Hebrews 9:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do not be surprised that Christ’s Blood was not there. There was a type there. Therefore the Apostle says: “Therefore not even the first covenant was confirmed without blood.” What does “was confirmed” mean? It became firm, established. “Therefore,” he says, a type was needed both of the covenant and of death.

(Ex. 24:5). What he had said, he proved not only by general custom, but also by the events of the Old Testament, which persuaded the Hebrews even more. “Therefore,” he says, that is, since death must precede a covenant, the first covenant also was not confirmed without blood. Blood is a symbol of death. But there the blood was that of a lamb, because the Old Covenant was an image. Here, when the truth shone forth, the Son of God died for us in the flesh. What does “was confirmed” mean? It means that it became effective. It would have begun to operate in no other way, unless the shedding of blood had first occurred.

Having given us a covenant, or testament, according to the demand of His righteousness and for our justification, He Himself nevertheless had to undergo death. For a testament becomes valid only when the one who wrote it dies. He endured death also so that His testament would not be like the first, which had no force without blood. For the blood of a heifer was sprinkled upon it, not the blood of the testator (Ex. 24:8).

The Apostle has unquestionably shown that what belongs to the Old Covenant is an image of what belongs to the New. Therefore, if even in the type the lawgiver took blood, mixed it with water, and sprinkled the covenant itself, the people, and the tabernacle, and if the defiled received purity when sprinkled, what is surprising if we find this fulfilled in the reality prefigured? Of necessity the Apostle presented Moses' testimony, in which this is clearly expressed: "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded for you" (Ex 24:8). Since the divine nature is immortal, He depicted death through the blood of sacrifices and confirmed the covenant. But since God the Word became man and had a mortal body, He no longer needed irrational sacrifices.

“Therefore not even the first covenant was renewed,” that is, confirmed, “without blood.” From the necessity of the testator’s death, the Apostle also explains why blood was used when the covenant with the Israelites was concluded. In doing this, the Apostle adds details that Moses does not mention (Ex. 24:5-8). They were probably drawn directly from the practice current in the Apostle’s time, which was based on tradition. Thus, in Moses’ account there is no mention of the blood of goats, of water, or of Moses sprinkling the book of the covenant itself with blood. Yet the admixture of water with the blood was naturally required to prevent the blood from coagulating; compare Lev. 14:49-53.

"Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. And according to the law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb 9:18, 22). The concluding particle "therefore" or "for this reason" shows that the Apostle wants to explain why even the Old Covenant did not exist without blood, though Old Testament blood was only the blood of animals. What is this reason? For what could the blood of animals be needed, and how could it have cleansing power? The Apostle indicates the explanation of this mystery in the New Covenant. He reasons as follows.

It is true that God was properly the testator, but He transferred all His rights over the property, that is, over the kingdom of God, to Jesus Christ. Therefore men's entrance into possession of the eternal inheritance became possible only after Christ's death. And Christ Himself, on the eve of His death, truly said to the disciples: "I appoint to you a kingdom, as My Father appointed to Me" (Lk 22:29). On the other hand, the death of Jesus Christ was necessary for the redemption of men from sins. This had already been indicated at the conclusion of the Old Covenant. Precisely for this reason the latter was inaugurated (έγκεκαίνισται), that is, consecrated for habitation as a kind of building (cf. Deut 20:5), through the shedding of blood. At the same time the Apostle finds it necessary to recall that blood was also used afterward for the cleansing of the tabernacle, and generally in almost all cases of defilement.