What Does Hebrews 5:6 Mean?
As he says also in another place, "You are a priest for the ages after the arrangement of Melchizedek."
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.THE KEY
The Greek word for “order” makes the priest’s permanence an appointed pattern, so “for ever” describes more than duration alone.
THE MEANING
You meet a priest whose service reaches into the age, held in an order named by Melchisedec. The verse presents lasting priesthood as a pattern established and sustained, not a brief office.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that every priestly office must end with the priest’s lifetime is undone by a priesthood that continues for ever.
THE ROOT
τάξιν
táxin
GROWS FROM
τάσσω
τάσσω (tássō): to arrange, assign, or set in place.
English “order” can sound like a label for a category; τάξις carries an arrangement or assigned place. The verse connects enduring priesthood to a pattern set in place, and this word family also speaks of appointing and directing.
ALSO GROWS
tássō: Arrange, assign, appoint.
τάσσω
The verb behind τάξις makes the order sound like something set in place.
diatássō: Arrange, direct, appoint.
διατάσσω
This related verb shows the family’s sense of an arrangement established with authority.
tágma: An arranged body, division, or rank.
τάγμα
The same word family can describe an ordered body, echoing that the priest belongs to a pattern of service.
αἰῶνα
aiōna
GROWS FROM
αἰών
αἰών (aiṓn): an age, era, or span of time.
“for the ages” in this verse is aiōna. The phrase εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (eis ton aiōna, “into the age”) gives the priest’s enduring service an age-long horizon. This duration belongs to the appointed order named in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
aiṓn: An age or era.
αἰών
This is the noun in the verse’s phrase translated “for ever,” carrying the language of an age.
aiṓnios: Belonging to an age; age-long.
αἰώνιος
This related form keeps the word family’s age-language visible when describing what endures.
ἱερεύς
hiereús
GROWS FROM
ἱερ-
ἱερ- (hier-): sacred, set apart for sacred service.
The priest belongs to a word family that also names the sacred precinct and the priesthood itself. This keeps the verse’s office tied to a sacred sphere of service as well as to its appointed order.
ALSO GROWS
hierón: A sacred place or temple precinct.
ἱερόν
The shared root links the priest’s role with the sacred place of service.
hierōsýnē: Priesthood.
ἱερωσύνη
This related word names the priestly service that the verse says continues.
THE PATTERN
A priestly role is sustained by divine appointment and enduring service beyond an ordinary succession.
The LORD swears and will not relent. You are a priest for the ages, according to my word, Melchizedek.And I will raise up for myself a steady priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and in my living soul; and I will build him a firm house, and he will walk before my anointed one all the days.But this one, because he remains for the ages, holds a priesthood that does not step across to another.THE THREAD
If therefore completion came through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people have been given the instruction, what further need was there for another priest to rise according to the arrangement of Melchizedek, and not be called according to that of Aaron?Hebrews 7:11 repeats τάξις (táxis, “order”), the same Greek word used here. It places the order named by Melchisedec beside Aaron’s, making the verse’s appointed pattern a distinct form of priesthood.
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