For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”; just as He says also in another passage, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.” In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
vs 1-10 - the qualifications for high priest are stated in these verses - Aaron serving as the model: (1) he had to be a man (v 1); (2) he had to be compassionate (v 2); (3) he had to be chosen by God (vs 4-6); (4) he had to learn through suffering (vs 7-8)
v 2 - "The high priest must be able to be moderate and tender toward the ignorant. The word is defined by its historical background. In Numbers 15:22-31 we learn that even sins committed through ignorance of God's commandments must be atone for (see also Hebrew 9:7). This was required by the Levitical law as a means of educating the moral perception, also in order to show that sin and defilement might exist unsuspected, that God saw evil where men did not, and that His test of purity was stricter than theirs." (Kenneth S Wuest)
v 4 - called...as Aaron was - see Ex 28:1 - Then bring near to yourself Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the sons of Israel, to minister as priest to Me—Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.
vs 5-6 - (from Ps 2:7 and 110:4) "The begetting of Christ as a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec takes place at the resurrection of Israel's Messiah, and that is what they did not know in the gospels but are learning here. With only the gospels and Acts, the Hebrew people would have no idea as to how their Messiah's cross had benefited them; and it is only from this book of Hebrews that the bigger and better picture emerges." (McLean)
v 7 - offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears - refers to occasions like those of Jn 12:27 - “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour."; and the experience in Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-44)
"The cup for Him in Gethsemane included two things, that He was to be made sin, and that the fellowship between Father and Son would be broken. Our Lord fully expected to be raised out from among the dead. Hence there was no need of such a petition. Furthermore, if He had prayed for escape from physical death, His prayer was not answered. And the writer to the Hebrews says that this prayer spoken of in 5:7 was answered, which shows that escape from physical death was not in the writer's mind. The prayer here was a petition to be saved out from under death. It was a prayer for resurrection, uttered on the Cross. It is believed, and with good reason, that our Lord uttered the entire twenty-second Psalm while hanging on the Cross. It is His own description of what took place there. Verses 1-13 speak of His heart sufferings; those due to His abandonment by God in verses 1-6, those due to the fact that mankind spurned Him in verses 7-13. His physical sufferings are described in verses 14-18. His prayer for resurrection is recorded in verses 19-21, and His thanksgiving for answered prayer in verses 22-31." (Kenneth S Wuest)
"He prayed to be saved "out of death" and was heard because of His perfect submission to the suffering of that supreme horror. That prayer must have been offered more than once (Mk 10:32-34; Jn 11:33; 12:27; Lk 22:44). It was answered in resurrection." (Williams)
v 8 - Son (and thus God) though He was, as the incarnate one He learned obedience through suffering (Isa 50:5-6) for maturing and proving (Lk 2:52)
"The teaching is parallel to that of Philippians 2:8, though there are points of distinction. Each, for example, declares His deity in a different way, the one in regard to His being "in the form of God," the other as to His being His Son. Christ was not taught to obey; He voluntarily passed through the experience of being obedient, and through all the suffering which that experience involved, the while He found His constant satisfaction in fulfilling the Father's will. He learned obedience in that this experience was new to Him." (Vine)
"In the days of His flesh, Christ was learning about life in the flesh of sinful humanity, Christ was not learning how to become equal with God (Col 1:17-19; 2:9)." (McLean)
"As a Son it was necessary that as a Priest He should, through suffering, learn obedience — not learn to be obedient, for that would prove Him to be a sinner — but being sinless He learned obedience in order to have compassion on the ignorant and to sympathize with the feeble." (Williams)
v 9 - to all those who obey Him - obey — hupakouo — means to listen, and then to obey the word spoken
v 10 - according to the order of Melchizedek - "Our Lord could never have been a Levitical priest because He was born of the tribe of Judah (Heb 7:14) and not the tribe of Levi. Thus He must be associated with another order of priests, that of Melchizedek. Both Christ and Melchizedek were men (Heb 7:4; 1 Tim 2:5); both were king-priests (Gen 14:16; Zech 6:12-13); both were appointed directly by God (Heb 7:21); both were called "King of righteousness" and King of peace" (Heb 7:2; Isa 11:5-9)." (Ryrie)
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