Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Hebrews 10:19-25, Through the curtain, bodies washed, meeting together
Because Jesus' blood has opened a new and living way through the curtain, believers may enter the most holy place with confidence. With hearts sprinkled and bodies washed with pure water, they are to hold fast, spur one another on, and not give up meeting together.
Hebrews 10:19-25, in every translation this tool compares.
Here the writer turns his long argument about priesthood into a call to action. Because Jesus has opened the way into God's presence through his death, believers can come near to God with clean consciences and full confidence. They are to keep hold of their hope, push one another toward love and good works, and keep gathering together as the day of the Lord draws closer, since some had already stopped coming.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-tabernacle\/","n":"The tabernacle and its heavenly pattern","s":"The tent sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness, with an outer room for the priests and an inner room, the holy of holies, for the ark. Moses built it to a pattern shown on the mountain, and many Jews thought of the earthly sanctuary as a copy of a heavenly one.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/proselyte-baptism\/","n":"Ritual washing and convert immersion","s":"Jews washed often for purity, but one immersion happened only once: the bath a Gentile took on becoming a Jew. John's baptism and the church's took that shape.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/synagogue\/","n":"The synagogue","s":"The local gathering place where Jews met on the Sabbath to pray and study Scripture. It was also a community center, run by people of standing.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/house-churches\/","n":"House churches","s":"For their first three centuries Christians met in homes, the way some Jewish groups and private clubs did. A host with a large house gave the church its room, its table and often its protection.","r":""}
Only the high priest could enter the holy of holies, on one day a year; the curtain had kept even the priests from the full holiness of God (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). The ESV Study Bible and the Zondervan dictionary tie the curtain that is his flesh to the temple curtain torn at Jesus' death. Hearts sprinkled and bodies washed borrow the language of the Levitical rites, but the perfect tense of washed points to a single initiation, baptism (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Gentile converts to Judaism were immersed once, while the Qumran sect's first washing was the first of many (Keener; the cultural backgrounds article on baptism). Religious associations met about once a month, Diaspora Jews gathered especially on the weekly Sabbath, and Christians seem to have met at least weekly (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Romans distrusted private meetings, though in the East they were rarely investigated unless someone brought an accusation (Keener). Carson, Moo and Morris think the drift away from meeting together may mean the readers were a house church no longer meeting with the rest of the church.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Hebrews 10:19-20, 10:22, 10:23, 10:24 and 10:25
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Hebrews 10:19, 10:20, 10:22 and 10:25
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Hebrews 10:20 and 10:24-25
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Baptism
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry curtain
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 17, Hebrews, Purpose
