Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter (literally, for the entrance) into the holiest (literally, the holies, i.e. the holy place, as τὰ ἅγια is translated in Hebrews 9:25, but meaning, there as here, the holy of holies) by the blood of Jesus, which (entrance) he consecrated (or, dedicated, as the same verb ἐγκαινίζω is translated, Hebrews 9:18, with reference to the Mosaic tabernacle) for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great Priest ( ἱερέα μέγαν, not ἀρχιερέα, high priest; but a priest of higher order than any earthly priest; cf.
Hebrews 5:14, ἀρχιερέα μέγαν) over the house of God. The epithet πρόσφατον ("new") applied to the "way" dedicated for us by Christ, though meaning originally, according to its etymology, "newly slain," is commonly used to express "recent" only.
And so here. It is a new way in relation to the old one of the high priest through the veil—a way untrodden by man till opened and dedicated by "the great Priest." The epithet ζῶσα ("living") applied to the way distinguishes it, as a spiritual mode of approach, from the old one.
"Opponitur exanimo. Per prosopopoeiam vita adscribitur viae, ex ipsa vita Christi, qui est Via" (Bengel; see John 14:6). But what is the meaning of the veil ( καταπέτασμα, the word always used of the veil in the tabernacle or temple) being said to be "his flesh "?
The idea cannot be simply that he passed through the human nature assumed at his incarnation to the heavenly throne; for the intended counterpart to the high priest's passing through the veil must have been after the completed sacrifice.
It is rather that, at the moment of death, when, after saying, "It is finished," he "gave up the ghost," the human flesh (which had through all the ages been as a veil hiding "the unseen" from man, and behind which Christ himself had "tabernacled" during his human life) was, as it were, rent asunder and the new way opened.
And that this was so was signified by the rending in twain of the veil of the temple from the top to the bottom, mentioned by St. Matthew (Matthew 26:51), at the very moment of the death upon the cross.
This incident may have suggested to the writer the expression used. "Quum primum Christus per momentum mortis transierat, praesto fuit mera virtus et vita. τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, carnem suam, quae item scissa est, ut velum" (Bengel).
"The house of God" in verse 21 is a resumption of the thought of Hebrews 3:1-7, where Christ was shown to be greater than Moses, as being the SON over the house of God, having (be it observed) been called ἀρχιερέα in Hebrews 3:1.