Paul chided his Jewish readers by telling them that he had much to say about the priesthood of Melchizedek, but they had grown to be dull of understanding. While they should have been able to teach by this time, they actually needed to be taught about what their own traditions mean (Hebrews 5:11-12). They needed to be taught “the first principles of the oracles of God,” meaning the basic doctrines of the Jewish faith, and how such things pertain to the coming of their Messiah.
Notice that the problem was not with Paul. He was perfectly able to teach about the priesthood of Melchizedek, but **they** had become dull of hearing. The problem was with the believing Jews. When a believer believes error is truth, how would a believing teacher help that one understand truth that would contradict what his pupil believes, especially when the pupil doesn’t hold the then present teacher (in the present context, Paul) in as high regard, as those who taught him the error he trusts is true? Proof of their not understanding their own Jewish faith is seen in the fact that Paul had to prove to these Jews that Jesus was their High Priest and not the one who held that office in Jerusalem at the time of Paul’s writing. The Jews, to whom Paul wrote, had somehow missed this point about Christ. They did so, because they misunderstood the basic doctrines of the Jewish faith. Paul did say he would have more to say about the priesthood of Melchizedek, but, first, he needed to reacquaint his Jewish readers with the meaning of some of their own traditions.
The first principles of the oracles of God (Hebrews 5:12) becomes the principles (or elementary) doctrine of Christ in Hebrews 6:1-2. Paul’s point is that one needs to understand the fundamentals of God’s word, before he is able to understand the more complicated revelation of Christ. In other words, one needs to understand what a shadow is, before he is able to understand the Reality to which the shadow points (cf. Colossians 2:16-17).
Believers become dull of understanding, when they believe they already understand perfectly. It is, because they have been taught error, and because they trusted their teachers had told them the truth. Notice what Paul warns his readers against in his epistle to the Colossians:
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increasing with the increase of God. (Colossians 2:18-19)
Well respected, but unbelieving, Jewish teachers during the New Covenant age had often arisen within the believing community in an effort to place believing Jews under the power of the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem. Paul endured a great deal of trouble with these men, and they were the cause of the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. It was all about maintaining the influence of the Law or Jewish tradition over believers in Christ. Peter and Barnabas would not have been challenged by the error of ordinary men.[1] The men from James were powerful, influential leaders of the church in Jerusalem, who, most likely, had been planted by the high priest and the other Jewish authorities. So, in the context of Hebrews 5:11-12, Paul’s Jewish readers had been listening to and believing some of these unbelieving but influential Jewish teachers who spoiled the word of God that pointed to Christ, through their vain traditions (Mark 7:8, 13).
In Hebrews 4:13-14 Paul used the analogy of milk and solid food (strong meat) to point to the fundamentals of the faith (milk) and things more difficult to understand (solid food or strong meat). The idea is that milk is processed food that is easily digested, because it comes from solid food that has already been digested by the mother of the child. The mother has already done the really difficult process of turning food into something nourishing for the body. Her milk is the result of that inner labor.
In the context of Paul’s analogy the teacher has already processed the word of God, and presents it in easily understood terms that the new believer is able to understand. If all the believer ever does is receive and believe whatever the teacher offers him, his spiritual understanding is perceived as dull (Hebrews 5:11) and nourished only by milk (Hebrews 5:11), because he isn’t skillful enough in the word of God to glean nourishment from it on his own. He is totally dependent upon the milk offered by the teacher. The problem is compounded when the teacher makes an error in his studies, and this situation becomes even more complex when the teacher is a false teacher.
Strong meat represents nourishment one receives when he does the digesting himself, or when he reads and studies the word of God on his own and derives nourishment for his spirit thereby. This one is not dependent upon the teacher. He is able to fully digest the word of God on his own. He is able to appreciate the teacher’s words, but he is no longer dependent upon him for his nourishment and growth.
[1] See my earlier studies: The ‘Men from James’; and Circumcision ~ What’s at Stake?
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