Hebrews 5:5-10 - Sacrificing to become a high priest in the order of Melchizedek

Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,

“You are my Son, today I have begotten you”.

as he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers 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 reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

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This is the Epistle reading selection for the fifth Sunday in Lent, Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. This follows the Old Testament selection from Jeremiah, which has God say, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” It can heard along with the verse from Psalm 51 that sings, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” or [if chosen] the verse from Psalm 119 that sings, “I treasure your promise in my heart, that I may not sin against you.” It then precedes the Gospel reading from John, where Jesus said, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”

Let me first say that the authorship of this letter, sent to those whose official language is Hebrew [the Jews], is questioned by scholars. The letter does not state who wrote it, which leads some to think it was a woman teacher, named Priscilla, whose name was redacted because it was customary in those ancient times to not give women or children any credit, in a male dominated society. In that regard, I must say that the author of all books in the New Testament [the “new covenant” of which Jeremiah prophesied] were written by the same single source who inspired all authors of the Old Testament – Yahweh.

Let me then add to that statement of faith [not an opinion or belief] that Saul, the Jew born as a Roman citizen, who persecuted early Christians mercilessly, never personally met the man named Jesus. It could be possible that he was a pilgrim in Jerusalem when Jesus was tried and crucified, having seen that event as a public display of criminals being punished; but Saul did not know Jesus, as much as he knew how to mistreat those who had become transformed by God, becoming multiplications of Jesus Christs [Jews who became Christians].

In Acts 9:1-6, the man named Saul saw a flash of light, after which he heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul then asked who was speaking to him and he was told, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” This was not a physical Jesus Saul encountered, but the voice of God identifying Himself by a name that means “Yahweh Will Save.” As such, Saul became blinded for three days and had to be led around, which becomes symbolic of how frail human bodies of flesh are, despite what rank in power and influence a human being thinks he or she is. When the flesh fails, then the soul becomes lost. Saul was saved by God sending Ananias, who was himself the resurrection of Jesus Christ, one of those reborn as Jesus that Saul was punishing. After Ananias “laid hands on Saul” he was filled with the Holy Spirit, becoming yet another reborn in the name of Jesus the Christ, prompting him to change his name to Paul.

As Paul, his soul had become married to Yahweh. As a wife of Yahweh [one of many], he became the one he had persecuted as Saul. That means God spoke to him, identifying Himself as the one who Saul would become, such that Saul was not so much persecuting souls who had been given eternal salvation, all as Jesus reborn, but Saul was persecuting his own soul by his sinful actions, in the name of Judaism. Therefore, had a woman named Priscilla written this text, sounding similar to, yet striking different than Paul, both would have been in the name of Jesus, both writing from the voice of God.

A letter from a woman would then become a perfect expression for the “new covenant” that called for all who would serve Yahweh to become His wives in marriage, giving birth to His Son Jesus – all becoming led by the Christ Mind – simply from the human perspective that the female gender is the only gender that can become a "wife." [No apologies to homosexuals who pretend otherwise.] A letter from a woman who had become reborn as the "Son" of Yahweh would be a perfect choice by Yahweh, as a necessary one to be explaining how all men and women as the same as earthly bodies filthy from sin [the femininity of matter], must become submissive before God - the Supreme masculine Spirit - as His spiritual wives. A woman writing this letter would be appropriate as a teaching tool for all human genders, who together would become a church where all members were Christ [Christians].

With all that said, these six verses from the fifth chapter in this letter that scholars call a great piece of literature for Christianity makes it worthwhile to see how “Christ” is the first word presented in this translation. Roughly halfway through the name “Jesus” is presented. This presents the order that Paul regularly wrote – “Christ Jesus” – which is a divine reflection of the order of transformation within a human being: the Christ comes first, as a merger of a soul with God’s Holy Spirit [marriage]; then Jesus follows, as the rebirth of God’s Son within a new body of flesh.

In these six verses, the word “Son” appears twice. That number is matched by the references to “Melchizedek.” In this, one needs to see the word “Son” as generic for one having been born of “the Father,” who is Yahweh – God. In contrast, “Melchizedek” is a specific name of a high priest and the king of Salem [the place later named Jerusalem], who never physically died. Melchizedek ascended into Heaven without experiencing death, as did Enoch and Elijah. Thus, these pairs of capitalized words need to reflect on all “Sons” generated by Yahweh [well within the omnipotent powers of Yahweh], all who will be made because a soul has married Yahweh’s Holy Spirit, meaning that soul will become like “Melchizedek,” having gained eternal life.

