We have an altar: leaders, sacrifice and the question of a Christian priest

Hebrews 13 is the close of a 'word of exhortation' (13:22). After twelve chapters on the priesthood of Jesus, the writer gives instructions on love and conduct (13:1-6), on leaders (13:7, 17), on sacrifice (13:10-16), and ends with a prayer, a request for prayer, and news: Timothy has been released, and those from Italy send greetings (13:23-24). A few scholars think the chapter was added, but most hold that it belongs to the sermon, since it repeats the themes of Jesus' priesthood, the covenant and the better city. Authorship and date are discussed in the class on chapters 8 and 9. The chapter matters here because it contains the clearest New Testament statement about a Christian 'altar' and about Christian 'sacrifices', and because its leaders are named with a word that is not 'priest'.

Hebrews 13 is the practical end of a sermon, and its verses 10-16 are a short typological argument built on Leviticus. On the Day of Atonement the bodies of the sin offerings whose blood was taken into the sanctuary were burned outside the camp (Leviticus 16:27; compare 4:12), and the law forbade the priests to eat from those offerings (Leviticus 6:30). The writer uses these two facts. The question is how far the language of altar, eating and sacrifice is literal and how far figurative.

The class applies the method of the course.

• First, it asks what the words meant to the first hearers and where else the New Testament uses them: hiereus, presbyteros, episkopos, thysiasterion (altar), thysia (sacrifice).
• Second, it separates what Scripture says plainly from what later Christians concluded. For the central question the evidence is chiefly vocabulary. What church fathers, councils and later writers say appears as history and as argument, not as authority.

13:1-6. Continue in brotherly love (philadelphia), show hospitality as Abraham and Sarah did to angels (Genesis 18), remember prisoners, honor marriage, and keep from loving money, because God has said 'Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you' (Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:5).

13:7-9. 'Remember your leaders' (hegoumenoi, 'those who lead') 'who spoke the word of God to you.' Their work is speaking the word, and their example is faith, whose outcome the readers are to consider. These leaders are probably past ones (the verb is in the past, and verse 17 turns to present leaders). The same participle describes the leader who serves in Luke 22:26. Jesus Christ, 'the same yesterday and today and forever,' is the fixed point, so they are not to be carried away by 'strange teachings' about foods, since the heart is strengthened by grace.

13:10. 'We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat.' The Greek thysiasterion is the word for an altar of sacrifice. Verse 11 explains the argument: the sin offerings whose blood was brought into the sanctuary were burned outside the camp, so the priests could not eat them. Christians have what the tabernacle priests cannot eat. What is the altar? Most Reformed and evangelical commentators take it as the cross, or Christ's sacrifice itself, with 'eating' as sharing its benefits by faith. Catholic, Orthodox and some Lutheran and Anglican readers take it as the Lord's table, with 'eating' as the Eucharist; the Greek does not exclude this, though nothing in the chapter names the Supper. The class follows the first reading, because verse 9 sets 'grace' against 'foods' and verses 11-12 explain the altar by the death outside the gate.

13:11-14. Jesus suffered 'outside the city gate' to sanctify the people by his own blood, so the readers are to 'go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore.' To leave the camp is to leave the old order and share his rejection. They have no permanent city here but seek the one to come (compare 11:10, 16; 12:22).

13:15-16. 'Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.' The phrase echoes Hosea 14:2 and the thank offerings of Psalm 50:14, 23. Then: do not neglect to do good and to share, 'for with such sacrifices God is pleased.' The writer names the Christian sacrifices: praise, a good life, and generosity. The verb for 'offer up' (anapherein) is the one used for Christ's offering of himself (7:27; 9:28) and in 1 Peter 2:5, 24.

13:17-19. 'Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account.' Their work is watchfulness, and their accountability is to God. No title is given. The writer asks for prayer and for a quick return.

13:20-25. The God of peace 'brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,' by the blood of the eternal covenant, and will equip the readers to do his will. The final greeting is to 'all your leaders and all the saints.'

What the canon says about priesthood can be listed. Christ is the great priest (Hebrews 4:14; 10:21), the only priest who bears sin and enters the true sanctuary. All believers together are 'a holy priesthood' and 'a royal priesthood' (1 Peter 2:5, 9) and 'priests to His God' (Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). No New Testament passage calls an apostle, elder, overseer, deacon, prophet or teacher a priest. The offices named in Ephesians 4:11, 1 Corinthians 12:28, Philippians 1:1 and the Pastoral Epistles are described by other words and tasks: teaching, shepherding, oversight, service.

The sacrifices of Christians are also listed: bodies (Romans 12:1), praise and doing good (Hebrews 13:15-16), gifts (Philippians 4:18), prayer (Revelation 5:8). Paul uses priestly language for his gospel work (Romans 15:16) and speaks of his life being 'poured out' like a drink offering (Philippians 2:17). The Lord's Supper is called a participation in the body and blood of Christ, and Paul compares the Lord's table with the altar of Israel and with pagan altars (1 Corinthians 10:16-21). Two silences are real. The New Testament does not say who must preside at the Supper, and it does not say that leaders have no part in the church's sacrifices. The disagreement is over what to conclude from them.

The elder's work is described in some detail. It is to shepherd, teach, rule and pray (Acts 20:28; 1 Timothy 5:17; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1-4), and elders are appointed by apostles or their representatives (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5).

The type here is the Day of Atonement. The sin offering burned outside the camp (Leviticus 16:27) is fulfilled in Jesus, who suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people with his blood (13:12). The high priest who alone entered the Most Holy Place is fulfilled in Christ, who entered heaven itself (9:12, 24). Hebrews does not make Christ merely the greatest priest in a line. It says that he is the priest, the sacrifice and the one who opens the way.

The 'great Shepherd of the sheep' (13:20) echoes Isaiah 63:11, where God brought up the shepherd of his flock, and the shepherd promises of Ezekiel 34, in which God himself will feed his sheep. 'The blood of the eternal covenant' fulfills Jeremiah 31:31-34 (compare Isaiah 55:3; Ezekiel 37:26). The promise 'Never will I leave you' (13:5) was given to Joshua and Israel; the writer applies it to the readers, whose security rests on the Christ who is the same forever (13:8).

The titles Shepherd and Overseer, and the work of watching over souls, belong first to Christ (1 Peter 2:25; 5:4). Leaders in the church share them only in a derived sense, and they remain servants of the one priest.