Hebrews 3:1-5:10

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

III. Jesus, Faithful and Compassionate High Priest

Chapter 3

Jesus, Superior to Moses.^[a] ¹Therefore, holy “brothers,” sharing in a heavenly calling, reflect on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, ²who was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was “faithful in [all] his house.”^(A) ³But he is worthy of more “glory” than Moses, as the founder of a house has more “honor” than the house itself.^(B) ⁴Every house is founded by someone, but the founder of all is God. ⁵Moses was “faithful in all his house” as a “servant” to testify to what would be spoken, ⁶^[b]^(C)but Christ was faithful as a son placed over his house. We are his house, if [only] we hold fast to our confidence and pride in our hope.

Israel’s Infidelity a Warning. ⁷^[c]Therefore, as the holy Spirit says:

“Oh, that today you would hear his voice,^(D)
⁸    ‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion
        in the day of testing in the desert,
⁹    where your ancestors tested and tried me
        and saw my works^(E) ¹⁰for forty years.
    Because of this I was provoked with that generation
        and I said, “They have always been of erring heart,
        and they do not know my ways.”
¹¹    As I swore in my wrath,
        “They shall not enter into my rest.”’”

¹²Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. ¹³Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. ¹⁴We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end,^(F) ¹⁵for it is said:

“Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.’”^(G)

¹⁶^(H)Who were those who rebelled when they heard? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt under Moses? ¹⁷With whom was he “provoked for forty years”? Was it not those who had sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert?^(I) ¹⁸And to whom did he “swear that they should not enter into his rest,” if not to those who were disobedient?^(J) ¹⁹And we see that they could not enter for lack of faith.

Chapter 4

The Sabbath Rest. ¹Therefore, let us be on our guard while the promise of entering into his rest remains, that none of you seem to have failed. ²For in fact we have received the good news just as they did. But the word that they heard did not profit them, for they were not united in faith with those who listened. ³For we who believed enter into [that] rest, just as he has said:^(K)

“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter into my rest,’”

and yet his works were accomplished at the foundation of the world. ⁴For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works”;^(L) ⁵and again, in the previously mentioned place, “They shall not enter into my rest.”^(M) ⁶Therefore, since it remains that some will enter into it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, ⁷he once more set a day, “today,” when long afterwards he spoke through David, as already quoted:^(N)

“Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
‘Harden not your hearts.’”

⁸Now if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterwards of another day.^(O) ⁹Therefore, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. ¹⁰And whoever enters into God’s rest, rests from his own works as God did from his. ¹¹Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.

¹²Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.^(P) ¹³No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.^(Q)

Jesus, Compassionate High Priest. ¹⁴^[d]Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.^(R) ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.^(S) ¹⁶So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.^(T)

Chapter 5

¹^[e]Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.^[f] ²He is able to deal patiently^[g] with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness ³and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.^(U) ⁴No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.^(V) ⁵In the same way, it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest, but rather the one who said to him:

“You are my son;
this day I have begotten you”;^(W)

⁶just as he says in another place:^[h]

“You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.”^(X)

⁷In the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death,^[i] and he was heard because of his reverence.^(Y) ⁸Son though he was,^[j] he learned obedience from what he suffered;^(Z) ⁹and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,^(AA) ¹⁰declared by God high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.^(AB)

