Hebreos 5

VBL · Chapter 5/13

1Todo sumo sacerdote es elegido dentro del mismo pueblo y está designado para trabajar por el pueblo en cuanto a su relación con Dios. Él presenta a Dios tanto sus dones como sus sacrificios por sus pecados.

2El sumo sacerdote comprende cuán ignorantes y engañadas se sienten las personas porque él también experimenta las mismas debilidades humanas que ellos.

3En consecuencia, él tiene que ofrecer sacrificios por sus pecados así como por los del pueblo.

4Nadie puede tomar la posición de sumo sacerdote por sí mismo, sino que debe ser elegido por Dios, como lo fue Aarón.

5Del mismo modo en que Cristo no se atribuyó honra a sí mismo convirtiéndose en sumo sacerdote. Sino que fue Dios quien le dijo: “Tú eres mi hijo. Hoy yo me convierto en tu Padre”.

6Y en otro versículo, Dios dice: “Eres un sacerdote por siempre, siguiendo el orden de Melquisedec”.

7Jesús, mientras estuvo aquí, en forma humana, oró y clamó a Dios con grandes gemidos y lágrimas, al único que tenía el poder de salvarlo de la muerte. Y Jesús fue escuchado por su respeto hacia Dios.

8Aunque era el Hijo de Dios, Jesús aprendió de manera práctica el significado de la obediencia a través del sufrimiento.

9Y cuando su experiencia culminó, se convirtió en la fuente de salvación eterna para todos los que hacen su voluntad,

10habiendo sido designado por Dios como sumo sacerdote, conforme al orden de Melquisedec.

11Hay mucho que decir acerca de Jesús, y no es fácil explicarlo porque ustedes parecen no entender.

12Para esta hora, ustedes ya han tenido suficiente tiempo para ser maestros, pero todavía necesitan de alguien que les enseñe los fundamentos, los principios de la palabra de Dios. ¡Es como si necesitaran volver a beber leche en lugar de comida sólida!

13Los que beben leche no tienen la experiencia para vivir de manera correcta, pues apenas son bebés.

14La comida sólida es para los adultos, para los que han aprendido siempre a usar su cerebro para poder decir la diferencia entre el bien y el mal.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The author explains the role of the high priest as someone chosen to represent the people before God, and presents Jesus as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He rebukes the readers for still needing basic teaching when they should already be teachers.

Explanation

In the Jewish priestly system, the high priest had to be human, compassionate, and called by God — characteristics the author applies to Jesus, who learned obedience through suffering before becoming the source of eternal salvation. The mention of Melchizedek, a mysterious figure from Genesis 14, prepares the ground for a more developed argument in chapter 7 about a priesthood different from the traditional Levitical one. The final rebuke, comparing the readers to babies who still only drink milk, shows the author's concern about the community's spiritual stagnation. Today's application is that spiritual growth requires leaving the comfort zone of basic teachings for a more mature understanding of the faith.

Fun facts

  • Melchizedek appears only briefly in Genesis 14:18-20, as king of Salem and priest of the Most High God who blesses Abraham — a figure so enigmatic that he sparked intense Jewish and Christian theological reflection over the centuries.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Hebreos 5:1The letter begins explaining the role of the Jewish high priest: someone chosen from among human beings themselves to represent them before God, offering sacrifices for sins.
  2. Hebreos 5:2Being human and weak himself, the high priest was able to have patience with those who erred out of ignorance, because he knew that weakness firsthand.
  3. Hebreos 5:3Because of this shared weakness, the high priest needed to offer sacrifices both for the people's sins and for his own.
  4. Hebreos 5:4No one could take on this office by his own will; he had to be called by God, as happened with Aaron, the first high priest of Israel.
  5. Hebreos 5:5In the same way, the letter explains, Christ didn't appoint Himself high priest: it was God who called Him, using the same words already quoted in chapter 1 about His being the Son.
  6. Hebreos 5:6This is the first time the letter quotes the phrase “a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” — a reference that will only really be explained in chapter 7. For now, it serves to announce that Jesus' priesthood follows a different model than the Jewish custom tied to Aaron.
  7. Hebreos 5:7The scene of “strong crying and tears” describes the moment when Jesus, before dying, asked God to be delivered from death — an episode equivalent to what the Gospels tell about the garden of Gethsemane. He was heard not because He escaped death, but because He was given strength to go through it.
  8. Hebreos 5:8Saying that Jesus, “though he were a Son,” learned obedience through what He suffered doesn't mean He was disobedient before. It's a way of saying that His obedience was lived out and tested in practice, through real suffering, not just proclaimed in theory.
  9. Hebreos 5:9Having been made perfect through suffering, mentioned in the previous verse, Jesus became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.
  10. Hebreos 5:10The letter repeats the phrase it will explain in detail only in chapter 7: Jesus was declared by God high priest after the order of Melchisedec, a priestly line different from the ordinary Jewish one.
  11. Hebreos 5:11The letter interrupts its reasoning to make a criticism: it would have much more to say about Melchisedec, but the readers themselves had become too lazy to keep up with this kind of deeper teaching.
  12. Hebreos 5:12Comparing the readers to those who “have need of milk, and not of strong meat” is a criticism: they should already be teaching others, but still need to be taught the basics. The image of milk, for beginners, and solid food, for those with experience, appears again in other New Testament letters with the same meaning.
  13. Hebreos 5:13Continuing the criticism, the letter says that whoever still feeds only on spiritual milk, the basics of the faith, isn't yet experienced enough to handle more mature teaching about right and wrong.
  14. Hebreos 5:14Solid food, the letter explains, is for those who are already mature in the faith, people who have trained their own ability to distinguish good from evil through practice.

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