English · KJV

Hebrews 9:13

“Christ Enters the Heavenly Sanctuary”Hebrews 9:11–14

King James Version
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
For G1063 if G1487 the blood G129 of bulls G5022 and G2532 of goats G5131, and G2532 the ashes G4700 of an heifer G1151 sprinkling G4472 the unclean G2840, sanctifieth G37 to G4314 the purifying G2514 of the flesh G4561:

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh:

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh:

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
For if the blood of bulles and of goates, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling them that are vncleane, sanctifieth as touching the purifying of the flesh,

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
for if the blood of bulls, and goats, and ashes of an heifer, sprinkling those defiled, doth sanctify to the purifying of the flesh,

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
19 Greek words
  1. εἰeiIfG1487CONDConjunction
  2. γὰρgarforG1063CONJConjunction
  3. τὸtotheG3588T-NSNDefinite article Nominative Singular Neuter
  4. αἷμαhaimabloodG129N-NSNNoun Nominative Singular Neuter
  5. τράγωνtragōnof goatsG5131N-GPMNoun Genitive Plural Masculine
  6. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  7. ταύρωνtaurōnof bullsG5022N-GPMNoun Genitive Plural Masculine
  8. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  9. σποδὸςspodos[the] ashesG4700N-NSFNoun Nominative Singular Feminine
  10. δαμάλεωςdamaleōsof a heiferG1151N-GSFNoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  11. ῥαντίζουσαrhantizousasprinklingG4472V-PAP-NSFVerb Present Active Participle Nominative Singular Feminine
  12. τοὺςtoustheG3588T-APMDefinite article Accusative Plural Masculine
  13. κεκοινωμένουςkekoinōmenousdefiledG2840V-RPP-APMVerb Perfect Passive Participle Accusative Plural Masculine
  14. ἁγιάζειhagiazeiit sanctifiesG37V-PAI-3SVerb Present Active Indicative 3rd Singular
  15. πρὸςprosforG4314PREPPreposition
  16. τὴνtēntheG3588T-ASFDefinite article Accusative Singular Feminine
  17. τῆςtēsof theG3588T-GSFDefinite article Genitive Singular Feminine
  18. σαρκὸςsarkosfleshG4561N-GSFNoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  19. καθαρότηταkatharotētapurificationG2514N-ASFNoun Accusative Singular Feminine
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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In the KJVVerse 30,119 of 31,102 · 96.8%

Study this verse

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This verse

The blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of the red heifer did make unclean people ceremonially clean, so that they could take part again in Israel’s worship.

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats,”

The sin offerings and the Day of Atonement sacrifices, which stood for life given up for sin.

“and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,”

The red heifer’s ashes, mixed with water, were sprinkled on those made unclean, especially by contact with the dead.

“sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:”

These rites truly made people ritually clean and fit for worship, and their cleansing reached the flesh. The “if” sets up the “how much more” of verse 14.

Passage studyHebrews 9:11–14

Christ Enters the Heavenly Sanctuary

11But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Summary

The first ten verses of Hebrews 9 describe the tabernacle of Moses and the high priest’s yearly entry into its inner room with the blood of animals. Over against all of that stands Christ. Jesus has come as the high priest of good things to come, and he has gone into the true sanctuary, the one God made, in heaven. He went in once, by his own blood, and he obtained a redemption that lasts for ever. The blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer could make an unclean person outwardly clean for worship. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who offered himself to God without spot through the eternal Spirit, cleanse our conscience from dead works so that we can serve the living God.

Christ, the high priest of good things to come

For the first readers of this letter the tabernacle, and later the Temple, stood at the center of worship and of the nation’s life. It was the place where God dwelt among his people and where atonement was made. The chapter has just walked through it, room by room, from the lampstand and the table of showbread to the altar of incense and the ark of the covenant (Hebrews 9:1–10). Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest went alone into the Most Holy Place, and he went in with blood (Hebrews 9:7, Leviticus 16). Hebrews calls that whole arrangement “the example and shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5) and “a figure for the time then present” (Hebrews 9:9). God ordained it, and it pointed ahead, but its sacrifices could not make the worshipper perfect in his conscience. Into that need come the words “But Christ”.

