For the final temple, who will The-Prince | הַנָּשִׂ֗יא Ha-Nasi from [Ezekiel 44:3, 46:12] be since [Hebrews 7:27, 8:4] claims it can't be Jesus?

Question

The Prince | הַנָּשִׂ֗יא Ha-Nasi in [Ezekiel 44:3] will be a future High Priest serving in the earthly Temple of HaShem forever.

Yechezekel יְחֶזְקֵ֨אל | "Ezekiel" [44:3]

" The prince - [a] prince - He shall sit therein to eat bread before HaShem ; by the way of the hall of the gate he shall come, and by the same way he shall leave. " ( אֶֽת־הַנָּשִׂ֗יא נָ֥שִׂיא ה֛וּא יֵֽשֶׁב־בּ֥וֹ לֶאֱכָול־לֶ֖חֶם לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה מִדֶּ֨רֶךְ אֻלָ֤ם הַשַּׁ֙עַר֙ יָב֔וֹא וּמִדַּרְכּ֖וֹ יֵצֵֽא )

• This eternal Prince was required by God to make sacrifices in the eternal Temple in [Ezekiel 46:12].

Yet we learn in Hebrews 7:27 - "Jesus" would not be The Prince of Ezekiel 44, since we are told Jesus as a heavenly High Priest does not make anymore sacrifices. Hebrews 8:4 claims Jesus wouldn't be a priest at all [on earth].

Hebrews 7:27 [NASB] :

"Unlike the other high priests, he [Jesus] *does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself."

Hebrews 8:4 [NASB]:

"Now if He [Jesus] were on earth, He would not be a priest at all"

For the final earthly temple, who will The-Prince | הַנָּשִׂ֗יא Ha-Nasi from [Ezekiel 44:3] & [Ezekiel 46:12] be since [Hebrews 7:27, 8:4] claims it cannot be Jesus?

Answer 1

I believe Paul is teaching that in this new covenant all matters are fulfilled (completed not abolished) spiritually. There is therefore no physical temple & no point to Christ offering physical sacrifices as the sacrifices in this new covenant are now spiritual.

The support for a spiritual vs physical temple is found in:

Revelation 21:22 I did not see a temple in the city (no physical temple), because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its (spiritual) temple.

Ephesians 2:20-22 Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone (of this spiritual temple). 21 In him the whole building (spiritual temple) is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

John 2:19-21 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days (as chief cornerstone of the spiritual temple)." 20 They replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

1Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the holy spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

We are joined together as a spiritual temple in the Kingdom of Heaven.

In Hebrews 8:4 Paul is making the point that in this new covenant the physical sacrifices are replaced by spiritual sacrifices. In the same chapter Paul (Hebrews 8:6-13) states we now have a new and superior covenant and high priest.

Physical sacrifices were never the point. It was our obedience to His Holy Laws & Commandments which is considered our spiritual sacrifice.

Micah 6:6-8 With what shall I come before the lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

1Samuel 15:22 But Samuel replied: "Does the lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the lord? To obey (our spiritual sacrifice) is better than (physical) sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

Lets conclude with a verse just 6 verses after the verse you cited (Hebrews 8:4).

Hebrews 8:10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

In Hebrews 8 Paul teaching this new covenant with greater promises & a superior High Priest & our spiritual sacrifice governed by the gift of a loving heart to keep His Laws.

Answer 2

Ezekiel 44:

3 The prince himself is the only one who may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the LORD. He is to enter by way of the portico of the gateway and go out the same way.”

For the final temple, who will The-Prince | הַנָּשִׂ֗יא Ha-Nasi from [Ezekiel 44:3, 46:12] be since [Hebrews 7:27, 8:4] claims it can't be Jesus?

Pulpit explains:

That the "prince" here alluded to (הַגָּשִׂיא) could not have been the Prince David, i.e. the Messiah already spoken of (Ezekiel 34:23, 24; Ezekiel 37:24), but must have denoted the civic authorities of the new community of Israel, "the civil head of the theocracy," Havernick infers from Ezekiel 45:8, 9, where the coming "prince" is contrasted with Israel's previous rulers who oppressed their subjects, from the absence of some such characteristic predicate as "shepherd" or "king," which would, he thinks, have been attached to the word "prince"

Answer 3

There are several princes identified in the book of Ezekiel such as the prince of Kedar in Ezekiel 27:21 or the prince of Egypt in Ezekiel 30:13.

However your question is about a specific prince identified as the subject of prophecies in the ending of Ezekiel. This figure is introduced in Ezekiel 37:25:

וְעַבְדִּי דָוִד מֶלֶךְ עֲלֵיהֶם וְרוֹעֶה אֶחָד יִהְיֶה לְכֻלָּם וּבְמִשְׁפָּטַי יֵלֵכוּ וְחֻקֹּתַי יִשְׁמְרוּ וְעָשׂוּ אוֹתָם
My servant David shall be king over them; there shall be one shepherd for all of them. [...]

וְיָשְׁבוּ עַל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לְעַבְדִּי לְיַעֲקֹב אֲשֶׁר יָשְׁבוּ־בָהּ אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם וְיָשְׁבוּ עָלֶיהָ הֵמָּה וּבְנֵיהֶם וּבְנֵי בְנֵיהֶם עַד־עוֹלָם וְדָוִד עַבְדִּי נָשִׂיא לָהֶם לְעוֹלָם
Thus they shall remain in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob and in which your ancestors dwelt; they and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, with My servant David as their prince for all time. (JPS)

Ezekiel identifies the prince of following passages as "[Y-H-V-H]'s servant David". The identification of the figure as future king of Israel, of the house of David, and as a servant of [Y-H-V-H] serve as a clear callback to earlier traditions of the Jewish Messiah (cf 2 Samuel 7:12-16). Nearly all Jewish commentaries on Ezekiel identify this figure as the future Messiah.