Hebrews 5

Every high priest is chosen from among people and appointed to act for them in matters that have to do with God. His work is to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

1For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:

NoteThe high priest was the single chief priest of Israel, descended from Aaron, who supervised worship at the temple and alone entered the innermost room of the sanctuary, once a year, on the Day of Atonement. "Gifts and sacrifices" is a pair covering the whole range of what was brought to the altar: grain, drink and thanksgiving offerings as well as slaughtered animals.

2He is able to be gentle with people who do not know any better and with people who have wandered off the right path, because he himself is surrounded by weakness.

2Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

NoteThe King James "them that are out of the way" does not mean people who are out of the road or out of sight. It means people who have strayed off the path, gone wrong. "Compassed with infirmity" means fenced in or surrounded by weakness: the priest is hemmed in by the same frailty as the people he serves.

3Because of that weakness, he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people.

3And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.

NoteUnder the law the high priest had to present an offering for his own sin before he could present one for the people. On the Day of Atonement he killed a bull for himself and his household first, and only then the goat for the nation.

4No one takes this honor for himself. A man has it only when God calls him, just as God called Aaron.

4And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

NoteAaron was Moses' older brother and the first high priest of Israel. The point of naming him is that he did not apply for the office or seize it; it was assigned to him by God, and the priesthood after him passed down through his family line.

5In the same way, Christ did not hand himself the glory of becoming a high priest. It was given to him by the One who said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father."

5So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

NoteThe quoted line is from Psalm 2, a psalm sung at the crowning of a king. The King James "to day have I begotten thee" and the rendering's "today I have become your Father" translate the same phrase: in its original setting it was the formal declaration that made the king God's adopted son on the day he took the throne.

6God also says in another passage, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchisedec."

6As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

NoteMelchisedec (also spelled Melchizedek) appears in only one short episode in Genesis, where he is called king of Salem and priest of God Most High, and he blesses Abraham and receives a tenth of the spoils. The line quoted here is from Psalm 110. "After the order of" means belonging to that kind or class of priesthood, as opposed to the hereditary line that ran through Aaron.

7During the days when Jesus lived here in a human body, he offered prayers and requests, with loud cries and tears, to the One who was able to save him from death. And he was heard, because he treated God with deep respect.

7Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Note"In the days of his flesh" is an idiom for the stretch of time when he was living an ordinary mortal life. The last clause is genuinely ambiguous in the Greek. The word behind the King James "feared" means reverent awe rather than fright, so the sentence can mean "he was heard because of his reverence," which is how the rendering takes it; but some read it as "he was heard and released from what he dreaded."

8Even though he was a Son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered.

8Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

NoteThere is a pun here that no English version can carry: the Greek words for "learned" and "suffered" differ by a single letter, emathen and epathen. Ancient writers used the pairing as a proverb, roughly "learning comes by suffering."

9And having been brought to completion, he became the source of salvation that lasts forever for everyone who obeys him.

9And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Note"Made perfect" translates a Greek verb meaning brought to completion, finished, or brought all the way to its intended goal. It does not suggest that something faulty was corrected. The same verb was the standard phrase in the Greek Old Testament for installing a priest in office.

10God named him a high priest in the order of Melchisedec.

10Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you have become slow to listen.

11Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

Note"Hard to be uttered" means hard to put into words, difficult to explain, not forbidden to say. "Dull of hearing" translates a word meaning sluggish or lazy; the complaint is about the listeners' effort, not their hearing.

12By this time you ought to be teachers. Instead, you need someone to teach you all over again the first and most basic truths of God's word. You have become people who need milk, not solid food.

12For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Note"The oracles of God" means the things God has said, God's own utterances, which for these readers meant the Hebrew scriptures. "First principles" translates a word used for the letters of the alphabet and so for the ABCs of any subject. And in 1611 English "meat" meant food of any kind, so "strong meat" is solid food rather than flesh specifically.

13Anyone who lives on milk is still a baby and has no experience with the message about what is right.

13For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

Note"Unskilful" here means inexperienced or untrained, not clumsy. Teachers in the ancient world commonly sorted their students this way, with milk for beginners and solid food for those further along; the writer is using a familiar classroom image, not inventing one.

14But solid food is for grown-ups, for those who through steady practice have trained themselves to tell the difference between good and evil.

14But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Note"Of full age" means grown up, mature. "Senses" means the faculties of perception, the way taste or touch or an ear for music can be trained, and "exercised" translates a word taken from athletic training in the gymnasium: these are perceptions drilled into shape by repeated practice.