Add parallel Print Page Options

25 [a]Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.(A)

26 (B)It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:[b] holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens.[c] 27 He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day,[d](C) first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 7:25 To make intercession: the intercession of the exalted Jesus, not the sequel to his completed sacrifice but its eternal presence in heaven; cf. Rom 8:34.
  2. 7:26 This verse with its list of attributes is reminiscent of Hb 7:3 and is perhaps a hymnic counterpart to it, contrasting the exalted Jesus with Melchizedek.
  3. 7:26–28 Jesus is precisely the high priest whom the human race requires, holy and sinless, installed far above humanity (Hb 7:26); one having no need to offer sacrifice daily for sins but making a single offering of himself (Hb 7:27) once for all. The law could only appoint high priests with human limitations, but the fulfillment of God’s oath regarding the priesthood of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4) makes the Son of God the perfect priest forever (Hb 7:28).
  4. 7:27 Such daily sacrifice is nowhere mentioned in the Mosaic law; only on the Day of Atonement is it prescribed that the high priest must offer sacrifice…for his own sins and then for those of the people (Lv 16:11–19). Once for all: this translates the Greek words ephapax/hapax that occur eleven times in Hebrews.