Theophylact of Ohrid, on Heb 8:2

“A minister of the holies, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man.”

“Just as the earthly high priests served when entering the Holy of Holies, so too He is truly the minister of the holy, true, heavenly sanctuaries. It would seem that Paul here contradicts himself. For in the beginning he said: "To which of the Angels did God ever say: 'Sit at My right hand…'? Are they not all ministering spirits…?" (Heb. 1:13–14), as if giving to understand that a minister ought not to sit. But now, having said "sat down at the right hand of the throne," he again presents Him as a minister. So how does he say this, if not out of complete condescension toward his listeners, mixing the lowly with the exalted? And some understood "minister of the saints" as meaning minister of those people sanctified by Him. For, he says (the Apostle Paul), He is our High Priest. Here he encourages the Jews who had believed. For since they were probably perplexed, saying: we do not have such a tabernacle, behold, he says, a greater and true tabernacle – heaven itself. For the Old Testament tabernacle was a figure of this one: and that one was pitched by man, either Bezaleel (Exod. 31:2) or Moses, but this one – by God. And here note, according to Saint John Chrysostom, that heaven neither moves nor is spherical: for the expression "pitched" excludes both the one and the other.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.