What is meant by “he learned obedience”?

Explanation:

After explaining that Jesus offered prayers to God which God heard for his reverent submission (Hebrews 5:7), the author of Hebrews introduces Hebrews 1:8 with the phrase although he was a son. The author of Hebrews has already spent some time explaining that Jesus is no ordinary son, but is the Son who is superior to the angels (Hebrews 1:5), through whom God created the universe (Hebrews 1:2). In other words, Jesus is the divine Son of God. Now the author is saying that although Jesus is the Son of God, he also learned obedience (Hebrews 5:8). The contrast is stark and meant to highlight the humanity of the Son. Since Jesus is the Son through whom God created the universe, Jesus reflects the very stamp of God’s nature and therefore does not need to learn obedience.⁵ Still, since Jesus is a human, and humans develop through experience, he had to learn obedience through experiential learning.

Jesus’ development as a human is not unique to Hebrews but is also mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament. For example, in Luke 2:52 we read that as Jesus developed into his teenage years, he increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man. Paul writes something similar in the letter to the Philippians, stating that even though Jesus was in the form of God he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).⁶

Counterargument:

It could be that the author of Hebrews is highlighting Jesus’ humanity. It could also be that he is simply highlighting the responsibilities of a son. Sometimes we are tempted to think that sons get special privileges before their fathers because of their unique status. The author of Hebrews is making clear that this is not the case. Even though Jesus was a son, he still had to learn obedience like any other member of God’s household. In fact, if we are to be God’s children, we too will need to learn obedience. The point is, the passage is not highlighting Jesus’ humanity so much as the notion that even the children of God need to learn obedience.

Response to counterargument:

The author of Hebrews has emphasized the divine nature of Christ by explaining that through him the universe was created (Hebrews 1:2). He also states that the Son is the exact representation of God’s nature and sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). In other words, the author has made it clear that the Son is divine. Since the Son is divine, in his divine nature he cannot be lacking, which means there is nothing for him to learn.⁷ Still, καίπερ ὢν υἱός (even though he was a Son) he learned obedience. The author is elevating the readers’ understanding that even though Jesus has a divine nature, he also has a human nature. It is because Jesus shares in the nature of humanity that he is a complete and faithful high priest who is fit to represent us (Hebrews 2:14–18). Therefore, just as humans must learn obedience through a process of development, so the Son in his human nature had to learn obedience to God.

Explanation:

Humans are such that they develop over time through learning. Learning can produce physical, intellectual, or spiritual developments. To acquire new intellectual or spiritual learning is to undergo mental disequilibrium. In other words, as we encounter reality and acquire truth through experience, we learn to relinquish previously held notions for new realities.⁸

Humans are such that we have our own will, which means that we have personal desires, including the desire for self-preservation. Sometimes these desires are contrary to God’s desires, which means that in order for a human to become obedient to God, he must learn to overcome his own desires when they compete with God’s desires. This entails letting go of one’s desires in favour of God’s desires. As one relinquishes one’s own desires for God’s desires, one grows in his obedience to God. This cannot be accomplished all at once, because God calls humans to learn obedience to his will from moment to moment over the course of a lifetime.⁹

Since Jesus is the faithful high priest, the author of Hebrews explains that he is like his brothers and sisters in every respect (Hebrews 2:17). Since Jesus was like his brothers and sisters in every respect, this includes that he developed in obedience learning to prioritize God’s will over his own.

Counterargument:

To suggest that Jesus had to relinquish his will in order to become obedient to God insinuates that Jesus was disobedient before he was obedient. For why would Jesus have to relinquish his will if it were already perfect? We know that it is impossible for Jesus to be disobedient because then he would not be the faithful high priest, so it is hard to see how Jesus had to learn to be obedient.

Response to counterargument:

The notion that Jesus learned obedience does not imply that Jesus was disobedient. In fact, the author of Hebrews is clear that even though Jesus faced the same temptations as us, he was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Still, since Jesus was a human, he had to develop in his capacities. This means that just as he developed in wisdom (Luke 2:52), so he developed in obedience. In fact, the author of Hebrews seems to be contrasting Jesus’ obedience with Israel’s disobedience (Hebrews 3:7 – 4:7).¹⁰ The author has spent considerable space explaining that those who do not believe are disobedient and will not enter God’s rest (Hebrews 3:18). He exhorts the reader not to fall by that same disobedience (Hebrews 4:11). Finally, he explains that even though Jesus was the Son of God, he was also a human and therefore endured the same process as anyone else of learning to obey God. The only difference is that Jesus accomplished this perfectly. Jesus’ ability to learn perfect obedience explains why he is able to represent humanity as a high priest (Hebrews 2:10–14), and why his name is exalted above every name (Hebrews 1:3–4).

