Gospel Doctrine: The Apostle and High Priest of Our Profession

The Apostle and High Priest of Our Profession
By John Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 37]

Of all the titles that rightly belong to Jesus Christ, one stands out as being a bit unusual. In Hebrews 3:1, we read, “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” These two titles represent, respectively, Jesus' earthly ministry and his heavenly role as mediator. ¹

The Greek term apostolos means “one sent, envoy,” deriving from the verb meaning “to send.” The apostle John reported that the Savior often declared that he had been sent by his Father. ² In one of his epistles, John affirmed that Christ's followers believed that the Father had sent him (1 John 4:14). Following his resurrection, the Lord told his apostles, “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). John also described the Savior's heavenly origin at the beginning of his account of Jesus' life:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 14)

The author of Hebrews³ began his work with a similar declaration:

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:1-3)

The concepts found in this passage are discussed in more detail in subsequent portions of the epistle. For example, Hebrews 3:3-6 contrasts Moses and Christ by declaring that the builder is more important than the building itself or those who serve therein. This reflects Christ's role as Creator. ⁴

The epistle to the Hebrews draws heavily on Old Testament passages that demonstrate that the earthly high priest's role in the tabernacle (and later in the temple) is but a shadow of the Savior's role as heavenly high priest. The very earliest indication of a heavenly temple is when Moses was shown the “pattern” of the tabernacle and its accouterments on the mount (Exodus 25:9, 40; 26:30; 27:8; Numbers 8:4; Acts 7:44). ⁵

Jerahmeel recounted how God opened the seven firmaments and showed Moses the heavenly temple, instructing him to build the tabernacle according to its plan ( Chronicles of Jerahmeel 52:10). Pseudo-Philo 11:15 similarly indicates that Moses was actually shown the likeness of the tabernacle, the ark, and other sacerdotal implements that the Israelites were to make. That there were both earthly and heavenly tabernacles is asserted throughout the Zohar (Exodus 139b; 232b; 234b, 235b). Similarly, at least some modern temples were shown in vision to prophets. ⁶

Hebrews notes a few differences between the earthly high priest of Israel and the heavenly high priest. Unlike mortals, the risen Christ cannot die and therefore can never be replaced. Though the Israelite high priests were descendants of Aaron, the Savior is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. ⁷ While mortal high priests sacrifice various animals, sprinkling their blood on portions of the altar (and, during its dedication, the tabernacle), Christ offers himself (Hebrews 9:11-17, 22-28; 10:1-12).

The epistle to the Hebrews, like other scriptural texts, sees the Savior as the mediator of a new covenant, which replaces portions of the law of Moses (Hebrews 7:19, 22; 8:6-13). In support of this idea, the epistle twice (in chapters 8 and 10) quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

In Hebrews 6:19-20, we read that the veil is the flesh of Jesus, who went ahead as a forerunner for us. The veil, then, is mortality, or our present carnal state. Jesus submitted the flesh to the will of the spirit, and was thus able to pass beyond the carnal or earthly state into the celestial, where he now stands as the eternal High Priest of the Church, and as our advocate with the Father. Having entered through the veil into the heavenly holy of holies, Christ desires that we, too, should pass by the veil into the presence of God. Hebrews 6:19-20 speaks of the “hope [which] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

Referring to this, an early Christian document, the Liturgy of James, says , “We thank thee, O Lord our God, that thou hast given us boldness for the entrance of thy holy places, which thou hast renewed to us as a new and living way through the veil of the flesh of thy Christ. We therefore, being counted worthy to enter into the place of the tabernacle of thy glory, and to be within the veil, and to behold the Holy of Holies, cast ourselves down before thy goodness.” ⁸

For additional material relating to lesson 37, see:

John A. Tvedtnes, “The Higher and Lesser Laws,” in Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., Revelation, Reason, and Faith: Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen (Provo: FARMS, 2002)
John A. Tvedtnes, “Performances and Ordinances of the Law,” chapter 40 in Tvedtnes, The Most Correct Book: Insights From a Book of Mormon Scholar (Salt Lake City: Cornerstone, 1999, later reissued by Horizon).
John A. Tvedtnes, “Faith and Truth,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 3/2 (Fall 1994), posted on the Maxwell Institute web site.

¹ For Christ's role as Mediator, see 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 8:6; 9:15; 12:24; 2 Nephi 2:26-28; D&C 76:69; 107:18-19.

² John 5:23, 36-37, 44, 57; 8:16, 18, 29, 42; 10:36; 12:49; 17:21, 25; 20:21. Half of these passages use the verbal form apostello , while the others employ the verb pempo .

³ Though Hebrews has long been considered an epistle written by Paul, many Bible scholars have questioned its authorship, beginning in the 3 rd and 4 th centuries A.D.

⁴ See also Jesus' parable in Matthew 21:33-41, Mark 12:1-9, and Luke 20:9-16.

⁵Cf. D&C 63:21, where we read that the “pattern” of the transfigured earth had been shown to the apostles (Peter, James, and John) on the mount. Evidently, they were shown the celestial world, which is what the earth is destined to become. The idea is confirmed in the Ethiopic version of the Apocalypse of Peter 16, where we read that when, on the mount of transfiguration, Peter offered to construct tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, Jesus opened the eyes of the apostles so they could see the heavenly tabernacle; J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), 611.

⁶ President Gordon B. Hinckley has noted that the plan for the Hong Kong temple was revealed to him. The Lord gave to Joseph Smith the patterns of the temples to be built at Kirtland (D&C 94:1-2, 5, 12), Zion or Independence (D&C 97:10; cf. History of the Church 3:260), and Far West (D&C 115:14-16). Of the Nauvoo Temple, Joseph Smith told William Weeks (the architect), sometime around April 1841, “I wish you to carry out my designs. I have seen in vision the splendid appearance of that building illuminated, and will have it built according to the pattern shown me” ( History of the Church 6:196-7; cf. 7:250, 254, 378). Weeks had objected to some of the features. The 1 July 1841 issue of the Times and Seasons (2:456) expressed the wish that the Nauvoo temple be constructed according to the revelation given to Joseph Smith. In an editorial in the Times and Seasons of 15 July 1842 (4:856-7), it was declared that the architectural design of the temple at Jerusalem, together with its ornaments and beauty, were revealed by God. The issue of 15 May 1845 ( Times and Seasons 6:900) noted that God “was the architect of the tabernacle of Moses, and of the temple of Solomon.” A poem published in Times and Seasons 2:493 (2 August 1841) elaborates: “When a Moses of old, was appointed to rear a place, where the glory of God should appear; he received from the hand of the high King of Kings, a true model a pattern of heavenly things,” then compared this with the revelation of the pattern of the Nauvoo temple. In 1853, Brigham said of the Kirtland temple, “Joseph not only received revelation and commandment to build a Temple, but he received a pattern also, as did Moses for the Tabernacle, and Solomon for his Temple; for without a pattern, he could not have known what was wanting, having never seen one, and not having experienced its use” (Journal of Discourses 2:31).

⁷ Hebrews 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11-28; 8:1-5. Jewish tradition usually holds that Melchizedek serves as high priest in the heavenly temple, so it makes sense that Hebrews should be addressed to people acquainted with the law of Moses and associated traditions.

⁸ Cited in Margaret Barker, The Gate of Heaven: The History and Symbolism of the Temple in Jerusalem (London: SPCK, 1991), 105.