To emphasize the singularity of the Messiah’s sacrificial
entry before God, the author brings forth a human example. And just as it is
held for humans to die once. The verb for held indicates things
stored up or held at the ready, so the sense here is one of waiting. All humans
are awaiting death, and this is related to the fear they live under because of
anticipating it (2:14). Whether it is natural (7:23) or through punishment
(10:28) or through murder (11:4, 37), all humans die, and it happens only once.
Death has not been cheated by any human other than Jesus. Death, however, is
not the ultimate end, for the author speaks of both death and after this judgment.
Resonant with other thinkers within Judaism (1 En. 1:7; 5:6; 50:1-5; 53-55; Dan
7:26; 2 Macc 6:26; 7:19, 27), including those who wrote the documents of the
New Testament (Matt 10:15; 12:26; Luke 10:14; 11:31-32; 2 Pet 2:9; 1 John 4:17),
this author assumes that death will be followed by God’s judgment, most often
imagined as a day of judgment for all humanity.
So also Christ:
since all humans die once and Christ is human, he, too, died only once. The
singularity of all death, chiefly his, confirms the impossibility of repentance
(6:4). If someone rejects his death and resurrection, there is no other option
for repentance since Christ the human cannot die again. The language the author
uses to describe Christ’s death is this: he was offered once. In a
dramatic portrayal of Christ’s offering of himself, the author uses the passive
form of the verb. It is Christ who does the offering (9:14, 25), but because he
offers himself, it can also be correct to say that he was offered. The purpose
of his self-offering was to bear up sins of many. To bear up sins evokes
the sacrificial context with which the author has been engaged, where offering up
sacrifice is done because of sins (Lev 4:26; 9:10; 16:25; 2 Chr 29:21). That he
bears up the sins also conveys a vertical movement, in alignment with
the resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Christ, his movement through
and into the heavens where he presents himself as sacrifice. (Amy Peeler, Hebrews
[Commentaries for Christian Formation; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
2024], 255-56)
