“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”
For since the law has only a shadow (skia) of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach — the law's essential limitation is ontological: it is shadow (skia), not reality; form (eikōn, image) belongs to the good things of the future. Year after year (kata eniauton) sacrifice cannot achieve teleosis (perfection/maturity) because the problem is not ritual but spiritual.
Church Fathers on Hebrews 10:1
Hebrews 10:1 “For” (he says) “the Law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things”; i.e. not the very reality. For as in painting, so long as one [only] draws the outlines, it is a sort of “shadow” but when one has added the bright paints and laid in the colors, then it becomes “an image.” Something of this kind also was the Law. “For” (he says) “the Law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things,” i.e. of…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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