introitu (-um) sanctorum. Each Christian in virtue of his fellowship with Christ is now a high-priest, and is able to come to the very presence of God. The entrance expresses primarily the way itself, and then also the use of the way. Elsewhere in the N. T. ei[sodo" is used generally of the act of entering: 1 Thess. 1:9; 2:1; Acts 13:24; but in 2 Pet. 1:11 it has rather the sense of the means of entering, and the parallel with oJdov" (Heb. 10:20) seems to fix this as the dominant sense here.
The use of the phrase boldness for (to use) the entrance instead of the simpler boldness to enter ( parrhsivan tou' eijsievnai ) calls up distinctly both the characteristic act of the Highpriest, and the provision made by Christ. For the gen. tw'n aJgivwn see Heb. 9:8.
For
eij"
, describing the end, compare 10:24; Acts 2:38; Rom. 8:15; 2 Cor. 7:9; 2 Pet. 2:12; and for
parrhsiva eij"
Heb. 11:11; Rom. 1:16 (
duvnami" eij"
); 2 Cor. 7:10; Phil. 1:23.
ejn tw'/ ai{mati
] Vulg.
in sanguine.
The entrance of Christians into the divine presence is in the blood of Jesuseven as the Levitical Highpriest entered into the Holy of holies in blood, though it was the blood of bulls and goats: Heb. 9:25
ejn ai{mati ajllotrivw/
in the power, that is, of the human life of the Lord offered up and made available for them: His life is their way (vita Tua via nostra). The human name of the Lord in every place where it occurs in the Epistle emphasises His true humanity and rests the point of the argument upon that. Compare 2:9 note. For
ejn ai{mati
compare Heb. 9:25 note.
h}n ejnekaivnisen
] the entrance
which He inaugurated for us
, even
a fresh and living way
... Vulg.
quam
(O. L.
in qua
)
initiavit
(Vigil.
dedicavit
)
viam
...Christ has made available for others the road by which He Himself travelled. He not only made the way, but He also used it (
ejnekaivnisen
...
h}n kateskeuvase, fhsiv, kai; dij h|" aujto;" ejbavdisen
, Chrys.). Compare Heb. 6:20
(
provdromo"
); 9:12 (
dia; tou' ijdivou ai{mato" eijsh'lqen
). The word
ejgkainivzein
(Heb. 9:18 note) is used in the LXX. of the inauguration (dedication) of the altar, the temple, the kingdom (1 Sam. 11:14), a house (Deut. 20:5).
The h{n is the direct object of ejnekaivnisen . Comp. Rom. 9:24. It has been taken (less naturally) predicatively: for to be thisas whichHe inaugurated a fresh and living way...
Thus
oJdo;n pr. kai; zw'san
are in apposition with
ei[sodon
and descriptive of it. The way, however the words which follow may be interpreted, must finally be Christ Himself (John 14:6; 10:7); and it is therefore fresh not only in the sense that it is a way which was before unknown, but also as one that retains its freshness and cannot grow old (Heb. 8:13); and it is living as
a way which consists in fellowship with a Person (
oujk ei\pe zwh'", ajlla; zw'san aujth;n ejkavlese, th;n mevnousan ou{tw dhlw'n
Chrys.).
The word provsfato" is found here only in the N. T. ( prosfavtw" Acts 18:2). It occurs in the LXX. (e.g., Ps. 80:10 (81:10) Eccles. 1:9) and in Classical writers from Homer downwards. The current derivations from sfavw ( sfavzw ), favw ( fevnw ), favw ( fhmiv ), are all unsatisfactory.
The language of the Apostle finds a remarkable parallel in the words with which Florus (1.9, 14) describes the self-devotion of Decius Mus, who quasi monitu deorum capite velato primam ante aciem Dis Manibus se [devovit], utin confertissima se hostium tela jaculatus novum ad victoriam iter