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Hebrews

About this book
Chapter 8

1 Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We have such a high priest, one who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,⁠ 2 a minister in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So this one, too, had to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 The place where they serve is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary,⁠ just as Moses was warned by God as he was about to complete the tabernacle. For he says, “See that you make everything according to the design shown to you on the mountain.”⁠ 6 But now Jesus has obtained a superior ministry, since the covenant that he mediates is also better and is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one. 8 But showing its fault, God says to them, “Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.⁠ 10 For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds, and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.” 13 When he speaks of a new covenant, he makes the first obsolete. Now what is growing obsolete and aging is about to disappear.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Exodus 25:40 and Hebrews 8:5

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

Hebrews 8 quotes Exodus 25, where Moses is instructed to build the sanctuary according to a revealed pattern. This quote supports an argument in Hebrews that the earthly tabernacle was a copy of an original heavenly model.

Passages

LXX Exodus 25:40

Septuagint
37 And you shall make its seven lamps: and you shall set on it the lamps, and they shall shine from one front. 38 And you shall make its funnel and its snuff-dishes of pure gold. 39 All these articles shall be a talent of pure gold. 40 See, you shall make them according to the pattern shown you in the mount.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Exodus

Hebrews 8:5

New Testament
4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 The place where they serve is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, just as Moses was warned by God as he was about to complete the tabernacle. For he says, “See that you make everything according to the design shown to you on the mountain.” 6 But now Jesus has obtained a superior ministry, since the covenant that he mediates is also better and is enacted on better promises.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hebrews

References

"... There are only two citations, or quotations, of Exodus in Hebrews that scholars agree upon: Exodus 25:40 in Hebrews 8:5 and of Exodus 24:8 in 9:20. In Hebrews 12:20 we find what I describe as a condensed paraphrase of Exodus 19:12-13, where a longer portion of text is condensed with close verbal similarity preserved and, for that reason, there is no debate as to whether Hebrews 12:20 references Exodus 19:12-13. There are many instances, however, in which Hebrews alludes to Exodus and, in those cases, Hays’ criteria are most relevant. Some of the most significant allusions I (and others) identify, for instance, include the “word spoken through angels” in 2:2 (angels at Sinai), the wilderness generation (thematic allusions) and the promise of rest (Exodus 33:14) in Hebrews 3-4. The reference to God’s rest after creation in relation to the Sabbath command in 4:4 may allude to Genesis but it may also (or instead) allude to the Decalogue in Exodus and/or Exodus 31:17. Hebrews 5:1, 4 allude to the call of Aaron from among the people to be a priest (Exodus 28:1) and Hebrews dialogues with the concept of Aarons’ perpetual priestly line throughout Hebrews 5-7, as well. A detailed description of the wilderness tabernacle in Heb 9 alludes very specifically to Exodus and references to both covenant and atoning rituals in Hebrews can easily be understood as alluding to Exodus and/or Leviticus ..."
Scott Ronald Moore, “A Conviction of Texts Not Seen: Perceiving Exodus as the Generative Text of Hebrews” (diss., University of Denver, 2017), 69–70.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Exodus 25:40 and Hebrews 8:5

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