It is important to get into the semantics of close inspection of the written text, which is always different from translations into English [all versions]. To do this, I will take the translation above as presented as is first. When it accurately reflect what the Greek written states, I will explain the meaning from the translation above. However, where an inaccuracy becomes misleading, I will explain what is really stated. One such error occurs here in the first verse of this reading states, which says “Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.”

Here, it becomes most important to not make an erroneous assumption that “Christ” means “Jesus,” and nothing else. The capitalization makes the word have higher meaning, placing it on a divine level, such that the word itself is Greek for “anoint with olive oil.” The elevation in meaning is then one “Anointed” by God. This means the author is not making a statement of intellect about a misconception that the ‘last name’ of Jesus was “Christ.” This is a divine statement made by one who is also with the “Christ” Mind, from his or her soul having married God’s Holy Spirit. All who are joined as one with God [through His Holy Spirit] are to be seen as an "Anointed One" - the "Christ." That is the only way the author can write anything about “the Christ,” as everything else becomes assumptions, based on what one has been taught externally.

Accepting that truth, we then read that this state of being is not a state brought upon oneself alone. The Greek word “heauton” is the masculine pronoun that identifies “himself,” where the masculine identifies the body of flesh [a human male body] and “self” identifies the neuter gender soul giving life to the body of flesh. The use of “edoxasen” as “glorify” can make it harder to grasp, as it can be misread as self-aggrandizement. By realizing the word as also meaning “bestowed,” one is then able to see the “Anointed” state of being surrounding a body-soul as not one “self-created” or brought about by one’s soul telling the brain, thinking: “I am now the Christ.”

The continuation then saying, “in becoming a high priest” [from “archierea” meaning “high or chief priest”], this identifies a manifestation of the “Christ” as being “a high priest.” This "Anointment" by Yahweh is for holy purposes. This title is also not something self-created, such that the high priest of the Temple of Jerusalem was one individual who was elected from the Sanhedrin. That process was an in-bred system of maintaining a family’s control over the politics of Jerusalem; still, through the election process it was recognized as not being a self-anointing to that title.

This means the truth of what God was saying through the saintly author makes “high” become an indication of divinity, such that the “priest” became a servant of Yahweh. This means the “Christ” anointment is not a self-generated state of being as a divine servant of God, as only God can make that assignment. It is an elevation to a "high" state of being, such that one becomes a "priest" of Yahweh. This makes one different Spiritually, not one enabled to apply for a position of leadership in a church organization.

The use of “appointment” is a creation of the translator, as this is not written. The Greek words written literally translate into English as stating, “on the other hand this having spoken with him : Son of me are you , I today have begotten you .” Rather than assume an “appointment” was made, as that would be how the Temple elected a human high priest [a Jew], “on the other hand” leads one to see a spiritual connection relative to the “Christ” [“Anointed one”]. Rather than read the aorist active participle [“having spoken”] as an announcement made that named only one “high priest,” the better way is to see the one who has become “Christ” is by seeing one “having spoken with him” - God. That identifies all who Yahweh speaks through – which then defines “Christ.”

This makes the quote stated – “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” – clearly as being God speaking; but the syntactical order of words, from translation, sounds much more individualistic when the statement “having spoken with” begins with a focus on “You.” The second person pronoun is stated in the indirect form, such that the correct way to phrase the Greek is as: “Son of me are you.” The capitalization of “Huios,” as a “Son speaking with” Yahweh becomes important through this distinction, which is God saying, “of me” means one has become my “Son” [regardless of one's human gender, as souls are neuter gender]. This then becomes non-specific as “are you,” with "are" a statement of being ["ego"]. This then says “you” become the “Son” when Yahweh speaks “with you.”

When this statement is then followed by another, where Yahweh says, “I today have begotten you” [where “you” is properly placed at the end], this says the one who is the “Christ” was not, until God began to “speak with” the soul-body life form. A slightly different translation says, “I now have brought forth you." In that statement, “you” was not the “Christ” and not a “high priest,” until “now.” The transformation is because Yahweh “brought forth” [a viable alternate translation to "have begotten"] that change.

This two-part statement is shown in quotation marks because it is clearly read as God talking, but the quotation marks make it appear that the author of Hebrews is using a known quote from Scripture. This is where the scholastic views of the epistle see it as an argument to Jews, who believed Jesus was the Messiah [the Anointed One], so they could sell other Jews in the same belief. This letter is then believed to have been intended for an 'inner circle' of Jewish Christian leaders, as a way of telling them where in Scripture they could go to teach other Jews: "You remember memorizing this verse?"

