The Letter of St.Paul to the Hebrews

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Chapter 8 :

Mediator of a Better Covenant

Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They offer worship in a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one; for Moses, when he was about to erect the tent, was warned, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

8 God finds fault with them when he says:

“The days are surely coming,
says the Lord,
when I will establish a new
covenant with the house of
Israel
and with the house of Judah;
9 not like the covenant that I made
with their ancestors,
on the day when I took them
by the hand to lead them
out of the land of Egypt;
for they did not continue in my
covenant,
and so I had no concern
for them, says the Lord.
10 This is the covenant that I will
make with the house of
Israel
after those days, says the
Lord:
I will put my laws in their
minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach one
another
or say to each other, ‘Know
the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the
greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward
their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins
no more.”
13 In speaking of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.



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