Hebrews 5:4-14

5:4 And no one assumes this honor ¹  on his own initiative, ²  but only when called to it by God, ³  as in fact Aaron was. 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming high priest, but the one who glorified him was God, ⁴  who said to him, “You are my Son! Today I have fathered you,” ⁵  5:6 as also in another place God ⁶  says, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” ⁷  5:7 During his earthly life ⁸  Christ ⁹  offered ¹⁰  both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion. 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered. ¹¹  5:9 And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 5:10 and he was designated ¹²  by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek. ¹³ 

The Need to Move on to Maturity

5:11 On this topic we have much to say ¹⁴  and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish ¹⁵  in hearing. 5:12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, ¹⁶  you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. ¹⁷  You have gone back to needing ¹⁸  milk, not ¹⁹  solid food. 5:13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

¹ sn Honor refers here to the honor of the high priesthood.

² tn Grk “by himself, on his own.”

³ tn Grk “being called by God.”

⁴ tn Grk “the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Grk “I have begotten you”; see Heb 1:5.

⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ sn A quotation from Ps 110:4.

⁸ tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”

⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.

¹¹ sn There is a wordplay in the Greek text between the verbs “learned” (ἔμαθεν, emaqen) and “suffered” (ἔπαθεν, epaqen).

¹² tn Grk “having been designated,” continuing the thought of Heb 5:9.

¹³ sn The phrase in the order of Melchizedek picks up the quotation from Ps 110:4 in Heb 5:6.

¹⁴ tn Grk “concerning which the message for us is great.”

¹⁵ tn Or “dull.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “because of the time.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “you have come to have a need for.”

¹⁹ tc ‡ Most texts, including some early and important ones (א² A B* D Ψ 0122 0278 1881 Ï sy Cl), have καί (kai, “and”) immediately preceding οὐ (ou, “not”), but other equally significant witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ א* B² C 33 81 1739 lat Or Did) lack the conjunction. As it was a natural tendency for scribes to add a coordinating conjunction, the καί appears to be a motivated reading. On balance, it is probably best to regard the shorter reading as authentic. NA²⁷ has καί in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.