After expounding on the necessity
of Jesus’s participation in the human experience (2:10-16), the author
concludes that such an experience was necessary in order that Jesus might “become
(γενηται) a merciful and faithful high priest
with respect to the things of God, thus making atonement for the sins of the
people” (2:17). Similar language is also used later in chapter five, where the
author informs his hearers that “Christ did not glorify himself so as to
become (γενηθηναι) a high priest . . . “ (5:5a).
Rather than operating as high priest before his incarnation, Jesus becomes high
priest at a specific point in time, a point in time after his
incarnation. (Clifford B. Kvidahl, “’You Are a Priest Forever’: An Exegetical
and Biblical Theology of High Priestly Christology,” in Written for Our
Instruction: Essays in Honor of William Varner, ed. Abner Chou and
Christian Locatell [Dallas: Fontes Press, 2021], 242, italics in original)
In a footnote (ibid., 242 n. 9) we read that “the author [of
Hebrews] viewed atonement as something taking place upon Jesus’s
entrance into heaven.”
