

Episode 815: The Heavenly Realm (Hebrews 9:22-28)
Aug 27, 2025
51:19
Peter Leithart, James Bejon, Alastair Roberts, and Jeff Meyers discuss Hebrews 9:22-28.
Timestamps:
0:00 – Platonic terms: Why Hebrews draws on the language of Philo and others.
Distinction between heavenly and earthly realms, similar to Plato’s “intelligible” and “sensible” realms.The realm of ideas/forms accessed by intellect vs. the sensible world below as a copy of the higher realm.
4:00 – Plato’s Cave.
7:20 – What Platonic terms doesn’t Hebrews use?
How should we think about the relationship between various forms of Platonism and Hebrews?
Is there overlap, and if so, how much?
10:00 – Does the heavenly realm need purification?
Jesus destroys the Platonic divide between material and immaterial.
12:30 – Are Platonic terms used only for rhetorical or conceptual leverage?
15:30 – Jesus enters heaven as one who shared our flesh and blood.
Human ascent, not intellectual ascent.
17:45 – Does stressing Platonic parallels offer any exegetical payoff?
20:30 – Today’s text: Why does heaven need cleansing?
28:50 – Blood taken into the holy place: “strange” or “alien” blood.
35:00 – The purpose of Leviticus and how Jesus fulfills it.
36:20 – Hebrews 9:26.
38:00 – Jesus reaches the end of human history.
40:40 – A puzzling analogy: the “second appearance” of Christ in v. 28. Is there a preterist answer?
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