@Heb 5:1-14. CHRIST'S HIGH PRIESTHOOD; NEEDED QUALIFICATIONS; MUST BE A MAN; MUST NOT HAVE ASSUMED THE DIGNITY HIMSELF, BUT HAVE BEEN APPOINTED BY GOD; THEIR LOW SPIRITUAL PERCEPTIONS A BAR TO PAUL'S SAYING ALL HE MIGHT ON CHRIST'S MELCHISEDEC-LIKE PRIESTHOOD.
1. For--substantiating @Heb 4:15.
every--that is, every legitimate high priest; for instance, the
Levitical, as he is addressing Hebrews, among whom the Levitical
priesthood was established as the legitimate one. Whatever, reasons
Paul, is excellent in the Levitical priests, is also in Christ, and
besides excellencies which are not in the Levitical priests.
taken from among men--not from among angels, who could not have a
fellow feeling with us men. This qualification Christ has, as being,
like the Levitical priest, a man (@Heb 2:14,16).
Being "from men," He can be "for
(that is, in behalf of, for the good of) men."
ordained--Greek, "constituted," "appointed."
both gifts--to be joined with "for sins," as "sacrifices" is (the
"both . . . and" requires this); therefore not the Hebrew,
"mincha," "unbloody offerings," but animal whole burnt offerings,
spontaneously given. "Sacrifices" are the animal sacrifices
due according to the legal ordinance [ESTIUS].
2. Who can--Greek, "being able"; not pleasing himself (@Ro 15:3).
have compassion--Greek, "estimate mildly," "feel leniently," or
"moderately towards"; "to make allowance for"; not showing stern rigor
save to the obstinate (@Heb 10:28).
ignorant--sins not committed in resistance of light and knowledge,
but as Paul's past sin (@1Ti 1:13). No sacrifice was appointed for
wilful sin committed with a high hand; for such were to be punished with
death; all other sins, namely, ignorances and errors, were confessed and
expiated with sacrifices by the high priest.
out of the way--not deliberately and altogether wilfully erring, but
deluded through the fraud of Satan and their own carnal frailty and
thoughtlessness.
infirmity--moral weakness which is sinful, and makes men capable of
sin, and so requires to be expiated by sacrifices. This kind of
"infirmity" Christ had not; He had the "infirmity" of body whereby He
was capable of suffering and death.
3. by reason hereof--"on account of this" infirmity.
he ought . . . also for himself, to offer for sins--the Levitical
priest ought; in this our High Priest is superior to the Levitical. The
second "for" is a different Greek term from the first;
"in behalf of the people . . . on account of sins."
4. no man--of any other family but Aaron's, according to the Mosaic law, can take to himself the office of high priest. This verse is quoted by some to prove the need of an apostolic succession of ordination in the Christian ministry; but the reference here is to the priesthood, not the Christian ministry. The analogy in our Christian dispensation would warn ministers, seeing that God has separated them from the congregation of His people to bring them near Himself, and to do the service of His house, and to minister (as He separated the Levites, Korah with his company), that content with this, they should beware of assuming the sacrificial priesthood also, which belongs to Christ alone. The sin of Korah was, not content with the ministry as a Levite, he took the sacerdotal priesthood also. No Christian minister, as such, is ever called Hiereus, that is, sacrificing priest. All Christians, without distinction, whether ministers or people, have a metaphorical, not a literal, priesthood. The sacrifices which they offer are spiritual, not literal, their bodies and the fruit of their lips, praises continually (@Heb 13:15). Christ alone had a proper and true sacrifice to offer. The law sacrifices were typical, not metaphorical, as the Christian's, nor proper and true, as Christ's. In Roman times the Mosaic restriction of the priesthood to Aaron's family was violated.
5. glorified not himself--did not assume the glory of the priestly
office of Himself without the call of God (@Joh 8:54).
but he that said--that is, the Father glorified Him or appointed Him
to the priesthood. This appointment was involved in, and was the result
of, the Sonship of Christ, which qualified Him for it. None but the
divine Son could have fulfilled such an office (@Heb 10:5-9). The
connection of Sonship and priesthood is typified in the
Hebrew title for priests being given to David's sons
(@2Sa 8:18). Christ did not constitute Himself the Son of God,
but was from everlasting the only-begotten of the Father. On His
Sonship depended His glorification, and His being called of God
(@Heb 5:10), as Priest.
