own "spiritual" Christianity spreads.

Therefore, when Orthodox missionaries prove the undoubtedly divine institution of baptism and Communion, they answer that all such things were established only until "the time of correction."

Yet the Apostle clearly gives us to understand that by the time of correction he means the time of Christ's coming.

The Apostle's further reasoning concerns the need for better times to come, with a more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, and with better sacrifices.

It also concerns the necessity of another blood, truly cleansing and not the blood of goats or calves.

This reasoning may be briefly set forth in the following sequence of thoughts, each flowing from the other, and in connection with the Apostle's preceding remarks and interpretations.

The insufficiency of the Old Testament priesthood consisted in this: it could not open heaven for men.

It could not do this because it did not cleanse from sins. It could not cleanse from sins because ordinary animal blood was offered as the sacrifice for sins.

Even now, says the Apostle, this front part of the tabernacle, ήτις, can serve as a parable, vividly presenting to us the essence of the present time to which it belongs.

This time is the last period of the existence of sacrifices which, in the Apostle's view, cannot give heartfelt rest to the person offering them, nor set him in a right relation to God.

It is a time when all the legal ordinances concerning purity and impurity, which relate only to the flesh and to man's bodily life, are living out their final hours.

They press upon the Jews as a heavy burden, επικείμενα, and await the time when everything will be set in order and true divine service will be established in its rights, καιρός διορθώσεως (vv. 9-10).