In part 4, I said that all popular translations have read Hebrews 8:6-7 as referring to two covenants. I further showed the two covenants are generally understood as the Old Testament part of the Bible and the New Testament portion of the Bible. In this post, I will discuss why "tabernacles" makes more sense in … Continue reading A Series In Hebrews 8:6-8a: Why Two Tabernacles Instead Of Two Covenants? Part 5

Every popular English translation of the Bible assume that 8:6 is rendering obsolete the Old Testament. They might protest and narrow it to the Old Testament sacrifices, or slightly more broadly, the Ritual laws pertaining to the Altar. But we know a tree by its fruit. The reality is that if you throw out the … Continue reading A Series in Hebrews 8:6-8a: To What Covenant Are The Translators’ referring? Part 4

In the previous post in this series, I focused on the literary device of parallelism. Parallelism heightens the imagery and sharpens the meaning of words. But the rabbis use midrash to flesh out new, relevant, contemporary meaning from the biblical texts. The writer of Hebrews used a midrashic method to deliver to the audience a … Continue reading A Series In Hebrews 8:6-8a: To What Covenant Are The Translators Referring? Part 3

In the previous post, I introduced the theological premise, supersessionism. Supersessionism is a theological principle that has been used for evil purposes. I also introduced a very important Jewish theological perspective for understanding creation, heaven, history, time and eschatology. In this post, I will discuss Jewish parallelism, and how it informs meaning when reading Jewish … Continue reading A Series in Hebrews 8:6-8a: To What Covenant Are The Translators Referring? Part 2

Here in lies what I think are one of the most important and theologically profound passages ever written. While some may not see the challenge of this verse, I do hope over the next few weeks to challenge the conventional Christian interpretation of these verses, but also offer what I believe is a more thorough … Continue reading A Series In Hebrews 8:6-8a: To What Covenant Are The Translators Referring? Part 1