1 Every high priest who is selected from men and appointed to act on behalf of men in things divine, offering gifts and sacrifices for sins,
2 can deal gently with those who err through ignorance, since he himself is beset with weakness ??3 which obliges him to present offerings for his own sins as well as for those of the People.
4 Also, it is an office which no one elects to take for himself; he is called to it by God, just as Aaron was.
5 Similarly Christ was not raised to the glory of the high priesthood by himself but by Him who declared to him, Thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father.
6 Just as elsewhere he says, Thou art a priest for ever, with the rank of Melchizedek.
7 In the days of his flesh, with bitter cries and tears, he offered prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save him from death; and he was heard, because of his godly fear.
8 Thus, Son though he was, he learned by all he suffered how to obey,
9 and by being thus perfected he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,
10 being designated by God high priest with the rank of Melchizedek.
11 On this point I have a great deal to say, which it is hard to make intelligible to you. For you have grown dull of hearing.
12 Though by this time you should be teaching other people, you still need someone to teach you once more the rudimentary principles of the divine revelation. You are in need of milk, not of solid food.
13 (For anyone who is fed on milk is unskilled in moral truth; he is a mere babe.
14 Whereas solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by exercise to distinguish good and evil.)