Great High Priest

Three OT priesthoods supply the backdrop. First, the order of Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18–20 — "king of Salem… priest of the most high God" — a priesthood without recorded genealogy, predating Abraham, blessing Abraham, receiving tithes from him. Second, the Aaronic institution of Exodus 28–29: garments of glory and beauty, consecration with blood and oil, the breastplate carrying Israel's tribes before the LORD continually. Third, the Day of Atonement of Leviticus 16: the high priest entering the most holy place once a year with the blood of bulls and goats, a yearly remembrance that complete approach was not yet possible. John Owen, in his great Exposition of Hebrews, treats these three as the necessary structure for hearing the Hebrews argument: Melchizedek for order, Aaron for office, the Day of Atonement for action. Above them all stands Psalm 110:4 — "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" — a verse Owen calls the load-bearing pillar of Hebrews' priestly argument; Henry concurs that this Davidic oath supplies the bridge across the Testaments.

The book of Hebrews is the NT's sustained meditation on this title. "Jesus the Son of God, our great high priest" (Heb 4:14) — Owen treats great as a deliberate intensifier marking the discontinuity with all prior priesthoods. The argument unfolds in three steps. First, Hebrews 5:1–10 establishes that every high priest must be appointed by God and must offer a sacrifice; both apply to Christ in heightened mode. Second, Hebrews 7 unfolds the Melchizedek-order claim: a priest forever, not by physical descent but by the power of an indissoluble life. Third, Hebrews 8–10 turns to the once-for-all sacrifice — "by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Heb 9:12). Chrysostom, in his homilies on Hebrews, presses the contrast: the Levitical priests stood daily, their work never done; "this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb 10:12). Calvin draws the practical line at Heb 4:16: the throne of grace is approachable because the priest who sits there is our priest.

Owen develops the implications across his seven volumes on Hebrews. The title settles three things at once. First, atonement: the priestly work is finished — tetelestai on the cross is also a priestly word, and Hebrews 10's "one sacrifice for sins for ever" makes the finishedness structural. Second, intercession: the same priest who sacrificed continues — "he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb 7:25) — so the believer's standing before God is not merely retrospective (paid for) but ongoing (held). Third, access: the rent veil (Heb 10:19–20) is framed in priestly language; the way into the most holy place is now open, not by Levitical privilege but by the new and living way the great high priest has consecrated. Calvin notes the pastoral force: the priesthood does not stand between the believer and Christ — it is Christ's, and so the believer comes through Christ rather than around him. Chrysostom's homilies repeatedly press the consolation: this priest knows our weakness because he was tempted in all points like us, yet without sin (Heb 4:15).