6. He is here called simply "Priest"; in @Heb 5:5, "High Priest." He is a Priest absolutely, because He stands alone in that character without an equal. He is "High Priest" in respect of the Aaronic type, and also in respect to us, whom He has made priests by throwing open to us access to God [BENGEL]. "The order of Melchisedec" is explained in @Heb 7:15, "the similitude of Melchisedec." The priesthood is similarly combined with His kingly office in @Zec 6:13. Melchisedec was at once man, priest, and king. Paul's selecting as the type of Christ one not of the stock of Abraham, on which the Jews prided themselves, is an intimation of Messianic universalism.
7. in the days of his flesh--(@Heb 2:14 10:20). @Heb 5:7-10
state summarily the subject about to be handled more fully in the
seventh and eighth chapters.
when he had offered--rather, "in that He offered." His crying
and tears were part of the experimental lesson of obedience which He
submitted to learn from the Father (when God was qualifying Him for the
high priesthood). "Who" is to be construed with "learned obedience"
(or rather as Greek, "His obedience"; "the obedience" which we
all know about). This all shows that "Christ glorified not Himself to
be made an High Priest" (@Heb 5:5), but was appointed thereto by the
Father.
prayers and supplications--Greek, "both prayers and
supplications." In Gethsemane, where He prayed thrice, and on the
cross, where He cried, My God, my God . . . probably repeating inwardly
all the twenty-second Psalm. "Prayers" refer to the mind:
"supplications" also to the body (namely, the suppliant attitude)
(@Mt 26:39) [BENGEL].
with strong crying and tears--The "tears" are an additional fact
here communicated to us by the inspired apostle, not recorded in the
Gospels, though implied. @Mt 26:37, "sorrowful and very heavy."
@Mr 14:33 Lu 22:44, "in an agony He prayed more earnestly . . . His
sweat . . . great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
@Ps 22:1 ("roaring . . . cry"), @Ps 22:2,19,21,24 69:3,10, "I
wept."
able to save him from death--@Mr 14:36, "All things are
possible unto Thee" (@Joh 12:27). His cry showed His entire
participation of man's infirmity: His reference of His wish to the will
of God, His sinless faith and obedience.
heard in that he feared--There is no intimation in the twenty-second
Psalm, or the Gospels that Christ prayed to be saved from the mere act
of dying. What He feared was the hiding of the Father's countenance. His
holy filial love must rightly have shrunk from this strange and
bitterest of trials without the imputation of impatience. To have been
passively content at the approach of such a cloud would have been, not
faith, but sin. The cup of death He prayed to be freed from was, not
corporal, but spiritual death, that is, the (temporary) separation of
His human soul from the light of God's countenance. His prayer was
"heard" in His Father's strengthening Him so as to hold fast His
unwavering faith under the trial (My God, my God, was still His
filial cry under it. still claiming God as His, though God hid His
face), and soon removing it in answer to His cry during the darkness on
the cross, "My God, my God," &c. But see below a further explanation
of how He was heard. The Greek literally, is, "Was heard
from His fear," that is, so as to be saved from His fear. Compare
@Ps 22:21, which well accords with this, "Save me from the
lion's mouth (His prayer): thou hast heard me from the horns of the
unicorns." Or what better accords with the strict meaning of the
Greek noun, "in consequence of His
REVERENTIAL FEAR," that is,
in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright
presence of the Father, yet was reverentially cautious by no thought
or word of impatience to give way to a shadow of distrust or want of
perfect filial love. In the same sense @Heb 12:28 uses the noun, and
@Heb 11:7 the verb. ALFORD
somewhat similarly translates, "By
reason of His reverent submission." I prefer "reverent fear." The
word in derivation means the cautious handling of some precious,
yet. delicate vessel, which with ruder handling might easily be broken
[TRENCH].
This fully agrees with Jesus' spirit, "If it be possible . . .
nevertheless not My will, but Thy will be done"; and with the
context, @Heb 5:5, "Glorified not Himself to be made an High
Priest," implying reverent fear: wherein it appears He had the
requisite for the office specified @Heb 5:4, "No man taketh this
honor unto himself." ALFORD
well says, What is true in the Christian's
life, that what we ask from God, though He may not grant in the form we
wish, yet He grants in His own, and that a better form, does not hold
good in Christ's case; for Christ's real prayer, "not My will, but Thine
be done," in consistency with His reverent fear towards the Father, was
granted in the very form in which it was expressed, not in another.
