Hebrews 5
SchaffCHAP. 5. The high-priesthood of Christ is now formally introduced for fuller discussion. It has been mentioned in every chapter of the Epistle (Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 3:1, Hebrews 4:5), and clearly occupies a chief place in the writer’s mind, as it does in other books of Scripture. The notion that this office of our Lord has only economic or temporary interest; that it belongs rather to the ancient law and to Jewish conceptions than to the Gospel, quite misleads. It is, indeed, a doctrine demanded by the express teaching of the New Testament and by human nature as illustrated in the religious sacrifices of all nations, and in the felt needs of the human conscience. Two qualifications are said to be necessary in priests, and Christ is proved to have them both: the first is, that they should be able to feel for those whom they represent, and then that they should have the authority of a Divine appointment (Hebrews 5:1-4). Christ is thus shown to have both a Divine appointment and the requisite sympathy (Hebrews 5:5-10).
Hebrews 5:1
Hebrews 5:1. For resumes the subject of discussion (see Hebrews 4:15), and gives a reason why Christ should possess the qualities here described (Hebrews 5:5).Every priest. The reasoning is suggested by the case of the Aaronic priesthood, and refers in detail to that; but the words are applicable to all priesthoods (i.e to all who act for others in things pertaining to God).Taken as he is from among men affirms part of the quality of a priest, and is so regarded by most commentators: others render the expression, as apparently does the English Version, ‘when taken’ (i.e. every merely human priest); and suppose that there is a contrast between human priests and the Son of God. But the former is the juster view, for the writer goes on to claim for Christ also the same human qualities in a higher degree (Hebrews 5:7, etc.).Is ordained; properly, ‘is appointed;’ ‘ordained even as Aaron was [ordained],’ misleads. Ordination in any technical sense is not here, but Divine appointment simply.For men, i.e on behalf of, not in the stead of. This last is indeed a possible meaning of the preposition in certain combinations (He was made a curse for us, etc.), but is not in the word itself, nor is it appropriate here.In things pertaining to God; literally, ‘things Godward,’ our interests and business in relation to Him.Both gifts and sacrifices for sins are naturally the offerings or gifts of the law other than sin offerings and the sacrifices; ‘for sins’ belonging to the last only (see the same combination in Hebrews 8:3 and Hebrews 9:9), and not, as Alford supposes, to both.
It is true, however, that the ‘sacrifices’ were also gifts, the victim being the property of the offerer, and sometimes only gifts, and not properly sacrifices (for sin); while the gift was sometimes of the nature of a sacrifice. Both the ideas are blended in the work of our Lord, ‘who gave Himself for us.’ On the other hand, we are said, without any reference to sin-offering, to present our bodies living sacrifices (Romans 12:1).
The fact is that the old Homeric meaning of the word to sacrifice (Èýù) was to burn wine, etc., in the fire to the gods; its secondary meaning, to slay in sacrifice. From that one root came a double set of derivatives—incense, to burn incense, altar of incense (Thyine wood, Thus, etc.); and to sacrifice, to offer sacrifice, altar of sacrifice, etc.; and hence sacrifice is often and naturally used in the New Testament in the figurative sense, especially in St. Paul (Ephesians 5:2; Philippians 4:18).—To offer is the technical word common in this Epistle, but Alford says it is never found in St. Paul. The noun, however, is found (Romans 15:16; Ephesians 5:2), though appropriately with another verb ‘present,’ ‘give,’ either because the sense is figurative (see above), and the ordinary verb would be too sacrificial, or because in the last passage he wants to call attention to the fact that Christ is offerer as well as victim.
Hebrews 5:2
Hebrews 5:2. Who; rather, being one able to have compassion; literally, to be reasonably compassionate towards—a word found in the New Testament only here. The Stoic prided himself on being apathetic in relation to sin and misery, as he held the gods were. A sympathetic or emotional nature rejoices with those that rejoice, and weeps with those that weep. The true position of a priest in relation to those who are not only suffering, but are also guilty, is between the two. His is a blended feeling of sorrow and blame.
Were there no sorrow, there would be no fitness for the office manward; were there no blame, there would be no holiness, and so no fitness for the office Godward. As standing between man and God, he feels (we may say it with reverence) for both; and herein consists His noblest quality.With the ignorant and the erring.
