above his power of fulfilment, describes what Christ has done as the Son of man, through whom man's ideal has been realised (Heb. 2:6 ff.; Ps. 8). Thus the words are rightly applied to Him. His power to do the will of God corresponded with His purpose to do it. That will being once accomplished for humanity by its perfect representative, the use of sacrifices was done away.
The words in their original context gain fresh force from a comparison with 1 Sam. 15:22. David, the true divine type of a king, spontaneously embodied the principle which Saul, the human type of a king, violated to his own overthrow.
The writer of the Epistle follows the rendering of the LXX. with some slight differences,
oJlokautwvmata
(LXX. Heb.
oJlokauvtwma
):
eujdovkhsa"
(LXX. Heb.
h[/thsa"
), compressing also the last verse (
tou' poih'sai, oJ qeov", to; qevlhmav sou
: LXX.
tou' poih'sai to; qevlhmav sou, oJ qeov" mou, hjboulhvqhn
...). The
LXX. as is well known, differs from the Hebrew in one remarkable clause: for
yL-i t;yr§IK; : yIn"za;£ ears hast thou opened (dug) for me , it gives sw'ma de;
kathrtivsw moi . There can be no question that this is the true reading of the Greek. The conjecture that XWMA is an early blunder for WTIA (the reading of the other Greek versions) cannot be maintained in the face of the evidence. The rendering must therefore be considered to be a free interpretation of the original text. In this respect it extends and emphasises the fundamental idea. The body is the instrument for fulfilling the divine command, just as the ear is the instrument for receiving it. God originally fashioned for man in his frame the organ for hearing His voice, and by this He plainly shewed that he was made to obey it.
5 Wherefore when He entereth into the world, He saith
Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not ,
But a body didst Thou prepare for me;
6 In whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hadst no pleasure:
7 Then said I, Lo, I am come
(
in the roll of the book it is written of me
)
to do, O God, Thy will.
8 Saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt-offerings and offerings for sin Thou wouldest not ( the which are offered according to the Law ), 9 then hath He said, Lo, I am come to do Thy will. He removeth the first that He may establish the second. 10 In which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Heb. 10:5.
dio; eijserc. eij" to;n kovsmon
]
Wherefore
.... Because the
Levitical sacrifices were essentially ineffective the Christ speaking through the Psalmist or, to express the same idea otherwise, the Psalmist giving utterance to the highest thought of man which Christ alone can realise, recognised the fact, and offered the reality of rational self-surrender which they represented.
The words
when He entereth into the world
(Vulg.
ingrediens mundum;
O. L.
incedens in orbem
) are not to be confined to the moment of the Incarnation though they found their complete fulfilment then. They apply to