Hebrews 5:2

μετριοπαθεῖν, “deal gently with.” The word means properly “to shew moderate emotions.” All men are liable to emotions and passions (πάθη). The Stoics held that these should be absolutely crushed and that “apathy” (ἀπάθεια) was the only fit condition for a Philosopher. The Peripatetics on the other hand—the school of Aristotle—held that the philosopher should not aim at apathy, because no man can be absolutely passionless without doing extreme violence to nature; but that he should acquire metriopathy (τὸν σοφὸν μὴ εἶναι μὲν�, μετριοπαθῆ δέ, Diog. Laert.), that is a spirit of “moderated emotion” and self-control. The word is found both in Philo and Josephus. In common usage it meant “moderate compassion”; since the Stoics held “pity” to be not only a weakness but a vice. The Stoic apathy would have utterly disqualified any one for true Priesthood. Our Lord yielded to human emotions such as pity, sorrow, and just anger; and that He did so and could do so, “yet without sin,” is expressly recorded for our instruction.

τοῖς�, “with the ignorant (Luke 23:34) and erring” (1 Peter 2:25). Highhanded sinners, willing sinners, those who, in the Hebrew phrase, sin “with upraised hand” (Numbers 15:30; Deuteronomy 17:12), cannot always be treated with compassionate tenderness (Hebrews 10:26); but the ignorant and the erring (1 Timothy 1:13)—those who sin “inadvertently,” “involuntarily,” “through human frailty” (Leviticus 4:2; Leviticus 4:13, &c.)—and even those who under sudden stress of passion and temptation sin wilfully (Leviticus 5:1; Leviticus 19:20-22)—need pity, and Christ’s prayer on the cross was for those “who know not what they do.” No untempted Angel, no Being removed from the possibility of such falls, could have had the personal sympathy which is an indispensable requisite for perfect Priesthood.

περίκειται�. Comp. Theocr. Idyll. XXIII. 14 ὕβριν περικείμενος. Moral weakness is part of the very nature which he wears, and which makes him bear reasonably with those who are like himself. The same phrase (περίκειμαι with an accusative) occurs in Acts 28:20 (τὴν ἅλυσιν ταύτην περίκειμαι).