Hebrews

9** So the first one did have ordinances of service and its sanctuary of a mundane sort. 2 For a tent was constructed, the first one, in which the lampstand and the showbread were, which tent is designated as Holy, 3 and after the second curtain a tent, the one designated as Holiest of the Holy, 4 with a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant coated all over with gold, in which there were a gold jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s stick that sprouted, and the tablets of the covenant; 5 and up on top of it cherubim of glory shading the mercy-seat,—about which things it is not practicable to tell in detail now. 6 And, these things being thus arranged, into the first tent the priests are all the time coming in to go through with the services, 7 but into the second the high priest only, once a year, not without blood which he offers for the people’s indiscretions, 8* what the Holy Spirit meant to express being this, that the way to the sanctuary had not yet been brought to light while the first tent was still standing. 9 Which is a parable for the present time; in keeping with which there are being offered gifts and sacrifices that cannot perfect the worshiper as to conscience, 10 only on the score of foods and drinks and different ablutions: ordinances for flesh, imposed till a time of rectification.

11 But when Christ arrived, high priest of good things that had come into existence, by way of the greater and more perfect tent, not man-made,—that is, not of this creation,—and not by virtue of blood of goats and steers but by his own blood, 12 he entered the holy place once for all, achieving an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and ashes of a heifer sprinkling the defiled, hallow one as regards the cleanness of the flesh, 14** how much more will the blood of the Christ, who by the working of an eternal Spirit offered himself as a faultless oblation to God, cleanse our conscience from the corpses of our deeds for worshiping a living God! 15 And this is why he is mediator of a new covenant, so that, a death having taken place to cancel the transgressions under the first covenant, those who had been called might receive the promised eternal inheritance.

16* For where there is a testament it is necessary that the testator’s death be put in evidence; 17 for it is for the affairs of the dead that a testament is valid, since when the testator is alive it is not at the time in effect. 18 Whence it comes that not even the first one was inaugurated without blood. 19 For after every commandment had been spoken to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of the steers and goats with water and scarlet wool and marjoram and sprinkled the book itself and all the people, 20 saying “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded for you.” 21 And he likewise sprinkled with the blood the tent and all the vessels for the services; 22 and, broadly speaking, according to the law everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood no exoneration takes place.

23 So there is a necessity that the models of what is in the heavens be cleansed with these things but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices transcending these. 24* For it was not into a man-made sanctuary, a reproduction of the true one, that Christ went in, but into heaven itself, to appear in God’s presence now for us; 25 neither was it with a view to offering himself repeatedly as the high priest goes into the sanctuary year after year by another creature’s blood, 26* else he would have had to suffer over and over since the foundation of the world; but now it is once, at the culmination of the ages, that he has shown himself for the annulment of sin by his sacrifice. 27* And as surely as it is reserved for men to die once, but after this a judgment, 28 so too the Christ, offered once to take up the sins of many, will appear a second time, clear of sin, for salvation, to those who are awaiting him.