for everyone partaking of milk is without experience in the Word of Righteousness, for he is an infant. [LITV]Hebrews 5:13
for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. [ESV]Hebrews 5:13
For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. [NLT]Hebrews 5:13
In Gem 2097 I pointed out the difference between the three approaches of the range of translations. That being:-
- The word of righteousness
- The Word of Righteousness
- Applying or understanding “righteousness”; meaning how to be right with God
I suggested in the last Gem (2097) that if the phrase is indeed an objective genitive, then it is valid to translate it as being unskilled in the word ‘righteousness’. In other words the Jewish Christians (and some of us) were spiritually dull to the point where they didn’t understand the concept of righteousness. It is also valid to think of The Word of Righteousness as being a personification of the phrase and seeing the embodiment of the concept in a person. It must be clear to you that the person in question would logically have to be Jesus Christ – the Son the writer has been talking about through the letter so far. If that were the case then it would lead to some interesting interpretations which could then explain the symbolism or obtuse link that is being made between Melchizedek and Jesus. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
If the writer of Hebrews is using ‘the Word of Righteousness’ as a personification of Christ, then it makes sense. In fact treating the phrase as either a subjective genitive or an objective genitive makes perfect sense in the context of verse 13 and in the wider context of the paragraph and the thrust of what the writer was meaning. Particularly so because he broaches the subject of Christ and Melchizedek three times: 5:6, 5:10 and 6:20 which then leads straight into the discussion about Christ as a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Each of the first two occasions he introduces Melchizedek, the author pauses the argument. The first time he uses Melchizedek is in the context of God’s appointing Christ as a priest, after the order of Melchizedek, quoting Psalm 110:4. What does that even mean? What is the Order of Melchizedek? Little is clarified by the two references in Scripture – Genesis 14:18-20 and Psalm 110:4. Many have pondered the mystery of the connection. What is the point of comparison in focus between Melchizedek and Christ?
Then in 5:10 Melchizedek is introduced again with the statement of this being too hard for the Hebrew Christians to deal with. The difficulty we are told is not on the part of the author but related to capacity of the hearers to comprehend. I am wondering if the reference to The Word of Righteousness is not linking back to one of the names of God. [Adonai Tsidekenu] or the LORD Our Righteousness. (YHWH Our Righteousness). Have a look at the Gem series on The Name Above Every Name – especially 1945 and 1947. This is one of the special names for God.
I believe when the author of Hebrews uses this unique phrase he is actually referring to Jesus as the LORD our Righteousness. It all fits. The Word of Righteousness is only used here in Hebrews 5:13 and nowhere else in Scripture. The writer has been making it clear to us that Jesus is greater than all key people, offices or roles in Judaism. He is currently working through the notion that Jesus is the Great High Priest. Why would he not refer to Jesus using one of the ’99 names for God’ in the context of talking about Jesus being the Great High Priest? Furthermore, the Word of Righteousness is the perfect name to choose in the context of Jesus Christ being the Great High Priest.
Let’s explore this idea further. It is highly likely that the author of Hebrews is doing exactly what John did in John 1. Using the Word as a personification of Christ.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
John 1:1
The Word became flesh and lived among us. We gazed on His glory, the kind of glory what belongs to the Father’s unique Son, who is full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
The last verse above leads us into what Jesus said about Himself.
Jesus told him [Thomas], “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
You might think what I have done in capitalising verse 14:6 is strange, unique or just plain wrong. But look at the way the Complete Jewish Bible puts the same verse:
Yeshua said, “I AM the Way—and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
I Am the Way – meaning I AM the Way to Righteousness or being right with God. I Am the Way to Eternal Life. I Am the only Way to God. There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) Jesus was not saying I am a way to God; one of many. He was making an exclusive claim to being the only way God determined for mankind to be saved.
I AM the Truth – meaning I AM Truth. I embody Truth with a capital T. (God’s Truth) I don’t just speak Truth. I don’t speak some truth, some true things, some truths that I came across. I AM The Truth. (Read Gem 92 and if you want more read Gem 984)
I AM the Life – meaning the Life of the Age to Come. Eternal Life. The quality of Life that God first intended when He created Life in the Garden of Eden. THAT LIFE. The Life that Jesus made possible for us to enter into when He rose from the dead. The Life Jesus meant when He told Martha:-
Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this Martha?”
John 11:25-26
I have told you many times in the Bible Gems about Zoē Life – the Life of the Age to Come. Type the words into the search slot <Search this website> at the top of each Gem page.
Paul does the same thing when he tells us:-
But now a righteousness of God has been revealed apart from Law, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ toward all and upon all those believing; for there is no difference, for all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, as a demonstration of His righteousness through the passing over of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God, for a demonstration of His righteousness in the present time, for His being just and justifying the one that is of the faith of Jesus.
Romans 3:21-26
I think it is very clear what the writer of Hebrews is doing and it is very deep. But I think by now you are getting the idea of what is being said. Keep following this Gem series to see if you are right.
Jesus came to pay a debt he did not owe for those who owed a debt they could not pay.
Max Lucado
By confining truth to a small verbal part of our lives we condemn ourselves to being fragmented and full of internal contradictions, which is to say we condemn ourselves to being untrue.
Art Katz
I don’t have to know all truth; I have to be true, inside and out.
Ian
Suffering from Truth decay? Brush up on your Bible.
Anonymous