The Letter to the Hebrews contrasts Jesus' priesthood with the Old Testament priesthood. A superficial reading of this finely crafted Letter may give the impression that, all through it, the author is comparing Jesus' priesthood with the Old Testament priesthood. Today's passage in very simple language shows that there is no comparison, for the priesthood of Christ is incomparable, and so we can only contrast the two priesthoods. Though the author never explicitly touches upon this theme, we may understand from his whole thought pattern that in any understanding of what "priesthood" means, we cannot begin from the Old Testament priesthood: we can only begin from the priesthood of Christ, for it belongs to "the covenant I shall make with them in those days", and so is something entirely new and incomparable.

This principle covers every aspect of our doctrine about Christ: While we start from our ordinary human experience and so try to explain Christ from that experience and in the language which derives from that experience, the truth is rather that we must look to God in Christ and his reality in order to understand ourselves - both our reality and our aspirations.