Many quotes do come from Scripture, with the one to follow coming from Psalm 110. However, nowhere in the Torah, the Psalms or the Prophets does God say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” Some might see this as a lesson from Matthew 3:17, but I doubt anyone was carrying around a Holy Bible back then, especially one with a New Testament to refer to for quotes. Neither Paul nor Priscilla [et al] would be able to convince any educated Jew that God could have possibly spoken those words to Jesus, since neither knew Jesus directly.

This means the author would have ‘channeled’ Yahweh, as an imagined statement that God [Yahweh] would have said to Adam, in Genesis’ second chapter. It would be believable and convincing to believers that Jesus was just like Adam, thereby divinely made. It would be a quote by God that implied the soul of Adam was the same divine soul that brought life to Jesus. That would then imply that Adam was the “Christ” because the “Christ” is the Holy Spirit of God that becomes one with the souls of all who become married to Yahweh, being reborn as His “Son.”

From that, the author then wrote, “as he says also in another place.” This translation leads one to believe the coming quote from Psalm 110:4 means “another place” in Scripture. That sounds as if the reference coming is "another" like the former. Reading "another place" seems to be referencing the first quote as having come from Scripture also. Because the first quote is not a recognizable written verse in any divine text, this realization means one must understand the author writing what God said to His “Son” makes the word translating as “another place” necessary to be read differently.

Here, the Hebrew word “heterō” is translated as “another [place],” where “place” is an added assumption, not directly stated. In reality the word means, “(a) of two: another, a second, (b) other, different, (c) one's neighbor.” (Strong’s Usage) When the (a) usage is seen as the intent, “another” means when God is also paired with a “different” [usage (b)] human being. Rather than another verse from the holy texts as the meaning, "another" is like "a neighbor" [usage (c)] of Adam.

From that, Psalm 110:1 begins by stating: “of David . a melody [psalm] uttered Yahweh to my lord .” This translation includes “Yah-weh la·ḏō·nî’ – “Yahweh adonai” as a connection made between Yahweh (God) and "Son" ("my lord"). That beginning to Psalm 110, leads to verse 4 as a confession of David that he is physically recording what Yahweh is speaking through him – musically and divine lyrically – because Yahweh is David's lord. That becomes a confession by David that these words to follow are the product of a marriage between the soul of David (“la·ḏō·nî”) and Yahweh’s Holy Spirit. It is then introducing Psalm 110 as a song of love between God and a soul, together as one (Yahweh adonai).

Verse 4 then sings of David being a “Christ,” as also being a “Son,” such that Yahweh told him [and all who would sing the words of praise to Yahweh forever after], “You [are] a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

David was the ruler of Jerusalem, just as Melchizedek held the same title in the same place; but Melchizedek was eternal, meaning God was telling that to David’s soul [“la·ḏō·nî”]. Because Yahweh did not tell that to David just to make David happy, it becomes a prophecy of all future souls who will likewise love God and serve him through a marriage of their souls to His Holy Spirit. Jesus would certainly be a fulfillment of that prophecy; but that by no means limits God to giving David a prophecy that is not still as valid in our modern times, as it was then and all times before and after. A truth is a truth forever and Yahweh adonai is a true state of being for all saints.

This is where the NRSV translation states, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications.” This too is now revealed as an assumption made by the translators, as the literal Greek actually states, “Who in the days of the flesh of him , prayers both kai supplications.” Nowhere is the name “Jesus” written.

The capitalization of “Hos” makes “Who” be a pronoun of importance that acts as an identifier. That important pronoun can only reflect back to Melchizedek, as being reflected in David’s soul. This then highlights the use of “te,” or “both,” so a soul leads a body of flesh to pray in unison.

The use of “kai” then marks the importance of “supplications,” which means “peace at hand,” where prayers then importantly lead to a peace of mind. That implies a peace coming through faith that one's past sins have been forgiven. In the man known as Jesus, certainly there were “prayers,” but he had no sins to forgive “in the days of his flesh.” The author of Hebrews is then indicating "prayers" leading to "feeling of peace" are in one who was wayward and sought redemption. The "peace" comes to one who surrendered his or her soul, as an olive branch offered to Yahweh [the essence of "supplications"].

This is then seen further confirmed by the author adding, “with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” The “prayers” are now said to have been from deep and painful entrapments caused by sinful acts, as an “outcry” or “screaming” for help. The “tears” are those offering sincerity, where the Greek untranslated by the NRSV adds “offered up,” thus the emotions of “prayers.”

The use of “death” is from knowing oneself is mortal and knowing one's soul will be judged at that time for past actions in the flesh, asking Yahweh for salvation. Those pleas were then heard and accepted, known by Yahweh to have come from one’s heart-sou. God sees the sincerity of one offering his or her soul into “reverent submission” to Yahweh, with “reverent” a statement about “fear of God” and His judgment on his soul.

