He had to resemble his brothers in every respect, in order to prove a merciful and faithful high priest in things divine, to expiate the sins of the People.

Holy brothers, you who participate in a heavenly calling, look at Jesus then, at the apostle and high priest of our confession;

As we have a great high priest, then, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession;

for ours is no high priest who is incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every respect like ourselves, yet without sinning.

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,

Just as elsewhere he says, Thou art a priest for ever, with the rank of Melchizedek.

being designated by God high priest with the rank of Melchizedek.

There Jesus entered for us in advance, when he became high priest for ever with the rank of Melchizedek.

For Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him ??2 who had a tenth part of everything assigned him by Abraham ??this Melchizedek is primarily a king of righteousness (that is the meaning of his name); then, besides that, king of Salem (which means, king of peace).

He has neither father nor mother nor genealogy, neither a beginning to his days nor an end of his life, but, resembling the Son of God, continues to be priest permanently.

Further, if the Levitical priesthood had been the means of reaching perfection (for it was on the basis of that priesthood that the Law was enacted for the People), why was it still necessary for another sort of priest to emerge with the rank of Melchizedek, instead of simply with the rank of Aaron

This becomes all the more plain when another priest emerges resembling Melchizedek,

one who has become a priest by the power of an indissoluble Life and not by the law of an external command;

for the witness to him is, Thou art priest for ever, with the rank of Melchizedek.

Previous priests became priests apart from any oath, but he has an oath from Him who said to him, The Lord has sworn, and he will not change his mind, thou art a priest for ever.

Such was the high priest for us, saintly, innocent, unstained, lifted high above the heavens, far from all contact with the sinful,

The point of all this is, we do have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in the heavens,

Now, as every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, he too must have something to offer.

Were he on earth, he would not be a priest at all, for there are priests already to offer the gifts prescribed by Law

but the second tent is entered only once a year by the high priest alone ??and it must not be without blood, which he presents on behalf of himself and the errors of the People.

But when Christ arrived as the high priest of the bliss that was to be, he passed through the greater and more perfect tent which no hands had made (no part, that is to say, of the present order),

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, like the high priest entering the holy place every year with blood that was not his own: ??26 for in that case he would have had to suffer repeatedly, ever since the world was founded. Nay, once for all, at the end of the world, he has appeared with his self-sacrifice to abolish sin.

Again, while every priest stands daily at his service, offering the same sacrifices repeatedly, sacrifices which never can take sins away ??12 He offered a single sacrifice for sins and then seated himself for all time at the right hand of God,

and since we have a great Priest over the house of God,

For the bodies of the animals whose blood is taken into the holy Place by the high priest as a sin-offering, are burned outside the camp;