Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Hebrews · About this commentary
He Learned Obedience
Hebrews 5:7-10
7 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, · WEB
A prayer offered with crying and tears is said to have been heard, and what the Son learned he learned by suffering.
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.
The phrase the days of his flesh marks a period now closed. What is described inside it is not composure. Strong crying and tears is the language of someone at the end of his resources, and the letter reports it of the one it has called the radiance of God's glory Hebrews 1:3.
The one addressed is identified by capacity: him who was able to save him from death. The ability is affirmed and the rescue is not described.
And then the clause that has to be read carefully: and having been heard for his godly fear.
He was heard. The prayer is not reported as refused, and yet he died — which means being heard and being spared are separated here, and the letter does not resolve them into each other. Whatever the request was granted, it was not exemption.
Verse 8 states the result with a concession in front of it: though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
The though concedes that sonship might have been expected to make this unnecessary. And learned is not softened. What was learned is obedience — not information about obedience, but the thing itself, acquired the only way the sentence allows: by the things which he suffered.
That is not a claim that he had been disobedient. It is a claim that obedience under cost is a different acquisition from obedience without it, and only the second was available before.
Verse 9 uses the completion verb again: having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation Hebrews 2:10.
The sequence is fixed — made complete, then the source of salvation. And the beneficiaries are described by a matching verb: he learned obedience, and those he saves obey him. The correspondence is deliberate.
Verse 10 closes the paragraph by returning to the appointment: named by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Named by God, which answers the requirement of verse 4, and after an order the letter has still not explained.
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