For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the age has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Read Chapter 9
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
He came at the end of the ages, as it were in the last age of the world, to the putting away or abrogating of sin. (Witham)
Though less, viz. a single tear, might have satisfied the justice of God, nothing less than his own precious blood could satisfy the charity of Jesus Christ. By his death, as St. Augustine observes, Christ has bound the devil in a chain, so that he can tempt us no further than we are able to resist: he may bark, he may tempt, he may solicit us; but he can bite none, except those that wilfully cast themselves within his reach. (Serm. 1. post Trin.)
Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the High Priest enters into the Holy place every year with blood of others. Seest Thou how many are the differences? The often for the once; the blood of others, for His own. Great is the distance. He is Himself then both victim and Priest and sacrifice. For if it had not been so, and it had been necessary to offer many sacrifices, He must have been many times crucified. For then, he says, He must often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
In this place he has also veiled over something. But now once more in the end of the world. Why at the end of the world? After the many sins. If therefore, it had taken place at the beginning, then no one would have believed; and He must not die a second time, all would have been useless. But since later, there were many transgressions, with reason He then appeared: which he expresses in another place also, Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. But now once in the end of the worl...
Therefore, by means of the wide licence of those days, materials for subsequent emendations were furnished beforehand, of which materials the Lord by His Gospel, and then the apostle in the last days of the (Jewish) age,
