Hebrews 8:4
If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest: seeing that there would be others to offer gifts according to the law,
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Si ergo esset super terram, nec esset sacerdos : cum essent qui offerent secundum legem munera,
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- εἰ μὲν οὖν ἦν ἐπὶ γῆς, οὐδʼ ἂν ἦν ἱερεύς, ὄντων τῶν προσφερόντων κατὰ νόμον τὰ δῶρα·
Haydock's commentary
If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest. He speaks of a priest according to the custom of the Jews, where none were priests but of the tribe of Levi, and Jesus Christ was of the tribe of Juda: and if the law of Moses was to continue, there would not be wanting priests to offer sacrifices according to their worship, though such priests were only employed about things that were types2 and shadows of heavenly things in the new law after Christ's coming, and of the sacrifice by which he offered himself on the cross. And this God doubtless revealed to Moses, when he said to him: take heed "thou make all things according to the pattern which was shewn thee on the mount." (Witham)
Earth, &c. That is, if he were not of a higher condition than the Levitical order of earthly priests, and had not another kind of sacrifice to offer, he should be excluded by them from the priesthood, and its functions, which by the law were appropriated to their tribe. (Challoner)
2 Exemplari et umbræ deserviunt, upodeigmati, kai skia latreuousi. It signifies, that they served God by those things that were types and figures of more perfect and heavenly things.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.