We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.  (Hebrews 6:19-20)

Anchor is the transliteration of the Latin ancora, itself from the Greek ἄγκυρα agkura.  While the word is familiar enough, the usage in Hebrews is less obvious.

Metaphor is common enough in the Bible and mostly poses little problem even for anyone two thousand years on.  Jesus’ metaphors are immediately clear, as here to underscore his imminent sacrificial death:

‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’  (John 12:23-24)

Any person who has the most rudimentary knowledge of cultivation, let alone that of arable farming, knows that some seed most be kept back from the harvest in order to be planted and provide the next.  In recording Jesus’ words, the apostle John recalled and understood how Jesus must die that others shall live.

Therefore, all analogy relies on common knowledge for it to spark the associative meaning.  Jesus often uses simile, (a form of metaphor) in which comparison is made with the natural world:

‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’  (Matthew 13:31-32)

Yet, without Jesus’ explanation, we may struggle to see the elegance of his metaphor.  We are required to appreciate the contrast in scale between the tiniest of seeds and the luxuriant growth of the mature plant it produces.  Thus, it becomes clear that Jesus is saying predicting the growth of the faithful from the most unpromising of beginnings, just a motely handful of men and women from Galilee.

The anonymous author of Hebrews does not provide an explanation of ‘his’ (some have suggested the apostle Paul’s female collaborator, Prisca, may have written this book) metaphor of the anchor.  It requires contemporary nautical knowledge to appreciate the beauty and aptness of the metaphor.

Large ships, then as now, require pilots to enter cramped harbours.  In the days of sailing ships, small pilot boats would guide the ocean-going vessels to their anchorage.  They would do so by bearing the ship’s anchor and towing the ship by its chain inside through the harbour entrance. If we combine this knowledge with that of the Law of Moses and the strict prohibition for any to enter the Inner Sanctuary, the metaphor come into focus:

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…  (Hebrews 10:19-22a)

Jesus is the eternal High Priest, not of a Levite descended from Aaron, but a pre-existent order.  Melchizedek blessed Abraham, the great, grandfather of Levi, and the forefather of Aaron.  Whereas the High Priest was the only person ever permitted into the Sacred Space and that on one day of the year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Jesus can go ‘behind’ the massive curtain that separated the Inner Sanctum of the Temple.  Jesus, the universal pilot, has gone before the faithful, so that all may come into God’s presence. It is as if a huge ship bearing all the faithful is pulled by Christ into the place of peace.

God and humanity are reconciled through Jesus, so that the redeemed…

may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  (Ephesians 4:14)

Rather the faithful are brought to safety, to a secure and certain haven, where all will dwell with God.  Nor is there is no need of a lighthouse, as there will be no darkness.  As described to the apostle John in his revelation about that sanctuary, all will be with Jesus, the Lamb:

‘They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.’ (Revelations 22:4-5)

The metaphor the soul is the anchor drawn into the Holy presence by Jesus can be grasped as both beautiful and poetic; but more importantly, one illustrating an eternal ‘sure and steadfast’ truth.