Possible weaknesses:

It is hard to say what the weaknesses of this view might entail. On the face of it, some might be tempted to object to the fact that Jesus had to learn anything because he is God, and God is omniscient. Still, the careful reader will note that the author of Hebrews does not deny but rather promotes Jesus’ divinity. At the same time, since a high priest must be like his brothers and sisters in every way, Jesus became a human, and to be a human requires that one learn through stages of development. Thus, while the view might be difficult at first glance, the author is advancing a comprehensive view of Jesus’ nature.

Explanation:

When the author of Hebrews uses the verb to suffer, he always uses it to refer to the crucifixion (Hebrews 2:9, Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 9:26; Hebrews 13:12).¹² This means that when we encounter the verb to suffer in Hebrews, we are right to correlate this suffering with Christ’s crucifixion on the cross.¹³ This is important when it comes to understanding what it means that Jesus learned obedience, because the author states that Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered. Since the suffering refers to Jesus’ death on the cross, we should not assume that Jesus learned in the sense of growth over time, but that he learned obedience by following through on his calling to die on the cross.

Counterargument:

The notion that the author of Hebrews only uses the verb to suffer to refer to Jesus’ crucifixion is demonstrably false. For example, Hebrews 2:18 states that because Jesus suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. That Jesus suffered when he was tempted has no bearing on the crucifixion. Further, the examples quoted, including Hebrews 2:9, Hebrews 2:10, and Hebrews 9:26, do not use the verb to suffer but the noun suffering. Added to this, there are demonstrative examples when the author of Hebrews uses the noun πάθημα to refer to suffering that is also not connected to the crucifixion. For example, in Hebrews 10:32 the author exhorts the reader to recall the former days when he endured hard struggling with suffering. In either case, when the author of Hebrews uses the verb to suffer or the noun suffering, he uses these to refer to both Christ’s crucifixion and other forms of suffering. Given the context, we have good reason to think that Hebrews 5:8 refers to Jesus’ developing over time in his obedience as it pertained to his human nature.

Explanation:

When the Bible uses the verb μανθάνω (to learn) it often has to do with learning from Scripture. In other words, learning takes place as the reception of Scripture as the word of God.¹⁴ We know that Jesus studied the Scriptures (Luke 4:17–21), so when the author of Hebrews writes that Jesus learned obedience, he means that Jesus learned through the Scriptures that he would have to suffer death on the cross.¹⁵ Jesus learned obedience in the sense that, he learned from Scripture that his calling was to suffer death according to God’s will.¹⁶

Counterargument:

Ιt is demonstrably false that the Bible correlates the verb μανθάνω (to learn) with learning from Scripture. For example, Jesus calls his followers to take the yoke of Jesus upon themselves and learn from him (Matthew 11:29). Jesus also calls his followers to learn from the fig tree (Matthew 24:32). The book of Acts uses the term in regard to soldiers who rescue Paul after they learn that he is a Roman citizen (Acts 23:27), and there are many other examples (1 Corinthians 14:31; 1 Timothy 5:4; 1 Timothy 5:4; 1 Timothy 5:13). Not only is there no reason to accept that μανθάνω (to learn) refers only to learning from the Scripture, but such an understanding would do damage to the meaning of Hebrews 5:8. For it is hard to see what it means for someone to learn obedience through reading Scripture. One might learn what it means to be obedient, but to learn obedience is to experience development in one’s capacity to be obedient. Finally, when we consider the whole clause, it states that Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. The phrase states not that Jesus learned what obedience is through reading Scripture, but that Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. In other words, the instrument through which obedience was learned was suffering.

Possible weakness:

The problem with this view is that it asks the reader to take the verbs to suffer and to learn in a narrow and peculiar sense. A plain reading of the text does not imply either that to suffer means death on the cross or that learning only has to do with gaining knowledge from Scripture. In this sense, this view risks infringing on the interpretative principle of authorial intent by assigning strict meanings to phrases that are foreign to the original author.