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Hebrews 10:2
ESV Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
NIV Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
NASB Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?
CSB Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
NLT If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.
KJV For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

What does Hebrews 10:2 mean?

Here the writer makes a point similar to passages such as Hebrews 7:27 and Hebrews 9:25–26. The sacrifices of the old covenant had to be repeated on a regular basis. This allows the writer to ask a rhetorical question: if those sacrifices could actually cleanse the conscience—meaning a complete removal of sin—then wouldn't priests have stopped offering them? Why continue to offer sacrifice for sin, unless those sacrifices are not enough?

This flows into the following verse, which gives a more direct explanation of what these repeated sacrifices are really meant to do. Earlier, the book of Hebrews explained that components of the old covenant were intended as symbols of the new covenant. They had a meaning, and a purpose, but they were only copies of the "real" work of Jesus Christ. In the next verse, the writer will explain that the old covenant sacrifices served more as a reminder of sins than as a solution for sins. By repeating them year after year, the priests not only proved that animal sacrifices were insufficient, they also demonstrated that human sin remained un-forgiven.
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