Hello Brendan. You wrote:Not sure that I can offer much, but to my plain reading, I see a parallelism in Jesus coming the first time.
"And as it is reserved for men to die once for all time, but after this a judgment, so also the Christ was offered once for all time to bear the sins of many; and the second time that he appears it will be apart from sin and to those earnestly looking for him for [their] salvation." (Hebrews 9:27-28)
The similarity being drawn to the "once" aspect of death and the "once" aspect of Christ's sacrifice. He comes again "apart from sin", that is, without coming again as a sacrifice, to those looking to him for salvation. He came literally the first time for a sacrifice, I would expect the same for the "second time", but what do I know.
Yes, the passage has parallelisms. But what are these actually about?
I didn't consult any commentaries, though I'm sure some of them would be helpful. To be honest, I guessed in advance they might be biased and/or on a more popular level. (I'm looking for well-informed scholarly opinions).
So . . . along these lines I decided to re-listen to Steve's Hebrews lectures. On v. 27 he mentioned how it has been used to convey the idea that everyone will be judged after death. If I'm not mistaken, he said that while this may be true, the passage isn't directly addressing that.
(These are my IMOs now). The entire chapter is comparing priests: 1) Levitical priests in the Temple; in chapter 9 it is actually THE high priest being compared to, 2) Jesus, our High Priest.
Heb 9:27a (NKJV)
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Who are the "men" in narrative context of the chapter?
It seems to me they are the high priests. Their service in the Temple -- (remembering there was just one high priest at a time) -- was "once", with it obviously ending upon their death.
What is the "judgment" of v. 27b?
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in terms of what high priests did then, is what chapter 9 is about. The author of Hebrews is showing the limitations of the high priest under the old covenant. What would these limitations be? That, regardless of how many high priests served on Yom Kuppur, each and every year there was another judgment (Gk, "krisis") wherein the sins of the people needed another atonement.
Heb 9:28 (NKJV)
so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Verse 28 is self-explanatory. The parallelism of "once" (vv.27,28) reveals the superiority of Christ's high priesthood: 1) There's no need for someone to replace him (as in the old covenant), 2) No certain day of the year needs to be observed for his offering (of himself) to be effective, 3) Unlike Levitical high priests who had to appear again and again, year after year; Christ's "second appearance" would be the salvation of his people.
Make sense?