“Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.”
He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness — the high priest's capacity for mercy toward the ignorant and erring flows from his own experiential knowledge of weakness. Shared humanity, including shared frailty, enables compassion; the priest understands human limitation from within.
Church Fathers on Hebrews 5:2
The blessed Paul wishes to show in the next place that this covenant is far better than the old. This then he does by first laying down remote considerations. For inasmuch as there was nothing bodily or that made a show, no temple for instance, nor Holy of Holies, nor Priest with so great apparel, no legal observances, but all things higher and more perfect, and there was nothing of bodily things, but all was in things spiritual, and things spiritual did not attract the weak,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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