Chapter Five

General basis for the authority of the high priest (1–3). Jesus Christ meets the conditions for valid high priesthood both by divine calling and by his capacity to be a true intercessor for others (4–10). A brief admonition on what has been said (11–14).

Hebrews 5:1. For every high priest, chosen from among men, is appointed for men in service to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, Hebrews 5:2. able to have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also beset with weakness, Hebrews 5:3. and therefore he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins both for the people and for himself. “Is appointed for men in service to God.” Although every person is themselves obligated to serve God, the Lord deigns to choose from among people special servants for himself, whose service consists especially in offering gifts and sacrifices for the sins of the people, from which the high priest himself is not excluded (Lev 16:11-15 and following). Such is the divine institution. With respect to those for whom sacrifices are to be offered, the apostle uses softened expressions, referring to them as “those who are ignorant and going astray” (cf. 1 John 3:9 and others), which, however, carries its own solemn meaning, giving to understand that if those who sin through ignorance and error may receive the compassion of the High Priest, those who oppose him consciously and stubbornly have no such hope (Num 15:22; Lev 4:2).

Hebrews 5:4. And no one takes this honor upon himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was. The high-priestly ministry is here called an “honor,” which presupposes its special dignity, loftiness, and worth: the selection is made by God himself for the closest service to him and for the salvation of others.

Hebrews 5:5. So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but he who said to him: You are my Son, today I have begotten you; “Glorified himself” — Greek: αδόξασε γενηθήναι ερχιερέα, Slavonic: “not himself glorified to be high priest.” If for ordinary people the very election to high-priestly office constituted an honor, the Son of God, who already in his very nature possessed the full rights of the high priesthood, receives his high-priestly honor and glory in a higher sense through a special means — by fulfilling the will of God regarding the salvation of man through his sufferings (Luke 24:26).

Hebrews 5:6. as he also says in another place: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. “A priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek...” The expression is taken from Ps 109:4, which is undoubtedly regarded as messianic. The psalmody prophesies about a king who is called “Lord” (mine, that is, David’s; cf. Matt 22:43; Mark 12:36 and others), sitting at the right hand of God, with all enemies under his feet. Such a king — bearing the name of the Lord, equal in honor and power to him — could of course only be the Son of God, the Messiah, Christ. This spiritual king from the seed of David would also be a Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, that is, he would unite in himself both titles — kingship and priesthood — into one indivisible and mysteriously significant whole, just as Melchizedek united them. The comparison with Melchizedek and the exposition of the particular spiritual kinship of the Son of God with him as King-High Priest will several more times arrest the apostle’s attention in what follows.

Hebrews 5:7. He, in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and was heard because of his reverence; Hebrews 5:8. though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience through what he suffered, Hebrews 5:9. and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, Hebrews 5:10. having been named by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. The apostle gives a reminder of the path of suffering and sorrow through which Christ attained being named by God as our High Priest, the source of eternal salvation. The supplications that he offered to his Father “with crying and tears” show, on the one hand, that he was not a self-appointed usurper of the royal-priestly ministry. On the contrary, he was an obedient instrument in the hands of the Heavenly Father, who chose such a hard path to this ministry for him, on which he had to learn through bitter experience what human weakness is, so as to be capable of sympathizing with our weaknesses and of being for us a model of saving obedience. — “In the days of his flesh...” — during his earthly life (cf. Heb 2:14; 1 Pet 4:2). — “With strong crying and tears...” Here, evidently, the prayers of the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane are meant. How this prayer was heard is explained by the holy Evangelist Luke, who relates that an angel was then sent to Christ and strengthened him (Luke 22:43) for the impending sufferings. — “Having been named by God as High Priest...” This “naming,” or glorification by God of Christ as High Priest, was to have followed simultaneously with the accomplishment of our salvation at the moment of the Savior’s death on the Cross (“it is finished!”).

Hebrews 5:11. We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you have become incapable of hearing. Hebrews 5:12. For by this time you ought to be teachers; but you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the word of God, and you need milk, not solid food. Hebrews 5:13. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is still a child; Hebrews 5:14. but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. The apostle finds it difficult to touch too deeply on the important question he has raised, citing the insufficient preparation of his audience, who require “milk rather than solid food,” that is, more elementary instruction (cf. 1 Cor 3:2; 1 Pet 2:2). However, further on (Heb 6:9) he qualifies this, noting that not all his readers are like this, and therefore urges them to strive to be mature, and especially not to fall away from the maturity already attained. And those whom he now calls incapable of hearing (v. 11) have become so contrary to the more natural expectation of seeing them more advanced (v. 12). Nevertheless, the apostle begins thereafter to lead them to this perfection of knowledge of the teaching of Christ (Heb 6).