Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Hebrews 4:14-5:10, A high priest who can sympathize
Jesus is a great high priest who has passed through the heavens and was tested in every way, yet without sin, so his people can approach the throne of grace with confidence. Like every high priest he was appointed by God, not self-chosen, and God named him a priest for ever in the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 4:14-5:10, in every translation this tool compares.
Here the writer opens the theme that fills the middle of his letter, Jesus as high priest. Because Jesus faced every kind of testing without sinning, his people can approach God's throne with confidence instead of fear. A high priest, the writer explains, must share the weakness of those he represents and must be appointed by God, and Jesus meets both conditions, called by God as a priest in the line of Melchizedek and made perfect through suffering.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/high-priest\/","n":"The high priest","s":"The head of Israel's priests, from Aaron's line, who offered for his own sins and then the people's and alone went into the holy of holies, once a year. By the first century Herod and Rome named and removed him at will.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/day-of-atonement\/","n":"The Day of Atonement and the mercy seat","s":"Once a year the high priest went into the holy of holies with sacrificial blood, for his own sins and then the nation's. It was the one fast the law commanded, and the mercy seat on the ark was the place the blood was brought.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/melchizedek\/","n":"Melchizedek, priest-king of Salem","s":"The king of Salem and priest of God Most High who blessed Abram and received a tenth of the spoil (Genesis 14). Psalm 110 promised a priest for ever in his order, and some Jews of the period made him a heavenly figure.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
The ark stood for God's throne, but it sat out of reach in the holy of holies, which only the high priest entered, and he on a single day each year (Keener). Philo made the divine Word God's high priest and played down the human high priest's full humanity; Hebrews goes the other way, and its source is Psalm 110:4 (Keener). The ESV Study Bible draws three marks of a high priest from 5:1-4: he is human and deals gently with the weak, he offers sacrifices for others and for himself, and God appoints him. In Judea in the writer's day the office was a political favor granted by Rome, and later by Agrippa II (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes); Price and House write that before the revolt of 66 the Roman procurators "took over assigning the high priests". Rome had its own high priest, the pontifex maximus, but Keener holds that the model here comes from the Old Testament. The pun learned and suffered, emathen and epathen, was common in Greek writing (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Keener thinks the loud cries and tears of 5:7 more likely recall Gethsemane than a psalm.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Hebrews 4:14-5:10, and on Hebrews 4:15, 4:16, 5:1-3, 5:4, 5:5, 5:6, 5:7 and 5:8-10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Hebrews 4:15, 5:4 and 5:8
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Hebrews 5:1-4 and 5:5-6
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Matthew 24:1-2 The Destruction of the Temple Mount
