Heb 10.1

• If you would have been told this as a Jew, how would you have reacted?
• By what logic could the writer arrive at his conclusion? Did his own Jewish roots hinder or facilitate this insight? [His argument is entirely based on insights from the Old Testament: =>]

• Even though Ps 40:1 named David as author, why could Ps 40:7 not be fulfilled in the person of David? [No scriptures prophesied about David, nor did he end animal sacrifices]

• In v8, the writer wondered how it can be that God should take no pleasure in what the law of Moses prescribed. How did the writer resolve this apparent contradiction between Ps 40 and the older ordinance of Moses?
  • Is God’s revelation progressive? [Animal sacrifices were appointed for a time while the outer tent was still standing, as a shadow of the reality to come, cf Heb 9:8]
  • v10: “…but a body you have prepared for me” (v5): What do you consider noteworthy of this example in Hebrews how Christians were taught to interpret this psalm? cf Lk 22:19
  • v9 quotes Ps 40:6-8 how it was translated into Greek by the Septuagint, a translation that predated Christianity. By contrast, the oldest extant manuscripts of the Masoretes (approx. 9th century AD) read “… but ears you have dug for me”: Which text makes more sense to describe the self-sacrifice of Jesus?*

• v10: What was achieved by the one ‘offering’ of Jesus? Why not by the repeated animal sacrifices of the old covenant?
  • Why was a single sacrifice sufficient to atone for all sins and sanctify once for all?
    • Is it possible to undo the perfect obedience of Jesus? Can his followers become ‘unsanctified’ again? Why or why not? cf Jn 13:10; 15:3
    • Why does Hebrews insist that Jesus was raised from the dead once and for all? [Alive to be high priest forever]
  • v12: What sanctifies believers: The death of Jesus, or that he offered himself to be raised from the dead and become a high priest who now lives forever? cf Heb 6:20
  • Is sanctification here regarded as a gradual process or not? cf v14
• v14, “perfected for all time”: What does this mean? [gr. dienekes, lit. non-stop, uninterrupted]
  • Why is this perfection limited to “those who are being sanctified” (passive)? cf Acts 26:18. Why not: “…who sanctify themselves” (active)? cf Jn 13:8
  • Can one say of all living creatures that they already are as a seed what they will become as they mature? Why, or why not?

• why add such emphasis that (only) then – i.e. not before – God will remember sins no more? [Note how Jer 31 agrees: Sacrifices in the old covenant never blotted out any sins, but the blood of Jesus now does]
• How is v17 (i.e. v34 of Jer 31) a witness to us from the Holy Spirit (v15) that we have been made perfect? [=> by foretelling in advance (through Jeremia) that forgiveness will distinguish the new covenant from the old, the Holy Spirit left no doubt for believers in the new covenant that their guilt is indeed entirely blotted out forever]

• When you hear of ‘sanctification’, what do you associate with this term?
• Do you think your notion of sanctification is aligned with what the writer had in mind? Why or why not?
• What makes it difficult to believe that by one offering Jesus has made perfect all who are being sanctified?
  • Do you ‘feel’ already perfected, or more like work in progress’? Why?
  • Do you think as a believer you should consider yourself as already perfected and if so, in what sense and why?
  • Hint: Can a baby be in some sense be as perfect as a wise grown-up, or vice versa?
  • Should believers think of one another as being ‘perfect’, and if so, why must they not expect to be exempt of criticism?

* The fact that the text predating Christianity supports its central creed even more strongly than the oldest post-christian version is remarkable.