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Messianic Prophecies

Leviticus 16:15-17

This passage comes from the wider catalog — a broader, more lightly curated list than the core set. Both readings are shown as peers; GEBible takes no side.

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Leviticus 16:15-17

“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. He shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins; and so he shall do for the Tent of Meeting that dwells with them in the middle of their uncleanness. No one shall be in the Tent of Meeting when he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, and has made atonement for himself and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.

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But the goat on which the lot fell for the scapegoat shall be presented alive before Yahweh, to make atonement for him, to send him away as the scapegoat into the wilderness.

“Aaron shall present the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before Yahweh, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil. He shall put the incense on the fire before Yahweh, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the covenant, so that he will not die. He shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. He shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins; and so he shall do for the Tent of Meeting that dwells with them in the middle of their uncleanness. No one shall be in the Tent of Meeting when he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, and has made atonement for himself and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.

“He shall go out to the altar that is before Yahweh and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the bull’s blood, and some of the goat’s blood, and put it around on the horns of the altar. He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and make it holy from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

“When he has finished atoning for the Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is ready. The goat shall carry all their iniquities on himself to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

The fulfillment reading

How this passage is read as pointing to the Messiah.

The fulfillment reading sees the Day of Atonement rite of Leviticus 16:15-17 — the high priest entering the innermost sanctuary with sacrificial blood — as prefiguring Christ's once-for-all death. Hebrews 9:7-14 develops an extended argument that Jesus is both the superior high priest and the superior sacrifice, entering the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood. On this view the ritual's built-in limitations — its annual repetition, the priest's own need for cleansing, its provisional atonement — mark it as designed to point beyond itself to a permanent solution. The close correspondence between the Yom Kippur ritual and Christ's work is read as a genuine typological structure grounded in divine intent.

The counter-reading

How this passage is read within its own context.

The critical reading classifies Leviticus 16:15-17 as ritual legislation prescribing the annual Day of Atonement ceremony. It describes what the high priest does on that day and neither predicts its own obsolescence nor anticipates a figure who would replace the system. On this reading the typological architecture of Hebrews is constructed by the interpreter, arguing for the old covenant's supersession rather than pointing to a prediction contained in Leviticus itself. The text is thus prescriptive cultic law, and the christological reading is an achievement of the epistle's author rather than of the source.

How the New Testament uses this passage

Each entry names how the New Testament author draws on the passage — a direct quotation, an allusion, an echo, or a typological reading. An echo or an allusion is not the same as a prediction; the label says which is which.

  • Hebrews 9:7-14 Typological reading

    Hebrews 9:7-14 explicitly builds a type/antitype argument between the Yom Kippur high-priestly entry and Christ's sacrifice, without quoting Leviticus 16 verbatim.