Letter to the Hebrews 9:1–28 Catholic Bible study lesson 10

The Letter to the Hebrews:
An Explanation of the Mechanism
of Our Salvation

Lesson 10 Mediator of the New Covenant
the Letter to the Hebrews 9:1–28

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
Tami Palladino’s visual-meditation journal
cross references in the Letter to the Hebrews
next lesson: By a Single Offering Perfected

This material coordinates with Lesson 10 on pages 35–39 in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation.

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”—the Letter to the Hebrews 5:7–10

welcome to our in-depth study of the Letter to the Hebrews
We invite you to check out the sample first lesson and video from this 18-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. Our online study pages link to free lesson videos and cross references in the biblical text, and include illustrations and prayers based on Scripture in each lesson. The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation has been granted an imprimatur. This study currently is being expanded; the content will be available in a new printed study at a later date. Please contact us if you’re interested in purchasing a digital copy of the existing study.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

the comparisons continue—surprise! Jesus is superior
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews has been making a lot of comparisons. Jesus is superior to angels and prophets. Jesus has more glory than Moses. God’s rest is superior to the rest associated with Joshua leading the people into the Promised Land. Jesus’ priesthood is superior to the priesthood of Aaron. God’s oath is superior to any human oath. Melchizedek is superior to Abraham. Mechizedek’s priesthood, which Jesus shares, is superior to the Levitical priesthood. A change in priesthood brings about about a change in law, and the new law is superior to the old law (which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews calls “weak” and “useless”). God’s new promises are superior to his previous promises. The heavenly sanctuary is superior to any earthly tabernacle or Temple. Don’t miss Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino’s illustrated reflections on the Scripture passages that form the basis of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. Click on the illustration (left) to enlarge it, then check out Tami’s visual-meditation journal to see all of her drawings. Her reflections for this lesson, “Mediator of the New Covenant,” are on pages 38 through 41 of her journal.

every lesson has a free video (15:46)
Don’t forget—each lesson of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation has a related video. In these short presentations, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps reads the biblical text for the lesson and comments about it. You can watch the videos as part of your preparation for group discussion or to catch up if you have to miss a discussion. Some groups watch the videos together prior to their discussions. Because the videos are on YouTube, you can access them wherever and whenever it’s convenient—and they’re free. This study and its videos are undergoing revision to incorporate additional material. The original content will be included in a different printed study. The original 18 lessons pertaining to the Letter to the Hebrews currently are available digitally.

here comes the important comparison
In the ninth chapter in the Letter to the Hebrews, the author gets around to disclosing what he’s been preparing his audience to receive. It’s relatively easy to make the case that Jesus is superior to the angels, to the prophets, and to Moses. The author leads with these fairly clear comparisons in order to set the stage for the points that he really wants to make about Jesus Christ. The people to whom the author is writing share Hebrew heritage and Hebrew-based Jewish religious practices. This includes sacrificing animals and offering their blood for the purification of the flesh. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews argues that if people could believe that actually would work, then how much more potent would be the sacrificial blood of Jesus. Having already accepted Jesus’ superiority in all things, the final comparison the author of the Letter to the Hebrews makes is that the sacrificial blood of Jesus is far superior to the sacrificial blood of goats, bulls, and heifers.

spiritual laws
Jesus is the mediator of a New Covenant between God and humanity. The reason Jesus can serve in this role is based on the Old Covenant, which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews explains in legal terms. God’s covenant is understood as a will, and the inheritance involved is eternal life. In order to inherit eternal life, however, there must be a death. The spiritual laws underlying the Old Covenant specify that if a person sins, they die. Everyone sins, so everyone dies. But under those same spiritual laws, if someone were able to avoid sinning, that person could’t die.

mysterious concepts
This brings us face to face with the central belief of Christianity. Although Jesus was crucified, yet he lives. We don’t know how this works. It makes no sense to us because human history never has seen anything like it before or since. We struggle to understand questions of “ordinary” life and death. Science can take us only so far with this. We say that we know where babies come from, but all we mean is that we know what men and women do that frequently results in conception. We have no idea where the core of our being, our soul, comes from. And we have no idea what happens to that soul when we inevitably suffer physical death.

two key events that challenge our understanding
Christianity is based on two key events that challenge our human understanding—the Incarnation and the Resurrection. In the Incarnation, God becomes man and is born of a virgin. We don’t know how this can be. It’s a once-only occurrence. In the Resurrection, Jesus, who has been crucified, somehow lives—and lives eternally. To be a Christian, it’s necessary to accept both of these things as true, even though we can’t wrap our heads around how they can be.