The name Christós comes from the verb to anoint and means the Anointed One, the Messiah. The deliverer and king God promised is also the priest of his people, and his priesthood belongs to who he is as Messiah. The title archiereús, high priest, was the highest office in Israel, held by the one man who entered the Most Holy Place. Hebrews gives it to Jesus, our great high priest who has passed through the heavens (Hebrews 4:14), and in him it rises above every priest of Aaron’s line.

He is high priest “of good things to come”, the blessings of the new covenant that the old rituals could only foreshadow. This chapter and the next name several of them: eternal redemption (verse 12), a conscience cleansed from dead works (verse 14), the promise of an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15), and boldness to enter the holiest (Hebrews 10:19–22). Their full measure still lies ahead, when God’s kingdom is complete, yet Christ’s work has already brought them into the present. Through him we now have access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:18).

What is the “greater and more perfect tabernacle”?

It is the heavenly sanctuary, the very presence of God, which Christ entered as our high priest. The word skēnḗ means a tent, and it is the word for the portable sanctuary Moses pitched in the wilderness. Christ’s tent is “greater” in what it is and what it accomplishes, and “more perfect” because it is eternal and opens the way to God fully. Hebrews has already spoken of Christ as seated in the heavens, a minister “of the true tabernacle” (Hebrews 8:1–2), of which the earthly one was a copy (Hebrews 8:5).

“Not made with hands” joins ou, not, to cheiropoíētos, made with hands. The tabernacle and the Temple were built by human craftsmen, and this sanctuary comes from God. Stephen used the same phrase when he told the council, “the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 7:48). To people who revered the Temple, a sanctuary of this kind would have sounded startling, even scandalous. “That is to say, not of this building” makes the point plainer still: Christ’s sanctuary belongs to the heavenly and eternal realm, outside the created, material order of this world. Later in the chapter Hebrews says that Christ entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24).

Believers differ on one detail here. Most take the greater tabernacle to be the heavenly sanctuary itself, as verse 24 says. Some have understood it as Christ’s own body, his human nature, through which he came to God for us. Both readings agree that Christ’s priesthood rests on what God himself has made, which the tent in the wilderness only pictured.

By his own blood, once for all

Verse 12 sets two kinds of blood side by side, and the word haîma, blood, comes twice. Under the law blood stood for life, and God gave it to make atonement: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls” (Leviticus 17:11). On the Day of Atonement the high priest sprinkled the blood of a bull for his own sins and the blood of a goat for the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:14–15). That blood cleansed ceremonially and covered sin for a time. The ritual came round every year as a reminder of sin (Hebrews 10:1–4), because “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).

Christ entered “by his own blood”. He offered himself, his sinless life given up in his death on the cross, and his blood stands for that death on our behalf. He is the one John the Baptist pointed to: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The priests of Aaron’s line offered first for their own sins, but Christ is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26–27). Of his sacrifice Hebrews says, “this he did once, when he offered up himself” (Hebrews 7:27).

“The holy place” he entered is God’s own presence in heaven. The Greek word hágion stands here in the plural. Christ’s ascension into heaven after his death was that entry, and there he now intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand (Romans 8:34).

Why does it matter that he entered “once”?

The word ephápax means once for all, a single act that is complete and stands for good. The high priest went in yearly, and each return showed that the work was unfinished. Christ went in one time, because his work was perfectly sufficient to atone for sin for all time. Hebrews returns to this word in the next chapter: “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10), and “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). The whole of Hebrews 10:10–14 sets Christ’s one offering beside the priests who stand daily offering the same sacrifices.

What is “eternal redemption”?

The word lýtrōsis means a ransoming, a release obtained by paying a price. It speaks of freedom from bondage bought at cost, and the cost here was Christ’s own blood. Peter says we were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19). Paul speaks of “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”, whom God set forth “to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:24–25).

This redemption is eternal, aiṓnios, lasting without limit of time. It stays in force for ever, where the atonement of the old covenant had to be made again each year. Christ “obtained” it, heurískō, the ordinary word for finding, used here of what he secured by his own act. What he obtained is a lasting release from the guilt and bondage of sin, with forgiveness, reconciliation and the promise of eternal life for everyone joined to him by faith.

