Hebrews5chapter 5

Hebrews 5:1-3

Every high priest is taken from among men and ordained for men in things pertaining to God, a mediator drawn from the same stock as those he represents, offering both gifts and sacrifices for sins. His own weakness is not a disqualification but a qualification for compassion, he can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way because he himself is compassed with infirmity. That same weakness obligates him to offer for his own sins as well as the people's, a limitation Aaron's line could never escape and Christ's priesthood, taken up next, does not share.

Hebrews 5:4

The priesthood is not a role a man assumes by ambition or ability; no man taketh this honour unto himself, but only the one called of God, Aaron the standing example under the law. The principle prepares the ground for verse 5, since if Aaron needed a divine call to a lesser priesthood, the greater priesthood about to be described needs one no less. Self-appointment disqualifies; only the call validates.

Hebrews 5:5-6

Christ did not glorify himself into the priesthood either, but was called by the same Father who called Aaron, and the writer proves it by joining two psalms as one testimony. Psalm 2:7's Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee, already cited at 1:5 for sonship, is now paired with Psalm 110:4, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec, sonship and priesthood united in the one oracle. The order named, Melchisedec rather than Aaron, marks the argument the letter unfolds across chapter 7.

Hebrews 5:7

The days of his flesh point plainly to Gethsemane, prayers and supplications offered with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. He was heard in that he feared, not spared the cross but strengthened to face it, the Father's answer coming as resurrection rather than removal from the hour. The verse grounds the great high priest's compassion in a real and costly experience rather than a theoretical sympathy.

Hebrews 5:8-9

Though he were a Son, a relationship never in question, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, the verb marking experiential knowledge gained through trial rather than any prior deficiency being corrected. Being made perfect through that suffering, teleiotheis, the letter's perfecting thread again, he became the author of eternal salvation, not merely its teacher but its source, to all them that obey him. Obedience answers obedience, his learned through suffering, theirs required for salvation's application.

Hebrews 5:10

The title Melchisedec's order receives here is repeated for emphasis, called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec, the same oracle of Psalm 110:4 closing the paragraph it opened at verse 6. The writer signals that this order deserves full explanation and is about to interrupt himself to give the readers what they need before they can receive it. The interruption itself becomes the next paragraph's subject.

Hebrews 5:11-12

Of whom, Melchisedec, there is much to say and hard to utter, not because the truth is obscure but because the readers are dull of hearing, nothros, a spiritual sluggishness rather than a natural limit. Their state is measured against time, for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again of the first principles, milk rather than the strong meat their maturity should already have earned. The rebuke is pastoral, aimed at drawing them forward rather than shaming them into place.

Hebrews 5:13-14

Milk suits the babe because he is unskilful in the word of righteousness, untrained in applying truth to conduct and discernment. Strong meat belongs to them of full age, whose senses are exercised by use, gymnasium language, to discern both good and evil, maturity measured by trained perception rather than years alone. The chapter closes on the edge of the exhortation that opens chapter 6, leaving the principles behind to go on unto perfection.