Thursday, June 25, 2020

Craig Koester on the meaning of “Heavenly Things” in Hebrews 9:23

 

It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (Heb 9:23)

 

Arguing that the “heavenly things” in Heb 9:23 is heaven itself, Craig Koester noted:

 

The Tabernacle was holy, yet it needed purification. Although people were not understood to sin within the Tabernacle, the sanctuary was threatened by defilement from people’s sins. In the same way, one need not envision heavenly beings committing sins to think that purification of heaven would be appropriate. Since sin affects all creation, Christ’s work extends to all creation . . . Some refer to Satan being expelled from heaven (Luke 10:18; John 12:31; Rev 12:7-9) and to evil beings inhabiting the air (Eph 6:12; Col 1:20), so that even “the heavens are not clean in his sight” (Job 15:15; 1 Clem. 39:5; Ign. Smyrn. 6:1 . . .). This is not a primary though in Hebrews, however . . . The peculiar idea that the heavenly sanctuary might need cleansing . . . reflects a view of revelation. The author understands fundamental reality to be heavenly rather than earthly. If the earthly sanctuary is a representation of the heavenly one (8:2, 5), then laws pertaining to the earthly tent presumably disclose something about the heavenly tent that it represents. One might conclude that the earthy sanctuary was cleansed because its heavenly counterpart was also to be cleansed. Christ did not purify the heavenly sanctuary because he was bound to follow the Levitical pattern; rather, the reverse is true. Levitical practice foreshadows Christ’s cleansing of the heavenly tent at the turn of the ages (10:1). (Craig R. Koester, Hebrews: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [AB 36; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001], 421, 427)

 

 On the use of the plural "sacrifices" in Heb 9:23, see:


Does Hebrews 9:23 support the Mass as a Propitiatory Sacrifice? (cf. Joseph Pohle on the question of whether Christ Offers Sacrifices in Heaven and J. Ramsey Michaels on the use of "sacrifices" in Hebrews 9:23)