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Epistle to the HEBREWS

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Introduction to the Book Hebrews is another of the most misunderstood books in the Renewed Covenant, and often when taken at face value as usually translated, is used to make it sound like the authors of the Renewed Covenant writings were contradicting what Yahshua the Messiah Himself said. A new translation is forthcoming which should resolve many of these difficult questions.
	Chapters 1-3 Chapter 10 (below) is finished. The rest of the text is still being translated. Please be patient; it will be worth the wait!
	Chapters 4-5
	Chapters 6-7
	Chapters 8-9
	Chapters 10-11 CHAPTER 10 1. Now the Torah, which holds a shadow of the coming benefits, [though] not itself [being] the likeness of the things, is never able, by the same slaughters brought continually [year] by year, to accomplish closure for those who are drawing near. Shadow: or outline, sketch. Continually: literally, toward the carrying-through. 2. Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped being brought, since those who performed the sacred rituals, once [they] had been cleansed, [would] no longer have consciousness of sins? Consciousness: Before Torah, there was no recognition of sin (Rom. 4:15), as there was with Adam before he partook of the Tree of Knowledge and realized his guilt. That is what we are trying to get back to, and when there is full obedience in the whole body, we will be. (v. 18) 3. But in them [instead] there is a reminder of sins [year] by year, 4. since it is not possible [for the] blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. They can only remove the legal guilt for having done the sin; only as we serve one another in unity can the actual practice of the sin be removed from Israel: 5. That is why when He comes into the world, He says, "You did not intend slaughter and offerings, but You fitted me with a properly-equipped body. Body: Not just Yahshua's physical body (though this is included), but a unified people with Him as their Head. Bulls and goats represent us, but what He really wants is us. Laying down our lives for one another keeps us from committing all (kinds of) sins. (Prov. 10:12) It is the job of His Body to remove the sins of Israel, as the priests did in times past. (Lev. 5 et al) This final phrase is from the LXX; the Masoretic text says, "You have dug My ears open." The passage quoted throughout this section is Psalm 40:6-8. 6. "You did not prefer whole burnt offerings or [those brought] in regard to sin. 7. "At that time, I said, 'Look! I am here (in the scroll of the book it was written about Me) to do Your will, O Elohim.' 8. Above, when He said, "You did not intend slaughter or offerings, whole burnt offerings or [those] brought in regard to sin," according to the Torah, Slaughter and offerings are just the means to teach us; in themselves they accomplish nothing, serving as a picture of what is meant to be in our hearts. They can become an excuse to avoid the deeper issues, like merely saying, "I'm sorry" without making reparations for what we broke. That we have done so for so long is one reason we are still in exile. He left us here so we could learn to truly care for one another, then bring into His Kingdom an already-intact unity, as His pure Land deserves. As the stones for the Temple were cut off-site, so it will be for the Temple built of living stones--the best we can find; don't let them remain defective just because He has paid the price! When that is established, we will receive the Temple back as well. 9. "at that time," He said, "Look! I am here to accomplish Your purpose, O Elohim." He is taking up the first in order that He might firmly establish the second, Taking up: or possibly, taking away, but the word-picture in Greek depicts standing between two things and lifting them both up, like two buckets balanced on a pole. First: or, principal one. Second: the other of the two, that is, "a properly-equipped body". He took the physical Temple up, storing it in the Kingdom until we are ready to use it properly, placing our focus instead directly on the things it was meant to teachâ€”how to function as a unified body. We know the Temple will one day be restored (Yehezq'El 40-47; Mat. 24:15), so we should never think of the present parenthetical age as superseding the earlier ages, since the Kingdom which is yet to come is described as "the time of restoration of all things." Yahshua Himself, the King, is in safe keeping there until that time. (Acts 3:21) 10. in which "purpose" we are rendered set-apart, through the one-time act of bringing near the body of Yahshua the Messiah. One-time: the Greek term covers both the ideas of all at once and once for all. Bringing near: or simply, offering, as Yahshua did, but His Body will one day be brought near all at once 11. And indeed, every priest stands by daily, performing the sacred rituals and often presenting the same sacrifices, which can never entirely remove sin. 12. This [man], on the other hand, having presented [only] one sacrifice on behalf of sins [which continues] toward perpetuity, sat down by the right hand of YHWH, On behalf of: has the connotation of "over and above". 13. from then on, receiving out until His enemies be set down as a footstool for His feet. Receiving out: i.e., collecting unto Himself those who are called out; alt., waiting expectantly. He sat down, but cannot fully relax until He has a "hassock" formed as we bring everything, including our own thoughts, into submission to Him (2 Cor. 10:5)--i.e., until we lay down our lives for Him as He did for us. We are the Body He left behind to defeat the rest of the enemies. They are not fully overcome until we walk in the way He has provided and pioneered. 