Great High Priest – A Messianic Title of Jesus
What This Title Means
There was a problem at the heart of Israel's worship: the high priest stood between the people and God.
Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, he entered the Most Holy Place with blood, first for his own sins, then for the sins of the people. He sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat. He emerged. The people were covered for another year.
And then it had to be done again.
Every year, the same sacrifice, the same ritual, the same high priest making the same journey into the same room. The repetition itself was the theological problem. If the sacrifice had truly, finally dealt with sin, it would not need to be repeated. The fact that it kept happening was evidence that it had not yet fully accomplished what it was designed to accomplish.
The letter to the Hebrews opens the most sustained argument in the New Testament with exactly this observation, and builds toward the declaration that has transformed how Christians understand access to God: "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess" (Hebrews 4:14).
Our Great High Priest. The one who does not offer a sacrifice for his own sins before he can offer one for the people, because he has none. The one who does not enter a room made by human hands, because he has entered heaven itself. The one who does not repeat the sacrifice year after year, because the sacrifice he offered was sufficient, final, and unrepeatable.
The one whose priesthood does not end at death, because he lives forever.
The Hebrew and Greek Roots
The high priesthood draws on the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament, but the specific title Great High Priest comes from Hebrews 4:14.
In Hebrew, Kohen Gadol (כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל) is the high priest, the chief among the priests. Kohen (H3548) is the priest, the one who performs the sacred functions of the sanctuary. Gadol (H1419) is great, large, chief. The high priest was the only one permitted to enter the Most Holy Place, the only one who could approach the mercy seat, the representative of the entire people before God on the Day of Atonement.
In Greek, Archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) is the high priest, from archi (chief, first) and hiereus (priest). BDAG defines it as the highest-ranking priest, the one who presided over the temple and the Levitical system. The author of Hebrews uses it consistently for both the Levitical high priests and for Jesus, making the comparison and the contrast explicit throughout.
Hebrews 4:14 uses megan archierean, a great high priest, adding the adjective megas (G3173), great, to distinguish Jesus from every predecessor. The greatness is qualitative, not merely superlative: Jesus's high priesthood is in a different category from the Levitical priesthood, not merely a better version of the same thing.
The Melchizedek background, introduced in Hebrews 5 and developed at length in chapters 6–7, establishes that Jesus's priesthood operates on a different basis than the Levitical system. His priesthood is kata taxin Melchisedek, after the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:4), the priest-king of Salem who preceded the Levitical system and in whose presence Abraham paid tithes.
Strong's H3548 (kohen), H1419 (gadol), and G749 (archiereus) together trace the high priesthood from Aaron through the Levitical system into the New Testament fulfillment.
Key Occurrences in Scripture
The Day of Atonement: Leviticus 16
The Day of Atonement is the theological backdrop for the Great High Priest title. Once a year, on the tenth of Tishri, the high priest performed the most sacred act in Israel's calendar: entering the Most Holy Place.
The preparation was elaborate. The high priest bathed, dressed in special linen garments, brought a bull for his own sin offering and a ram for his burnt offering, then cast lots over two goats, one designated for Yahweh and one for Azazel. He entered the Most Holy Place with incense to screen the ark, then with the blood of the bull for his own sins, then with the blood of the goat for the people's sins. He emerged, laid his hands on the live goat, confessed all the sins of Israel, and sent it into the wilderness.
The ritual accomplished covering but not completion. Hebrews 10:4 states the theological limitation plainly: "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." The Day of Atonement covered; the Great High Priest's sacrifice removes. The annual repetition was pointing toward a once-for-all act that would make the repetition unnecessary.
Psalm 110:4 and the Melchizedek Priesthood
"The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'"
Psalm 110:4 is the Old Testament text that the author of Hebrews builds his entire argument on. The Davidic king is also a priest, and the priesthood is not Levitical but Melchizedekian: eternal, royal, prior to and superior to the Levitical system.
Melchizedek appears in Genesis 14 as the priest-king of Salem who blesses Abraham and receives tithes from him. He has no recorded genealogy, no father or mother listed, no beginning of days or end of life recorded in the text. The author of Hebrews takes this textual silence as theologically significant: Melchizedek is "without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever" (Hebrews 7:3).
The Levitical priests serve for a term and are replaced. The Melchizedekian priest is a priest forever. The Levitical priests descended from Levi were, in Abraham's loins when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, effectively paying tithes themselves to one greater than Levi. The argument is that the Levitical priesthood was already subordinate to the Melchizedekian before it existed.
Hebrews 4:14–5:10
The Great High Priest passage unfolds in two movements. The first (4:14–16) is the exhortation grounded in the title: because we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, let us hold firmly to our confession. The approach to God is now possible in a way it was not before.