WHAT DO YOU THINK being a Christian can do for you?
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews explains how Jesus’ Resurrection can lead to eternal life for all those willing to follow Jesus. As we move forward in our study, we’ll see that the author’s purpose in explaining this is moral—he wants to inspire his audience to follow Jesus’ teaching. The life we inherit as Christians isn’t our own but belongs to Jesus Christ living in us. Through free will, we can accept to allow Jesus to live in and through us, or we can choose to sin and thereby cut off our connection to Jesus and to eternal life.

? What do you consider to be the absolutely essential beliefs necessary for a Christian?
? How would you go about explaining these core beliefs of your faith to someone interested in learning more about Christianity?
? How are your day-to-day actions tied to your Christian beliefs?
? What is the greatest challenge you’ve faced as a Christian?
? What is your greatest expectation (hope) as a Christian?

the Incarnation & Resurrection aren’t the only ideas that challenge Christians
Anyone who’s spent much time thinking about Scripture has run into difficult passages. In fact, if you aren’t questioning what’s going on in Sacred Scripture, you’re probably not thinking very deeply about what you’re reading. The Bible is full of contradictions that appear to call into question what we know about God. One of the most difficult things for people to accept is the idea that the God described in the Old Testament doesn’t appear to be the same God encountered in the New Testament.

The Incarnation requires us to believe that not only was God able to take on human form, he also was willing to do so in order to bring about the possibility of salvation for the men and women he created. The Resurrection requires us to believe that the same God who had the power to take on human form would refuse to use that power to avoid undergoing death, and that this God who chose to die in order to cancel out the sins of humanity is, after everything is said and done, incapable of death. These beliefs lie at the very foundation of our faith. They’re also related to the seemingly contradictory views of God that we see in the Old and New Testaments.

Men and women treat justice and mercy as two distinct and separate concepts—and indeed we often think of them as polar opposites. For God, however, the two are inextricably linked. The God of perfect mercy also is a God of perfect justice—and there’s no compromise between the two.

tying up loose ends
The particular genius of the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is that in explaining how salvation works, he also ties up a lot of loose ends about the perceived difference between the God of justice in the Old Testament and the God of mercy in the New. While we tend to think of the word “mechanism” in terms of mechanics of physics, the meaning of the word is much broader. It can be used to refer to the process by which something takes place. In the case of salvation, this isn’t a process related to physics or science. It’s a spiritual process related to spiritual laws. In both Testaments, these laws are known as covenants, and the two covenants are related. Salvation comes about because God (in human form as the second person of the Most Holy Trinity) comes to the aid of fallen humanity. The God of justice continues to prevail. The Old Covenant that equates sin with death remains in full force, but the same God—who also is the God of mercy—intervenes and takes on the punishment of death in order to provide humanity with the opportunity for eternal life. Under the New Covenant, however, we die to sin but are able to live in Christ, who cannot be conquered by death because he is sinless.

God’s people living in the world of the Old Testament, however, didn’t have the immediate benefit of Jesus’ sacrifice. The covenant equates sin with death, and justice requires that the covenant cannot be set aside. Men and women go back on their word. Not all men and women all of the time, but enough that trust between human beings can be challenging. God never goes back on his word. When God enters into a covenant, the terms of the covenant are binding. God deals in absolutes. God is absolutely faithful. Absolutely just. Absolutely merciful. Jesus is God’s Word made flesh able to reconcile the God of justice, who requires a death in payment for sin, with the God of mercy, who steps in and pays the price to redeem fallen humanity. Both justice and mercy are served, but not in any way that’s easily understood by men and women—primarily because we have so much difficulty conceiving how these two critical attributes of God can coexist. It’s not unlike the problem we have trying to understand how Jesus can be both human and divine, or how Jesus can die and still live. The Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis provides an in-depth look at the biblical development of the Old Covenant.

everyone must choose what & whom to believe
In the end, each person must choose whether he or she can accept these truths that are revealed in Sacred Scripture and Church teaching. Christian concepts fly in the face of what we know to be true based on our own experiences. We know that human beings are not gods. We know that a person who is dead doesn’t come back to life. We know that absolutes of justice and mercy preclude each other. Our faith asks us to believe things that we can’t see for ourselves or prove scientifically. We either can accept God’s Word or not. It’s a choice, and not one we should try to make without a good deal of prayer and meditation. If we’re able to bring ourselves to accept God’s Word in Scripture, things get much easier. It’s the first step that’s the most difficult. There’s no shame in taking time and asking a lot of questions before making a final decision about the basic tenets of Christianity. The goal of the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is to help with the process. If you aren’t finding his writing helpful, don’t panic. Christianity isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s also not a competitive sport. Trust that God won’t abandon you in your search for the truth.

covenant—you could look it up in our archives
Present-day Christians think of covenant differently than the Hebrews and Israelites or even the early Christians did. To learn more about connotations of the word “covenant,” you can read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

the popes inspire us—powerful quotations
Two powerful quotations from Pope Benedict XVI are included with Lesson 10 in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. The first, “The Living Temple” on page 37, discusses the mystery of the Church. The second, “Stronger Than Death” on page 39, looks at how Jesus’ union with God allows for his own indestructible life, a life that Jesus shares with us. In these general audiences, Pope Benedict XVI explains the source of this life that’s stronger than death, and he discusses how we can access it.