The persons for whom the priest acts are not innocent, or the function would cease; they are sinners, and are described as ignorant and out of the way (erring or, it may be, led out of the way). The first word is milder than the second, and describes an ignorance that may be without sin, though it is oftener an ignorance that is more or less sinful (see Leviticus 4:13; Leviticus 5:18). There is generally sin in it, though not the sin of a wilful perverseness (‘I did it ignorantly in unbelief,’ 1 Timothy 1:13). The second word, though stronger than the first, is milder than is consistent with wilful conscious sin; it is going astray, or (in the passive voice) being led astray (see 1 Corinthians 6:9; Galatians 6:7; 2 Timothy 3:13). Possibly these words describe the feeling of the priest, who is supposed to be a man and himself a sinner (see next clause) towards those who are sinners, and who he may say are after all ‘ignorant and deluded.’ More probably, however, the words describe the real character of those for whom he is to act. All men are blameably ignorant, and are out of the way; every sin is want of knowledge, as well as want of wisdom; we all have gone astray, and for all the priest acts; those being excepted who are presumptuous and defiant sinners for whom no sacrifice could be accepted.
The very office of the priest implies some desire to be forgiven, or at all events the cessation of perverse persistence in sin. Sympathy for all such is the duty and the qualification of the true priest; made the more easy that he is himself beset with infirmity, and the more obligatory that he himself needs the same treatment.
The infirmity here spoken of is clearly moral weakness, which makes men capable of sin, and leads to it.
Hebrews 5:3
Hebrews 5:3. And by reason hereof (the true reading, though requiring no change in the English Version), i.e the infirmity with which he is himself compassed.He ought (under a double obligation, ethical and legal, with special reference in this instance to the first).As for the people even, so also for himself. The reasoning applies to the Aaronic Priesthood, and also to all human priests. The provisions of the Jewish law in this respect are very clear (Leviticus 4:3-12), and especially for the service of the great day of Atonement, when the priest confessed for himself and his house, then for the priesthood in general, and then for all Israel (Leviticus 16). Whether all this applies to Christ has been much discussed. Some have regarded it as spoken of human priests as distinguished from Christ; but it is more natural to regard it as true of all high priests in general, and then to allow the writer himself to show how far the Priesthood of Christ is like others, and how far it is unique; this he does as his argument proceeds (Hebrews 5:7-8, and chap. Hebrews 7:28).
Hebrews 5:4
Hebrews 5:4. A priest, moreover, who is God’s agent as well as man’s, has his appointment not from himself nor from man, but from God.And none taketh this honour (the office, as the word frequently means) to himself (upon himself, as we now say), i.e legally, acceptably to the chief party in this arrangement; but when called of God, even as Aaron was. The Divine ordinance which made Aaron and his sons high priests continued long in the theocracy, and was vindicated against the usurpation of other Levites and of kings (Numbers 16:17; 2 Chronicles 26:16-21). But long before the date of this Epistle the ordinance had been broken, and the Roman power contemptuously set it aside. Some have thought that the writer rebukes these irregularities in this verse, but probably he is speaking of what was in fact the law and the proprieties of the case without any side-reference to later abuses. Who are to present offerings to God, and whom God will accept, are questions that belong clearly to God Himself.
We must carefully distinguish, however, between the prophetical office and the priestly. All Christians that have the Gospel may prophesy; every man who has found the cross is competent and is authorised, nay, is even required to tell others the road.
Warnings against preaching the Gospel, derived from the history of Korah and Abiram, are specially inappropriate under a dispensation when all are commanded to tell what God has done for them, when not only the Spirit and the Bride, but every one that heareth is to say, Come. The real lesson lies in another direction. We have under the Gospel one Priest only in the deeper sense of that word, a Mediator and a sacrifice, who has made complete atonement for sin. The usurpation of His office is on the part of those who assume to themselves the name of priests, and pretend to offer sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead. Here is the sin of Korah; the more guilty as Christ is greater than Aaron, and as His perfect sacrifice is superior to the shadowy sacrifices of the ancient Law.
Hebrews 5:5
Hebrews 5:5. These requisites of the high priests are all found in Christ, and found in Him in such a degree as proves Him to be superior to all others.Thus Christ also (as well as others) glorified not himself, took not the honour upon Himself (see John 8:54) to be made High Priest, but he (the Father) who spake to him: Thou art my Son; I have this day begotten thee. He it was that made Him Priest, and made Him Priest in the very passage that speaks of Him as ‘Son;’ the ‘Only-begotten.’ This deeper meaning which regards the Sonship that Christ had before His incarnation as itself having reference to redemption, and to Christ’s place therein, is favoured by the Fathers. Others who regard the quotation as giving honour to the Son without making that honour an assertion of His Priesthood, interpret simply Christ did not Himself assume the office of Priest; God who acknowledges Him as His Son in a sense that raises Him above all creatures, God gives Him the office.
