Levitical Sacrifice and Heavenly Cult in Hebrews by Benjamin J. Ribbens

Author:Benjamin J. Ribbens
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2016-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

6.2Forgiveness

The two main salvific efficacies ascribed to sacrifice in Leviticus and reiterated throughout Second Temple literature are atonement and forgiveness. Thus, it seems natural that Christ’s sacrifice would achieve atonement and forgiveness, and this latter category is implicitly ascribed to Christ’s sacrifice in Hebrews 10:18. The author concludes his description of Christ’s sacrifice and how it compares to the old covenant sacrifices by stating, “Where there is forgiveness of these [ἄφεσις τούτων], there is no longer any offering for sin.” The pronoun τού-των has as its antecedent sins (ἁμαρτιῶν) and lawless deeds (ἀνομιῶν) from v. 17, so that, as discussed in ch. 5, the forgiveness or remission of sins is clearly in mind.

Based on the development of Hebrews’s argument, there is one distinct difference between the forgiveness achieved by Christ’s sacrifice and that achieved by the old covenant sacrifices: Christ’s sacrifice was once-for-all (ἅπαξ) and did not need to be repeated. The forgiveness achieved by Christ is perpetual and did not simply deal with past sins but with all sins. Christ’s once-for-all forgiveness does not mean that the old covenant sacrifices achieved something less than forgiveness while Christ achieved true forgiveness; rather, it means that the same efficacy—forgiveness—is applied to different sets, ranges, or groups of sins (past v. all). The logic of Heb 10:18 is that, since Christ’s sacrifice achieves forgiveness ἅπαξ, there is no longer any need to achieve forgiveness, making it not only unnecessary for another sacrifice for sins (περὶ ἁμαρτίας) to be offered but also impossible. The sacrifices that were a shadow and an anticipation of Christ’s sacrifice cannot achieve forgiveness after the establishment of the new covenant.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.