Hebrews 5:4-6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And no man Who has any regard to duty or safety; taketh this honour This awful office, attended with a high degree of responsibility; unto himself, but he only that is called of God to it; as was Aaron And his posterity, who were all of them called at one and the same time. But it is observable Aaron did not preach at all, preaching being no part of the priestly office. So also Christ glorified not himself See John 8:54; to be made a High-Priest That is, did not take this honour to himself, but received it from his Father, who said unto him, Thou art my Son This solemn acknowledging of him for his Son, shows that he undertook nothing but what his Father authorized him to undertake; to-day have I begotten thee As if he had said, There is an eternal relation between us, which is the foundation of thy call to this work. See note on Psalms 2:7; Acts 13:33. As he God the Father; saith in another place Because the former testimony was somewhat obscure, the apostle adds another more clear: Thou art a priest for ever, after Or according to; the order of Melchisedec That is, thou art a priest, not like Aaron, but Melchisedec. Inasmuch as Melchisedec had neither predecessor nor successor in his office, his priesthood could not, properly speaking, be called an order, if by that phrase be understood a succession of persons executing that priesthood. Therefore the expression, κατα ταξιν, here rendered after the order, must mean after the similitude of Melchisedec, as it is expressed Hebrews 7:15; and as the Syriac version renders the phrase in this verse. The words of God's oath, recorded Psalms 110:4, are very properly advanced by the apostle as a proof of the Messiah's priesthood, because the Jews in general acknowledged that David wrote that psalm by inspiration concerning Christ.