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NASB | Hebrews 8:13 When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Hebrews 8:13 When God speaks of "A new covenant," He makes the first one obsolete. And whatever is becoming obsolete (out of use, annulled) and growing old is ready to disappear. |
Subject: The Old Covenant lingers? |
Bible Note: Thank you for pointing out that a question can be rhetorical. Even when it is not, a question may be designed, not to show ignorance, or to request information, but to encourage the reader to think. Don’t you think so? For example, I might have asked, “Are you sure the Old Covenant did not fade away in the moment that the New Covenant came into effect, at the cross?” The immediate response might have been a defensive “Yes, I am”. With the thoughts generated by all the other questions, the reader might have come, hopefully, to a more reasoned conclusion in his own mind. Might it not work that way? Jesus had a way of asking questions that did not suggest he was lacking in knowledge and needing to be informed. For example: Once while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?” They say unto him, “The Son of David”. He said unto them, “How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, ‘The LORD said unto my Lord, “Sit thou on my right hand, till I make your enemies thy footstool?”’ If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” In all of this, Jesus was not seeking information, but making a point. At other times he might ask, “Which of you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?” Or he might ask, “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you go about to kill me?” Questions like that can cause a person to think, don’t you think? In this case, my barrage of questions was meant to ask Emmaus, “Won’t you reconsider the combination of statements, that ‘The New Covenant was established with the death of Jesus on the cross. (But) The Old Covenant lingered and was fading when Hebrews was written’”? Surely that would mean that the two Covenants coexisted for a while. I would hope his response would be, not Yes or No but, “Let me think about it”. He might think about it in light of the other facts submitted: that there are those who think the two Covenants coexist to this day, what with tithing and Sabbath keeping and all. He might even recall, without my saying it, that Jesus said you do not put new wine into old wineskins. Sometimes a barrage of questions does not work. But it could cause a reader to think. It could cause him to think more deeply about the issue, don’t you think? |