004:006 Since, then, it is still true that some will be admitted to
that rest, and that because of disobedience those who formerly
had Good News proclaimed to them were not admitted,
004:007 He again definitely mentions a certain day, "To-day,"
saying long afterwards, by David's lips, in the words
already quoted, "To-day, if you hear His voice, do not
harden your hearts."
004:008 For if Joshua had given them the true rest, we should not
afterwards hear God speaking of another still future day.
004:009 It follows that there still remains a sabbath rest for the
people of God.
004:010 For He who has been admitted to His rest, has rested from His
works as God did from His.
004:011 Let it then be our earnest endeavour to be admitted to that rest,
so that no one may perish through following the same
example of unbelief.
004:012 For God's Message is full of life and power, and is keener
than the sharpest two-edged sword. It pierces even to
the severance of soul from spirit, and penetrates between
the joints and the marrow, and it can discern the secret
thoughts and purposes of the heart.
004:013 And no created thing is able to escape its scrutiny;
but everything lies bare and completely exposed before the eyes
of Him with whom we have to do.
004:014 Inasmuch, then, as we have in Jesus, the Son of God,
a great High Priest who has passed into Heaven itself,
let us hold firmly to our profession of faith.
004:015 For we have not a High Priest who is unable to feel for us
in our weaknesses, but one who was tempted in every respect
just as we are tempted, and yet did not sin.
004:016 Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our
times of need.
005:001 For every High Priest is chosen from among men, and is
appointed to act on behalf of men in matters relating to God,
in order to offer both gifts and sin-offerings,
005:002 and must be one who is able to bear patiently with the ignorant
and erring, because he himself also is beset with infirmity.
005:003 And for this reason he is required to offer sin-offerings
not only for the people but also for himself.
005:004 And no one takes this honourable office upon himself,
but only accepts it when called to it by God, as Aaron was.
005:005 So Christ also did not claim for Himself the honour of being
made High Priest, but was appointed to it by Him who said
to Him, "My Son art Thou: I have to-day become Thy Father;"
005:006 as also in another passage He says, "Thou art a priest for ever,
belonging to the order of Melchizedek."
005:007 For Jesus during his earthly life offered up prayers and entreaties,
crying aloud and weeping as He pleaded with Him who was able
to bring Him in safety out of death, and He was delivered
from the terror from which He shrank.
005:008 Although He was God's Son, yet He learned obedience from
the sufferings which He endured;
005:009 and so, having been made perfect, He became to all who obey
Him the source and giver of eternal salvation.
005:010 For God Himself addresses Him as a High Priest for ever,
belonging to the order of Melchizedek.
005:011 Concerning Him we have much to say, and much that it would
be difficult to make clear to you, since you have become
so dull of apprehension.
005:012 For although, considering the long time you have been believers,
you ought now to be teachers of others, you really need some one
to teach you over again the very rudiments of the truths of God,
and you have come to require milk instead of solid food.
005:013 By people who live on milk I mean those who are imperfectly
acquainted with the teaching concerning righteousness.
005:014 Such persons are mere babes. But solid food is for adults--
that is, for those who through constant practice have
their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish
good from evil.
006:001 Therefore leaving elementary instruction about the Christ,
let us advance to mature manhood and not be continually
re-laying a foundation of repentance from lifeless works
and of faith in God,
006:002 or of teaching about ceremonial washings, the laying on of hands,
the resurrection of the dead, and the last judgement.
006:003 And advance we will, if God permits us to do so.
006:004 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once for all
been enlightened, and have tasted the sweetness of the heavenly gift,
and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
006:005 and have realized how good the word of God is and how mighty
are the powers of the coming Age, and then fell away--
006:006 it is impossible, I say, to keep bringing them back to a
new repentance, for, to their own undoing, they are repeatedly
crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing Him to open shame.
006:007 For land which has drunk in the rain that often falls upon it,
and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sakes,
indeed, it is tilled, has a share in God's blessing.
