Hebrews 10:5-7
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”
King James Version
Entering the world, the Messiah speaks Psalm 40:6-8: 'Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me… Lo, I come to do thy will, O God' — the incarnation and the self-offering that ends the sacrificial system.
Fulfillment References
Psalm 40:6-8 Luke 1:35 John 4:34 Hebrews 10:10
How Traditions Read This Prophecy
Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal'A body hast thou prepared me' is the Oneness key to the incarnation: God prepared for Himself the humanity in which He would dwell and by which He would redeem — 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.'
JewishPsalm 40 is David's thanksgiving: obedience surpasses sacrifice ('mine ears hast thou opened'), a common prophetic theme (1 Sam. 15:22), not an incarnation text.
CatholicThe obedient self-offering of the Word made flesh is the one sacrifice of the new covenant, made present in the Mass.
ProtestantThe psalm's 'ears opened' becomes 'body prepared' (LXX) — the whole person given in obedience — grounding the once-for-all sacrifice (Heb. 10:10).
DispensationalThe verse marks the transition of the ages: sacrifice and offering set aside, the second — Christ's will-fulfilling offering — established.
AcademicHebrews quotes the LXX's 'body' (soma) where the MT reads 'ears'; the LXX likely renders the idiom of total obedience by synecdoche, which Hebrews exploits Christologically.
Scholarship & Sources
The soma/ears textual issue is treated in every major commentary (Bruce, NICNT; Guthrie in Beale & Carson); Hebrews 10:10 supplies the author's own interpretation.
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Bible Prophecy Explorer · based on J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy catalogue · an openly Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal study resource — all traditions presented fairly. Pastor: C. Myles Young, PhD · Bishop: Nathaniel J. Wilson, Ed.D.