Hebrews 5:6
Hebrews 5:6. Then follows a correction (according to the second of the above interpretations), or an assertion in plainer terms (according to the first) of this appointment.Even as also he saith in another (literally, ‘a different’) place; a psalm written with a different purpose; a quotation from the 110th Psalm, which is generally accepted by the Jews themselves as Messianic, showing that if Jesus is the Christ it is by a Divine appointment He holds the character and performs the functions of a Priest—a perpetual Priest—the only Priest—with honours and qualifications higher and greater than those of Aaron.
Hebrews 5:7-10
Hebrews 5:7-10. Having shown how Christ has one qualification for the Priesthood, the authority of a Divine appointment, based in part upon His relation to the Father, the writer now reverts to the other qualifications, His fitness to bear with our infirmities, and to sympathize with us in suffering. The four verses really make one sentence. Stripped of its modifying clauses, it is briefly: ‘Who, though He was, in His own nature, Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and being perfect (having completed the sacrifice He had to offer, and finished the training that was to fit Him for His office), He became the author (the cause) of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being publicly, solemnly addressed as High Priest after the order of Melchisedec.’
Hebrews 5:8
Hebrews 5:8. Though he were a Son; more accurately, ‘though he was Son’ (there is no conditional thought expressed, but a strong assertion); literally, though being [in His own nature] Son, yet learned he his obedience (not obedience simply, but the obedience He practised, or the obedience which was to fit Him for His office) by (really the source of His knowledge) the things which he suffered. Son. The absence of the article again calls attention to His relation to the Father (see Hebrews 1:2).Learned by suffering. There is in the Greek a play upon the words (comp. παθηματαμαθηματα, troubles our best teachers—discipline essential to discipleship).
Hebrews 5:9
Hebrews 5:9. Being made perfect, not only brought to the end, the completion of His learning and suffering, but having acquired all the necessary merit, power, and sympathy needed in His office after His obedience unto death.He became the author (literally, the cause, the personal principle) of eternal salvation. A salvation not partial or temporal, like the atonements of the law, but a complete and ever-enduring deliverance from evil in all its forms and in every degree. It is the salvation of the soul which is immortal. It is the opposite of eternal condemnation. It takes in grace and glory; and Christ is its author or cause through the lasting virtue of His blood and righteousness, His obedience and suffering, His intercession and gifts.To all who obey him, who believe the truth He reveals, who live under the influence of it, and who acknowledge Him as their Master and Lord. His obedience unto death is the ground of our hope, and His obedience unto death is the model to which our life is to be conformed.
Hebrews 5:10
Hebrews 5:10. Being called of God; rather, being addressed (not the same word as in Hebrews 5:4) by God as High Priest: the title of honour wherewith the Son made perfect through suffering was saluted by the Father openly and solemnly when He made Him sit at His own right hand. Christ was Priest on earth (see Hebrews 5:6) when He made oblation of Himself unto God; but having now entered the heavenly sanctuary, He was publicly received by God as High Priest, the priestly and high-priestly offices being united in Him.After the order of Melchizedek, there being a resemblance in many particulars between the two, and especially in the antiquity, the dignity, the perpetuity of their respective offices, with the usual fuller depth of meaning in the antitype, the reality, than in the shadowy symbol. The exact nature of the obedience which Christ learned through suffering has been much discussed. Many commentators hold the view that it was His obedience as Priest whereby He became qualified for His office and the consequent sympathy of which He became capable. He learned to feel what obedience involved, and so became a merciful High Priest in things pertaining to God. The idea that His obedience to the Divine law generally was increased by suffering seems to many inconsistent with His Divine nature and His personal holiness. But the language of the 8th verse seems to mean more than this explanation allows. He learned His obedience, not sympathy merely, nor merely priestly fitness for His work.
Though Son, with all the love and trust of a Divine Son, He yet acquired and manifested a measure of obedience which else had been unattainable. Our Lord was man, proper man as well as God, and we must not so confound the two natures as to modify the attributes of either.
