SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:26
Porque tal Sumo Sacerdote nos convenía tener: Santo, inocente, limpio, apartado de los pecadores, y hecho ms sublime que los cielos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Hebrew 7:26
Verse 26. Such a high priest became us] Such a high priest was in every respect suitable to us, every way qualified to accomplish the end for which he came into the world. There is probably here an allusion to the qualifications of the Jewish high priest:- 1. He was required to be holy, osiov, answering to the Hebrew dysj chasid, merciful. Holiness was his calling; and, as he was the representative of his brethren, he was required to be merciful and compassionate. 2. He was to be harmless, akakov, without evil - holy without, and holy within; injuring none, but rather living for the benefit of others.
3. He was undefiled, amiantov answering to the Hebrew wm lab baal mum, without blemish - having no bodily imperfection. Nothing low, mean, base, or unbecoming in his conduct.
4. He was separate from sinners, kecwrismenov apo twn amartwlwn.
By his office he was separated from all men and worldly occupations, and entirely devoted to the service of God. And as to sinners, or heathens, he was never to be found in their society.
5. Higher than the heavens. There may be some reference here to the exceeding dignity of the high priesthood; it was the highest office that could be sustained by man, the high priest himself being the immediate representative of God.
But these things suit our Lord in a sense in which they cannot be applied to the high priest of the Jews.
1. He was holy, infinitely so; and merciful, witness his shedding his blood for the sins of mankind.
2. Harmless - perfectly without sin in his humanity, as well as his divinity.
3. Undefiled - contracted no sinful infirmity in consequence of his dwelling among men.
4. Separate from sinners - absolutely unblamable in the whole of his conduct, so that he could challenge the most inveterate of his enemies with, Which of you convicteth me of sin? Who of you can show in my conduct the slightest deviation from truth and righteousness! 5. Higher than the heavens - more exalted than all the angels of God, than all created beings, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers, because all these were created by him and for him, and derive their continued subsistence from his infinite energy.
But how was a person of such infinite dignity suitable to us! His greatness is put in opposition to our meanness. HE was holy; WE, unholy. HE was harmless; WE, harmful, injuring both ourselves and others. HE was undefiled; WE, defiled, most sinfully spotted and impure. HE was separate from sinners; WE were joined to sinners, companions of the vile, the worthless, the profane, and the wicked. HE was higher than the heavens; WE, baser and lower than the earth, totally unworthy to be called the creatures of God. And had we not had such a saviour, and had we not been redeemed at an infinite price, we should, to use the nervous language of Milton on another occasion, "after a shameful life and end in this world, have been thrown down eternally into the darkest and deepest gulf of hell, where, under the despiteful control, the trample and spurn, of all the other damned, and in the anguish of their torture should have no other ease than to exercise a raving and bestial tyranny over us as their slaves, we must have remained in that plight for ever, the basest, the lower-most, the most dejected, most under- foot and down-trodden vassals of perdition." MILTON on Reformation, in fine.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 26. For such an high priest became us , etc..] Is suitable to us, answers to our cases and necessities, is every way such an one as is wanted: [who] is holy ; by nature, originally and underivatively, perfectly and completely, internally as well as externally; he was typified by the high priest, who had holiness to the Lord written on his forehead, and far exceeds any of the priests in holiness; and such an one becomes us, for had he not been holy he could not have entered into the holy place for us, or have appeared there on our account, or have been our sanctification; so Philo the Jew speaks of the true priest as being not man, but the divine Word, and as free from all sin voluntary and involuntary f118 harmless ; without any vitiosity in his nature, without guile in his mouth, or malice in his heart; doing no injury to any man's person or property: the character chiefly regards the innocence and holiness of his life and conversation; and in which he exceeded the priests under the law; and is a suitable one for us, for hereby he was fit to be made sin, and to take it away: undefiled ; with the sin of Adam, with which all mankind are defiled; with the blood of slain beasts, with which the priests under the law were sprinkled; with the filthy conversation of the wicked, which affects good men: hence he was more excellent than the priests under the law; and one that becomes us, since his blood is the blood of a lamb, without spot and blemish: the high priests under the law, according to the Jews f119 , were to excel their brethren in knowledge, beauty, and riches; but the distinguishing character of our high priest is purity and holiness: separate from sinners ; not but that he took the nature of sinners, though not a sinful nature; and he was often in the company of sinners, when on earth, and was reckoned among them, and as one of them; but he was separated from them in Adam; he was not among the individuals of human nature that sinned in him; and he was brought into the world in a different manner from them, not descending from Adam by ordinary generation; and he had no communion with them in sin; nor did he encourage them to it in the days of his flesh; and now he is removed far from them; and herein he exceeds the priests under the law, and is suitable to us: the Syriac and Ethiopic versions read, separate from sins; the allusion seems to be, to the separating of the high priest from his own house to one of the courts of the temple seven days before the day of atonement f120 , and so before the burning of the heifers f121 : and made higher than the heavens ; than the visible heavens, the airy and starry heavens, and than the angels in heaven; and so preferable to the high priests, and exceedingly agreeable to us, ( Hebrews 4:14) the allusion may be to the carrying of the high priest on the day of atonement to an upper chamber in the temple, called the chamber of Abtines f122 : this may be understood either of Christ's exaltation in heaven, where angels are subject to him, and his priesthood is completed; or of his excelling the angels in the holiness of his nature, which agrees with the other characters in the text, and stands opposed to the infirmities of the priests.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 26-28 - Observe the description of the personal holiness of Christ. He is fre from all habits or principles of sin, not having the least dispositio to it in his nature. No sin dwells in him, not the least sinfu inclination, though such dwells in the best of Christians. He is harmless, free from all actual transgression; he did no violence, no was there any deceit in his mouth. He is undefiled. It is hard to kee ourselves pure, so as not to partake the guilt of other men's sins. But none need be dismayed who come to God in the name of his beloved Son Let them be assured that he will deliver them in the time of trial an suffering, in the time of prosperity, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
τοιουτος 5108 γαρ 1063 ημιν 2254 επρεπεν 4241 5707 αρχιερευς 749 οσιος 3741 ακακος 172 αμιαντος 283 κεχωρισμενος 5563 5772 απο 575 των 3588 αμαρτωλων 268 και 2532 υψηλοτερος 5308 των 3588 ουρανων 3772 γενομενος 1096 5637
Vincent's NT Word Studies
26. Became us (hmin eprepen). See on ch. ii. 10. For the verb see on Tit. ii. 1. There was an essential fitness in the gift of our great high priest. Comp. ch. ii. 17.
Holy (osiov). See on Luke i. 75. Always with a relation to God; never of moral excellence as related to men. Of Christ, Acts ii. 27; xiii. 35: of a bishop, Tit. i. 8.
Harmless (akakov). Rend. guileless. Free from malice and craft. Only here and Rom. xvi. 18. Undefiled (amiantov), see on 1 Pet. i. 4. Separate (kecwrismenov). Rend. separated: denoting a condition realized in Christ's exaltation. Comp. Rom. vi. 10.
Higher than the heavens (uyhloterov twn ouranwn). Comp. Eph. iv. 10, Heb. iv. 14.
