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Hebrews

Hebrewschapter 5

14 verses · BSBHebrews book hub →

Speaks with:Hebrews 10×2Hebrews 7×2Hebrews 9×2Hebrews 6×21 Peter 2×2Hebrews 8×1

Summary

Chapter summary

Priesthood defined from the ground up: every high priest is taken from among men, bears gently with the erring because he is himself compassed with infirmity, and takes the honor not to himself. So Christ glorified not himself; God said 'Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek' (Psalm 110:4, the verse this letter mines deeper than anyone). In the days of his flesh he offered prayers with strong crying and tears, and 'though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered' (5:8). Then the rebuke: you are dull of hearing and need milk, when solid food belongs to the fullgrown.

Context

Epistle · Unknown — Hebrews overview

  • A. 1–10 Called of God as Aaron Was — and After Melchizedek
  • B. 11–14 Still on Milk: Dull of Hearing

The outline

  1. A.Called of God as Aaron Was — and After Melchizedekvv. 1 to 10

    Read vv. 1 to 10 →

  2. B.Still on Milk: Dull of Hearingvv. 11 to 14

    Read vv. 11 to 14 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Sit thou at my right hand

Pattern

Psalm 110 is the Old Testament chapter the New Testament reaches for most. Its first verse seats David's Lord at the right hand of God, and its oath makes him a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord, Peter, and Hebrews each build an argument on its exact words.

One psalm supplies the question that silenced the Pharisees, the spine of the first Pentecost sermon, and the priesthood argument of Hebrews. The verse David wrote only resolves if the son of David is also David's Lord.

  1. Psalms 110:1

    The Lord said unto my Lord

  2. Psalms 110:4

    A priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek

  3. Matthew 22:44

    The question no man could answer

    If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

  4. Acts 2:34-35

    Peter's Pentecost argument

    For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself.

  5. Hebrews 1:13

    To which of the angels said he at any time

  6. Hebrews 5:6 you are here

    The Melchizedek priesthood taken up

The world behind this chapter

Hebrews 5
When
The last years before the fall of Jerusalem · c. AD 64–68
Where
How the high priesthood worked, and a rebuke for hearers who had stopped growing
Who first heard it
People who had been believers long enough to teach and were still asking beginners' questions

The history

The high priest's job description in this chapter is accurate to the office. He was taken from among the people, appointed rather than self-chosen, offered gifts and sacrifices, and — because the Law required it — offered for his own sins first, on the Day of Atonement, before he could offer for the nation's.

By the first century the office had been badly compromised. Rome and the Herods appointed and removed high priests at will, and Josephus records the trade in the position. Hearers knew the difference between the office as God set it up and the men currently holding it.

Melchizedek enters here and will dominate chapter 7. He appears in only two places in the Hebrew Scriptures — a few verses in Genesis and one line in Psalm 110 — and Jewish writings of the period speculated about him considerably, including a text found at Qumran.

Milk and solid food was a standard picture in ancient teaching for beginners and the advanced. The word for those trained by practice comes from the gymnasium: skill built by repetition, not by hearing more lectures.

What it meant to them

The hearers were told, bluntly, that they ought to be teachers by now and were not. That stings, and it is meant to; the sermon is trying to shake people out of a comfortable plateau before the pressure breaks them.

Between the two priesthood paragraphs sits the picture of Jesus praying with loud cries and tears and learning obedience through suffering. For people suffering, that is not decoration; it is the reason he is trusted with the office.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Hebrews 5. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 4 · A picture of Christ

Aaron's called high-priesthood foreshadows Christ's appointed priesthood.

Exodus 28:1→

“Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests.

Heb 5:4-5

v. 5 · Quoted here

same line: Hebrews, Christ's high-priestly appointment.

Psalms 2:7→

I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the LORD: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 6 · Quoted here · A picture of Christ

'a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec': Hebrews.

Psalms 110:4→

The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

public-domain commentaries in agreement

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 110; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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