“This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’

They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’

“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.

Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

The Council at Jerusalem

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.

But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—

They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus.

Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.”

Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”

For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

The Greater Glory of the New Covenant

Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was,

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.

Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.

Jesus Greater Than Moses

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.

Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.

“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.