What the blood of animals and the heifer’s ashes could do

Verse 13 opens with gár, “for”, which gives the reason for what has just been said, and it begins an argument that verse 14 finishes. It names two kinds of cleansing under the law.

The first is “the blood of bulls and of goats”, the sin offerings and above all the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). On that day the high priest made atonement even for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel (Leviticus 16:16).

The second is “the ashes of an heifer”, the red heifer of Numbers 19. An unyoked red heifer was burned, and her ashes were kept and mixed with water to make “a water of separation” (Numbers 19:9). Anyone made unclean, especially by touching a dead body (Numbers 19:11), was sprinkled with it and restored to ritual purity, so that he could take part again in the worship of the community. The KJV’s “the unclean” renders a form of koinóō, to make common, so these are people who had become ceremonially common or profane. Defilement by death was a weighty source of uncleanness, and this rite was the remedy God provided for it.

Hebrews names these because they were the chief means of atonement and purification under the law, and together they show the full scope of what the old system could cleanse.

What does “purifying of the flesh” mean?

It means ceremonial cleanness, being made outwardly clean and fit to come near to God’s worship. The verb “sanctifieth” is hagiázō, to make holy, consecrate or hallow. Here it means that these rites truly set a person apart as ritually clean. “Purifying” is katharótēs, cleanness, and “of the flesh” (sarkós) marks its reach: the body and a person’s standing in the worshipping community. Hebrews grants that these rites did what God appointed them to do. They were his own provision, so that a holy God could dwell among an unclean people and the tabernacle could be kept holy. Yet their cleansing stopped at the flesh, and the conscience still carried its guilt (Hebrews 9:9). Seen that way, they were types and shadows that prepared God’s people for the sacrifice to come, a theme that runs through Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10.

How much more the blood of Christ

Verse 14 completes the argument from the lesser to the greater. If animal blood and ashes could make a person clean outwardly, the blood of Christ, being perfect and infinitely precious, will do far greater things, and it reaches the conscience. Hebrews later states the rule that governs the whole system: “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). The word haîma is the same as in verse 12, and here it means especially the atoning blood of Christ.

What does “through the eternal Spirit” mean?

The phrase, diá pneúmatos aiōníou, is usually read of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s offering of himself was empowered and directed by the Spirit, so the Son offered himself to the Father through the Spirit, and the whole of God is at work in our salvation. Some take “the eternal Spirit” to mean Christ’s own divine nature. Either way, his death was the act of God the Son, and it belongs to the eternal purpose of God. The word “eternal” is aiṓnios, the same word as “eternal redemption” in verse 12, and it describes the Spirit as everlasting. An offering made through him stands for ever and is never repeated.

“Offered himself without spot to God”

Christ was both the priest and the offering. The word ámōmos means unblemished, faultless, without blame. The law required that a sacrificial animal be perfect: “If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish” (Leviticus 1:3). Christ is that perfection in a person, “a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). His sinlessness made him the one acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world, and he offered it “to God”, the Father.

What are “dead works”?

“Dead works”, nekrós érgon, are deeds with no spiritual life in them. They include sinful deeds and also religious rituals and efforts at self-justification done apart from faith in Christ. Such works cannot atone for sin, cannot win God’s favor, and belong to the way that ends in death. Scripture puts the right order plainly: we are saved by grace through faith, “Not of works, lest any man should boast”, and are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:8–10).

The phrase looks back to verse 13. The heifer’s ashes cleansed those defiled by touching the dead, and Christ’s blood cleanses a conscience defiled by dead works. The conscience, syneídēsis, is the inner moral sense that judges what we do, and it is where guilt and shame are felt. “Purge” is katharízō, to cleanse, make clean, purify. It is the everyday word for cleaning, used even of washing a cup, and the wonder of this verse lies in where Christ’s cleansing reaches. John says the same: “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

“To serve the living God”

The cleansing has a purpose. “Serve” is latreúō, to render religious service, to worship. A conscience set free from guilt and from trust in dead works is able to worship the living God, the true and life-giving Creator, who stands in contrast to dead idols and empty rituals. Paul writes, “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22). He calls us to present our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1), and to “serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6). This service flows from gratitude and from a living relationship with God.

