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26 (A)It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:[a] holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens.[b] 27 He has no need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day,[c](B) first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests, but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law, appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 7:26 This verse with its list of attributes is reminiscent of Hb 7:3 and is perhaps a hymnic counterpart to it, contrasting the exalted Jesus with Melchizedek.
  2. 7:26–28 Jesus is precisely the high priest whom the human race requires, holy and sinless, installed far above humanity (Hb 7:26); one having no need to offer sacrifice daily for sins but making a single offering of himself (Hb 7:27) once for all. The law could only appoint high priests with human limitations, but the fulfillment of God’s oath regarding the priesthood of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4) makes the Son of God the perfect priest forever (Hb 7:28).
  3. 7:27 Such daily sacrifice is nowhere mentioned in the Mosaic law; only on the Day of Atonement is it prescribed that the high priest must offer sacrifice…for his own sins and then for those of the people (Lv 16:11–19). Once for all: this translates the Greek words ephapax/hapax that occur eleven times in Hebrews.

26 Such a high priest(A) truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners,(B) exalted above the heavens.(C) 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices(D) day after day, first for his own sins,(E) and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all(F) when he offered himself.(G) 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness;(H) but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son,(I) who has been made perfect(J) forever.

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