006:008 But if it only yields a mass of thorns and briers, it is
considered worthless, and is in danger of being cursed,
and in the end will be destroyed by fire.
006:009 But we, even while we speak in this tone, have a happier
conviction concerning you, my dearly-loved friends--
a conviction of things which point towards salvation.
006:010 For God is not unjust so that He is unmindful of your labour and
of the love which you have manifested towards Himself in having
rendered services to His people and in still rendering them.
006:011 But we long for each of you to continue to manifest
the same earnestness, with a view to your enjoying fulness
of hope to the very End;
006:012 so that you may not become half-hearted, but be imitators
of those who through faith and patient endurance are now heirs
to the promises.
006:013 For when God gave the promise to Abraham, since He had no one
greater to swear by, He swore by Himself,
006:014 saying, "Assuredly I will bless you and bless you, I will
increase you and increase you."
006:015 And so, as the result of patient waiting, our forefather
obtained what God had promised.
006:016 For men swear by what is greater than themselves; and with them
an oath in confirmation of a statement always puts an end
to a dispute.
006:017 In the same way, since it was God's desire to display more
convincingly to the heirs of the promise how unchangeable
His purpose was,
006:018 He added an oath, in order that, through two unchangeable things,
in which it is impossible for Him to prove false,
we may possess mighty encouragement--we who, for safety,
have hastened to lay hold of the hope set before us.
006:019 That hope we have as an anchor of the soul--an anchor that can
neither break nor drag. It passes in behind the veil,
006:020 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on our behalf,
having become, like Melchizedek, a High Priest for ever.
007:001 For this man, Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of
the Most High God--he who when Abraham was returning after
defeating the kings met him and pronounced a blessing on him--
007:002 to whom also Abraham presented a tenth part of all--
being first, as his name signifies, King of righteousness,
and secondly King of Salem, that is, King of peace:
007:003 with no father or mother, and no record of ancestry:
having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made
a type of the Son of God--this man Melchizedek remains
a priest for ever.
007:004 Now think how great this priest-king must have been to whom Abraham
the patriarch gave a tenth part of the best of the spoil.
007:005 And those of the descendants of Levi who receive the priesthood
are authorized by the Law to take tithes from the people, that is,
from their brethren, though these have sprung from Abraham.
007:006 But, in this instance, one who does not trace his origin from
them takes tithes from Abraham, and pronounces a blessing
on him to whom the promises belong.
007:007 And beyond all dispute it is always the inferior who is blessed
by the superior.
007:008 Moreover here frail mortal men receive tithes: there one
receives them about whom there is evidence that he is alive.
007:009 And Levi too--if I may so speak--pays tithes through Abraham:
007:010 for Levi was yet in the loins of his forefather when
Melchizedek met Abraham.
007:011 Now if the crowning blessing was attainable by means of
the Levitical priesthood--for as resting on this foundation
the people received the Law, to which they are still subject--
what further need was there for a Priest of a different kind
to be raised up belonging to the order of Melchizedek instead
of being said to belong to the order of Aaron?
007:012 For when the priesthood changes, a change of Law also of
necessity takes place.
007:013 He, however, to whom that prophecy refers is associated
with a different tribe, not one member of which has anything
to do with the altar.
007:014 For it is undeniable that our Lord sprang from Judah, a tribe
of which Moses said nothing in connection with priests.
007:015 And this is still more abundantly clear when we read that it
is as belonging to the order of Melchizedek that a priest
of a different kind is to arise,
007:016 and hold His office not in obedience to any temporary Law,
but by virtue of an indestructible Life.
007:017 For the words are in evidence, "Thou art a priest for ever,
belonging to the order of Melchizedek."
007:018 On the one hand we have here the abrogation of an earlier code
because it was weak and ineffective--
007:019 for the Law brought no perfect blessing--but on the other hand
we have the bringing in of a new and better hope by means
of which we draw near to God.