5
“It Was God Who Exalted Him in Honor”
1 In the case of any high priest, you see, since it is his fellow-men from whom he is chosen, it is as a representative of his fellow-men that he is appointed in service to God, so that he may present sacrifices and offerings to atone for their sins,
2 being able to have in his dealings with those who sin ignorantly a compassionate heart, since he, too, is himself beset by weakness.
3 In fact, because he himself is weak, a high priest is required, just as he is with respect to the sins of the people, likewise to present a sin offering to atone, too, for his own sins.
4 And it is not upon himself that one confers this honorable office; on the contrary, a high priest must be chosen by God, just as Aaron was.
5 In the same way, the Messiah, too, did not bestow the honor of being a high priest upon himself. No, it was God who exalted him in honor, saying to him,
“ˢYou are my Son!
I, on this day, anoint you as my chosen king,”+
6 and saying, too, in another place,
“ˢYou are a priest, forever into the ages, in the order of Melchizedek.”+
7 This priest, during his time in a state of weakness and mortality, having presented prayers and pleas for help, with intense shouts and tears, to the one who had the power to save him from death, and having been answered because of his humble and reverent submission,
8 even though he was God’s Son, learned obedience as a result of the things he suffered,
9 and, having been fully and finally consecrated for priestly service, became for all who obey him the source of a salvation that endures forever into the ages,
10 having been dubbed by God high priest “in the order of Melchizedek.”
11 Although in regard to this matter there is so much we have to say, it is difficult to explain, since you have become so dull and negligent.
12 Indeed, though you ought to be teachers by this point, you need someone to take you back to the beginning and reteach you the elementary truths of the oracles of God; you are back to needing milk, not yet ready for solid food.
13 Anyone who can only drink milk, you see, is still an infant, inexperienced in the teaching about righteousness.
14 It is the mature, rather, to whom solid food is given, to those whose powers of discernment, through disciplined and repeated exercise, have been well trained, and so can skillfully distinguish good from evil.