NOTES for Heb 4:14

In what sense the author of the epistle calls Jesus the high priest? At first sight, this comparison can seem a pure allegory. But if we think about the used symbol of high priest, it will be necessary to recognize that in it there is quite a certain spiritual meaning, especially in the context of these events, during which, or after which was written the epistle. And it was written, apparently, already after Paul's death by one of his disciples, besides it came to light after the disaster of the year 70 after J.C., when after the anti-Roman rebellion by the activists messianists - "zealous", were totally destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. Naturally, the yahvistes sacrifices stopped after that, and the history of the yahvisme ended: the Judaism and Christianity separated definitively; the Church and Synagogue were no more linked by anything, and they went their way each. On such background, inevitably arose the question: how to continue to live without Temple and sacrifices, which during millenniums were for yahvistes, and later for the Jews, and for Christians the main form of communion with God?

The answer to it is the image of Christ as the high priest. Of course the image of the Messiah as high priest was also known in the Jewish tradition. But there, it was about the fact that the Messiah, having come, will take the place not of a king, as suggested earlier, and probably the most traditional approach, but of the high priest, which reforms the temple worship, making his spokesman this fullness of God's presence, which will accompany his ministry.

The author of the epistle, as seen, has in mind something else. He relies on the traditional for yahvisme idea of the priestly community as of a community of intermediaries between God and His people. Already in the Book of Leviticus sound the exhortation to the people "to be holy", to keep the state of sanctification, which it is possible to obtain only at the altar. But all the people could not stay at the altar constantly, for the majority the sanctification was just an episode, although the most important in their spiritual life.

And here is, the representatives of the priestly community were at the altar constantly, although, certainly, not all at the same time. And a certain part of the people was therefore constantly sanctified, and not from time to time as its majority. And from this small part were sanctified all the people making a united spiritual body. The author of the epistle transfers this traditional representation on Christ: for He, unlike any us, always keeps all the fullness of sanctification, accessible to human nature.

Actually, it is possible only for Him: because the sin hinders the sanctification, and to be completely sanctified, it is necessary to be sinless. And His holiness sanctifies the Church, including each of us. He could not have of course such an Intermediary in the people of God before the coming of the Christ: because with all due diligence, the priests could not be without sin and be sanctified till the end. With such an Intermediary we could not be afraid even of the absence of the Temple and the sacrifices: because in Him the Church receives the possibility of joining the fullness of the Kingdom, which is more than the fullness of the Temple. And thus, and the possibility of salvation.

There is something very important for us in biblical Revelation: God, transcendent and incomprehensible, speaks. He speaks—and the universe takes shape; He speaks—and life appears; He speaks—and the human being is created, the one with whom God will then conduct a dialogue. We see that the word of God is not merely a word, but an action.

Moreover, His word has one quality usually found only in a living interlocutor: every time we turn to it, we hear something new! The word proceeds from the living God and brings life with it.

God overcomes the distance that separates us from Him and addresses us. The apostle reminds us that God's word “works” for us when it penetrates within us, to the very heart—then it cleanses, instructs, and fills us. Can we shut ourselves off from it? Probably. But then, if it is not active within us, neither will the life that God wishes to give us enter into us.

Returning to the image of the Messiah-High Priest, the author of the letter does not separate it from those ideas of the living Torah that were widespread at that time in both Jewish and Christian circles. For him, Jesus Himself becomes this living Torah. His high priesthood is due to the fact that He succeeded in doing what no one had ever succeeded in doing before: fulfilling the ideal that had previously remained unattainable. In order to become the living Torah, a human being had to be completely free from sin while still remaining human and not turning into some disembodied being. And Jesus proved to be the first and only one in human history to whom this was given (v. 15).

Such a Teacher cannot be deceived: the living Torah is the embodied word of God, and His action on the human person touches those depths of human being where its spiritual ("spirit") and natural ("soul") components meet (v. 12). It is as impossible to hide from Him as it is to take refuge from God or hide anything from Him (v. 13). But this Messiah-High Priest bears in Himself the whole fullness of the grace of the Kingdom that He brought into the world, giving every faithful person the opportunity to share in it (v. 16). The living Torah, the embodied word of God, the Man who bears in Himself the whole fullness of the Kingdom, and therefore the fullness of God: this is how the author of the letter sees the Messiah, whom he calls the new High Priest, the High Priest of the Kingdom.

Speaking of God's word, which "pierces to the division of soul and spirit," the author of the letter has in mind, on the one hand, the living revelation that is inseparable from God's presence, and on the other hand, the inner Torah, that inner spiritual and moral imperative and spiritual backbone without which the first generations of Christians could not imagine spiritual life. This living word of God is what judges a person. Speaking of "soul and spirit," the author of the letter has in mind, on the one hand, human nature, which he calls "soul," although the corresponding Greek word in the biblical context can simply mean "life," and on the other hand, that "breath," that "spirit," which God gives each person at creation. Here is the deepest level of the human person, the level connected with the very existence of the human being as the image of God.

At this depth it is decided what a particular person is before God, before other people, and before himself. For a Christian, such judgment takes on an added meaning: here the question is also decided whether he is faithful to Christ, whether the life of the Kingdom is an absolute value for him, or whether there, in the very depths of his soul, he is ready to seek something else, something more important. And there too, at this final depth, the question of faithfulness to Christ as High Priest, with a capital letter, is decided. Indeed, the high priest in the traditional Yahwist understanding is the head of the people-community standing before God.

Every community always consists of persons, each of whom is fully aware of himself and of his relationships both with God and with the other members of his community. Otherwise the community degenerates into a religious collective, where individual people dissolve into a large collective "we" that at times has quite vivid religious experiences, but is spiritually completely barren. And each member of the community comes to God together with all the relationships that bind him to others. The presider of the community and its head stands at the center of this complex system of relationships that the community, going to God, represents.

The question of the presider's full inclusion in the system of relationships within the community is extremely important in the context of the community's spiritual path. In this sense the Savior is the ideal Head and Presider: His bond with everyone who belongs to the Church as His body is absolute. No one, not even the most zealous high priest leading the Temple community and the people of God, can have such a bond with his community. Betraying such a Presider means losing the Kingdom, and therefore salvation.