Q&A—what light does the Letter to the Hebrews shed on teaching about Mary?
A participant in this Bible study brings up some interesting points for discussion about the implications of whether it’s possible for a sinless person to die, specifically in regard to the sinless nature of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Q: The last portion of Question 9 in this lesson asks: “What does the author of the Letter to the Hebrews seem to be suggesting about the possibility of a sinless person dying?” Our group failed to see any suggestion by the author about the possibility of a sinless person dying. Our discussion led to consideration of the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and our belief that she was sinless throughout her life and yet died. We recognize that Jesus accepted death for our benefit, but we find ourselves lost thinking about the possibility of a sinless person dying with regard to Jesus’ Mother.

A: [Here’s the question for the benefit of those who don’t have access to the study book. Question 9—Read the Letter to the Hebrews 9:25–26. The author previously established that a death is necessary in order for humanity to receive an eternal inheritance. Now he writes that Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. What is the relationship between sin and death? Consider whether there is any middle ground in the choice offered to the Israelites in the book of Deuteronomy 30:15–20? What does the author of the Letter to the Hebrews seem to be suggesting about the possibility of a sinless person dying?]

The questions focus on the idea that Christ “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” and that there was no need for him to “offer himself repeatedly.” The build-up of the questions and the reading from the book of Deuteronomy highlight one of the central points of the Letter to the Hebrews, the summation of the Old Testament law that sin equals death and the corollary implication that no sin equals no death. Christ was able by his sacrifice to gain entry in his humanity into heaven because when his sinless body experienced death, it couldn’t be bound by nor subject to death because he hadn’t known sin.

Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient in that respect to atone for all sin for two reasons. First, he offered it as a priest in atonement for the sins of others following the rule given to Moses that a life could be offered in place of a life. This occurred with the establishment of the Aaronic priesthood. Second, when an unkillable sacrifice is offered—a perfect life—it’s capable of paying an infinite debt. Because the perfect life that’s offered doesn’t die, more than one life debt can be paid by that single sacrifice.

read the Catechism—more about the Blessed Virgin
Additionally, it’s debatable that the Blessed Virgin Mary actually died. The Church teaches that she was assumed bodily into heaven. The dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary mentions that it occurred when she had completed the course of her earthly life but makes no mention of death. You can find this dogma reprinted in paragraph 966 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It was formally promulgated ex cathedra by Pope Pius XII in 1950:

966 “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the Resurrection of other Christians:

In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.

This dogma, in fact, strongly suggests that Mary never died. Why would a dead body be assumed into heaven? Mary never knew sin, so she shares in her Son’s sinless nature and in his eternal life. But Mary’s life doesn’t help humanity atone for sins in the same way as Jesus’ life because Mary didn’t offer her life as a sacrifice in the same way. Also, the Church teaches that Mary was preserved from sin for the express purpose of becoming the Mother of God. Jesus receives his human nature from her, necessitating the Immaculate Conception of his Mother. She’s born without the stain of original sin in order to pass on her own sinless human nature to her Son. The sacrifice of Jesus only is effective if he’s without sin, and it’s essential that Jesus function as a priest and offer his life to atone for the sins of humanity. Men and women, in turn, must enter into the body of Christ in order to share in his eternal life. We live through Christ and not by virtue of our own merit, but we must make the free-will choice to accept the salvation offered to us. You can learn more in Lesson 20 I Go To Prepare a Place for You in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Scripture & the Rosary: New Testament Mysteries, Old Testament Parallels. Lessons on the Glorious Mysteries—Lesson 17 They Went to the Tomb When the Sun Had Risen through Lesson 21 A Woman Clothed with the Sun—only are accessible on the website during the liturgical season of Easter.

Q&A—about the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
A participant in this Bible study has asked a question about Catholic dogma.

Q: What does it mean that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a dogma of the Church?