The translation above then states, “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” A better translation would take “kaiper ōn” ["although he"] and read it as “though being a Son,” where this designates a change that came after much praying and the offer of self-submission. The aspect of “learning” is more from knowing the past, as “learns from what he suffered.” That is separated (by comma), such that “obedience” stands alone as a statement of what came from self-awareness of sins past. Reflecting on what not to do is the motivation leading one to obey the will of Yahweh, not self. This becomes a clear reflection of a sinner with a bad past and not one born into the world to be without sin – Jesus.

This concept is then supported by the author writing, “having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” The state of perfection, from the Greek word “teleiōtheis,” is a reflection on a past of imperfection that changed from having become an “obedient Son.” This means those changes force one to read, “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,” so the third person “he” is not one born of perfection (Jesus), but God (Yahweh). Yahweh is always the only “source of eternal salvation,” only made possible to those who obey the Will of God and not self-will.

Finally, the author said, “having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” This becomes a reflection of a saved soul becoming like Melchizedek, who never died, ascending to heaven through his divinity. This makes Melchizedek be the model of one possessing eternal life, which Jesus also possessed, from birth. This is then stating clearly how God is the One designating this release of one’s soul from all responsibilities to past sins, which then changes the soul of a human being into a “high priest,” whose temple becomes the body of flesh. As a “high priest” the soul leads one’s flesh exactly as did Jesus’ soul lead his flesh, such that Jesus will have been resurrected in every saved soul, reborn then into every saint’s body of flesh – all temples unto Yahweh.

Without a doubt, this interpretation that I have presented is not what the scholars have interpreted. The reason the world is such a sinful place (and the world is the only place where sin can exist) is it has a void of religious scholars teaching sinners how to be saints. Instead, scholars translate divine Scripture from biased preconceptions that mislead and promote more sins in a sinful world. To believe in Jesus as the Christ prevents sinners from seeing how this text from an Epistle [and all those written by Paul, and others] is teaching how Jesus as the model that all those of true faith will become. This can only come to be after realizing the flaws of one’s soul leading one’s body of flesh. That realization cries out sincerely, from the heart-soul of one’s being, asking Yahweh for eternal salvation. That can only be rewarded to those who submit their souls unto God.

Submission of a soul unto God is then a lesson of marriage to Yahweh. A soul-flesh being can become a bridesmaid for the Lord [Yahweh], engaged through having learned the lessons of past sins and entered into a period of testing that proves one’s soul sincerity. This becomes a period of prayers to God, as love letters sent to one’s fiancée. It is then the day of marriage – holy matrimony – when one changes in name and direction. One takes on the title of “high priest,” which means one makes offering unto the Lord, according to His decrees.

The sacrificial animal butchered by the high priest is oneself – a soul surrendered to Yahweh in marriage. As holding that name, one then enters an “order” or “rank” in the world of sin as a person in the flesh who is eternally saved. Salvation comes through the figurative death that represents the end of one’s self-ego and the beginning of one’s faithful servitude to God, with one’s soul forever entwined with God’s Holy Spirit.

Because Jesus was the Christ, made perfect when implanted into the womb of Mary (a virgin), who knew no sins of the flesh, the same rebirth comes from God’s presence with a human’s soul. Once one’s past sins have been washed clean, one becomes like the fertile womb of a virgin without sin, so God can impregnate a body of flesh with His Son, so all who become saints are resurrections of Jesus, all the Christ reborn.

The reason this reading is selected for presentation during the season of Lent, when self-sacrifice is understood as a necessary step in service to God, one must stop looking for Jesus Christ to come save oneself from the waywardness of a soul alone in the flesh. One needs to have already paid the price of obedience and done the acts of repentance that symbolize one keeping oil in one’s lamp at all times. The oil is that which God will use to Anoint one’s head.

The head is where the brain lies; and, a brain is controlled by the soul. When God pours holy oil upon one’s head at the marriage ceremony, then one has become the “Anointed One,” as His "Christ" reborn. This is the truth of a ‘religion’ known as “Christianity.” All members in that body of the material realm must be the wives of Yahweh. Foolish bridesmaids run out of oil when it is needed most, 'missing the boat' of marriage to Yahweh.

This then says Lent is the celebration of no longer having to think of ways to stop sinning. One no longer has to worry about, “How can I go forty days without doing this one act of self-gratitude?” Lent becomes the honeymoon one’s soul takes with Yahweh, before one gets down to the business of doing the Lord’s work in a sinful world. One must then give birth to Jesus and take on the Christ Mind as the Anointed One, so one can then go out into the world teaching God’s love, as the resurrection of Jesus in the flesh.