The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 39 verses.

Textual witnesses edit

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

• Papyrus 46 (175–225; only missing verses 21 & 31)^[5]
• Papyrus 13 (225-250; extant verses 8-22, 29-39)^[5]
• Codex Vaticanus (325-350)
• Codex Sinaiticus (330-360)
• Codex Alexandrinus (400-440)
• Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (~450; extant verses 1-23)
• Codex Freerianus (~450; extant verses 5-8,16-18,26-29,35-38)
• Codex Claromontanus (~550)
• Codex Coislinianus (~550; extant verses 1–7, 32–38)
• Papyrus 79 (7th century; extant verses 10-12, 28-30)

Old Testament references edit

• Hebrews 10:5–7: Psalm 40:6–8^[6]
• Hebrews 10:16: Jeremiah 31:33^[7]
• Hebrews 10:17: Jeremiah 31:34
• Hebrews 10:30: Deuteronomy 32:35–36;^[7] Psalm 135:14a^[8]
• Hebrews 10:38: Habakkuk 2:3, 4

New Testament references edit

• Hebrews 10:30: Romans 12:19^[7]

Attridge sees the final stage of Jeremiah 31 exposition to indicate that "Christ inaugurated the new and interior covenant by an act of conformity to God's will".^[9]

Verse 4 edit

For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.^[10]

This is one of the four things to be 'impossible' according to this epistle (Hebrews 6:4; 6:18; 10:4; 11:6).^[11]

Verse 5 edit

That is why, when Christ[a] came into the world, he said to God,

You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer^[12]

Verse 10 edit

By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.^[13]

It is the will of God that the believers be sanctified (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:3) and Christ's act of obedience made God's will his own, because Christ's death conformed to God's will (Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 1:5–11; 1 Peter 3:17) and Christ's obedience—attested in the Gethsemane story (Matthew 26:42; Luke 22:42) and the fourth gospel (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38–40; 19:30—is decisive for establishing the new covenant.^[14]

It is the first time in the epistle that the composite name 'Jesus Christ' appears (cf. Hebrews 13:8).^[14]

This section weaves together the themes of the previous few chapters.^[14]

Verse 14 edit

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.^[15]

• "By one offering": By his one sacrifice Jesus Christ did what the law of Moses, and all its sacrifices, could not do (Hebrews 10:1).^[16]
• "Those who are being sanctified" by God the Father (Jude 1:1) and set apart by him in internal election.^[16]

This part contains an exhortation to live as members of the "new covenant" which stresses faith (verse 22), hope (verse 23) and love (verse 24), a traditional triad also seen in 1 Corinthians 13:13.^[14]

Verses 26-31 reference the unforgivable sin according to theologians, such as John Wesley.^[17] The encouragement in verse 32-29 balances the threat or warning in verses 24-31.^[14]

Verse 37 edit

"For yet a little while,

And He who is coming will come and will not tarry."^[18]

This verse combines the quote 'a little while' from Isaiah 26:20 with the quote 'will not tarry' from Habakkuk 2:3 in its Greek form, rendering it as a prediction of one 'who is coming' that points to the imminence of Christ's second coming.^[14][19]

• "Tarry": Delay.^[20]

Verse 38 edit

"Now the just shall live by faith;

But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."^[21]

Cited from the LXX version of Habakkuk 2:4 which reads:

If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him, but the righteous one will live by faith.^[19]

Here "he shrinks back" is not applied to the "coming one" but to "those who await God's deliverance."^[19]

Paul also cites Habakkuk 2:4 in Galatians 3:11 and Romans 1:17 to contrast "faith" and "works of the law".^[22]

Verse 39 edit

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.^[23]

• Cross reference: Luke 17:33^[24]
• "Perdition": or "destruction".^[25]

This verse contrasts the result of two opposite lines of action: εἰς ἀπώλειαν, eis apōleian ("to perdition/destruction") or εἰς περιποίησιν ψυχῆς, eis peripoiēsin psychēs, ("to the gaining of the soul"; cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:9: εἰς περιποίησιν σωτηρίας, eis peripoiēsin sōtērias, "to obtain salvation").^[26]

• High priest
• Jesus Christ
• Moses
• Tabernacle
• Related Bible parts: Exodus 25, Deuteronomy 32, Joshua 10, Psalm 40, Psalm 110, Jeremiah 31; Habakkuk 2, Acts 2, Acts 5; Romans 1, Romans 8; Hebrews 1

• Attridge, Harold W. (2007). "75. Hebrews". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary (first (paperback) ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 1236–1254. ISBN 978-0199277186. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
• deSilva, David A. (2005). "Hebrews". In Evans, Craig A. (ed.). Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: John's Gospel, Hebrews-Revelation. The Bible Knowledge Series (illustrated ed.). Colorado Springs, Colo.: Victor. pp. 199–256. ISBN 9780781442282.
• Kirkpatrick, A. F. (1901). The Book of Psalms: with Introduction and Notes. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. Vol. Book IV and V: Psalms XC-CL. Cambridge: At the University Press. Retrieved February 28, 2019.

  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Gill, John. Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746-1763).

• Hebrews 10 King James Bible - Wikisource
• English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate
• Online Bible at GospelHall.org (ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
• Multiple bible versions at Bible Gateway (NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.)