Chapter 5

¹For every high priest who is chosen from among men is appointed to represent his fellow-men in their relations with God, and to offer gifts and sin-offerings. ²He can sympathize with the ignorant and misguided because he is himself subject to weakness, ³and on this account he is obliged to offer sacrifices for sin, not only for the people but for himself as well. ⁴And no one takes the office upon himself, but men assume it only when called to it by God, as Aaron was. ⁵So even Christ did not claim for himself the dignity of the high priesthood, but he was appointed to it by him who said to him,

“You are my Son! I have today become your Father!”

⁶For he says in another passage,

“You are a priest forever of the priesthood of Melchizedek.”

⁷For Jesus in his life on earth offered prayers and entreaties, crying aloud with tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and because of his piety his prayer was heard. ⁸And although he was a son, he learned to obey, through what he suffered, ⁹and when he was fully qualified, he became a source of unending salvation for all who obey him, ¹⁰since God pronounced him a high priest of the priesthood of Melchizedek.

¹¹I have much to say to you about this, but it is difficult to make it clear to you, because you have become so slow of apprehension. ¹²For although from the length of your Christian experience you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very elements of Christian truth, and you have come to need milk instead of solid food. ¹³For anyone who is limited to milk is unacquainted with Christian teaching, for he is only an infant. ¹⁴But full-grown men have a right to solid food, for their faculties are trained by practice to distinguish right and wrong.