What Old Testament laws are considered "external regulations" in Hebrews 9:10? Hebrews 9:10 in Focus “They consist only in food and drink and special washings—external regulations imposed until the time of reform.” (Hebrews 9:10) What “external regulations” means • The Greek phrase dikaiōmata sarkos speaks of rules that touch the body—outward actions, physical rituals, material substances. • They were divinely commanded but intentionally temporary, pointing forward to a fuller work God would accomplish in Christ (cf. Hebrews 9:9; 10:1). Key categories of these regulations • Food laws – Clean/unclean animals: Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14:3-21 – Forbidden fat and blood: Leviticus 3:16-17; 7:22-27 – Portions reserved for priests: Leviticus 7:31-34 • Drink regulations – Drink offerings poured with sacrifices: Numbers 15:5-10; 28:7-8 – Priests prohibited from wine while ministering: Leviticus 10:9 – Nazirite vow bans wine, vinegar, grapes: Numbers 6:2-4 • Special washings (baptismois, “immersions”) – Priests wash before entering the tent: Exodus 30:17-21 – Objects sprinkled with blood or water: Exodus 29:21; Numbers 19:18-19 – Purifications after childbirth, disease, or bodily discharge: Leviticus 12–15 – Day-of-Atonement washings: Leviticus 16:4, 24 • Additional bodily ordinances tied to the tabernacle – Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly sacrifices: Exodus 29:38-42; Numbers 28–29 – Ritual meals eaten inside the sanctuary: Leviticus 6:16-18; 24:5-9 Representative Old Testament passages • Food: “You may eat any animal with a split hoof… but of those that chew the cud or have split hooves you are not to eat…” (Leviticus 11:3-4) • Drink: “Its drink offering shall be a quarter hin of wine.” (Numbers 28:7) • Washing: “Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet from it.” (Exodus 30:19) Purpose behind the regulations • To distinguish Israel as holy (Leviticus 20:24-26). • To teach the need for purity before approaching God (Leviticus 19:2). • To serve as symbolic shadows—“a reminder of sins” until the perfect sacrifice came (Hebrews 10:3-4). Their temporary nature • Hebrews 9:10 says they lasted “until the time of reform.” • That time arrived in Christ, who “entered the greater and more perfect tabernacle… by His own blood” (Hebrews 9:11-12). • The same chapter contrasts “the blood of goats and bulls” that sanctify the flesh (v. 13) with Christ’s blood that “cleanse[s] our conscience” (v. 14). Fulfillment in Christ • Colossians 2:16-17—food, drink, and festivals are “a shadow of the things to come, but the body belongs to Christ.” • Mark 7:18-19—Jesus “declared all foods clean,” signaling the completion of dietary shadows. • Titus 3:5—salvation now rests on “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,” not repeated ritual washings. Takeaway The “external regulations” in Hebrews 9:10 refer to the Old Testament commands about food, drink offerings, and ritual washings—physical, flesh-oriented ordinances bound to the tabernacle system. They were good gifts for a season, teaching holiness and prefiguring the ultimate cleansing accomplished once for all by the Messiah. |
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