14. Thus, by one act of offering, He has accomplished perpetual completion for those [who are] being rendered set-apart. This sacrifice benefited not only Yehudah, who by and large were the only ones profiting from the physical Temple in the day this was written, but brought all of scattered Israel under the same umbrella. But it was only the beginning of bringing to completion what He set in motion. We also need to embody all that we can of YHWH, as He did (having the advantage of never having sinned). We need to go get what He gave us! 15. The Spirit of Holiness also bears witness for us, for after having said beforehand, 16. "'This is the covenant that I will enter into with regard to them after those days,' says YHWH: 'Supplying My instructions against their hearts, I will also inscribe them on their minds, After those days: i.e., at the time the unification of His Body has become complete. Against their hearts: or, upon their hearts. 17. "'and I will no longer remember their errors or violations of Torah at all.'" Violations of Torah: or, lawless actions. 18. Now wherever there is forgiveness of these things, there [will be] no further bringing [offerings] dealing with sin. Forgiveness: release or remission of a penalty. We will no longer need this type of sacrifice at that time, after the present age, but the other types of offerings will remain in practice, since they have to do with the desire to draw near to YHWH; that will only increase in the coming Age. 19. Therefore, brothers, having unreserved confidence for the entering of the Holy [Place] in the blood of Yahshua, The Holy Place: the first room one enters in the Tabernacle or Temple, not the second, which is called the Holy of Holies. It is a place dedicated to the service of YHWH and of the whole community of Israel. 20. which He initiated for us by a recently-slaughtered yet living way through the veil, that is, His flesh. Initiated: or, consecrated, dedicated. Recently-slaughtered yet living: His death and resurrection, His death for the sake of our revival to life, and our dying to self so that Israel might live. 21. Indeed, having a High Priest over the Dwelling Place of Elohim, 22. let us approach with a genuine heart, in full assurance of [His] trustworthy character, with hearts sprinkled clean from a consciousness of evil and body washed with pure water. Approach: or, draw near; compare Esther 5:22. Genuine: connotes not only resembling but being exactly what it claims to be in every respect; sincere and not having any form of pretense. 23. Let us take firm possession of the expectation that we profess to be ours, without wavering, because the One who promised [to furnish it] is reliable. How do we do this? 24. That is, let us pay close attention to spurring one another on toward commitment and commendable actions, 25. not abandoning the gathering of ourselves together, as certain ones are accustomed to [doing], but [rather] coming alongside to strengthen [one another], and so much the more insofar as you discern the Day approaching. 26. Because if we err willfully after having received the [precise, correct] knowledge of what is true, there is no further sacrifice left in regard to sins, 27. but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery punitive zeal which is about to consume those who oppose. Compare Ex. 21:14; 23:21. 28. Anyone who disregarded Moshe's law died with no pity upon [the word of] two or three witnesses; 29. how much worse a penalty do you suppose will he be deemed deserving of who has spurningly trampled the Son of Elohim and considered the blood of the covenant by which he was set apart [to be] a profane things, and has insulted the Spirit of Empowering Favor? 30. For we have experienced the One who said, "'Revenge belongs to Me; I will pay back,' says YHWHâ€, and furthermore, "'YHWH will judge His people.'" 31. [It is a] formidable thing to fall into the hands of the Elohim of [the] living! 32. But bring back to remembrance the earlier days in which, having been enlightened, you endured the great struggle of [the] sufferings you underwent, 33. this indeed while you were being made a spectacle both [through] scorn and pressure, [or] becoming comrades of those treated like that, 34. because you indeed had empathy with me in my chains, and accepted the plundering of your possessions with joy, understanding that you had within yourselves a more excellent property in heaven--and one that lasts. Compare Gen. 45:20. In heaven: where it is held for us until the Messianic Kingdom, the Sabbath Millennium, when earth and heaven will again converge. (Compare Mat. 6:20, which alludes to Ex. 16:23.) What we store in that "bank" will outlast the vicissitudes of the spiritual attacks of this age. 35. This being so, do not throw away your [conspicuous, bold] confidence, which holds repayment on a grand scale, Repayment: of what is due one because of the suffering he has been asked to endure. 36. because you have need of perseverance, so that, once you have done what YHWH wants, you might carry away the promised blessing. 37. For "a very, very little [while] longer [and] the One who is coming will arrive, and [He] will not delay." The One who is coming: a quote from Havaquq 2:3 in the LXX; Heb., "coming it will come". 38. But "the righteous will live through faithfulness", though "if he shrinks back, My soul will not be pleased with him". The order of Havaquq 2:4 in the LXX is reversed here for emphasis. The Hebrew of the second part (here) reads, "His soul is puffed up and is not upright." 39. But we are not among those who steal back timidly into destruction; rather, [we] belong to [the] faithfulness that leads to the obtaining [and preserving] of a [living] soul. A living soul: what Adam was called in Gen. 2:7. By enduring the firings of YHWH's forge, we will be able to restore what Adam lost.

	Chapters 12-13