Fathers

Hebrews 5

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For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. The high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also surrounded with weakness. Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself. Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father.” As he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation, named by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing. For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

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What the Fathers say

Hebrews 5:8

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." What obedience? He that before this had been obedient even unto death, as a Son to His Father, how did He afterwards learn? Seest thou that this is spoken concerning the Incarnation? ..."He learned," he saith, to obey God. Here again he shows how great is the gain of sufferings. "And having been made perfect," he says, "He became the Author of salvation to them that obey Him." But if He, being the Son, gained obedience from His sufferings, much more shall we. …

Homily on Hebrews 8 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

He became accustomed, he says, to obeying God the Father, having learned this through sufferings. What is said here seems simply incredible. For how did He learn obedience through sufferings, He Who before His sufferings was so obedient to the Father that He accepted the sufferings themselves as a result of obedience? For, he says, He "became obedient even unto death" (Phil. 2:8). …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Oecumenius

"Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." Therefore, he says, He was so obedient (and He obeyed as is fitting for a Son to the Father) that after He was incarnate, He even endured the cross to death. "And He learned from what He suffered." He indeed says, What is death, being God? For what has God not known? But also from what he suffered, he learned. Not only, he says, as he was God, but also as he was man, having experienced death. In another way.

The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

258. – Having listed three things which pertain to a high priest and showed that two of them were verified, namely, the office and the proper way of attaining it, the Apostle now considers the third thing which a high priest should have, namely, mercy and compassion. In regard to this he does two things: first, he shows what He suffered; secondly, what benefits accrued even to others (v. 9). 259. – He says, therefore: I have stated that a high priest should be such as to be able to have compassion. But Christ is such a high priest. …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Bonaventure

In Christ there was the fullness of all wisdom not only with respect to things known, but also with regard to the modes and differences of knowing. For in Christ there was sempiternal cognition on the part of the Deity, sensible cognition on the part of the sensuality and the flesh, scientific cognition on the part of the mind and spirit—and this was threefold: one namely through nature, one through grace, and one through glory. …

Breviloquium ↗