A: At the heart of this question are two related questions: What’s the difference between dogma and doctrine? Do Catholics have to accept dogma, or are we free to hold a different opinion? All Catholic dogmas are doctrine, but not all doctrine are dogmatic. A dogma only is issued when there exists a need for official clarification about a basic belief necessary to our faith. This is done either by the Pope speaking or writing ex cathedra (infallibly) or by the Magisterium. Catholics are required to accept all dogmas of the Church.

While the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary wasn’t issued until 1950, it existed within the Church from the beginning. Many devout Church fathers pondered the issue. Dogmas regulate the language used to define a belief, so it’s particularly telling thatalthough many devout fathers and saints wrote and discussed the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption into heaven using language that implies she experienced death in the same way as other men and women, the official Church teaching takes pains to avoid suggesting that Mary died. Careful readers will note that the dogma also avoids coming right out and saying that Mary didn’t die. What this means is that we don’t understand the process by which Mary was assumed into heaven. The best language we can use is that found in paragraph 966 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “when the course of her earthly life was finished, she was taken up body and soul … .”

Dogmas act as an aid to our faith by defining beliefs regarding mysteries of our faith. Because bodily assumption isn’t a regular occurrence, we have no frame of reference to understand how it works or how to think and speak about it. It’s not the only mystery that we cannot know about through personal experience. We have no personal experience with divine as well as human nature existing in one person. We have no way of comprehending three divine persons existing in one God. We don’t understand how Jesus could be crucified and then rise from the dead. In the Creed we say that we believe Jesus died. Christians most definitely don’t believe that Jesus still is dead, however. Our faith requires that we accept these challenging mysteries.

read the Catechism—learn about dogmas
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews is writing to explain the mystery of how it is that we can obtain salvation through the death of one man—even if that one man did happen to be divine and well as human, and did himself rise from the dead. The Letter to the Hebrews is in the canon of Sacred Scripture, and its primary author is the Holy Spirit. It’s unfortunate that we can’t ask the human author to comment on Marian dogma. We can, however, pray to the Holy Spirit for the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding about mysteries concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary. You can learn more about dogmas by reading paragraphs 88 through 90 in the Catechism.

88 The Church’s Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging the Christian people to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.

89 There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas. Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it secure. Conversely, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith.

90 The mutual connections between dogmas, and their coherence, can be found in the whole of the Revelation of the mystery of Christ. “In Catholic doctrine there exists an order or hierarchy of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith.”

ex libris—more about religious mysteries
The idea that there are things we can’t prove through science poses a stumbling block for many people. In his book A New Song for the Lord: Faith in Christ and Liturgy Today, Pope Benedict XVI addresses the relationship between liturgy and mystery. Read another excerpt from the book and learn more about this and other books related to Catholic Scripture study at ex libris—main bookshelf.

The relationship to mystery means that the beginning of the liturgical event never lies in us. It is a response to an initiative coming from above, to a call and an act of love which is a mystery. Problems are there to be explained; mystery, however, is not open to explanation, but reveals itself only in acceptance, in the yes that we, following the lead of the Bible, may confidently call, even today, obedience.

how might covenant & blessing be related?
There’s an important element of Melchizedek’s priesthood—the priestly action that he performs. In the book of Genesis, we learn that Melchizedek blesses Abram (Abraham) prior to God entering fully into covenant with Abraham. At first glance, Melchizedek’s blessing can appear almost lame to those of us who are used to thinking of blessings as symbolic words and gestures. Because Melchizedek’s priesthood is eternal, the blessing he imparts to Abraham also is eternal. You can learn more about Melchizedek in Lesson 8 The Call of Abram in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a particular passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page, and it includes links to cross references in the primary biblical text for The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a passage in Scripture, you can look it up in the index in the online sample lesson. If you want to revisit a particular commentary, you can look that up by title in the topics index. If you want to learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, you can read the online commentaries and watch any accompanying videos by going to the online study directories. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Letter to the Hebrews 9:1–28 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Letter to the Hebrews.

God our Father, your plan for the salvation of humanity
necessitated the Passion, death, and Resurrection of your Son.
Teach us to turn to Jesus to mediate the forgiveness of our sins.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,
who as high priest is mediator of this far-better covenant. Amen.

Lesson 11 By a Single Offering Perfected, the Letter to the Hebrews 10:1–18
Lesson 9 Enacted on Better Promises, the Letter to the Hebrews 8:1–13

you also may like our study of the book of Exodus
You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus, a 28-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, provides an in-depth look at how significant events in biblical history that occurred thousands of years ago to descendants of Jacob remain relevant and even critical for present-day Christians to understand. The deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and the giving of Ten Commandments are examined along with the development of Moses’ relationship to God. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer your questions and to offer support. Contact us if you’re interested in purchasing a digital version of this study, in starting another Turning to God study, or in having your study schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online pages of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.