Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Hebrews 4:14

Ἔχοντες οὖν�. These verses refer back to Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 3:1, and form the transition to the long proof and illustration of Christ’s superiority to the Levitic Priesthood which occupies the Epistle to Hebrews 10:18. The writer here reverts to his central thought, to which he has already twice alluded (Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 3:1). He had proved that Christ is superior to Angels the ministers, and to Moses the servant of the old Dispensation, and (quite incidentally) to Joshua. He has now to prove that He is like Aaron in all that made Aaron’s priesthood precious, but infinitely superior to him and his successors, and a pledge to us of the grace by which the true rest can be obtained. Christ is not only a High Priest, but “a great High Priest,” an expression also found in Philo (Opp. I. 654).

διεληλυθότα τοὺς οὐρανούς, “who hath passed through the heavens”—the heavens being here the lower heavens, regarded as a curtain which separates us from the presence of God. Christ has passed not only into but above the heavens (Hebrews 7:26). “Transiit, non modo intravit, caelos.”—Bengel.

Ἰησοῦν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ. The title combines His earthly and human name with His Divine dignity, and thus describes the two natures which make His Priesthood eternally necessary.

τῆς ὁμολογίας. “Our confession,” as in Hebrews 3:1. κρατεῖν with the gen. implies to grasp firm hold of a thing. The gen. is partitive; with the accus. it means “to be master of.”

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Hebrews 4:14

Old Testament

New Testament