Hebrews 8

World English Bible 119 include this book

1 Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

2 a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man.

3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

4 For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law,

5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.”

6 But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

8 For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days are coming”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord.

10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put my laws into their mind; I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

11 They will not teach every man his fellow citizen and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest.

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.”

13 In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first obsolete. But that which is becoming obsolete and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

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3 places named in this book — no place is named in this chapter, so the whole book is shown.

Where this was written

Not known unknown The letter names no author and no place of writing; the closing greeting from "those of Italy" points in two directions at once.

When this was written

The traditions broadly agree on this one.

Broad agreement: 60 AD–95 AD Anonymous
Hebrews names no author; ancient and modern readers alike have declined to identify one with confidence.

Who ruled Rome

Emperors reigning while this book is dated. Where the traditions differ, they often fall under different rulers.

Broad agreement

Nero 54 AD–68 AD
The fire of Rome in 64 was followed by the first state persecution of Christians. Paul and Peter are traditionally martyred in this reign.
Galba, Otho and Vitellius 68 AD–69 AD
The year of four emperors: civil war across the empire after Nero's death.
Vespasian 69 AD–79 AD
Took power at the end of the civil war. His son Titus completed the siege of Jerusalem in 70.
Titus 79 AD–81 AD
Commanded the army that destroyed the Jerusalem temple before becoming emperor.
Domitian 81 AD–96 AD
An autocratic reign under which Revelation is traditionally placed, on the testimony of Irenaeus.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (60 AD–95 AD).

1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
500 BC–500 AD The Nazca lines South America
Vast figures drawn on the Peruvian desert, visible only from the surrounding hills.
206 BC–220 AD The Han dynasty China
Four centuries of Chinese rule contemporary with the whole of Roman expansion.
150 BC–100 AD Roman concrete and the aqueducts Rome
Hydraulic concrete let Rome build harbours, domes and aqueducts that still stand.
100 BC–550 AD Teotihuacan Mesoamerica
A city of perhaps a hundred thousand people in the valley of Mexico, with monumental pyramids.
43 AD–84 AD Rome conquers Britain Britain
Claudius invaded and the province was gradually extended to the Scottish lowlands.
66 AD–73 AD First Jewish–Roman war Levant
Revolt against Rome ending in the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 — the decisive rupture in Second Temple Judaism.
27 BC–100 AD Roman road and sea network matures Rome
Consolidated roads, harbours and suppressed piracy made long-distance travel unusually safe, a precondition for the rapid spread of early Christian communities.

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