Clayifying Hebrews 9

Q. What a wonderful blessing your site it. It provides such great resources…we use your input weekly in Sunday School.

The author refers to the first covenant in Hebrews 9:1. I assume this covenant refers to the law and how to worship that was passed down to Moses from God. This confuses me as there existed covenants prior to this one, for instance the covenant between God and Abram, where God along with Christ walked through the blood path.  Why do you think the author stated “first covenant” in this chapter?

A. In the context of the passage first covenant and Old Covenant are meant to be synonymous.   We know this because the term was carried over from Hebrews 8:6-7 where he used it to refer to the Old Covenant.