Hebrews 5:11–6:3

5:11 Jesus’ priesthood in the order of Melchizedek deserves an explanation that will be both lengthy and “hard to explain.” The source of the difficulty lies not in the complexity of the subject but in the sluggishness of the students. They have become “dull of hearing,” sluggish in their organs of hearing (akoais; cf. Mark 7:35; Acts 17:20). Greek had a specific word for “ear” (ous; Matt. 11:15), but the term used here fits Psalm 95’s warning against hearing God’s voice in unbelief.

The preacher is about to embarrass his hearers for their infantile incapacity to “digest” the solid food he intends to serve. But theirs is not a case of arrested development. It is worse: they “have become” sluggish, relapsing from an earlier, healthier spiritual state, of which he will remind them (Heb. 6:9–10; 10:32–34). A confluence of external opposition and internal misgivings about the sufficiency of Christ threatens to pull them back from their prior confidence and courage.

5:12 The preacher’s original hearers have been followers of Jesus long enough that their immaturity is inexcusable. By now they “ought to be teachers.” Not every Christian has the spiritual gift and ecclesiastical office of teaching (1 Cor. 12:27–30; James 3:1), but all should be maturing in their grasp of biblical truth and its application, able to “exhort one another every day” against sin’s deceitfulness (Heb. 3:12–13; cf. Rom. 15:14; Heb. 10:24–25). Extending the educational imagery, they need to be sent back to the beginning: “basic principles” represents the Greek stoicheia, which can refer to a language’s alphabet, the starting point of learning to read. They are like “children in the kindergarten who, unable to read or write, have to start at the very beginning by learning their ABCs.”¹ The “basic principles of the oracles of God” are “the elementary doctrine of Christ” (Heb. 6:1)—a connection visible in Greek through the repetition of key terms (archē; logiōn/logos). These principles include the six features constituting the “foundation” from which believers in Jesus must advance (cf. comment on 6:1–2).

5:13–14 At the end of verse 12 the imagery shifts from the school classroom to the family dining room, where infants imbibe milk while solid food is reserved for the mature. The “child” who lives on milk is very young (nēpios), an infant not yet able to chew solid food. “Solid food” corresponds to the rich instruction our preacher wishes to impart, if his hearers’ spiritual lethargy can be overcome. The “word of righteousness,” with which babies are “unskilled” or unacquainted, includes Jesus’ high priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. But it also has a strong ethical component, since the mature have moral discernment to distinguish good from evil. The apostle Paul used the same metaphor to rebuke the Christians of Corinth, who displayed their childishness in boastful competition: “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. . . . For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” (1 Cor. 3:2–3).

A third metaphor, athletic training through “constant practice,” shows that growth in discernment does not occur through theological instruction alone. Our preacher will invoke athletic imagery also in Hebrews 6:20 (“forerunner”) and in 12:1–2, 11–13 (cf. 1 Cor. 9:24–27; Phil. 3:13–14; 1 Tim. 4:7–8; 2 Tim. 2:5; 4:7). As Psalm 95 showed, hearing God’s voice must be met by a readiness to trust his words and respond appropriately. Like an athlete’s muscles, the believer’s skill to make choices pleasing to God grows strong when “trained” (gegymnasmena) through repeated exercise in obedient action. “Discernment” (aisthētēria; only here in NT) is accurate perception of reality, enabling one to weigh the relative value of alternative courses of action and choose what is superior. Using a cognate term, Paul prayed that Philippian Christians would be given “discernment” (aisthēsis) to approve of what is excellent (Phil. 1:9–10).

The need to “distinguish good from evil” probably alludes to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the issue it posed: By what standard—by whose word—would Adam and Eve make ethical decisions (Gen. 2:16–17; 3:1–7)? Sin is deceitful, as Eve sadly acknowledged (Gen. 3:13) and as our author has said (Heb. 3:13). Discernment is needed to expose Satan’s plausible-sounding lies.