Drawing near with a clean conscience

These four verses sit at the heart of an argument that runs from Hebrews 9:1 to the end of the chapter, where Christ, “once offered to bear the sins of many”, is promised to appear a second time for those who look for him (Hebrews 9:28). The letter was most likely written to Jewish Christians under persecution and tempted to go back to the familiar rituals, the temple and the sacrifices. To them, and to us, Hebrews says that everything those rituals pictured is now ours in Christ.

Our access to God rests on Christ’s finished work. Our own effort and our fluctuating performance add nothing to it. He has entered God’s presence once, with his own blood, and the redemption he obtained lasts for ever. So you can come to God with boldness and a clear conscience, trusting that your sins are fully paid for, and knowing that your high priest intercedes for you. Hebrews draws this very conclusion a chapter later: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:22). A cleansed conscience is free to worship and to serve, gladly and with a pure heart, the living God who cleansed it.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Hebrews 9:8–14. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 7 verses
Passage under commentHebrews 9:8–14
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

In these verses the apostle undertakes to deliver to us the mind and meaning of the Holy Ghost in all the ordinances of the tabernacle and legal economy, comprehending both place and worship. The scriptures of the Old Testament were given by inspiration of God; holy men of old spoke and wrote as the Holy Ghost directed them. And these Old Testament records are of great use and significancy, not only to those who first received them, but even to Christians, who ought not to satisfy themselves with reading the institutes of the Levitical law, but should learn what the Holy Ghost signifies and suggests to them thereby. Now here are several things mentioned as the things that the Holy Ghost signified and certified to his people hereby.

I.That the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was standing, Hebrews 9:8.

This was one lesson the Holy Ghost would teach us by these types; the way to heaven was not so clear and plain, nor so much frequented, under the Old Testament as under the New. It is the honour of Christ and the gospel, and the happiness of those who live under it, that now life and immortality are brought to light. There was not that free access to God then that there is now; God has now opened a wider door; and there is room for more, yea, even for as many as are truly willing to return unto him by Christ.

II.That the first tabernacle was only a figure for the time then present, Hebrews 9:9.

It was a dark dispensation, and but of short continuance, only designed for awhile to typify the great things of Christ and the gospel, that were in due time to shine forth in their own brightness, and thereby cause all the shadows to flee away and disappear, as the stars before the rising sun.

III.That none of the gifts and sacrifices there offered could make the offerers perfect as pertaining to conscience (Hebrews 9:9); that is, they could not take away the desert, or defilement, or dominion, of sin; they could not deliver conscience from a dread of the wrath of God; they could neither discharge the debts, nor resolve the doubts, of him who did the service. A man might run through them all in their several orders and frequent returns, and continue to do so all his days, and yet not find his conscience either pacified or purified by them; he might thereby be saved from corporal and temporal punishments that were threatened against the non-observers, but he could not be saved by them from sin or hell, as all those are who believe in Christ.

IV.The Holy Ghost hereby signifies that the Old Testament institutions were by external carnal ordinances imposed upon them until the time of reformation, Hebrews 9:10. Their imperfection lay in three things: - 1. Their nature. They were but external and carnal meats and drinks, and divers washings. All these were bodily exercises, which profit little; they could only satisfy the flesh, or at best sanctify to the purifying of the flesh. 2. They were not such as were left indifferent to them to use or disuse, but they were imposed upon them by grievous corporal punishments, and this was ordered on purpose to make them look more to the promised Seed, and long more for him. 3. These were never designed for a perpetuity, but only to continue till the time of reformation, till the better things provided for them were actually bestowed upon them. Gospel times are and should be times of reformation, - of clearer light as to all things necessary to be known, - of greater love, inducing us to bear ill-will to none, but good-will to all, and to have complacency in all that are like God, - of greater liberty and freedom both of spirit and speech - and of a more holy living according to the rule of the gospel. We have far greater advantages under the gospel than they had under the law; and either we must be better or we shall be worse. A conversation becoming the gospel is an excellent way of living; nothing mean, foolish, vain, or servile becomes the gospel.

