The Epistles to the Hebrews

56  The Ep i s t l e to the Hebrews : Par t I

2. Allusion to the Day of Atonement (Christ makes it possible for all believers to enter God’s presence boldly now), p. 76 ( Hebrews: A Call to Commitment ).

3. Worship and grateful supplication : the knowledge of gaining immediate, unbroken access to God

4. Receiving a thicker kind of experience: allows us to participate : empathy, emotion, feeling, passion

II. Christ’s Intercession and Advocacy: The Sympathetic and Faithful High Priest,Heb. 5.1-10.

The office of the high priest is characterized by his title. He was the spiritual head of his people, but since the period of the Hasmoneans he added the regal crown to the ecclesiastical mitre. His participation in the sacrificial duties during the year was left to his discretion, but he was supposed to act as offering priest on the Day of Atonement. There is no reason to assume that even on the day he nominated any other priest for his work, as otherwise the Mishnah would have had no cause to describe the preparations which began a week beforehand, when he had to make himself familiar with the details of his task for the holy day. . . . the service itself, which claimed his undivided attention and included the fast, five baths, and ten lavings of hands and feet, must have made great demands on his physical strength. When we add to this the anxiety not to commit a mistake, we can understand the Mishnaic allusion to the satisfaction expressed at the close of the Day (Yoma, vii 4). ~ James Hastings, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics , Vol. 10. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961. p. 322-23.

A. Six central traits of the Aaronic high priesthood.

Note: Lane’s identification of the concentric symmetry of the author’s argument here is important (p. 77).