Heb 9:12 – Did Christ enter Heaven twice following his resurrection?

The KJV renders Heb 9:12 as,

Neither 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.

The expression ‘for us’ is in italics, but the question arises—are the italics justified? In this short note I deploy two arguments against accepting italics.

The Greek underlying eu`ra,menoj (‘having obtained’) is an Aorist Middle, which would normally mean that the subject of the verb had in the past done something to himself or for his own benefit. H. P. V. Nunn in his Syntax of New Testament Greek writes[1] that there are three senses:

1. the subject acts upon himself,
2. the subject acts for himself,
3. the subject allows something to be done to him or for him

Nunn further observes that while many Greek verbs share the same conjugation for the middle or passive voices, this is not so for the Aorist tense. He also observes that many middle and passive forms of the verb are deponent, meaning that they carry an active sense.

These observations help us with regard to Heb 9:12. They suggest that the form of the verb is a middle form because we have an aorist. They also suggest that the sense might be one where the subject acts for himself, rather than upon himself. For example, a priest would act for himself in making an offering for himself; he would not be acting upon himself. A person would obtain or find something for himself.

These points made by Nunn pose the question: In what sense did Christ obtain or find eternal redemption for himself. There are two initial points to be made here: firstly, at the point of entry to the Holy Place, eternal redemption has already been obtained; secondly, the eternal redemption was obtained for the benefit of the one who entered the holy place. Let us examine the question of whether the eternal redemption was obtained or found for the one entering the holy place, or whether it was obtained for others.

The mention of the blood of bulls and goats is one of a number of allusions to the Day of Atonement in this part of Hebrews. The two types of blood pertain to the fact that the High Priest entered the Holy Place twice on that day. On the first occasion he entered with the blood of calves or bullocks, on the second occasion he entered with the blood of goats. On the first occasion of entry the blood of the bullock is sprinkled for himself and his family, and on the second occasion the blood of the goat is offered for the people.

Christ didn’t enter the Holy place with either kind of blood, but rather with his own blood. In the case of the High Priest, his atonement was obtained as a result of his sprinkling a bullock’s blood on the mercy seat at the first entry, and the same is true for the people; their atonement was obtained as a result of the blood of a goat being sprinkled on the mercy seat at the second entry. In both cases no man was in the tabernacle. The High Priest went in alone (Lev 16:17).

Hebrews mentions that Christ entered into the Holy Place once at the end of the Jewish world. This one entry is typed by the High Priest entering once a year into the Holy Place. Here it is possible to mis-interpret the text in view of what we have just said, viz. that the High Priest entered the Holy Place twice. The fact that the High Priest entered the Holy Place once a year doesn’t preclude the High Priest entering the Holy Place twice on that one day. The Greek adverb a[pax (‘once’) is qualified by the expression ‘every year’ (Heb 9:7) and this shows that what happens twice on that one day once every year is not in view. The point and stress in v. 12 is on a contrast with ‘once every year’ (v. 7). The contrast is that Christ has entered once in the end of the world and needs not to enter once every year.

Accordingly, we can infer that Christ entered heaven twice in keeping with the pattern of the Day of Atonement, once for himself, and then again for the people.

The KJV has Heb 9:12 mean ‘obtained eternal redemption for us’. I have made the point that this goes against the statistically normal use of the Greek Middle voice, but this is not sufficient to discard the possibility. I have made a further point against this view, which is that the atonement has already been obtained prior to entry into the holy place. But the atonement for us is made by sprinkling blood in the holy place on the mercy seat. If the redemption in view in Heb 9:12 is ours, it would follow that the eternal redemption was already obtained and yet about to be obtained once the holy place had been entered. It follows therefore that the redemption of Heb 9:12 is not ours but the redemption of the High Priest. The High Priest has now entered heaven for us and is now in the presence of God. We still await the High Priest to come out of the second tabernacle.

This proposal makes sense of the words of Christ to Mary Magdalene, ‘Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to the Father’ (John 20:17). Had Christ been touched at this point in time, just after resurrection, and prior to his ascension into heaven, it would have been the touch of an unclean member of the congregation of Israel.

Christ had washed his flesh in water (a baptism which fulfilled all the righteousness of the Law). He had put on the garments of white linen in his life of perfect righteousness. His life blood was then given by himself when he submitted to death on the cross. This blood was then sprinkled upon the mercy seat, in that ascension of which he speaks of to Mary.

In this short note I have sought to give an exegesis of Heb 9:12. I haven’t sought to discuss the doctrine of the atonement. It is important to that doctrine that we collect accurate exegeses of individual texts.