"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
The Great High Priest is not a distant, immaculate figure who has never experienced the weight of human weakness. He was tempted in every way, as we are. The incarnation was not a brief visit to the surface of human experience; it was complete immersion in it. The Great High Priest knows from the inside what weakness feels like, what temptation feels like, what the pressure of suffering feels like. And because he knows, his intercession on our behalf is not theoretical sympathy but firsthand understanding.
The second movement (5:1–10) establishes his qualifications: called by God, as was Aaron; learned obedience through suffering; made perfect; designated high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 7–10: The Argument Developed
Hebrews 7–10 is the most sustained high priesthood theology in the New Testament, and it builds to two great declarations.
Hebrews 7:24–25: "But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." The permanence of the priesthood grounds the completeness of the salvation. The Great High Priest who lives forever intercedes forever, and the intercession that never ceases secures a salvation that is complete.
Hebrews 10:11–14: "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy."
He sat down. That is the theological signal that the work is finished. The Levitical priests stood because their work was never done; there was always another sacrifice to offer. The Great High Priest sat down because the one sacrifice he offered was sufficient for all time and for all people.
Theological Significance
Great High Priest declares that access to God is fully and permanently open. The veil of the temple that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the sanctuary was torn from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus's death (Matthew 27:51). The way into the presence of God, barred since Eden and accessible only to the high priest once a year, is now open to everyone who comes through the Great High Priest. The tearing of the veil is the visual demonstration of what the title declares.
Great High Priest and sympathy. Hebrews 4:15's declaration that the Great High Priest sympathizes with our weaknesses is one of the most pastorally significant statements in the New Testament. The one who intercedes for us knows from personal experience what he is interceding about. The temptation, the suffering, the weight of human weakness: he has been there. His intercession is informed by his experience.
Great High Priest and the once-for-all sacrifice. The ephapax of Hebrews 9:12 and 10:10, translated once for all, is the decisive theological claim of the Great High Priest's work. The sacrifice he offered does not need to be repeated because it was sufficient to accomplish what all the previous sacrifices could only point toward. The repetition of the Mass, debated in the Reformation, turns on this text: Hebrews insists the sacrifice was offered once, its benefits applied continually, but the act itself unrepeatable.
Great High Priest and prayer. Hebrews 4:16's invitation to approach the throne of grace with confidence is grounded entirely in the Great High Priest. The confidence is not self-generated; it is derived from the one who has opened the way. You approach with confidence because he has gone before you, because the veil is torn, because the sacrifice has been made, because the Great High Priest is already there, appearing before God for you.
Great High Priest in the Broader New Testament
John 17 is the Great High Priest at prayer in the most extended priestly intercession in the Gospels. Jesus prays for his disciples, for their protection, for their unity, for their sanctification, for all who will believe through their message. The prayer is priestly: the one who will offer himself goes before the Father interceding for those he will die to redeem.
Romans 8:34 places the Great High Priest at the right hand of the Father, interceding: "Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." The Great High Priest who entered the true sanctuary by his own blood is there, now, speaking on behalf of those who belong to him.
1 Timothy 2:5 gives the mediatorial dimension of the Great High Priest its most direct statement: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people." One mediator. The Great High Priest stands between God and humanity in a way that no other person or institution can. His mediation is exclusive not because it is restrictive but because it is sufficient: one mediator who is fully human and fully God is sufficient for all.
What This Title Means for Christian Faith and Practice
The repetition of the Old Testament sacrificial system was never intended to be comforting. Its repetition was the reminder that the problem had not been fully solved, that the covering was temporary, that something more was needed.
The Great High Priest has provided what was needed. The sacrifice offered once for all has accomplished what the annual repetition could only point toward. The veil is torn. The way is open. The one who has entered the presence of God on behalf of his people is there now, appearing before the Father, interceding with a permanence that matches his own eternal life.
Hebrews 4:16 is the practical invitation that flows from the title: come. Approach the throne of grace with confidence. Not with anxiety about whether you will be received, not with the uncertainty of the Israelite worshiper who depended on the adequacy of the high priest's work on that particular Day of Atonement. The Great High Priest's work is adequate. It is sufficient. It is finished.
He sympathizes with your weakness because he has been there. He intercedes for you with the knowledge of what he is interceding about. And the Father before whom he appears is the one who sent him for exactly this purpose: to be the Great High Priest who opens the way and keeps it open, forever.
Come with confidence. The way is open. The Great High Priest has seen to it.
Sources
Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Entries: כֹּהֵן (kohen); גָּדוֹל (gadol).
Bauer, W., Danker, F. W., Arndt, W. F., & Gingrich, F. W. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG). 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Entry: ἀρχιερεύς(archiereus).
Strong, J. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Entries: H3548 (kohen); H1419 (gadol); G749 (archiereus); G3173 (megas).
Brand, C., Draper, C., & England, A. (Eds.). Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003. Entry: "High Priest"; "Melchizedek"; "Day of Atonement."
Ellingworth, Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993. See commentary on Hebrews 4:14–5:10 and 7:1–28.
See Also
Names of God:
Bible Facts:
Bible Verses About:
