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739 CHRIST'S PRIESTHOODHebrews 8 and 9, RSV
Now the 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 heaven,
a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent
which is set up not by man but by the Lord.

For every high priest is appointed
to offer gifts and sacrifices;
hence it is necessary for this priest also
to have something to offer.


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.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest
of the good things that have come,
then through the greater and more perfect tent
(not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
he entered once for all into the Holy Place,
taking not the blood of goats and
calves but his own blood,
thus securing an eternal redemption.


For Christ has entered,
not into a sanctuary made with hands,
a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly,
as the high priest enters the Holy Place
yearly with blood not his own;
for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly
since the foundation of the world.


But as it is, he has appeared
once for all at the end of the age
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And just as it is appointed for men to die once,
and after that comes judgment, so Christ,
having been offered once to bear the sins of many,
will appear a second time,
not to deal with sin but to save those
who are eagerly waiting for him.



PRIESTHOOD: See also No. 778.