Hê-bơ-rơ 5

¹Every high priest is taken from among human beings and put in office on behalf of human beings to deal with what concerns God: he brings gifts and sacrifices for sins. ²He is able to be gentle and restrained with those who sin in ignorance and wander from the way, since weakness clings to him as well. ³That weakness is why he must bring offerings for sins on his own account, just as he does for the people. ⁴Nobody seizes this honor for himself; it belongs to the one God calls, as God called Aaron.

⁵In the same way Christ did not give himself the glory of becoming high priest. That glory came from the one who said to him, “You are my Son; today I have fathered you.” ⁶As he also says in another place, “You are a priest forever, of the order of Melchizedek.” ⁷In the days of his life in the flesh, he offered up prayers and pleas, crying aloud and weeping, to the one who was able to save him out of death, and he was heard for his godly fear. ⁸Even though he was a Son, he learned obedience by the things he suffered. ⁹And having been made perfect, he became the cause of eternal salvation for everyone who obeys him, ¹⁰for God declared him a high priest of the order of Melchizedek.^a

From milk to solid food

¹¹About this we have a great deal to say, and it is hard to put into words, because you have become sluggish listeners. ¹²Given the time that has passed, you ought to be teachers by now; yet once more you need someone to teach you the most basic elements of God’s oracles. You have become people who need milk rather than solid food. ¹³Whoever feeds on milk has no experience in the word of righteousness; that person is still an infant.^{b 14}Solid food, on the other hand, belongs to the mature, whose faculties have been trained by practice to tell good from evil.