“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete; and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away — the logic is inexorable: a new covenant necessarily renders the old obsolete (palaioō); what grows old (gerasko, as does a worn garment) moves toward disappearance. The verb 'ready to vanish' suggests imminence: for the author's readers, the passing of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE exemplifies this predicted obsolescence. Yet the focus is theological, not merely historical: the new covenant in Christ's blood has always already superseded the Mosaic order.
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