The Perfect High Priest

5 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed [to act] on behalf of men in things relating to God, so that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He is able to deal gently with the spiritually ignorant and misguided, since he is also subject to human weakness; ³ and because of this [human weakness] he is required to offer sacrifices for sins, for himself as well as for the people. ⁴ And besides, one does not appropriate for himself the honor [of being high priest], but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.

⁵ So too Christ did not glorify Himself so as to be made a high priest, but He [was exalted and appointed by the One] who said to Him,

⁶ just as He also says in another place,

⁷ In the days of His earthly life, Jesus offered up both [specific] petitions and [urgent] supplications [for that which He needed] with fervent crying and tears to the One who was [always] able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission toward God [His sinlessness and His unfailing determination to do the Father’s will]. ⁸ Although He was a Son [who had never been disobedient to the Father], He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered. ⁹ And having been made perfect [uniquely equipped and prepared as Savior and retaining His integrity amid opposition], He became the source of eternal salvation [an eternal inheritance] to all those who obey Him,^{(C) 10} being designated by God as High Priest according to the order of ^[b]Melchizedek.^(D)

¹¹ Concerning this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull and sluggish in [your spiritual] hearing and disinclined to listen. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers [because of the time you have had to learn these truths], you actually need someone to teach you again the elementary principles of God’s word [from the beginning], and you have come to be continually in need of milk, not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who lives on milk is [doctrinally inexperienced and] unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a spiritual infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the [spiritually] mature, whose senses are trained by practice to distinguish between what is morally good and what is evil.

The Peril of Falling Away

6 Therefore let us get past the elementary stage in the teachings about the Christ, advancing on to maturity and perfection and spiritual completeness, [doing this] without laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, ² of teaching about washings (ritual purifications), the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. [These are all important matters in which you should have been proficient long ago.] ³ And we will do this [that is, proceed to maturity], if God permits. ⁴ For [it is impossible to restore to repentance] those who have once been enlightened [spiritually] and who have ^[c]tasted and consciously experienced the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted and consciously experienced the good word of God and the powers of the age (world) to come, ^6 [d]and then have fallen away—it is impossible to bring them back again to repentance, since they again nail the Son of God on the cross [for as far as they are concerned, they are treating the death of Christ as if they were not saved by it], and are holding Him up again to public disgrace. ⁷ For soil that drinks the rain which often falls on it and produces crops useful to those for whose benefit it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God; ⁸ but if it persistently produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.^(E)

Better Things for You

⁹ But, beloved, even though we speak to you in this way, ^[e]we are convinced of better things concerning you, and of things that accompany salvation. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown for His name in ministering to [the needs of] the saints (God’s people), as you do. ¹¹ And we desire for each one of you to show the same diligence [all the way through] so as to realize and enjoy the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹² so that you will not be [spiritually] sluggish, but [will instead be] imitators of those who through faith [lean on God with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in His power] and by patient endurance [even when suffering] are [now] inheriting the promises.

¹³ For when God made the promise to Abraham, He swore [an oath] by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, ¹⁴ saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.”^{(F) 15} And so, having patiently waited, he realized the promise [in the miraculous birth of Isaac, as a pledge of what was to come from God]. ¹⁶ Indeed men swear [an oath] by ^[f]one greater than themselves, and with them [in all disputes] the oath serves as confirmation [of what has been said] and is an end of the dispute. ¹⁷ In the same way God, in His desire to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable nature of His purpose, intervened and guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge would have strong encouragement and indwelling strength to hold tightly to the hope set before us. ¹⁹ This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence of God dwells],^{(G) 20} where Jesus has entered [in advance] as a forerunner for us, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of ^[g]Melchizedek.^(H)

Melchizedek’s Priesthood Like Christ’s

7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he returned from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, ² and Abraham gave him a tenth of all [the spoil]. He is, first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, which means king of peace. ³ Without [^[h]any record of] father or mother, nor ancestral line, without [any record of] beginning of days (birth) nor ending of life (death), but having been made like the Son of God, he remains a priest without interruption and without successor.

⁴ Now pause and consider how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the spoils. ⁵ It is true that those descendants of Levi who are charged with the priestly office are commanded in the Law to collect tithes from the people—which means, from their kinsmen—though these have descended from Abraham. ⁶ But this person [Melchizedek] who is not from their Levitical ancestry received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who possessed the promises [of God]. ⁷ Yet it is beyond all dispute that the lesser person is always blessed by the greater one. ⁸ Furthermore, here [in the Levitical priesthood] tithes are received by men who are subject to death; but in that case [concerning Melchizedek], they are received by one of whom it is testified that he ^[i]lives on [perpetually]. ⁹ A person might even say that Levi [the father of the priestly tribe] himself, who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham [the father of all Israel and of all who believe], ¹⁰ for Levi was still in the loins (unborn) of his forefather [Abraham] when Melchizedek met him (Abraham).

¹¹ Now if perfection [a perfect fellowship between God and the worshiper] had been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people were given the Law) what further need was there for another and different kind of priest to arise, one in the manner of Melchizedek, rather than one appointed to the order of Aaron? ¹² For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is of necessity a change of the law [concerning the priesthood] as well. ¹³ For the One of whom these things are said belonged [not to the priestly line of Levi but] to another tribe, from which no one has officiated or served at the altar. ¹⁴ For it is evident that our Lord descended from [the tribe of] Judah, and Moses mentioned nothing about priests in connection with that tribe. ¹⁵ And this becomes even more evident if another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek,^{(I) 16} who has become a priest, not on the basis of a ^[j]physical and legal requirement in the Law [concerning his ancestry as a descendant of Levi], but on the basis of the power of an indestructible and endless life. ¹⁷ For it is attested [by God] of Him,

¹⁸ For, on the one hand, a former commandment is cancelled because of its weakness and uselessness [because of its inability to justify the sinner before God] ¹⁹ (for the Law never made anything perfect); while on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we now continually draw near to God. ²⁰ And indeed it was not without the taking of an oath [that Christ was made priest] ²¹ (for those Levites who formerly became priests [received their office] without [its being confirmed by the taking of] an oath, but this One [was designated] with an oath through the One who said to Him,

²² And so [because of the oath’s greater strength and force] Jesus has become the certain guarantee of a better covenant [a more excellent and more advantageous agreement; one that will never be replaced or annulled].

²³ The [former successive line of] priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were each prevented by death from continuing [perpetually in office]; ²⁴ but, on the other hand, Jesus holds His priesthood permanently and without change, because He lives on forever. ²⁵ Therefore He is able also to save forever (completely, perfectly, for eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede and intervene on their behalf [with God].

²⁶ It was fitting for us to have such a High Priest [perfectly adapted to our needs], holy, blameless, unstained [by sin], separated from sinners and exalted higher than the heavens; ²⁷ who has no day by day need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices, first of all for his own [personal] sins and then for those of the people, because He [met all the requirements and] did this once for all when He offered up Himself [as a willing sacrifice]. ²⁸ For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak [frail, sinful, dying men], but the word of the oath [of God], which came after [the institution of] the Law, permanently appoints [as priest] a Son ^[k]who has been made perfect forever.^(L)