Tuesday, December 30, 2025

^9:8The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing. ⁹This is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect, ¹⁰being only (with foods and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation. ¹⁵For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. ¹⁶For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. ¹⁷For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives. ¹⁸Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. ¹⁹For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” ²¹He sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. ²²According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. ²³It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

WEB, public domain

^11:11Jesus entered into the temple in Jerusalem. When he had looked around at everything, it being now evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. ¹²The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry. ¹³Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴Jesus told it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” and his disciples heard it. ¹⁵They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. ¹⁶He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple. ¹⁷He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers!” ¹⁸The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching. ¹⁹When evening came, he went out of the city. ²⁰As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. ²¹Peter, remembering, said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.” ²²Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. ²³For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening, he shall have whatever he says.

WEB, public domain

^9:8The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing. ⁹This is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect, ¹⁰being only (with foods and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation. ¹⁵For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. ¹⁶For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. ¹⁷For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives. ¹⁸Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. ¹⁹For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” ²¹He sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. ²²According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. ²³It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

WEB, public domain

^10:2Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³He answered, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.” ⁵But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. ⁶But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. ⁷For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife, ⁸and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” ¹⁰In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter. ¹¹He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. ¹²If a woman herself divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

WEB, public domain