6:1–2 A symptom of the hearers’ immaturity is their preoccupation with the “elementary doctrine of Christ,” that is, aspects of God’s revelation belonging to the era “long ago,” when “God spoke to our fathers by the prophets” (Heb. 1:1). “The beginning of the word of the Messiah” (woodenly rendering the Greek) is another description of “the basic principles [alphabet] of the oracles of God” (5:12). Christians are to “leave” this earlier revelation, but not by dismissing it as worthless, for it is a “foundation” for faith that has been laid and does not need to be re-laid. Rather, from this foundational revelation we are to be carried forward toward maturity as we learn to interpret God’s earlier speech and the institutions it established in light of the Son, God’s last and best word (1:2–4).

The preacher exhorts, “let us . . . go on” (lit., “let us be carried”) toward maturity. His choice of verb (pherō), mood (subjunctive, functioning as imperative), and voice (passive) expresses the dynamic of spiritual growth: believers are responsible to “strive for . . . holiness” (Heb. 12:14), as the hortatory subjunctive conveys, but our efforts are utterly dependent upon God’s sovereign initiative and strong help, as we are “carried” by his Spirit, as 6:3 will remind us.

The foundation from which believers must be carried forward as they move toward maturity is summarized in six items, grouped in three pairs:

1. (1) Repentance from dead works and faith toward God;
2. (2) instruction about washings and the laying on of hands;
3. (3) resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

Many scholars understand these six foundational features as doctrines and practices identified with individuals’ initial conversion to Christ and identification with his church:

1. (1) a spiritual “about-face,” turning from sinful practices² and trusting God (Mark 1:15; Acts 2:38; 20:21);
2. (2) visible rites, namely baptism and the laying on of hands (to convey the Holy Spirit) (Acts 8:17–19; 9:17; 19:6);
3. (3) teaching about the alternative outcomes of faith and unbelief: resurrection or judgment.

But the second couplet does not seem to refer to elements of Christian conversion. The ESV rightly reads “washings,” not “baptism,” because the Greek term (baptismois) is plural (not singular) and masculine in gender (baptismos), not neuter (baptisma). The neuter noun is the NT term referring to the baptisms by John the Baptizer and later of believers (Mark 1:4; Eph. 4:5), while the masculine noun used here reappears in the NT only in Hebrews 9:10 and Mark 7:4, always referring to ceremonial washings related to the OT and Judaism. Moreover, the laying on of hands to impart the Holy Spirit to recent converts is a rare feature in exceptional cases (Acts 8:17; 9:17; 19:6). In the NT (and the OT), the laying on of hands appears in the ordination of leaders (Acts 6:6; 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22), but that rite is not connected to entering into the Christian life.

A better approach is to see these six phrases as OT themes foundational to the revelation of the Messiah and his mission:

1. (1) The core of covenant commitment: repentance and trust;
2. (2) cultic cleansing for covenant communion: washings (Heb. 9:10) and the laying of hands (on sacrificial animals, symbolizing transfer of worshipers’ guilt to substitutes) (9:7, 11–14; Lev. 8:14–22; 16:21–22);
3. (3) covenant sanctions of blessing and cursing: resurrection and eternal judgment.

The contents of the first and third couplets do not differ significantly, whichever view we take of the “beginning of the word of the Christ.” But interpreting all six features as aspects of the OT foundation makes better sense of the second couplet and of this list’s relation to the redemptive-historical perspective of Hebrews.

6:3 Our preacher intends to lead his hearers from ancient foundations to their fulfillment in Jesus, from the now-obsolete covenant of Sinai to the new and better covenant promised through Jeremiah and mediated by Jesus (8:5–13). But his hearers will grasp the good news he has to impart only “if God permits.” The preacher makes explicit what is implied in the divine passive (“let us be carried”) of verse 1: they need to be “carried” forward by the God of grace. In pursuing spiritual growth toward maturity, our effort (which is required) must be humbly dependent on God’s enabling power (Phil. 1:6; 2:12–13; 1 Thess. 5:23–24).