ACC ~ Hebrews 5 v1 - 6

A PROOF FOR THE WEAK. CHRYSOSTOM: The blessed Paul wishes to show that this covenant is far better than the old. He does this by first laying down remote considerations … just as in the epistle to the Romans, having argued that faith effects that which the labor of the law or the sweat of the daily life could not, an argument of which they were not easily persuaded … so now here also he opens out the other path of the priesthood, showing its superiority from the things which happened before. And as, in the matter of punishment, he brings before them not hell alone, but also what happened to their ancestors, so now here also, he first establishes this position from things present. For it were right indeed that earthly things should be proved from heavenly, but when the hearers are weak, the opposite course is taken. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 8.1.

HE DID NOT USURP THE PRIESTHOOD. EPHREM THE SYRIAN: And in consequence of his weakness Jesus “felt a proper compassion” for sins, because he had clothed himself with the flesh of sin. And he had the duty “to offer a sacrifice both for his people and for himself and his sins.” He did not obtain the high priesthood by usurpation, but just like Aaron, whom God elected with the leafy staff. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 5.

NOT AN ANGEL BUT A HUMAN BEING. THEODORET OF CYR: Even under the law it was not an angel that was appointed to act as priest for human beings but a human being for human beings, with the same nature, affected by the same passions, understanding the weakness of nature, assigning pardon to the recalcitrant, offering a hand to sinners, treating what affects the neighbor as his own. This is the very reason he is appointed to offer sacrifices not for the people alone but also for himself. INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 5.

HE IS CALLED BY GOD AS AARON WAS. THEODORET OF CYR: The one receiving appointment from God is the lawful high priest; this was the way Aaron, the first high priest, received the honor. The divine apostle said this, of course, not intending to inform us now of the norms for high priesthood, but to lay the groundwork for a treatment of the Lord’s high priesthood. INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 5.

JESUS DID NOT EXALT HIMSELF. PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS: The rites of consecration and those being consecrated denote the mystery that the performer of consecration in love of God is the exponent of the choice of the divinity. It is not by virtue of any personal worth that the hierarch summons those about to be consecrated, but rather it is God who inspires him in every hierarchic sanctification. Thus Moses, the consecrator in the hierarchy of the law, did not confer a clerical consecration on Aaron, who was his brother, whom he knew to be a friend of God and worthy of the priesthood, until God himself commanded him to do so, thereby permitting him to bestow, in the name of God who is the source of all consecration, the fullness of a clerical consecration. And yet our own first and divine consecrator—for Jesus in his endless love for us took on this task—“did not exalt himself,” as Scripture declares. Rather, the consecrator was the one “who said to him … ‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’” ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY 5.3.5.

BECAUSE OF YOUR SALVATION. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: He whom presently you scorn was once transcendent over even you. He who is presently human was incomposite. He remained what he was; what he was not he assumed. No “be-cause” is required for his existence in the beginning,for what could account for the existence of God? But later he came into being because of something, namely, your salvation, yours who insult him and despise his Godhead for that very reason, because he took on your thick corporeality. Through the medium of the mind he had dealings with the flesh, being made that God on earth which is human. Human and God blended; they became a single whole, the stronger side predominating, in order that I might be made God to the same extent that he was made man. He was begotten—yet he was already begotten—of a woman. ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 3(29).19.

“FOREVER” REFERS TO PRESENT SACRIFICING PRIESTS. OECUMENIUS: The word makes clear that if Christ himself offered a sacrifice not unstained with blood—for he offered his own blood—then in contrast the priests who derive their office from him (whomever God and the high priest deem worthy to be priests) will bring a sacrifice untainted by blood. For the phrase foreverreveals this. For he did not speak to the sacrifice and offering made once and for all when he said “forever,” but he had in mind the present sacrificing priests, by means of whom Christ sacrifices and is sacrificed, who also gives to those in the mystic supper the character of such a sacrifice. FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 5.6.

Heb