In the same way may be expressed as “This is the same thing which happened to Christ” or “This is just the same thing that happened in the case of Christ.” Bijbel in Gewone Taal and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch use words meaning “also.” Jesus has the two qualifications for being a high priest. The second qualification, mentioned in verse 4, is now applied to Christ. Christ is not in the Greek but is clearly implied. He has been appointed by God, not by himself.
Here we have another negative statement, Christ did not take upon himself, followed by a positive equivalent, God said to him. In some languages it may be more natural to put the positive statement first.
Christ did not take upon himself the honor of being a high priest may be expressed as “Christ did not decide to honor himself by making himself a high priest.” In some languages one may only speak of honoring oneself by using a form of direct discourse; for example, “Christ never said, ‘I will make myself great by becoming a high priest.’ ” This use of direct discourse provides a bold contrast with the second part of this verse.
Instead introduces a contrast between God and Christ; Bible en français courant says “On the contrary, it is God who declared to him.”
God, as often in this letter, is not named in the Greek. The first readers would have known immediately who the speaker was in the quotation You are my Son, but Good News Translation and some other translations make this clear for modern readers.
The Greek word for said usually refers to a spoken message, but see note on the next verse. On the quotation from Psalm 2.7, see discussion on 1.5.
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .