Part Three: The Priesthood (5:1--7:28)
5:1--10 --- The high priest's qualifications. Taken from among men.Appointed for men. Can deal gently with the ignorant because he himselfis beset with weakness. Christ did not glorify himself. God appointedhim --- "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek"(Psalm 110:4).
5:7--9 --- The thesis verse. In the days of his flesh, the Sonoffered up prayers with loud cries and tears (5:7 --- ἀνενέγκας, theἀνα-φέρω root, the first offering-up). He was heard because of hisreverence. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what hesuffered (5:8 --- ἔμαθεν ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἔπαθεν). Having been perfected, hebecame the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him (5:9). Theword "source" --- αἴτιος --- appears nowhere else in the New Testament.
5:11--6:12 --- The rebuke and the warning. You should be teachers by now. You need milk, not solid food (5:12–14). Your faculties are unformed — you cannot distinguish good from evil. They think they’re doing good and do evil instead. They’re not wicked. They’re infants trying to make adult decisions with infant perception.
And the ear catches a word: you need someone to teach you
again (πάλιν, 5:12). First
again. Remember it. There are three.
Therefore (6:1) — I, the mature one, will help you tell good from evil. Leave the beginning message about Christ. Be carried toward maturity. Do not lay
again the foundation. Second
again. Heavier.
And what is the foundation? Jesus said: repent and believe. That is the very first message. The author names six items in three pairs — listen to what they are:
Repentance from dead works
and faith toward God. Things
you do. You turn. You trust. Your response to the call.
Teaching about washings, laying on of hands. Things
people do to you. The word is διδαχή — doctrine, instruction. A person teaches you about the water. A person baptizes you. A person lays hands on you. You receive these from the community that welcomes you.
Resurrection of the dead
and eternal judgment. Things
God does. His promise. His domain. You didn’t perform these. You received the teaching that these are settled, guaranteed, done.
Your response. People’s action on you. God’s action over all of it. That’s the foundation. It was laid. Don’t lay it
again. These are settled. Move forward.
And this we will do — if God permits.
Then the ground drops out from under the sentence.
Impossible. That’s the first word. In Greek it sits at the front, before anything else. Before the people are named. Before the transgression is described. Before the crucifying is mentioned. The word is ἀδύνατον — impersonal. It doesn’t point at anyone. It doesn’t say “impossible
for you” or “impossible
for God.” It says: the following thing is not possible. Full stop. The same word the author uses three other times: impossible for God to lie (6:18). Impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin (10:4). Impossible to please God without faith (11:6). Every time, the impossibility is about the nature of reality. Not a threat. A statement about how things are.
Impossible — for those who were once enlightened, who
tasted (γευσαμένους — a food word; the community tasted twice in this sentence, and the food vocabulary has been running since 5:12) the heavenly gift, who became
sharers (μετόχους — the same sharing word from 3:1 and 3:14; these are insiders, not outsiders) of the Holy Spirit, who
tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age, and who transgressed (παραπεσόντας —
fallen beside, not fallen away; the prefix παρα- means beside, not departure; the author had ἀφίστημι for departure at 3:12 and chose the beside-word here; the noun form παράπτωμα appears nineteen times in the New Testament, every Pauline occurrence describing a trespass addressed by grace; and the verb appears five times in Ezekiel’s LXX, every time describing serious covenant unfaithfulness met by God’s call to return — not permanent exile) —
again to make them new in kind.
Third
again. Loudest of all. You need teaching
again. Don’t lay the foundation
again. Impossible to make new
again. Three agains in five verses. Each one heavier than the last. Each one saying the same thing from a higher altitude: you cannot go back to the beginning because what happened at the beginning cannot be repeated.
The word for “make new in kind” is ἀνακαινίζειν. The root is καινός — new as in new creation, not new as in recent. The same root the author uses for the new covenant. You were made a new creation. That making-new happened once.
Then — with no conjunction, no “because,” no “since,” no “if” — the sentence continues: crucifying
to themselves (ἑαυτοῖς — for their own case, for their own situation; the dative tells you who needs it; an apostate has no use for a crucifixion — they rejected the blood; only the believer seeking renewal demands the crucifying
for themselves) the Son of God and putting him to open shame.* No word connects the making-new to the crucifying. The author had every conjunction in the language available. He used none. The making-new and the crucifying sit side by side because they are the same event from two directions. The original making-new was produced by the original crucifixion. To seek it again is to demand the crucifixion again. And the author will spend four chapters proving that the crucifixion was once for all.
Both participles are present tense — ongoing, continuous. Both carry the ἀνα- prefix that connects them to the offering vocabulary. The impossibility is not a threat. It is about the nature of the sacrifice. The making-new cannot be repeated because the sacrifice that produced it cannot be repeated.
But immediately after (6:9): Πεπείσμεθα δεί —
but we are convinced about you, beloved, of better things belonging to salvation. The most severe warning in the letter followed immediately by the warmest pastoral assurance. This is the first instance of a pattern that never breaks: every warning in this sermon is followed by comfort. 6:4–8 → 6:9. 10:26–31 → 10:32. 12:25–29 → 13:7. Without exception. No competent preacher threatens damnation and then immediately says “beloved, we are convinced of better things about you” — unless the warning and the comfort address different objects. The warning is about the sacrifice: what the community’s practice costs the once-for-all offering. The comfort is about the community: you are inside the salvation. They are complementary, not contradictory. The severity is about the sacrifice. The assurance is about the people. The throne of grace (4:16) is still open. It was never closed.
7:1–28 — Melchizedek. This is not a better version of the old priesthood. This is an entirely different thing. The author doesn’t say Christ is a better Levite. He says Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek — a man with no recorded genealogy, no recorded birth, no recorded death, no predecessor, no successor. The Levitical priests needed genealogy to qualify. Melchizedek needed none. The Levitical priests died and were replaced. Melchizedek has no death on record. The author is not upgrading the system. He is replacing the category.
And here is the consequence the audience would feel: when the priesthood changes, the law
necessarily changes with it (7:12 — ἐξ ἀνάγκης, by necessity). Not optionally. Not gradually. Necessarily. A new priest means a new system. The old regulations came through the old priesthood. A different priesthood means different regulations. You cannot keep the old system’s practices under the new priest. The priesthood changed. Everything changed with it.
The old priests were many because death prevented them from continuing. This one holds his priesthood permanently because he
remains forever (7:24 — μένειν, the permanence word). And because he remains, he is able to save
completely (7:25 — σῴζειν εἰς τὸ παντελές — to the uttermost, totally, without remainder) those who draw near through him, because he always lives to intercede (ἐντυγχάνειν — present tense, ongoing, never stopping). The intercession is continuous. The salvation is complete. The priest does not die. He does not need a replacement. He does not need his sacrifice repeated. He lives. He intercedes. Permanently.
Thanks for providing opportunity to search out new knowledge! 
