Hebrews 5:2 - Exposition

Who can have compassion on the ignorant and erring; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity . It is not easy to find a satisfactory English equivalent for μετριοπαθεῖν , translated as above in the A.V by Alford, "be compassionate towards;" in the margin of the A.V., "reasonably bear with;" by the recent Revisers, "bear gently with;" by Bengel, "moderate affici." The compound had its origin, doubtless, in the peripatetic school, denoting the right mean between passionateness and Stoic apathy, being the application of Aristotle's μεσότης to the sphere of the passions. Thus Diog. Laert. says of Aristotle, εφη δε τον σοφον μη ειναι μεν απαθη μετριοπαθῆ δὲ . In this sense Philo uses μετριοπαθὴς to express Abraham's sober grief after the death of Sarah (2.37) and Jacob's patience under his afflictions (2.45). The verb, followed, as here, by a dative of persons, may be taken, therefore, to denote moderation of feeling towards the persons indicated, such moderation being especially opposed in the ease before us, where the persons are the ignorant and erring, to excess of severe or indignant feeling. Moderation, indeed, in this regard seems to have been the idea generally attached to the compound . Josephus also speaks of the emperors Vespasian and Titus as μετριοπαθησάντων in their attitude towards the Jews after long hostility ('Ant.,' 12.3 2). This, then, being the meaning of μετριοπαθεία , it is obvious how the capacity of it is essential to the idea of a high priest as being one who is resorted to as a mediator by a people laden with infirmities, to represent them and to plead for them. It is not of necessity implied that every high priest was personally νετριοπάθης : it is the ideal of his office that is spoken of. And, in the ease of human high priests, this ideal was fulfilled by their being themselves human, encompassed themselves with the infirmity of those for whom they mediated. Christ also, so far, evidently fulfils the condition. For, though he is afterwards distinguished ( Hebrews 7:28 ) from priests having themselves infirmity, yet he had, in his human nature, experienced what it was: "He was crucified ἐξ ἀσθενείας " ( 2 Corinthians 13:4 ); "Himself took our infirmities ( ἀσθενείας ), and bare our sicknesses" ( Matthew 8:17 ; Isaiah 53:4 ); the agony in the garden (whatever its mysterious import, of which more below)expressed personal experience of human ἀσθενεία . Alford denies that ἀσθενεία , in the sense supposed by him to be here intended, can be attributed to Christ, and hence that περίκειται ἀσθένειαις can apply to him (but see above on Hebrews 4:15 , and below on Hebrews 4:3 , Hebrews 4:7 ).