Book of Hebrews, part 3 — Does Hebrews Abolish the Torah? Surprising Answers from Hebrews 9–10

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Today, we’ll answer three questions, which are all related:

1. Does the author of Hebrews replace the Levitical service in the temple with the New Covenant?
   • Yes, the New Covenant does, physically
   • No, it doesn’t, spiritually.
2. Did the writer make a mistake about articles in the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place?
   • No.
3. Does Hebrews change or cancel our obligations to Torah?
   • No.

Introduction

This study examines Hebrews 9 and 10 in relation to the tabernacle, the New Covenant, and the ongoing role of the Torah. It focuses on three key questions: whether Hebrews replaces the temple service with the New Covenant, whether Hebrews contains an error about the placement of tabernacle articles, and whether Hebrews abolishes the obligation to follow the Torah. The argument proceeds by close attention to the text of Hebrews, to the Torah, and to key Hebrew and Greek terms.

Focus of Hebrews 9: Covenant and Tabernacle

Hebrews 9 opens with a description of the earthly sanctuary and its service. The text states: “Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary” (Heb 9:1, NASB 1995). The passage then describes the structure and furniture of the tabernacle (Heb 9:2–5).

A central claim of the study is that Hebrews 9 addresses one specific covenantal arrangement: the covenant connected with the tabernacle and its priestly service. The argument holds that this focus does not touch the enduring promises made to Noah, Abraham, Jacob, or David. For example, God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17:7 is described as “an everlasting covenant (בְּרִית berit ‘olam)” (Gen 17:7). Likewise, the covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7:12–16 presents a perpetual dynasty. Hebrews 9, by contrast, concentrates on the cultic system associated with the Levitical high priest and the earthly sanctuary.

The language of Hebrews 9:1 emphasizes “regulations of divine worship” rather than the entire Torah. These regulations relate to the tabernacle’s ritual operations. The New Covenant in Hebrews therefore engages with the priestly service and its sacrificial system rather than nullifying the broader, covenantal promises.

Torah, Statutes, Judgments, Commandments, and Ordinances

A key distinction in the study concerns the meaning of תורה (Torah, “instruction” or “teaching”). Torah here refers not merely to a law code but to the entire body of divine teaching. This includes narrative, commandments, promises, and prophetic revelation. In this sense, Torah encompasses everything God teaches, not only cultic regulations.

Within the Torah, several specific categories appear. These include:

• חֹק / חֻקָּה (choq / chukkah, “statute” or “fixed ordinance”)
• מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “judgment” or “legal decision”)
• מִצְוָה (mitzvah, “commandment”)
• Greek: δικαίωμα (dikaiōma, “regulation, requirement”) and νόμος (nomos, “law/Torah”)

Statutes and judgments relate to God’s enduring moral and social order. For example, in Leviticus, God says: “So you shall keep My statutes (חֻקָּי chukkai) and My judgments (מִשְׁפָּטַי mishpatai)” (Lev 18:5). These guide Israel’s life and ethics.

Hebrews 9:1, however, speaks of “ordinances of divine service” (literally, regulations of worship). These ordinances are understood as specific ritual procedures attached to the tabernacle: duties, sequences, and tools used by priests to carry out their service. The argument stresses that these “ordinances” are not identical with Torah as a whole and should not be confused with the eternal statutes and judgments.

Commandments, מִצְוֹת (mitzvot), can function like orders for specific tasks. Once the task is complete, that particular command is fulfilled. By contrast, statutes and judgments often express ongoing principles. The study therefore treats the cultic ordinances as task-centered instructions, distinct from the broader, enduring content of Torah.

Outer and Inner Tabernacle: Two Spheres of Service

Hebrews 9 differentiates between two areas of the sanctuary. The first area contains “the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread” (Heb 9:2). This space is called “the holy place.” The second area, “behind the second veil,” is called “the Holy of Holies” (Heb 9:3).

The study emphasizes that Hebrews 9 does not primarily discuss where each item physically sits but rather the ordinances associated with each sphere of service. Verses 6–7 describe the pattern:

• The priests regularly enter the first tabernacle “performing the divine worship” (Heb 9:6).
• The high priest alone enters the second, “once a year, not without taking blood” (Heb 9:7).

