Bible Strands
Hebrews 13:10
We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The author addresses believers tempted by foreign teachings and dietary regulations, placing this statement between a warning against valueless food rules and a description of high priestly sacrifices burned outside the camp.
The words — ἔχομεν (echomen) and ἐξουσίαν (exousian) establish possession and legal permission, literally stating the community possesses an altar from which tabernacle servers lack the authority to eat.
The thread — The principle of participants eating from offerings appears in 1 Corinthians 9:13, while the boundary between true sacrifice and pagan systems aligns with the warnings in 1 Corinthians 10:20 and the Passover fulfillment noted in 1 Corinthians 5:7.
Why it lands — The text declares that believers possess an altar inaccessible to the old tabernacle system, demanding a decisive break from former food regulations and a rejection of rival sacrificial claims.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
- 1 Corinthians 10:20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- 1 Corinthians 9:13 Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings?
- Numbers 7:5 “Accept these gifts from them, that they may be used in the work of the Tent of Meeting. And give them to the Levites, to each man according to his service.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:17 Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.
- Numbers 3:7 They are to perform duties for him and for the whole congregation before the Tent of Meeting, attending to the service of the tabernacle.