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ajlla; kalouvm .] but being called (as called) he taketh it ( lambavnei is to be supplied from the preceding lambavnei eJautw'/ ).

The word kalei'sqai (comp. Heb. 11:8) is specially used for the ‘call’ to the Christian Faith: Heb. 9:15 (especially by St Paul and St Peter). kaqwvsper kai; jAarwvn ] Ex. 28:1; Num. 16-18. Even Aaron himself, though specially marked out before (Ex. 16:33), did not assume the office without a definite call.

Aaron is the divine type of the High-priest, as the Tabernacle is of ritual service. He is mentioned in the N. T. besides only Heb. 7:11; 9:4; (Lk. 1:5; Acts 7:40).

From the time of Herod the succession to the High-priesthood became irregular and arbitrary and not confined to the line of Aaron (Jos. Antt. 15.2, 4; 20:9). Therefore the writer goes back to the divine ideal. The notoriousness of the High-priestly corruption at the time could not fail to give point to the language of the Epistle.

Schoettgen quotes from Bammidbar R. c. xviii.: Moses said [to Korah and his companions]: If Aaron my brother had taken the priesthood to himself ye would have done well to rise against him; but in truth God gave it to him, whose is the greatness and the power and the glory. Whosoever therefore rises against Aaron, does he not rise against God? ( Wunsche , p. 441).

(2) Having characterised the office and qualifications of a High-priest generally, the writer now goes on to shew that Christ satisfied the qualifications (Heb. 5:5-8), and fulfils the office (5:9, 10).

The proof is given in an inverted form. The divine appointment of Christ is established first (5:5, 6); and then His power of sympathy (7, 8); and lastly His office is described (9, 10).

This inversion, in an elaborate parallelism, is perfectly natural, and removes the appearance of formality.

5 So Christ also glorified not Himself to become High-priest, but He that spake unto Him ,

Thou art My Son , I have today begotten Thee:

6 Even as He saith also in another place Thou art a priest for ever , After the order of Melchizedek:

7 Who, in His days of flesh (or in the days of His flesh ) having offered up, with strong crying and tears, prayers and supplications unto Him that was able to save Him out of death, and having been heard for His godly fear ,

8

though He was Son yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered; 9 and having been made perfect He became to all that obey Him the cause of eternal salvation ,

10 being addressed by God as High-priest after the order of Melchizedek.

5:5-8. The qualifications of Christ for the High-priesthood are established by His divine appointment (5, 6), and by His human discipline which became the ground of perfect sympathy (7, 8).

5:5, 6. The divine appointment of Christ is exhibited in two passages of the Psalms in which the Lord who declares Him to be His Son declares Him also to be ‘High-priest after the order of Melchizedek.’

These two quotations from Ps. 2:7; Ps. 110:4 establish the source of the Lord's sovereign dignity as ‘Son,’ and mark the particular form in which


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