meaning of John 14:6 is, 'I am the true and living way' even as Hebrews 10:20

reveals Him as 'the new and living way'.  'True' as contrasted with all the

types and shadows of the law.  'New' as contrasted with all that pertains to

the Old Covenant that waxing old must vanish away.  The Companion Bible draws

attention to the fact that prosphatos, the word translated 'new', literally

means 'newly slain', and the reader may be forgiven if he should consequently

stress the reference to sacrifice.  The word does not occur elsewhere in the

New Testament except in the form of an adverb, where it reads of Aquila that

he had 'lately' come from Italy (Acts 18:2).  Prosphatos occurs in the LXX

four times:

Numbers 6:3, 'fresh grapes',

Deuteronomy 32:17, 'new and fresh gods',

Psalm 81:9 (in LXX Psa. 80), 'new god',

Eccles. 1:9, 'no new thing'.

The adverb occurs twice,

Deuteronomy 24:5 (LXX verse 7), 'recently taken a wife',

Ezekiel 11:3, 'houses newly built'.

This idea of something new is contained also in the word 'consecrate' which

is found in Hebrews 10:20.  The Greek word so translated is engkainizo,

composed of en, 'in' and 'kainos', 'new'.  This word gives us engkainia, the

name of a feast, 'the feast of dedication', a feast that commemorated the

dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem at its renovation and purification,

after being polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes, who had offered in sacrifice

swine upon the altar (Joseph. Ant. 12, v. 4).  'Then said Judas and his

brethren, Behold, our enemies are discomforted: Let us go up and cleanse and

dedicate (engkainizo) the sanctuary ... then they took whole stones according

to the law, and built a new (kainon) altar ... and new (kainos) holy vessels

... Now on the five and twentieth day of the ninth month, which is called the

month of Casleu, in the hundred and forty and eighth year ... they offered

sacrifices according to the law upon the new (kainon) ... the gates and the

chambers they renewed (engkainizo) and hanged doors upon them' (1 Macc. 4:36

Parkhurst says of engkainizo, 'to handsel, in a religious sense'.  This

term, 'to handsel' may not be readily understood by many today, it has

dropped out of common use.  The word means a gift, an earnest, the first act

of a sale.  'The apostles term it the pledge of our inheritance, and the

handsel or earnest of that which is to come' (Hooker: Eccles. Polity).

To 'handsel' any house is to open it for the first time for use (Deut.

20:5), so to handsel any road is to open it for access (see Bloomfield).  We

are now placed a little nearer to the position which any intelligent Hebrew

would have occupied, and can read Hebrews 10:20, as it would have appeared in

the eyes of those who knew the Maccabean history, kept the feast of

dedication, and understood the ceremony of the handsel.  The Old Covenant

waxed old and was vanishing away.  The offerings of the law never touched the

conscience.  The priests never sat down in the course of their ministry, even

the high priest needed to offer for his own sins before he offered for the

people.  Christ was a High Priest of good things to come.  Just as He

fulfilled the Passover, the Firstfruits and the Day of Atonement, so He

fulfilled the Feast of Dedication.  The new tabernacle has been entered, and

dedicated; old things give place to new.  In direct antithesis to the Old

Covenant, a covenant which waxed old (Heb. 8:13), is the heavenly reality of