Quotes & Notes
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John Wesley's Notes:
Wherefore it behoved him-It was highly fit and proper, yea, necessary,
in order to his design of redeeming them.
To be made in all things-That essentially pertain to human nature, and
in all sufferings and temptations.
Like his brethren-This is a recapitulation of all that goes before: the
sum of all that follows is added immediately.
That he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest-Merciful toward
sinners; faithful toward God. A priest or high priest is one who has a
right of approaching God, and of bringing others to him. Faithful is
treated of, Heb 3:2, &c., with its use; merciful, Heb 4:14, &c., with
the use also; High Priest, Heb 5:4, &c., Heb 7:1, &c. The use is added
from Heb 10:19.
In things pertaining to God, to expiate the sins of the people-Offering
up their sacrifices and prayers to God; deriving God's grace, peace, and
blessings upon them.
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
* it. Heb 2:11,14; Php 2:7,8
* a merciful. Heb 3:2; 4:15; 5:1,2; Isa 11:5
* to make. Le 6:30; 8:15; 2Ch 29:24; Eze 45:15,17,20; Da 9:24; Ro 5:10
2Co 5:18-21; Eph 2:16; Col 1:21
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Adam Clarke's Commentary:
Wherefore in all things] Because he thus laid hold on man in order to
redeem him, it was necessary that he should in all things become like to
man, that he might suffer in his stead, and make an atonement in his
nature.
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest] 'ina elehmwn
genhtai. That he might be merciful-that he might be affected with a
feeling of our infirmities, that, partaking of our nature with all its
innocent infirmities and afflictions, he might know how to compassionate
poor, afflicted, suffering man. And that he might be a faithful high
priest in those things which relate to God, whose justice requires the
punishment of the transgressors, or a suitable expiation to be made for
the sins of the people. The proper meaning of ilaskesyai tav amartiav is
to make propitiation or atonement for sins by sacrifice. See the note on
this word, "Lu 18:13", where it is particularly explained. Christ is the
great High Priest of mankind; 1. He exercises himself in the things
pertaining to GOD, taking heed that God's honour be properly secured,
his worship properly regulated, his laws properly enforced, and both his
justice and mercy magnified. Again, 2. He exercises himself in things
pertaining to MEN, that he may make an atonement for them, apply this
atonement to them, and liberate them thereby from the curse of a broken
law, from the guilt and power of sin, from its inbeing and nature, and
from all the evils to which they were exposed through it, and lastly
that he might open their way into the holiest by his own blood; and he
has mercifully and faithfully accomplished all that he has undertaken.
The express image of his person. The character or impression of his
hypostasis or substance. It is supposed that these words expound the
former; image expounding brightness, and person or substance, glory. The
hypostasis of God is that which is essential to him as God; and the
character or image is that by which all the likeness of the original
becomes manifest, and is a perfect fac-simile of the whole. It is a
metaphor taken from sealing; the die or seal leaving the full impression
of its every part on the wax to which it is applied.
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Family Bible Notes:
It behooved him; it was proper for him. His brethren; of the human
race. To make reconciliation for the sins; more exactly, to make
propitiation for the sins, which was the office of the Jewish
high-priest. But he did it typically, by the blood of bulls and goats;
Christ does it efficaciously, by his own blood. Chap Heb 9:12.
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People's New Testament Commentary:
It behoved him to be made like his brethren. Hence, for the
reasons given above, it was necessary that he take our nature.
A merciful and faithful high priest. To be our high priest he must be in
full sympathy with us, having experienced our trials and our sufferings.
To make propitiation. As our high priest he made atonement for us.
Conscious of all our frailties he intercedes for us. In him, the Divine
man, all who are found in him are justified before God.
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Robertson's Word Pictures:
Wherefore (hothen). Old relative adverb (ho and enclitic then,
whence of place (Mt 12:44), of source (1Jo 2:18), of cause as here and
often in Hebrews ( Heb 3:1; 7:25; 8:3; 9:18; 11:19). It behoved him (ôpheilen).