Two categories of divine service emerge. The first involves continual daily and seasonal tasks in the outer tabernacle. The second involves the unique, high-risk entrance into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur (Lev 16). The earthly arrangement functions as “a symbol (παραβολή parabolē, ‘parable, figure’) for the present time” (Heb 9:9), showing that, under the first system, the way into the true Holy of Holies is not yet open (Heb 9:8).

The Golden Censer and the Placement Question

Hebrews 9:4 mentions that the second tabernacle, the Holy of Holies, “had a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant.” This wording has led some interpreters to claim a mistake in Hebrews, since Exodus often locates the golden altar directly before the veil (Exod 30:6).

The study argues that Hebrews 9:4 should be read functionally rather than strictly spatially. In this reading, the text links the golden censer or golden altar with the service of the Holy of Holies because the high priest uses it in connection with entering that space on Yom Kippur. Numbers 16 and Leviticus 16 provide background for the use of censers and incense with hot coals.

The Greek term translated as “golden altar of incense” or “censer” involves the idea of something that holds burning coals. In the Torah, tongs and censers of gold handle coals from the altar for this purpose (Exod 25:38; 27:3; Num 4:9). The function of these items is central: they carry fire and incense to create the cloud that covers the mercy seat when the high priest enters (Lev 16:12–13).

From this perspective, Hebrews 9 does not err in tabernacle description. Instead, it associates the golden censer with the Holy of Holies because of its role in that unique annual service, not because it always sat physically inside that space. The focus remains on the ordinances and tools required for entry into the innermost presence of God.

The Earthly and Heavenly Sanctuaries

Hebrews 9 contrasts earthly and heavenly realities. The first tabernacle and its rituals are called “earthly” or “worldly” (κόσμοσ kosmos, Heb 9:1, “earthly sanctuary”). These are material, flesh-related symbols: “food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation” (Heb 9:10).

The study highlights that these earthly elements teach spiritual truths but do not themselves open access to the heavenly Holy of Holies. The outer tabernacle protects and conceals the inner, showing that direct access remained restricted. This restriction signals the incompleteness of the earlier arrangement.

In contrast, Messiah appears as “a high priest of the good things to come” and enters “through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation” (Heb 9:11). This heavenly reality surpasses the earthly model. The language recalls the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain (Exod 25:8–9, 40), where the earthly sanctuary reflects a heavenly archetype.

The High Priesthood and the Order of Melchizedek

Hebrews presents Yeshua as high priest “according to the order of Melchizedek (מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק Malki-Tzedek)” (Heb 5–7). This order predates Levi and the Sinai tabernacle. Psalm 110:4 declares: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110:4).

The study stresses that the New Covenant does not abolish the concept of priesthood but reforms it. Hebrews 9:10 speaks of “a time of reformation” (διορθώσεως diorthōseōs). This term implies correction, setting something straight, or bringing it into its intended form. The Levitical system never completed its goal. The Melchizedek priesthood, embodied in the Messiah, fulfills what the earlier system only prefigured.

As high priest, Yeshua enters the true Holy of Holies in heaven. He does so alone, without human witnesses, just as the Levitical high priest entered the inner sanctuary alone on Yom Kippur (Lev 16:17). Hebrews affirms: “Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb 9:24).

This priestly work centers on His own blood. “Not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). The contrast is not between sacrifice and no sacrifice, but between repeated animal blood and the once-for-all sacrifice of the Messiah.

Sacrifices, Perfection, and Completion

Hebrews 10 clarifies that the Torah’s sacrificial system functioned as “a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things” (Heb 10:1). The repeated sacrifices could “never… make perfect those who draw near” (Heb 10:1). The term “make perfect” reflects the idea of completion, τελειόω (teleioō), to bring to its goal.

If the sacrifices had completed their task, they would have ceased: “Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered?” (Heb 10:2). Their continual repetition showed that they did not finalize forgiveness at the level of conscience. Instead, “in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year” (Heb 10:3). The Levitical offerings handled ritual impurity and maintained covenant status, but they did not accomplish the ultimate cleansing that Messiah’s sacrifice brings.

Psalm 40 provides the theological foundation for this argument. Hebrews cites: “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure” (Heb 10:5–6; cf. Ps 40:6–8). The text does not deny that God commanded sacrifices. Instead, it emphasizes that God’s ultimate desire centers on obedience and the offering of the Messiah’s body.