V.The Holy Ghost signifies to us hereby that we never make the right use of types but when we apply them to the antitype; and, whenever we do so, it will be very evident that the antitype (as in reason it should) greatly excels the type, which is the main drift and design of all that is said. And, as he writes to those who believed that Christ had come and that Jesus was the Christ, so he very justly infers that he is infinitely above all legal high priests (Hebrews 9:11, Hebrews 9:12), and he illustrates it very fully. For,

1.Christ is a high priest of good things to come, by which may be understood,

(1.)All the good things that were to come during the Old Testament, and now have come under the New. All the spiritual and eternal blessings the Old Testament saints had in their day and under their dispensation were owing to the Messiah to come, on whom they believed. The Old Testament set forth in shadows what was to come; the New Testament is the accomplishment of the Old.

(2.)All the good things yet to come and to be enjoyed in a gospel state, when the promises and prophecies made to the gospel church in the latter days shall be accomplished; all these depend upon Christ and his priesthood, and shall be fulfilled.

(3.)Of all the good things to come in the heavenly state, which will perfect both the Testaments; as the state of glory will perfect the state of grace, this state will be in a much higher sense the perfection of the New Testament than the New Testament was the perfection of the Old. Observe, All things past, present, and to come, were, and are, founded upon, and flowing fRom. the priestly office of Christ.

2.Christ is a high priest by a greater and more perfect tabernacle (Hebrews 9:11), a tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, but his own body, or rather human nature, conceived by the Holy Ghost overshadowing the blessed virgin. This was a new fabric, a new order of building, infinitely superior to all earthly structures, not excepting the tabernacle of the temple itself.

3.Christ, our high priest, has entered into heaven, not as their high priest entered into the holiest, with the blood of bulls and of goats, but by his own blood, typified by theirs, and infinitely more precious. And this,

4.Not for one year only, which showed the imperfection of that priesthood, that it did but typically obtain a year's reprieve or pardon. But our high priest entered into heaven once for all, and has obtained not a yearly respite, but eternal redemption, and so needs not to make an annual entrance. In each of the types there was something that showed it was a type, and resembled the antitype, and something that showed it was but a type, and fell short of the antitype, and therefore ought by no means to be set up in competition with the antitype.

5.The Holy Ghost further signified and showed what was the efficacy of the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices, and thence is inferred the much greater efficacy of the blood of Christ.

(1.)The efficacy of the blood of the legal sacrifices extended to the purifying of the flesh (Hebrews 9:13): it freed the outward man from ceremonial uncleanness and from temporal punishment, and entitled him to, and fitted him for, some external privileges.

(2.)He infers very justly hence the far greater efficacy of the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:14): How much more shall the blood of Christ, etc. Here observe,

[1.]What it was that gave such efficacy to the blood of Christ. First, It was his offering himself to God, the human nature upon the altar of his divine nature, he being priest, altar, and sacrifice, his divine nature serving for the two former, and his human nature for the last; now such a priest, altar, and sacrifice, could not but be propitiatory. Secondly, It was Christ's offering up himself to God through the eternal Spirit, not only as the divine nature supported the human, but the Holy Ghost, which he had without measure, helping him in all, and in this great act of obedience offering himself. Thirdly, It was Christ's offering himself to God without spot, without any sinful stain either in his nature or life; this was conformable to the law of sacrifices, which required them to be without blemish. Now further observe,

[2.]What the efficacy of Christ's blood is; it is very great. For, First, It is sufficient to purge the conscience from dead works, it reaches to the very soul and conscience, the defiled soul, defiled with sin, which is a dead work, proceeds from spiritual death, and tends to death eternal. As the touching of a dead body gave a legal uncleanness, so meddling with sin gives a moral and real defilement, fixes it in the very soul; but the blood of Christ has efficacy to purge it out. Secondly, It is sufficient to enable us to serve the living God, not only by purging away that guilt which separates between God and sinners, but by sanctifying and renewing the soul through the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, purchased by Christ for this purpose, that we might be enabled to serve the living God in a lively manner.