Imperfect active of opheilô, old verb to owe, money (Mt 18:28), service
and love (Ro 13:8), duty or obligation as here and often in N.T. (Lu
17:10). Jesus is here the subject and the reference is to the
incarnation. Having undertaken the work of redemption (Joh 3:16),
voluntarily (Joh 10:17), Jesus was under obligation to be properly
equipped for that priestly service and sacrifice. In all things (kata
panta). Except yielding to sin (Heb 4:15) and yet he knew what
temptation was, difficult as it may be for us to comprehend that in the
Son of God who is also the Son of man (Mr 1:13). Jesus fought through to
victory over Satan. To be made like unto his brethren (tois adelphois
homoiôthênai). First aorist passive infinitive of homoioô, old and
common verb from homoios (like), as in Mt 6:8, with the associative
instrumental case as here. Christ, our Elder Brother, resembles us in
reality (Php 2:7 "in the likeness of men") as we shall resemble him in
the end ( Ro 8:29 "first-born among many brethren"; 1Jo 3:2 "like him"),
where the same root is used as here (hoiôma, homoios). That he might be
(hina genêtai). Purpose clause with hina and the second aorist middle
subjunctive of ginomai, to become, "that he might become." That was only
possible by being like his brethren in actual human nature. Merciful and
faithful high priest (eleêmôn kai pistos archiereus). The sudden use of
archiereus here for Jesus has been anticipated by Heb 1:3; 2:9 and see
Heb 3:1. Jesus as the priest-victim is the chief topic of the Epistle.
These two adjectives (eleêmôn and pistos) touch the chief points in the
function of the high priest (Heb 5:1-10), sympathy and fidelity to God.
The Sadducean high priests (Annas and Caiaphas) were political and
ecclesiastical tools and puppets out of sympathy with the people and
chosen by Rome. In things pertaining to God (ta pros ton theon). The
adverbial accusative of the article is a common idiom. See the very
idiom ta pros ton theon in Ex 18:19; Ro 15:17. This use of pros we had
already in Heb 1:7. On the day of atonement the high priest entered the
holy of holies and officiated in behalf of the people. To make
propitiation for (eis to hilaskesthai). Purpose clause with eis to and
the infinitive (common Greek idiom), here present indirect middle of
hilaskomai, to render propitious to oneself (from hilaos, Attic hileôs,
gracious). This idea occurs in the LXX (Ps 65:3), but only here in N.T.,
though in Lu 18:13 the passive form (hilasthêti) occurs as in 2Ki 5:18.
In 1Jo 2:2 we have hilasmos used of Christ (cf. Heb 7:25). The
inscriptions illustrate the meaning in Heb 2:17 as well as the LXX.
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Albert Barnes' Commentary:
Wherefore in all things. In respect to his body; his soul; his rank and
character. There was a propriety that he should be like them, and should
partake of their nature. The meaning is, that there was a fitness that
nothing should be wanting in him in reference to the innocent
propensities and sympathies of human nature.
It behoved him. It became him; or there was a fitness and propriety in
it. The reason why it was proper, the apostle proceeds to state.
Like unto his brethren. Like unto those who sustained to him the
relation of brethren; particularly as he undertook to redeem the
descendants of Abraham, and as he was a descendant of Abraham himself,
there was a propriety that he should be like them. He calls them
brethren; and it was proper that, he should show that he regarded them
as such by assuming their nature.
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.
(1.) That he might be merciful; that is, compassionate. That he might
know how to pity us in our infirmities and trials, by having a nature
like our own.
(2.) That he might be faithful; that is, perform with fidelity all the
functions pertaining to the office of high priest. The idea is, that it
was needful that he should become a man; that he should experience, as
we do, the infirmities and trials of life; and that, by being a man, and
partaking of all that pertained to man except his sins, he might feel
how necessary it was that there should be fidelity in the office of high
priest. Here were a race of sinners and sufferers. They were exposed to
the wrath of God. They were liable to everlasting punishment. The
judgment impended over the race, and the day of vengeance hastened on.
All now depended on the Great High Priest. All their hope was in his
fidelity to the great office which he had undertaken. If he were
faithful, all would be safe; if he were unfaithful, all would be lost.
Hence the necessity that he should enter fully into the feelings, fears,
and dangers of man; that he should become one of the race, and be
identified with them, so that he might be qualified to perform with
faithfulness the great trust committed to him.
High priest. The Jewish high priest was the successor of Aaron, and was
at the head of the ministers of religion among the Jews. He was set
apart with solemn ceremonies--clad in his sacred vestments--and anointed
with oil, Ex 29:6-9; Le 8:2. He was by his office the general judge of
all that pertained to religion, and even of the judicial affairs of the
Jewish nation, De 17:8-12; 19:17; 21:5; 33:9,10. He only had the
privilege of entering the most holy place once a year, on the great day
of expiation, to make atonement for the sins of the whole people, Le
16:2, etc. He was the oracle of truth--so that, when clothed in his
proper vestments, and having on the Urim and Thummim, he made known the
will of God in regard to future events. The Lord Jesus became, in the
Christian dispensation, what the Jewish high priest was in the old; and
an important object of this epistle is to show that he far surpassed the
Jewish high priest, and in what respects the Jewish high priest was
designed to typify the Redeemer. Paul, therefore, early introduces the
subject, and shows that the Lord Jesus came to perform the functions of
that sacred office, and that he was eminently endowed for it.
In things pertaining to God. In offering sacrifice; or in services of a
religious nature. The great purpose was to offer sacrifice, and make
intercession; and the idea is, that Jesus took on himself our nature
that he might sympathize with us; that thus he might be faithful to the
great trust committed to him--the redemption of the world. Had he been
unfaithful, all would have been lost, and the world would have sunk down
to woe.
To make reconciliation. By his death as a sacrifice. The word here
used-- ilaskomai--occurs but in one other place in the New Testament,
(Lu 18:13,) where it is rendered, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" that
is, reconciled to me. The noun ilasmov-- propitiation) is used in 1Jo
2:2; 4:10. The word here means, properly, to appease, to reconcile, to
conciliate; and hence to propitiate AS TO SINS; that is, to propitiate
God in reference to sins, or to render him propitious. The Son of God
became a man, that he might so fully enter into the feelings of the
people as to be faithful, and that he might be qualified, as a high
priest, to perform the great work of rendering God propitious in regard
to sins. How he did this is fully shown in the subsequent parts of the
epistle.
{a} "merciful" Ge 19:15,16
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Jamieson-Faussett Brown:
Wherefore--Greek, "Whence." Found in Paul's speech, Ac 26:19.
in all things--which are incidental to manhood, the being born,
nourished, growing up, suffering. Sin is not, in the original
constitution of man, a necessary attendant of manhood, so He had no sin.
it behooved him--by moral necessity, considering what the justice and
love of God required of Him as Mediator (compare Heb 5:3), the office
which He had voluntarily undertaken in order to "help" man (Heb 2:16).
his brethren-- (Heb 2:11); "the seed of Abraham" (Heb 2:16), and so also
the spiritual seed, His elect out of all mankind.
be, &c.--rather as Greek, "that He might become High Priest"; He was
called so, when He was "made perfect by the things which He suffered"
(Heb 2:10; 5:8-10). He was actually made so, when He entered within the
veil, from which last flows His ever continuing intercession as Priest
for us. The death, as man, must first be, in order that the bringing in
of the blood into the heavenly Holy Place might follow, in which
consisted the expiation as High Priest.
merciful--to "the people" deserving wrath by "sins." Mercy is a prime
requisite in a priest, since his office is to help the wretched and
raise the fallen: such mercy is most likely to be found in one who has a
fellow-feeling with the afflicted, having been so once Himself (Heb
4:15); not that the Son of God needed to be taught by suffering to be
merciful, but that in order to save us He needed to take our manhood
with all its sorrows, thereby qualifying Himself, by experimental
suffering with us, to be our sympathizing High Priest, and assuring us
of His entire fellow-feeling with us in every sorrow. So in the main
CALVIN remarks here.
faithful--true to God (Heb 3:5,6) and to man (Heb 10:23) in the
mediatorial office which He has undertaken.
high priest--which Moses was not, though "faithful" (Heb 2:1-18).
Nowhere, except in Ps 110:4; Zec 6:13, and in this Epistle, is Christ
expressly called a priest. In this Epistle alone His priesthood is
professedly discussed; whence it is evident how necessary is this book
of the New Testament. In Ps 110:1-7; Zec 6:136:13|, there is added
mention of the kingdom of Christ, which elsewhere is spoken of without
the priesthood, and that frequently. On the cross, whereon as Priest He
offered the sacrifice, He had the title "King" inscribed over Him [BENGEL].
to make reconciliation for the sins--rather as Greek, "to propitiate (in
respect to) the sins"; "to expiate the sins." Strictly divine justice is
"propitiated"; but God's love is as much from everlasting as His
justice; therefore, lest Christ's sacrifice, or its typical forerunners,
the legal sacrifices, should be thought to be antecedent to God's grace
and love, neither are said in the Old or New Testament to have
propitiated God; otherwise Christ's sacrifices might have been thought
to have first induced God to love and pity man, instead of (as the fact
really is) His love having originated Christ's sacrifice, whereby divine
justice and divine love are harmonized. The sinner is brought by that
sacrifice into God's favor, which by sin he had forfeited; hence his
right prayer is, "God be propitiated (so the Greek) to me who am a
sinner" (Lu 18:13). Sins bring death and "the fear of death" (Heb 2:15).
