Commenting on Heb 5:7-10, Bruce McConkie
wrote:
These verses make
clear reference to Christ and his mortal ministry and are in complete harmony
with other scriptures which bear on the same matters, as also with the sermons
of the early brethren of this dispensation who quote them as applying to our Lord.
However, there is a
footnote in the Inspired Version which says, "The 7th and 8th verses
allude to Melchizedek, and not to Christ." Standing alone, and because it
is only part of the picture, this footnote gives an erroneous impression.
The fact is verses 7 and 8 apply to both Melchizedek and to Christ, because
Melchizedek was a prototype of Christ and that prophet's ministry typified and
foreshadowed that of our Lord in the same sense that the ministry of Moses did.
(Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:22-23; 3 Ne. 30:23; Jos. Smith 2:40.) Thus, though the
words of these verses, and particularly those in the 7th verse, had original
application to Melchizedek, they apply with equal and perhaps even greater
force to the life and ministry of him through whom all the promises made to
Melchizedek were fulfilled. (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 3:157)
Such shows that, contra some Protestant critics, McConkie (who played an important role in the current headings and footnotes in the LDS publication of the Scriptures) did not view the footnotes and other apparatuses as inerrant (cf. Bruce McConkie on the Fallibility of the Chapter Headings)
On the JST of Heb 5:7-8, see:
