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provision for uncleanness, for at times our very duties carry with them defilement, and
though "not of the world' we are nevertheless still "in the world", and though we are
cleansed completely in one sense, we shall, till our pilgrimage is over, be under the
necessity to "wash the feet" continually (John 13: 10). The emphasis upon death and the
dead in Num. 19: provides the argument of Heb. 9: 14.
Covenant or Testament?
While it is a truth worthy of the fullest emphasis that the cleansing power of the blood
of Christ excelled the types and shadows as conscience is greater than ceremony and dead
works more defiling than dead bodies, yet this truth is placed here to lead on to another
which is vital to the argument of the epistle:--
"And because of this, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that death having
taken place for a redemption of the transgressions against the first covenant, those having
been called might receive the promise of aionian inheritance. For where a covenant
exists, it is necessary to bring in the death of the covenant victim, because a covenant is
confirmed over dead victims, since it is never valid when the covenant victim is living"
(Heb. 9: 15-17).
To introduce the word "testament" here, with its associated ideas of a "will" and the
death of the "testator", is foreign both to Hebrew thought and the design of this epistle.
Diatheke occurs in Hebrews 17 times, and in every occurrence other than those of
9: 15-18 it is used of either the old or the new covenant. Heb. 9: 20 reads "the blood of
the testament". The passage is a quotation from Exod. 24: 8, where the same version
reads "the blood of the covenant". The A.V. is obliged to introduce the word "men" into
Heb. 9: 17; we translate instead "dead victims", referring to the sacrifices that
accompanied the making of the covenant. In Heb. 7: 22 we read:--
"By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant".
In 8: 6:--
"By how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant".
In 12: 24, in contrast with Mount Sinai and the old covenant, is placed Mount Sion
and the new covenant:--
"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that
speaketh better things than that of Abel."
It is clear from these passages that Heb. 9: 15 speaks not of a testament, but of a
covenant in the Hebrew sense of the word. In Heb. 8: 8-12 we have a long quotation
from Jer. 31: concerning the old and new covenants. In Heb. 10: 15-17 this self-same
chapter is quoted again. Heb. 9:, which comes in between these two quotations, is
written expressly to show that Christ is the mediator of that very covenant of prophecy,
and the word "testament" therefore, instead of helping forward the apostle's argument,