The study concludes that animal sacrifices never possessed inherent power to remove sin absolutely. Their meaning always pointed forward to the once-for-all offering of Messiah’s life. With His death and resurrection, the sacrificial system reaches its intended completion. There is now “no longer any offering for sin” (Heb 10:18), not because sacrifice has no place in God’s plan, but because the decisive sacrifice stands finished.

The New Covenant and the Law Written on the Heart

Hebrews 8 and 10 draw directly from Jeremiah 31:31–34. The New Covenant promise reads: “I will put My laws (תּוֹרָתִי torati, ‘My Torah’) into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts” (Heb 8:10; cf. Jer 31:33). This promise does not speak of lawlessness. Instead, it describes a deeper internalization of God’s Torah.

Hebrews 10 repeats: “I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them” (Heb 10:16). The New Covenant thus involves the transformation of the inner person. God inscribes His statutes and judgments inside His people. The result is not the removal of God’s standards but their fulfillment in a renewed heart and conscience.

The study therefore maintains that Hebrews does not delete the obligation to follow Torah understood as God’s teaching. Rather, the New Covenant changes the place and mode of Torah’s operation. The execution of sacrificial ordinances in the earthly temple gives way to the once-for-all high priestly work of Messiah in the heavenly sanctuary. At the same time, the ethical and spiritual content of Torah becomes more deeply rooted in the lives of believers.

Hebrews, the Temple, and Excluded Believers

The audience of Hebrews appears to include Jewish believers in Yeshua who face exclusion from the temple community. The text warns them not to forsake assembling together (Heb 10:25) and encourages them to endure reproach and estrangement. The loss of access to the temple, sacrifices, and broader community creates real suffering.

Hebrews responds by directing their attention to the heavenly sanctuary and to Yeshua as high priest. The earthly temple remains “holy, just, and good” in its original purpose, but its function as the primary place of atonement and access has reached completion in Messiah. The focus shifts from visible ritual participation to direct approach to God through Him.

Hebrews 4:14–16, for example, presents Yeshua as the great high priest who has passed through the heavens and invites believers to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16). This access mirrors the Holy of Holies imagery but now applies to all who trust in Messiah, not only to the Levitical high priest on one day each year.

Divine Ordinances and the Time of Reformation

The phrase “until a time of reformation” (Heb 9:10) marks a turning point. The Greek term διορθώσις (diorthōsis) indicates a setting right or a restoration to proper condition. The study identifies this time with Messiah’s entrance into the heavenly Holy of Holies and the inauguration of His Melchizedek priesthood.

The earthly ordinances of the first tabernacle had a limited term. They instructed Israel, foreshadowed spiritual realities, and protected the sanctity of God’s presence. Yet their design always anticipated a greater fulfillment. When Yeshua, in resurrected glory, enters the true sanctuary, the priestly order reaches its intended form. The reformation does not destroy the pattern but brings it to fullness.

This perspective allows a future role for Levitical priests in a teaching or memorial function, as some prophetic passages suggest (e.g., Ezek 40–48), while maintaining that atonement itself rests entirely on Messiah’s once-for-all work. The Melchizedek priesthood stands as the ultimate priestly order; all other priestly activity must align with and point to it.

Conclusion

Read in this way, Hebrews 9–10 does not abolish the Torah or erase earlier divine covenants. Instead, it distinguishes between the enduring teaching of God and the temporary cultic ordinances bound to the earthly tabernacle and Levitical high priesthood. The New Covenant centers on a better priesthood, a better sanctuary, and a better sacrifice.

The earthly tabernacle and its divine ordinances remain crucial as revelation. They expose humanity’s distance from the Holy of Holies and prefigure the work of Messiah. Yeshua, as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, enters the true Holy of Holies with His own blood. He secures eternal redemption and opens the way for direct access to God.

At the same time, God writes His Torah on the hearts and minds of His people. The statutes and judgments gain deeper reality, not less. The sacrificial system reaches its goal in the offering of Messiah’s body, and believers now approach God in Him, both individually in prayer and corporately in gathered worship. Hebrews thus presents continuity and fulfillment: the same God, the same promises, and the same Torah, now realized in a new priestly order and an eternal covenant sealed in the blood of the Messiah.

Next week: Does entering God’s rest (Hebrews 3-4) “today” mean that the seventh-day Shabbat (Sabbath) is no longer important?