Cristou' kai; tauvth" h\n th'" ktivsew" kai; ouj tauvth", tauvth" mevn, kata; to; i[son ei\nai kai; dia; pavntwn o{moion tw'/ hJmetevrw/ swvmati, ouj tauvth" dev, kata; to; e[cein ajsugcuvtw" kai; ajdiairevtw" th;n qeovthta .
As far as the Lord's historical work on earth is concerned this interpretation is adequate. He was the perfect revelation of the Father and the way to Him. But in considering the ideal antitype, or rather archetype, of the Tabernacle we must take account of the Lord's ministry in heaven. In this (Heb. 8:1 f.) the heavenly High-priest and the heavenly Tabernacle are in some sense distinguished; and the Lord acts as High-priest in His human Nature (Heb. 4:14 ff.). Bearing this in mind we may perhaps extend the patristic conception so as to meet the difficulty, though, with our present powers of conceiving of divine things we must speak with the most reverent reserve. In this relation then it may be said that the greater and more perfect Tabernacle of which Christ is minister, and (as we must add) in which the Saints worship, gathers up the various means under which God reveals Himself in the spiritual order, and through which men approach to Him. Under one aspect these are represented by the union of the redeemed and perfected hosts made one in Christ as His Body. Through this glorified Church answering to the complete humanity which Christ assumed, God is made known, and in and through this each believer comes nigh to God. In this Body, as a spiritual Temple, Christ ministers. As members in this Body believers severally enjoy the Divine Presence. Thought fails us under the bondage of local limitations, and still we can dimly apprehend how we have opened to us in this vision the prospect of a spiritual reality corresponding to that which was material and earthly in the old ordinances of worship. It enables us to connect redeemed humanity with the glorified human Nature of the Lord, and to consider how it is that humanity, the summing-up of Creation, may become in Him the highest manifestation of God to finite being, and in its fulness that through which each part is brought near to God.
This heavenly Tabernacle is spoken of as greater and more perfect (Vulg. amplius et perfectius ), greater in comparison with the narrow limits of the earthly Tabernacle, more perfect as answering to the complete development of the Divine plan. And in its essential character it is not made by hands, that is, not of this creation (Vulg. non manu factum, id est, non hujus creationis ). Human skill had nothing to do with its structure, for man's work finds its expression in the visible order of earth, to which this does not belong.
For ouj ceiropoivhton see Heb. 9:24; Mark 14:58 ( ajceiropoivhto" ); 2 Cor. 5:1 ( oijkivan ajceiropoivhton aijwvnion ejn toi'" oujranoi'" ). Compare Acts 7:48; 17:24. For ouj tauvth" th'" ktivsew" compare 2 Cor. 4:18 ta; ga;r blepovmena provskaira, ta; de; mh; blepovmena aijwvnia ; Heb. 8:2 hJ skhnh; hJ ajlhqinh; h}n e[phxen oJ Kuvrio" ; and for ktivsi" , Rom. 8:19 ff.
Philo, in a striking passage, speaks of the world as the house and city of the first man mhdemia'" ceiropoihvtou kataskeuh'" dedhmiourghmevnh" ejk livqwn kai; xuvlwn u{lh" .
Heb. 12 a. A second point which marks the heavenly character of Christ's work is seen in the nature of His offering. He made not a twofold offering but one only. He entered into the Holy place through His own Blood, and that once for all.
oujde; dij ai{m. travg. kai; movsc.
]
nor yet through blood of goats and