Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brothers so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Jesus Our High Priest

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus;

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin.

The Perfect High Priest

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of people in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;

So too Christ did not glorify Himself in becoming a high priest, but it was He who said to Him, “You are My Son, Today I have fathered You”;

just as He also says in another passage, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

being designated by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek’s Priesthood like Christ’s

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.

And those indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest’s office have a commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their countrymen, although they are descended from Abraham.

So if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses said nothing concerning priests.

And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek,

who has become a priest not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

For it is attested of Him, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

(for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “The Lord has sworn And will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’”);

The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing;

Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.

For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens;

who has no daily need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because He did this once for all time when He offered up Himself.

For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, who has been made perfect forever.

A Better Ministry

Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,