Historical interpretation

Eight Centuries of Reception

5 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

5 quotes · AD 215–990
Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly Medieval
2003004005006007008009001000

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 215Clement of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceThe Stromata Book 3
We ought to examine not merely one single form of self-control in sexual matters but the other objects which our soul self-indulgently desires, not content with bare necessities but making a fuss about luxury. Self-control means indifference to money, comfort and property, a mind above spectacles, control of the tongue, mastery of evil thoughts. It actually happened that some angels suffered a failure of self-control, were overpowered by sexual desire and fell from heaven to earth. Valentinus in his letter to Agathopus says, “Jesus showed his self-control in all that he endured. He lived in the practice of Godhead. He ate and drank in a way individual to himself without excreting his food. Such was his power of self-control that the food was not corrupted within him, since he was not subject to corruption.” So we embrace self-control out of the love we bear the Lord and out of its honorable status, consecrating the temple of the Spirit. It is honorable “to emasculate oneself” of all desire “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” and “to purify the conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
d. AD 253Origen of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceHOMILIES ON NUMBERS 3.3
This is what the letter of the law explains to us, so that, collecting seeds of mysteries from them, we may use them as steps to climb from the lowly to a lofty place, from earthly to heavenly things. Therefore, my hearer, climb up now, if you can, and mount above earthly senses by the contemplation of your mind and by the discernment of your heart. Forget for a while earthly concerns; climb above the clouds and above heaven itself by the tread of your mind. Seek there the tabernacle of God where “Jesus has entered.”
d. AD 373Ephrem the SyrianPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
Our Lord did not enter yearly like their high priest. After his coming he entered only once, not into the shrine which ceases, like their priesthood, but “into the Holy” of Holies of eternity, and he made a propitiation through his blood for all nations.
d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceHomily on Hebrews 15
"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God."

For (he says) if "the blood of bulls" is able to purify the flesh, much rather shall the Blood of Christ wipe away the defilement of the soul. For that thou mayest not suppose when thou hearest the word "sanctifieth," that it is some great thing, he marks out and shows the difference between each of these purifyings, and how the one of them is high and the other low. And says it is so with good reason, since that is "the blood of bulls," and this "the Blood of Christ."

Nor was he content with the name, but he sets forth also the manner of the offering. "Who" (he says) "through the Holy Spirit offered Himself without spot to God," that is, the victim was without blemish, pure from sins. For this is the meaning of "through the Holy Spirit," not through fire, nor through any other things.

"Shall purge your conscience" (he says) "from dead works." And well said he "from dead works"; if any man touched a dead body, he was polluted; and here, if any man touch a "dead work," he is defiled through his conscience. "To serve" (he says) "the Living and true God." Here he declares that it is not possible while one has "dead works to serve the Living and true God," for they are both dead and false; and with good reason he says this.
AD 990Pseudo-OecumeniusEarly MedievalSourceThe Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews
Then, since it seemed doubtful that a single sacrifice and the blood of one could provide eternal redemption, he prepares it and shows that it is plausible and not unattainable with the belief held by the Jews. For if you, he says, believe that you are cleansed by being sprinkled with the blood of a calf, and again with water poured on its ashes; (for the ashes were observed for the purification of those who had been defiled, that is, those who were contaminated;) how then does the blood of Christ not cleanse the souls?
"sanctifies for the purification of the flesh." It sanctifies not spiritually, but for the cleansing of the flesh. See it speaking precisely.
"who through the eternal Spirit." No high priest offered Christ, but He offered Himself; and not through fire, as the calves in the Old Testament, but through the Holy Spirit, so as to perpetuate both grace and redemption.
"without blemish to God." And the ancient priesthood that was presented sought to be without blemish. There was a place of the body of Christ, the unblemished and absolutely pure. "For he did no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth," says Isaiah. (1 Peter 2:22; Isa. 53:9)
"purify your conscience." For the blood of bulls and the ashes of a heifer, it said, for the purity of the flesh; but concerning the blood of Christ, it says, your conscience. See the difference in purification. What is your conscience? That is to say, it also purifies our soul, so that we may no longer be aware of any sin against ourselves from this time.
"from dead works." Of the wicked, those who defile the soul. For one who touches a dead body, among the Jews, is defiled, but among us, the strange [ἄτοπα] works defile.
"To serve the living God." This indicates that one cannot serve God unless they are pure from dead works. Thus, those who serve with them do not serve, but are condemned.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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