8. Though He WAS (so it ought to be translated: a positive admitted fact: not a mere supposition as were would imply) God's divine Son (whence, even in His agony, He so lovingly and often cried, Father, @Mt 26:39), yet He learned His (so the Greek) obedience, not from His Sonship, but from His sufferings. As the Son, He was always obedient to the Father's will; but the special obedience needed to qualify Him as our High Priest, He learned experimentally in practical suffering. Compare @Php 2:6-8, "equal with God, but . . . took upon Him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death," &c. He was obedient already before His passion, but He stooped to a still more humiliating and trying form of obedience then. The Greek adage is, "Pathemata mathemata," "sufferings, disciplinings." Praying and obeying, as in Christ's case, ought to go hand in hand.
9. made perfect--completed, brought to His goal of learning and
suffering through death (@Heb 2:10)
[ALFORD], namely, at His
glorious resurrection and ascension.
author--Greek, "cause."
eternal salvation--obtained for us in the short "days of Jesus'
flesh" (@Heb 5:7; compare @Heb 5:6, "for ever," @Isa 45:17).
unto all . . . that obey him--As Christ obeyed the Father, so
must we obey Him by faith.
10. Greek, rather, "Addressed by God (by the appellation) High Priest." Being formally recognized by God as High Priest at the time of His being "made perfect" (@Heb 5:9). He was High Priest already in the purpose of God before His passion; but after it, when perfected, He was formally addressed so.
11. Here he digresses to complain of the low spiritual attainments
of the Palestinian Christians and to warn them of the danger of falling
from light once enjoyed; at the same time encouraging them by God's
faithfulness to persevere. At @Heb 6:20 he resumes the comparison
of Christ to Melchisedec.
hard to be uttered--rather as Greek, "hard of interpretation
to speak." Hard for me to state intelligibly to you owing to your
dulness about spiritual things. Hence, instead of saying many things,
he writes in comparatively few words
(@Heb 13:22). In the "we," Paul, as usual, includes Timothy
with himself in addressing them.
ye are--Greek, "ye have become dull" (the Greek, by
derivation, means hard to move): this implies that once, when
first "enlightened," they were earnest and zealous, but had become dull.
That the Hebrew believers AT
JERUSALEM were dull in spiritual
things, and legal in spirit, appears from @Ac 21:20-24, where James
and the elders expressly say of the "thousands of Jews which believe,"
that "they are all zealous of the law"; this was at Paul's last
visit to Jerusalem, after which this Epistle seems to have been written
(see on Heb 5:12,
on "for the time").
12. for the time--considering the long time that you have been
Christians. Therefore this Epistle was not one of those written early.
which be the first principles--Greek, "the
rudiments of the beginning of." A Pauline phrase
(see on Ga 4:3;
Ga 4:9). Ye need not only to be taught
the first elements, but also "which they be." They are
therefore enumerated @Heb 6:1,2
[BENGEL].
ALFORD translates, "That
someone teach you the rudiments"; but the position of the Greek,
"tina," inclines me to take it interrogatively, "which," as
English Version, Syriac, Vulgate, &c.
of the oracles of God--namely, of the Old Testament: instead of seeing
Christ as the end of the Old Testament Scripture, they were relapsing
towards Judaism, so as not only not to be capable of understanding the
typical reference to Christ of such an Old Testament personage as
Melchisedec, but even much more elementary references.
are become--through indolence.
milk . . . not . . . strong meat--"Milk" refers to such fundamental
first principles as he enumerates in @Heb 6:1,2. The solid meat, or food, is not absolutely necessary
for preserving life, but is so
for acquiring greater strength. Especially in the case of the Hebrews,
who were much given to allegorical interpretations of their law, which
they so much venerated, the application of the Old Testament types, to
Christ and His High Priesthood, was calculated much to strengthen them
in the Christian faith [LIMBORCH].
13. useth--Greek, "partaketh," that is, taketh as his portion. Even strong men partake of milk, but do not
make milk their chief, much
less their sole, diet.
the word of righteousness--the Gospel wherein "the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith" (@Ro 1:17), and which is called
"the ministration of righteousness" (@2Co 3:9). This includes the
doctrine of justification and sanctification: the first
principles, as well as the
perfection, of the doctrine of Christ: the nature of
the offices and person of Christ as the true Melchisedec, that is, "King
of righteousness" (compare @Mt 3:15).
14. strong meat--"solid food."
them . . . of full age--literally, "perfect": akin to "perfection"
(@Heb 6:1).
by reason of use--Greek, "habit."
senses--organs of sense.
exercised--similarly connected with "righteousness" in @Heb 12:11.
to discern both good and evil--as a child no longer an infant
(@Isa 7:16): so able to distinguish between sound and unsound
doctrine. The mere child puts into its mouth things hurtful and things
nutritious, without discrimination: but not so the adult. Paul again
alludes to their tendency not to discriminate, but to be carried about
by strange doctrines, in @Heb 13:9.