Bible Synapse
If the former commandment was set aside as weak and unprofitable, how is all Scripture still profitable?
Hard question · Salvation and the Christian life · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
With a new priest after the order of Melchisedec, the law about the Levitical priesthood is set aside “for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof”; the law made nothing perfect.
If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. …
The holy Scriptures make one wise unto salvation through faith in Christ; “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable”.
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
The objection
Hebrews says the former commandment has been annulled because it was weak and “unprofitable”. Paul tells Timothy that “All scripture” is “profitable”, and the Scripture he meant was the Old Testament, law included. The Bible seems to call the law both profitable and unprofitable.
The answer
The two passages ask different questions of the same law. Hebrews 7 asks whether the old priesthood could do what only Christ does: bring sinners to God and make them “perfect”, that is, fully cleansed and accepted (7:11, 19). The commandment in view is the law that set the priesthood in Levi’s family, “the law of a carnal commandment” (7:16). Christ came from Judah, “of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood” (7:14), so his priesthood brought a change in that law (7:12). For the purpose of making people perfect it was weak and unprofitable (anōpheles), for “the law made nothing perfect” (7:19).
Second Timothy asks a different question: is the Old Testament still useful to God’s people as Scripture? Paul’s answer is yes. It is profitable (ōphelimos) “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (3:16), and it is “able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (3:15). Hebrews itself shows how. It reads the law about priests and sacrifices with great care, because the law was “a shadow of good things to come” (10:1) that teaches about Christ. A rule can be ended as the way a thing is done and still be valuable as Scripture that teaches. Hebrews speaks of the first, Timothy of the second.
Other answers Christians give
Moral, ceremonial and civil law
Many Christians, following Aquinas and the Reformers, distinguish the moral law, which still binds, from the ceremonial and civil laws given to Israel, which have ended. The Westminster Confession (1646) says the ceremonial laws are now abrogated. Albert Barnes notes that Hebrews 7:18 concerns the priesthood and its rites, not the moral law.
The old covenant as a whole
Others, including many Lutherans and those who hold New Covenant theology, say that the law of Moses as a whole covenant has ended with Christ, while its moral teaching is taken up into ‘the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21). Either way, all agree that the law remains profitable Scripture.
From the classic commentators
That is, it was not adapted to save man; it had not power to accomplish what was necessary to be done in human salvation. It answered the end for which it was designed - that of introducing a more perfect plan, and then vanished as a matter of course.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Hebrews 7
Sources
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Hebrews 7, at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Timothy 3, at Bible Hub
- The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter XIX, at the Orthodox Presbyterian Church