Footnotes

3:1–6 The author now takes up the two qualities of Jesus mentioned in Hb 2:17, but in inverse order: faithfulness (Hb 3:1–4:13) and mercy (Hb 4:14–5:10). Christians are called holy “brothers” because of their common relation to him (Hb 2:11), the apostle, a designation for Jesus used only here in the New Testament (cf. Jn 13:16; 17:3), meaning one sent as God’s final word to us (Hb 1:2). He is compared with Moses probably because he is seen as mediator of the new covenant (Hb 9:15) just as Moses was of the old (Hb 9:19–22, including his sacrifice). But when the author of Hebrews speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice, he does not consider Moses as the Old Testament antitype, but rather the high priest on the Day of Atonement (Hb 9:6–15). Moses’ faithfulness “in [all] his house” refers back to Nm 12:7, on which this section is a midrashic commentary. In Hb 3:3–6, the author does not indicate that he thinks of either Moses or Christ as the founder of the household. His house (Hb 3:2, 5, 6) means God’s house, not that of Moses or Christ; in the case of Christ, compare Hb 3:6 with Hb 10:21. The house of Hb 3:6 is the Christian community; the author suggests its continuity with Israel by speaking not of two houses but of only one. Hb 3:6 brings out the reason why Jesus is superior to Moses: the latter was the faithful servant laboring in the house founded by God, but Jesus is God’s son, placed over the house.
3:6 The majority of manuscripts add “firm to the end,” but these words are not found in the three earliest and best witnesses and are probably an interpolation derived from Hb 3:14.
3:7–4:13 The author appeals for steadfastness of faith in Jesus, basing his warning on the experience of Israel during the Exodus. In the Old Testament the Exodus had been invoked as a symbol of the return of Israel from the Babylonian exile (Is 42:9; 43:16–21; 51:9–11). In the New Testament the redemption was similarly understood as a new exodus, both in the experience of Jesus himself (Lk 9:31) and in that of his followers (1 Cor 10:1–4). The author cites Ps 95:7–11, a salutary example of hardness of heart, as a warning against the danger of growing weary and giving up the journey. To call God living (Hb 3:12) means that he reveals himself in his works (cf. Jos 3:10; Jer 10:11). The rest (Hb 3:11) into which Israel was to enter was only a foreshadowing of that rest to which Christians are called. They are to remember the example of Israel’s revolt in the desert that cost a whole generation the loss of the promised land (Hb 3:15–19; cf. Nm 14:20–29). In Hb 4:1–11, the symbol of rest is seen in deeper dimension: because the promise to the ancient Hebrews foreshadowed that given to Christians, it is good news; and because the promised land was the place of rest that God provided for his people, it was a share in his own rest, which he enjoyed after he had finished his creative work (Hb 3:3–4; cf. Gn 2:2). The author attempts to read this meaning of God’s rest into Ps 95:7–11 (Hb 3:6–9). The Greek form of the name of Joshua, who led Israel into the promised land, is Jesus (Hb 3:8). The author plays upon the name but stresses the superiority of Jesus, who leads his followers into heavenly rest. Hb 3:12, 13 are meant as a continuation of the warning, for the word of God brings judgment as well as salvation. Some would capitalize the word of God and see it as a personal title of Jesus, comparable to that of Jn 1:1–18.
4:14–16 These verses, which return to the theme first sounded in Hb 2:16–3:1, serve as an introduction to the section that follows. The author here alone calls Jesus a great high priest (Hb 4:14), a designation used by Philo for the Logos; perhaps he does so in order to emphasize Jesus’ superiority over the Jewish high priest. He has been tested in every way, yet without sin (Hb 4:15); this indicates an acquaintance with the tradition of Jesus’ temptations, not only at the beginning (as in Mk 1:13) but throughout his public life (cf. Lk 22:28). Although the reign of the exalted Jesus is a theme that occurs elsewhere in Hebrews, and Jesus’ throne is mentioned in Hb 1:8, the throne of grace (Hb 4:16) refers to the throne of God. The similarity of Hb 4:16 to Hb 10:19–22 indicates that the author is thinking of our confident access to God, made possible by the priestly work of Jesus.
5:1–10 The true humanity of Jesus (see note on Hb 2:5–18) makes him a more rather than a less effective high priest to the Christian community. In Old Testament tradition, the high priest was identified with the people, guilty of personal sin just as they were (Hb 5:1–3). Even so, the office was of divine appointment (Hb 5:4), as was also the case with the sinless Christ (Hb 5:5). For Hb 5:6, see note on Ps 110:4. Although Jesus was Son of God, he was destined as a human being to learn obedience by accepting the suffering he had to endure (Hb 5:8). Because of his perfection through this experience of human suffering, he is the cause of salvation for all (Hb 5:9), a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Hb 5:10; cf. Hb 5:6 and Hb 7:3).
5:1 To offer gifts and sacrifices for sins: the author is thinking principally of the Day of Atonement rite, as is clear from Hb 9:7. This ritual was celebrated to atone for “all the sins of the Israelites” (Lv 16:34).
5:2 Deal patiently: the Greek word metriopathein occurs only here in the Bible; this term was used by the Stoics to designate the golden mean between excess and defect of passion. Here it means rather the ability to sympathize.
5:6–8 The author of Hebrews is the only New Testament writer to cite Ps 110:4, here and in Hb 7:17, 21, to show that Jesus has been called by God to his role as priest. Hb 5:7–8 deal with his ability to sympathize with sinners, because of his own experience of the trials and weakness of human nature, especially fear of death. In his present exalted state, weakness is foreign to him, but he understands what we suffer because of his previous earthly experience.
5:7 He offered prayers…to the one who was able to save him from death: at Gethsemane (cf. Mk 14:35), though some see a broader reference (see note on Jn 12:27).
5:8 Son though he was: two different though not incompatible views of Jesus’ sonship coexist in Hebrews, one associating it with his exaltation, the other with his preexistence. The former view is the older one (cf. Rom 1:4).

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

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