He had no sin Himself, and "made reconciliation for the iniquity" of all
others (Da 9:24).
of the people--"the seed of Abraham" (Heb 2:16); the literal Israel
first, and then (in the design of God), through Israel, the believing
Gentiles, the spiritual Israel (1Pe 2:10).
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1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
(16) Wherefore in (d) all things it behoved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a (e) merciful and (f) faithful high priest
in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the
people.
(16) He applies the same to the priesthood, for which he would not have
been suited, unless he had become man, and like us in all things, sin
being the exception. (d) Not only concerning nature, but qualities too.
(e) That he might be truly touched with the feeling of our miseries. (f)
Doing his office sincerely.
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Spurgeon Devotional Commentary:
Here is delightful encouragement to put our whole trust in him,
and approach him without fear. Let us draw very near to him in prayer.
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William Burkitt's Notes:
In these two verses our apostle illustrates what he had taught before,
and confirms his foregoing proposition concerning Christ's participating
of flesh and blood, and acquaints us here with one special end of it,
namely, to be such an High-priest as our exigencies and necessities did
require: for we being persons obnoxious to temptations and sufferings of
all sorts, the wisdom of God, and the nature of the thing, required it,
that Christ, our great High-Priest, should in a special manner be able
to relieve and help us: in order to this,
Observe, 1. How our apostle reports and re-asserts, that Christ was in
all things, or every manner of way, made like unto his brethren; that
is, he assumed the human nature, with all its essential properties,
subjected to temptations and sufferings, but not to sin, for that would
have been so far from conducing to the end aimed at, that it would have
been utterly destructive of it. Had he been himself a sinner, he could
never have satisfied the justice of God for our sins.
Observe, 2. The general end of Christ's conformity to his brethren:
namely, That he might be a merciful and faithful High-priest. That he
might be our priest, it was necessary that he should partake of our
nature; for every High-priest for men must be taken from among men; this
is not work for an angel, nor for God himself as such: and that he might
be our merciful and faithful High-priest, he was subject to sufferings
and temptations.
With great condolency and tender sympathy doth he exercise acts of mercy
and compassion towards the human nature; and thus was he merciful, and
with great condescension and care doth he take notice of all the
concernments of his brethren under wants and sorrows, under all their
temptations and sufferings: and thus is he our faithful as well as
merciful High-priest.
Learn hence, That such was the unspeakable love of Christ towards his
brethren, that he would refuse no condition of life, neither sufferings
nor temptations, to fit him for the discharge of his office, which he
had undertaken for them. Christ suffered, and was tempted, that he might
succour them that are tempted: he suffered under all his temptations,
but sinned in none; he suffered, being tempted, but sinned not being
tempted.
Observe, 3. The special design and end of Christ's being our great
High-priest: namely, To make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
From whence learn, That the principal work of our Lord Jesus Christ, as
our great High-priest, and from which all other actings of his in that
office do flow, was to make reconciliation or atonement for sin; his
intercession in heaven is founded on earth. The Socinians, therefore,
who deny the satisfaction of Christ, and his dying, as a propitiation or
propitiatory sacrifice for sin, take from us our hopes and happiness;
from Christ his office and honour; from God, his grace and glory; they
do indeed allow of a reconciliation in words, but it is of men to God,
and not of God to men.
They plead the expediency of our being reconciled to God by faith and
obedience, but deny the necessity of God's being reconciled to us by
sacrifice, satisfaction, and atonement; so resolved are these men to be
as little as may be beholden to Jesus Christ, that rather than grant
that he has made any reconciliation for us by his blood, they deny that
there was any need of such a reconciliation at all, never considering
the inflexibility of God's justice, nor the impartiality of his
indignation against sin.
Oh! the depths of Satan! and, oh! the stupidity and blindness of those
men that are taken captive by him at his pleasure!
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