Dominus Flevit
the Site Where"The Lord Wept"

For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him,

Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:1-14 kjv)

The Epistle to the HEBREWS The author of the Book of Hebrews is unknown. Martin Luther suggested that Apollos was the author. This is based on Acts 18:24 -28, where Apollos is referred to as a well-read, Hellenistic Jew from Alexandria in Egypt. Tertullian (writing in A.D. 150-230) said that Hebrews was a letter of Barnabas.   Adolf Harnack and J. Rendel Harris speculated that it was written by Priscilla (or Prisca). William Ramsey suggested that it was done by Philip. However, the traditional position is that the Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews. From the very beginning, the eastern church attributed the letter to him, but the western church did not accept this until the fourth century. Eusebius (A.D. 263 -339) believed that Paul wrote it, but Origen (ca.AD. 185 -254) was not positive of Pauline authorship.   About the end of the second century, Clement of Alexandria thought that Paul had originally written the letter in the Hebrew language and that it was later translated by Luke or by someone else into Greek. Notwithstandmg the recipients of the letter knew who the author was and recognized his credibility in writing the work. There is also uncertainty as to the exact date of the writing of Hebrews. Numerous references to the temple in Jerusalem seem to place the date of writing prior to the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Heb. 10:11; 13:10, 11). The purpose of the epistle was to reassure Jewish believers that their faith in Jesus as the Messiah was secure and legitimate. Also, it was intended to prepare them for the impending disaster of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. The temple, with its system of animal sacrifices and the office of the priest, would soon be done away with, just as Jesus had predicted, The Book of Hebrews explains that there was no more need for a priest to intercede before God's throne on an individual's behalf since Christ's death provided believers with direct access to God's throne (Heb. 4:14-16; 10:19 -22). Furthermore, the blood of Christ now continually takes away sin (Heb. 9:18 -26). The Book of Hebrews is divided into two major sections: the first deals with doctrinal issues (Heb. l:1 -1O:18) and the second focuses on practical living (Heb. 10:19 -13:25). In addition to this, it contains several warnings to Jewish Christians not to revert back to revert back to Judaism and that system of worship (Heb. 10:39). It was evident that these believers were weak in their faith; when they should have been teaching others, they themselves still required teaching.   The writer urges them to grow and not remain as 'babes" in Christ (Heb. 5:12-14). A major theme in the book, often expressed by the words "better" and 'great," is the superiority and preeminence of Christ (Heb. 1:4; 2:3; 4:14; 7:19, 22; 8:6; 9:11, 23, 10:32, 34, 35; 11:16, 34, 40; 12:1; 13:20). [Source for Introduction of chapter: Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible KJV edited by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. AMG Publishers, Chattanooga, TN 37422]