Hebrews 8:2

Minister. Gr. leitourgos, “servant,” “minister” (cf. on Rom. 13:6; cf. Phil. 2:25; Heb. 1:7).

The sanctuary. Gr. ta hagia, literally, “the holies,” or “the holy [places].” The feminine hai hagiai is most unlikely here (see on ch. 9:2). Scholars quite uniformly hold that the Greek form is a neuter plural. There are differences of opinion as to the force and function of the plural in this instance. Some believe that the plural designates two apartments in the heavenly sanctuary corresponding to the two apartments in the earthly. Others believe that the plural is an intensive plural denoting simply the concentration of holy things in the sanctuary. The uncertainty arises from the fact that in ch. 9:2, 3 textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) a plural form for the Greek term that describes the first apartment and also for the term that describes the second apartment (see comment there).

In view of this, the fact that ta hagia is a plural does not of itself prove that there are two apartments in the heavenly sanctuary. However, that Christ’s work in the heavenly sanctuary is conducted in two apartments, or “two great divisions,” is transparently evident from a comparison of the earthly with the heavenly, for the earthly was “a copy of the true one” (ch. 9:24, RSV) in heaven. See also on Ex. 25:9; Dan. 8:14; cf. Additional Note on Heb. 10.

And of. Rather, “that is of.”

True. Gr. alethinos, “genuine,” “real.” The earthly sanctuary was but a type of the heavenly.

Tabernacle. Gr. skene, “tent.” The terminology of the earthly sanctuary is used for the heavenly.

Pitched. A figurative expression, here used because the sanctuary is described as a “tabernacle,” or “tent.” We must not think of a literal tent in heaven, literally pitched by God. Compare Ex. 33:7.

The idea of a heavenly sanctuary was not new to the Jews, as shown by the following extracts from their literature of about the 1st century B.C.: “The angel opened to me the gates of heaven, and I saw the holy temple, and upon a throne of glory the Most High” (Testament of Levi 5:1; R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. 2, p. 307); “Thou gavest command to build a sanctuary in thy holy mountain, And an altar in the city of thy habitation, A copy of the holy tabernacle which thou preparedst aforehand from the beginning” (Wisdom of Solomon 9:8; ibid., p. 549).