What Does Hebrews 10:9 Mean?
Then he says, Look, I have come to do your will, O God. He lifts away the first, so that he may make the second stand.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.THE KEY
The second stands because the first is removed; here, establishment begins with release.
THE MEANING
The former sacrificial order is removed so the second can stand: God’s will is enacted through Jesus’ self-offering, as the following verses say. This speaks now as a change in what governs your approach to God: the first order no longer holds its place; the second does.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what came first must remain in force beside what God establishes now is undone here: the first is taken away so the second can stand.
THE ROOT
ἀναιρεῖ
anairei
GROWS FROM
αἱρ-
hair-
take, seize, choose
“taketh away” in this verse is anairei. The verb is built on the Greek seed for taking, also found in compounds for taking away and choosing. The first order is actively taken out of place so another can stand.
ALSO GROWS
aphaireō: take away, remove
ἀφαιρέω
Another compound of the same root; Hebrews 10:4 uses it for what the old offerings cannot remove.
haireomai: choose, prefer
αἱρέομαι
This related form shows the root can name taking as a choice, not only as loss.
στήσῃ
stēsē
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
stand, set in place
“make the second stand” in this verse is stēsē. The verb means to make something stand or set it in place. The second is not merely approved; it is made to stand.
ALSO GROWS
anastasis: rising, resurrection
ἀνάστασις
This word for resurrection is built from the same stand-root: rising is a standing up.
stasis: standing, position
στάσις
It names a standing or position, making the force of “establish” concrete.
THE PATTERN
A new order is established by removing what cannot carry it.
A new heart I will give you, and a new breath I will set within you. I will take the stone heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.So if anyone is in the Anointed One, he is a new creation. What was old has passed by. Look, all things have become new.THE THREAD
For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats could lift away shortcomings.The phrase “take away” in Hebrews 10:4 is ἀφαιρέω (aphaireō), another compound built on the same αἱρ- seed as ἀναιρέω in this verse. There it names what the old offerings cannot remove; here the first order itself is removed, linking the limit of those offerings to the change announced here.
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