Hebrews 5:2

Who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, for that he himself also is encompassed with infirmity.

The need of compassion on the part of a high priest is stressed here, a qualification sadly lacking in many who held that position. Alexander Jannaeus, one particularly heartless priest, was singled out by Bruce, who said of him, "No man in Israel was less disposed to `bear gently with the ignorant and erring' - or anyone else." He further said that from the "fall of the house of Zadok to the destruction of the temple 240 years later, there were very few high priests in Israel who manifested the personal qualities so indispensable to their sacred office."[2] Also, the generation that first received Hebrews were close enough to remember the heartless Annas, remembered for his part in the crucifixion of Christ, and who had begun his career as high priest by putting a man to death, for which injustice he was deposed by Rome and the power to inflict death removed from his office.

Regardless of the failure of many high priests to possess the virtue of compassion mentioned here, that virtue should nevertheless be held prerequisite to the exercise of any meaningful sacred ministry, and far more for that of such an office as high priest. No antidote for a proud and vindictive spirit is quite as effective as a penitent consciousness of one's own sins and shortcomings, an excellent example being Paul, who said, "I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:2,3).