Above when he said,
Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin you desired not, neither had pleasure in them;
which are offered by the law;
All Commentaries on Hebrews 10:8 Go To Hebrews 10
John Chrysostom
AD 407
In what has gone before he had shown that the sacrifices were unavailing for perfect purification, and were a type, and greatly defective. Since then there was this objection to his argument, If they are types, how is it that, after the truth has come, they have not ceased, nor given place, but are still performed? He here accordingly labors at this very point, showing that they are no longer performed, even as a figure, for God does not accept them. And this again he shows not from the New [Testament], but from the prophets, bringing forward from times of old the strongest testimony, that it [the old system] comes to an end, and ceases, and that they do all in vain, alway resisting the Holy Ghost. Acts 7:51
And he shows over and above that they cease not now [only], but at the very coming of the Messiah, nay rather, even before His coming: and how it was that Christ did not abolish them at the last, but they were abolished first, and then He came; first they were made to cease, and then He appeared. That they might not say, Even without this sacrifice, and by means of those, we could have been well pleasing unto God, He waited for these sacrifices to be convicted [of weakness], and then He appeared; for (He says) sacrifice and offering You would not. Hereby He took all away; and having spoken generally, He says also particularly, In burnt-offerings and [sacrifice] for sin You had no pleasure. But the offering was everything except the sacrifice. Then said I, Lo! I come. Of whom was this spoken? Of none other than the Christ.
Here he does not blame those who offer, showing that it is not because of their wickednesses that He does not accept them, as He says elsewhere, but because the thing itself has been convicted for the future and shown to have no strength, nor any suitableness to the times. What then has this to do with the sacrifices being offered oftentimes? Not only from their being oftentimes [offered] (he means) is it manifest that they are weak, and that they effected nothing; but also from God's not accepting them, as being unprofitable and useless. And in another place it is said, If You had desired sacrifice I would have given it. Psalm 51:16 Therefore by this also he makes it plain that He does not desire it. Therefore sacrifices are not God's will, but the abolition of sacrifices. Wherefore they sacrifice contrary to His will.
