For to what angel did God ever say, 'Thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father'? Or again, 'I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me'?

While he says of angels, 'Who makes his angels into winds, his servants into flames of fire,'

he says of the Son, 'God is thy throne for ever and ever, thy royal sceptre is the sceptre of equity:

To what angel did he ever say, 'Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'?

Are not all angels merely spirits in the divine service, commissioned for the benefit of those who are to inherit salvation?

For if the divine word spoken by angels held good, if transgression and disobedience met with due punishment in every case,

how shall we escape the penalty for neglecting a salvation which was originally proclaimed by the Lord himself and guaranteed to us by those who heard him,

For the world to come, of which I am speaking, was not put under the control of angels.

One writer, as we know, has affirmed, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou carest for him?

For a little while thou hast put him lower than the angels, crowning him with glory and honour,

what we do see is Jesus who was put lower than the angels for a little while to suffer death, and who has been crowned with glory and honour that by God's grace he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons to glory, it was befitting that He for whom and by whom the universe exists, should perfect the Pioneer of their salvation by suffering.

For sanctifier and sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

and release from thraldom those who lay under a life-long fear of death.

(For of course it is not angels that he succours, it is the offspring of Abraham.)

he is faithful to Him who appointed him. For while Moses also was faithful in every department of God's house,

where your fathers put me to the proof, and for forty years felt what I could do.

For we only participate in Christ provided that we keep firm to the very end the confidence with which we started,

And with whom was he exasperated for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert?

For we have had the good news as well as they; only, the message they heard was of no use to them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

For we do enter the Rest by our faith: according to his word, As I swore in my anger, they shall never enter my Rest ??although his works were all over by the foundation of the world.

For he says this somewhere about the seventh day: And God rested from all his works on the seventh day.

Since then it is reserved for some to enter it, and since those who formerly got the good news failed to enter owing to their disobedience,

There is a sabbath-Rest, then, reserved still for the People of God

(for once a man enters his rest, he rests from work just as God did).

For the Logos of God is a living thing, active and more cutting than any sword with double edge, penetrating to the very division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow ??scrutinizing the very thoughts and conceptions of the heart.

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,

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.

Also, it is an office which no one elects to take for himself; he is called to it by God, just as Aaron was.

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

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.

and by being thus perfected he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

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.

(For anyone who is fed on milk is unskilled in moral truth; he is a mere babe.

Whereas solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by exercise to distinguish good and evil.)

For in the case of people who have been once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly Gift, who participated in the holy Spirit,

For land which absorbs the rain that often falls on it, and bears plants that are useful to those for whom it is tilled, receives a blessing from God;

God is not unfair; he will not forget what you have done, or the love you have shown for his sake in ministering, as you still do, to the saints.

For in making a promise to Abraham God swore by himself (since he could swear by none greater),

For as men swear by a greater than themselves, and as an oath means to them a guarantee that ends any dispute,

so that by these two solid facts (the Promise and the Oath), where it is impossible for God to be false, we refugees might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us,

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).

for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

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

(for when the priesthood is changed, a change of law necessarily follows)?

for it is evident that our Lord sprang from Judah, and Moses never mentioned priesthood in connexion with that tribe.

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

(for the Law made nothing perfect), and there is introduced a better Hope, by means of which we can draw near to God.

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.

And this makes Jesus surety for a superior covenant.

he holds his priesthood without any successor, since he continues for ever.

Hence for all time he is able to save those who approach God through him, as he is always living to intercede on their behalf.

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

one who has no need, like yonder high priests, day by day to offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for those of the People ??he did that once for all in offering up himself.

For the Law appoints human beings in their weakness to the priesthood; but the word of the Oath appoints a Son who is made perfect for ever.

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

For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

on the day I took them by the hand to lead out of Egypt's land; for they would not hold to my covenant, so I let them alone, saith the Lord.

one citizen will no longer teach his fellow, one man will no longer teach his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all will know me, low and high together.

The first covenant had indeed its regulations for worship, and a material sanctuary.

above this were the cherubims of the Glory, overshadowing the mercy seat ??matters which it is impossible for me to discuss at present in detail.

Such were the arrangements for worship. The priests constantly enter the first tent, in the discharge of their ritual duties,

since they relate merely to food and drink and a variety of ablutions ??outward regulations for the body, that only hold till the period of the New Order.

not taking any blood of goats and oxen but his own blood, and entered once for all into the Holy place. He secured an eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on defiled persons, give them a holiness that bears on bodily purity,

He mediates a new covenant for this reason, that those who have been called may obtain the eternal inheritance they have been promised, now that a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions involved in the first covenant.

for after Moses had announced every command in the Law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, together with water, scarlet wool and hyssop, sprinkling the book and all the people,

and saying, This is the blood of that covenant which is God's command for you.

For Christ has not entered a holy place which human hands have made (a mere type of the reality!); he has entered heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

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.

And just as it is appointed for men to die once and after that to be judged,

so Christ, after being once sacrificed to bear the sins of many, will appear again, not to deal with sin but for the saving of those who look out for him.

For as the Law has a mere shadow of the bliss that is to be, instead of representing the reality of that bliss, it never can perfect those who draw near with the same annual sacrifices that are perpetually offered.

Otherwise, they would surely have ceased to be offered; for the worshippers, once cleansed, would no longer be conscious of sins!

(for the blood of bulls and goats cannot possibly remove sins!).

Hence, on entering the world he says, Thou hast no desire for sacrifice or offering; it is a body thou hast prepared for me ??6 in holocausts and sin-offerings thou takest no delight.

He begins by saying, thou hast no desire for, thou takest no delight in, sacrifices and offerings and holocausts and sin-offerings (and these are what are offered in terms of the Law);

And it is by this will that we are consecrated, because Jesus Christ once for all has offered up his body.

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,

to wait until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has made the sanctified perfect for all time.

Besides, we have the testimony of the holy Spirit; for after saying,

Now where these are remitted, an offering for sin exists no longer.

by the fresh, living way which he has inaugurated for us through the veil (that is, through his flesh),

let us hold the hope we avow without wavering (for we can rely on him who gave us the Promise);

For if we sin deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left,

for you did sympathize with the prisoners, and you took the confiscation of your own belongings cheerfully, conscious that elsewhere you had higher, you had lasting, possessions.

For in a little, a very little now, The Coming One will arrive without delay.

Now faith means we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see.

It was for this that the men of old won their record.

It was by faith that Enoch was taken to heaven, so that he never died (he was not overtaken by death, for God had taken him away). For before he was taken to heaven, his record was that he had satisfied God;

and apart from faith it is impossible to satisfy him, for the man who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he does reward those who seek him.

he was waiting for the City with its fixed foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

It was by faith that even Sara got strength to conceive, bearing a son when she was past the age for it ??because she considered she could rely on Him who gave the promise.

(These all died in faith without obtaining the promises; they only saw them far away and hailed them, owning they were 'strangers and exiles upon earth.'

but they really aspire to the better land in heaven. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God; he has prepared a City for them.)

and had been told that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??19 for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

It was by faith that Moses was hidden for three months after birth by his parents, because they saw the child was beautiful, and had no fear of the royal decree.