Bible Strands
Hebrews 8:5
The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The author addresses Jewish believers who are familiar with the Mosaic tabernacle, contrasting the earthly priestly service described in the preceding verses with Christ’s superior heavenly ministry.
The words — ὑποδείγματι (hupodeigmati) denotes a copy or model, while σκιᾷ (skia) means shadow; both describe the earthly tabernacle’s derivative relationship to the heavenly reality.
The thread — The author explicitly quotes Exodus 25:40 to ground the argument, while the copy-shadow motif recurs in Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 10:1 to trace the pattern of earthly institutions pointing forward to Christ.
Why it lands — The text establishes that the old covenant worship system was never autonomous but deliberately designed as a temporary representation, requiring the reader to recognize its provisional nature and look to the reality it anticipated.
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
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Cross-references
- Exodus 25:40 See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
- Colossians 2:17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.
- Hebrews 10:1 For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
- Exodus 26:30 So you are to set up the tabernacle according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
- Exodus 27:8 Construct the altar with boards so that it is hollow. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.
- 1 Chronicles 28:19 “All this,” said David, “all the details of this plan, the LORD has made clear to me in writing by His hand upon me.”
- 1 Chronicles 28:12 The plans contained everything David had in mind for the courts of the house of the LORD, for all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the house of God and of the dedicated things,
- Numbers 8:4 This is how the lampstand was constructed: it was made of hammered gold from its base to its blossoms, fashioned according to the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.
- Hebrews 9:9 It is an illustration for the present time, because the gifts and sacrifices being offered were unable to cleanse the conscience of the worshiper.
- Hebrews 9:23 So it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.