A Comment on Dualism in the letter to the Hebrews

But Christ having appeared as a High Priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation . . Hebrews 9:11

The letters to the Hebrews is difficult to understand.  A good deal of that difficulty comes from the fact it assumes a thorough background in the Hebrew Scripture, using allusion after allusion and metaphor after metaphor from the Tanakh.  This would not be a problem if we read the text from the perspective of a Hebrew first century worldview, but we don’t do that.  We read it as if it is written to Christians with a third century Greek worldview.  So we stumble over verses that speak about the “old” and the “new,” “better” and “disappearing.”  We think differently about the meanings of these words, putting them into our context where “old” is inferior to “new” and where “disappearing” means “no longer of value.”  Greek metaphysics employs a spiritual/physical dualism that affects how we read these words.  Unless we realize how that dualism changes our outlook, we will misunderstand what this author says.

Greek philosophy, especially in Plato, struggled with the problem that everything in this world seems broken.  There are no perfect things here.  Nevertheless, we still are able to think about perfection.  So, if nothing that we experience is perfect, how is it possible for us to imagine perfect things?  The Greeks answered by positing a dual universe.  The material world of imperfect objects is merely a reflection of the spiritual world where everything is perfect.  Furthermore, since this world is inherently imperfect, only the spiritual world is truly good, truly beautiful and truly meaningful.  The world we occupy now is broken to the core.  It is an evil, ugly and false reality.  Spiritual progress means leaving this world behind and moving into the perfect spiritual world of eternal bliss beyond this reality.

When the early church fathers incorporated this Greek dualism into their way of interpreting Scripture, they produced a split universe too, but now the spiritual, perfect world was heaven – the abode of God – and the evil, imperfect, broken world was earth.  Of course, our bodies belong to the earthly world.  They are corrupt, filled with sin and roadblocks to true spirituality.  The early fathers taught that we need to deny our bodily existence and progress toward the world of the soul and spirit.  This is one reason why, even today, we speak about saving “souls,” not people.  This dualism is responsible for centuries of treating bodily passions as evil.  In spite of the fact that Scripture includes emotional intensity, sexual attraction and physical behavior within the context of serving and worshiping God, most of us are a bit uncomfortable with our emotions, our sexuality and our physical desires.  Why?  Because, like it or not, we are products of centuries of a Greek dualism.  The separation of physical and spiritual is just part of the way we conceive of the world.

Hebrew thinking also includes a dualism, but it isn’t the Greek variety.  In Hebrew thought, the world is a shadow reality of the heavenly dimension.  There is an earthly tabernacle and a heavenly tabernacle.  The heavenly tabernacle is the full and complete tabernacle.  The earthly tabernacle is the partial and incomplete tabernacle.  But (and this is the key), the partial and incomplete is not evil, inferior and useless.  A shadow of a tree is not a tree, but it is still real!  The earthly tabernacle is not the heavenly tabernacle, but it still has a purpose; it is still real and it still counts in God’s design.  It isn’t the whole picture, but it is part of the picture.  To eliminate this incomplete part is to deny something essential to the whole design.

In Greek dualism, the earthly is false.  It is a deception, an evil and insufficient mirage of what should be perfect and complete.  Not so in Hebrew dualism.  But when we read words like “new,” “old” and “temporary,” we apply the mental gymnastics of Greek thought.  We hear words that sound like Greek dualism and we conclude that the author must be describing the difference between a false and insufficient world and a true and sufficient world.  In other words, we read the text as if it were written with a Greek worldview.  The result is disastrous.  We are compelled to conclude that Christ replaced the old covenant, that the law of Moses is passing away and that Christ’s sacrifice makes all other sacrifices obsolete.  But this isn’t what the text says.  The letter to the Hebrews must be consistent with the rest of the Bible and the rest of the Bible, including the words of Yeshua Himself, do not propose replacement and retirement of the Torah (Law).  The rest of the Bible doesn’t suggest that this world is an evil imitation of the true spiritual reality.  In fact, it says point-blank that God created the world good.  Sin did not destroy God’s good creation.  It twisted it.  Human emotions, bodily needs and desires are not evil until they become twisted by sin.  The remedy for this twisted condition is not escape from the physical but rather restoration to the original, good design.

The Hebrew reads the same words with a different mindset.  He reads that the sacrifice of Yeshua completes the entire design God prepared in the whole system of sacrifices.  It is the capstone, not the destruction, of sacrifices.  He reads that the “new” covenant will come when all men worship the Lord without being taught.  He hears the echoes of Jeremiah 31 and realizes that God is still bringing about this new reality.  Yeshua as high priest guarantees God’s restoration will happen – but not yet.  He reads Hebrews 9:11 and realizes that the real place of the offering for the forgiveness of sin was not on the cross but in the full and complete tabernacle “not of this creation.”  And he knows that God’s instructions for living in this world reflect a greater and fuller reality in the next world.  The instructions now are not useless.  They are not to be abandoned.  They are practice for the next world when the full importance of what God is doing will finally become clear.

The Greek phrase ou tautes tes ktiseos (“not of this creation”) does not employ the usual Greek term kosmos.  The change is important.  Ktiseos describes the sum total of all that has been created.  Notice that the word itself implies more than one created total by God.  The author emphasizes the point that the creation we occupy (“this creation”) is not the end of the story.  There is another creation also made where the full and complete tabernacle exists – a tabernacle not made with human hands but made by God Himself.  Our tabernacle, the one Moses constructed, was build according to the pattern of the full and complete tabernacle, the one that exists in the other creation.  And it is in this full and complete tabernacle that the offering of Yeshua actually takes place “before the foundation of the world.”  Now, if this is the case, does the full and complete tabernacle pass away?  The shadow tabernacle, the one that we have here, may be destroyed or fall into the obscurity of history, but the full and complete tabernacle cannot pass away.  It is not part of the human creation.  The activities that accompany the tabernacle, including all the sacrifices performed there, also do not pass away.  Hebrew dualism recognizes that what we do here is only part of the story, but it is nevertheless essential for the full story.

When the Bible describes the heavenly reality (which is not very often), it implies that this parallel existence is the fuller version of what we experience here.  Of course, sin is not present in this fuller version.  In that regard, the heavenly reality is more perfect than the flawed, but nevertheless real, existence we experience now.  But some day the fuller reality will become the only reality.  Then we will see face-to-face and not through the dark glass that obscures our vision.  In the meanwhile, we are expected to practice living here with our eyes cast toward the fuller reality to come.  We are not taught to deny, avoid or ignore the real world of our present experience.  We are simply taught that this isn’t the whole story – and to act accordingly.

Put off the Greek dualism and discover that we participate in a present reality that foreshadows the coming, full Kingdom.  Don’t allow the limitations and mistakes of a Greek dualism to misinform reading of the text.  God is good.  What He creates is good, no matter how dimly we perceive the complete picture at the moment.  Nothing God creates is wasted effort.  It all has continuing purpose as He brings about the full picture.  We may be moving toward this fuller reality, but that does not mean we are leaving behind something God discarded.  We are simply incorporating our present experience into a new and more complete experience.  This is the message of Jeremiah – and of Hebrews.