As man He had an intellect like our own. He grew in wisdom, nay, even in favour with God and man. He had the faculty whereby He perceived the relation in which as man He stood to others, and felt the duties that relation involved. He had a will to decide His choice, and affections to impel Him to act. He was subject like ourselves to the great law of habit, whereby active principles become stronger through exercise, and are freed from exhaustion or made mighty through meditation and prayer. As man, the second Adam was as capable of growth in holiness as the first.
He was made, moreover, under the law subject to its requirements. Created under it, He was to be judged by it; and though this subjection was His own act, it was as complete as if He had claimed His descent entirely from the first transgressor.
In this condition He was personally liable for all His acts. To Him the warning came as to us: ‘Indignation and wrath upon every soul of man that doeth evil.’ Under this law, and subject to this condition, Christ appeared. If He fulfil the law with absolute perfection He is accepted, and for us there is hope. If He fail, if through His own weakness, the force of temptation, the subtilty of the tempter, He be seduced in thought or in feeling, even for one moment, from the narrow path of perfect holiness, our ruin becomes irremediable and complete; and the blessed God is left to deplore the ruin which His own frustrated benevolence has made only the more touching and profound. One impatient desire, one selfish thought, one sinful feeling, would have done it all. His suffering was obedience, His obedience was intensest suffering from the beginning of His public ministry even to its close; and if He was subject to the laws of human growth, faculties strengthened by reason of use, emotion made more mighty and more tender, obedience more easy by repetition, we may say that as Christ was truly man His obedience was learned and perfected by suffering.
This view of the human life of our Lord, and the awful responsibility which attached to every act and feeling of His life, amid forces of evil unparalleled in human history, gives us a higher conception of His sufferings than anything besides. Such suffering strengthened, developed, perfected His own nature, even as ours is to be perfected, while it fits Him in the highest degree to understand our struggles and to sympathize with them.
Hebrews 5:11-6
CHAP. Hebrews 5:11 to Hebrews 6:20. The writer, knowing how unprepared his readers were to admit that the Aaronic priesthood was inferior to that of Melchisedec and to that of Christ (who was the antitype of both), interrupts his argument by remonstrating with them on their spiritual ignorance (Hebrews 5:11-14), and urges them to attain higher knowledge (Hebrews 6:1-3), by the danger of apostasy (Hebrews 6:4-8), by his own hope of them founded on their former zeal (Hebrews 6:9-12), and by the encouragement which God’s promise and oath give to persevering faith (Hebrews 6:12-20).
Hebrews 5:13-14
Hebrews 5:13-14 give the reason why the further teaching is hard to explain.For every one who useth milk (takes it as his ordinary food, and can digest nothing else) is unskilled (literally, inexperienced) in the word of righteousness; not in the Gospel as the true and righteous word (Grotius, Brown, and others); not in rightly ordered speech (Delitzsch); not quite the word of righteousness, as Melchisedec is king of righteousness, as if there were a play upon the words (Bleek); but rather, that message, that Gospel of which righteousness, imputed and imparted, in its double form of justification and holiness, is the central truth. The man who fails to see the spiritual significance of the law, or, having once seen it, goes back to his old condition of imperfect vision, neither knows the burden of human guilt and the consequent need of Divine atonement, nor the necessity of true holiness.For he is a babe (an infant), and takes the same place among spiritual seers as an infant takes in the perception of worldly interests. Hebrews 5:14. But solid food belongs to the full grown, to the spiritually mature (so the word often means in Greek writers). It is the same word in Hebrews 6:1 (‘let us go on unto perfection’). Then follows the description of them.Even those who by reason of (by virtue of, not by means of) use (their long use, their habit) have their senses (properly their organs of sense, i.e the inner organs of the soul) exercised (by spiritual gymnastics; only it is healthy work also, and not play; comp. 1 Timothy 4:7, and Hebrews 12:11) to discern (literally, ‘with the view to discriminate between’) good and evil. To discern what is good and noble and what is bad and mischievous. The child is easily imposed upon: he may be induced to take even poison if it is sweetened .to his taste; but a man has learnt by the discrimination which practice gives to make a distinction between things which differ, to ‘refuse the evil and choose the good,’ the very discrimination in which children fail (Deuteronomy 1:39; Isaiah 7:16). To have time for learning, time which is rich in lessons, and make no progress, is itself retrogression. Growth is the condition of all healthy life, physical, mental, spiritual. Not to grow in grace is to become dull and feeble; it is to retain in the system what ought to be replaced by new or added knowledge or feeling. It makes men specially susceptible to disease, and is the sure precursor of decay. The apostolic guard against apostasy is here and elsewhere to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).