Bible Commentaries
Hebrews 7

Verses 1-28

VII 1-28. Superiority of Melchisedechian Priesthood-The excellence of the Priest according to the order of Melchisedech is shown from the details of the typical Melchisedech’s Biblical record,

1-3; his superiority over the Levitical or Aaronic priesthood is shown from the relation for Melchisedech to Abraham, 4-10; the perfection of the new priesthood and of the regime to which it belonged, 11-28.

1-3. Extra-biblical speculation on the mysterious figure of Melchisedech need not detain us. Was he a Semite, a Jphetite, or, being a Chananite king, de he belong to the cursed seed of Cham? Various fancies clustered around his name and different brands of pseudo-Christian Melchisedechian heretics venerated him as a manifestation of the Logos, of the Holy Ghost, or even as a divine priestly power superior to Christ himself. St Paul argues entirely from the positive and negative details of the biblical notice, which he summarizes from Gen. 14, with close adherence to LXX Septuagint. Every single point of the summary is utilized. The personal name means ’King of Justice"; the place of his royalty Salem (Jerusalem) designates him as "King of peace"; but the royal titles are only incidental to the Apostle’s them; it is as a "Priest of God Most High" that Melchisedech is here envisaged. Not mention is made of the kind of sacrifice he offered, for the Eucharistic significance of Melchisedech does not belong to our Epistle. He met the victorious but still childless Abraham (cf. 10), blessed him, and received from the honor of a tithe of the booty.

2. The Priest Melchisedech thus blessing and receiving tithe from the Patriarch of the promise, Gen. 14, and the future great grandfather of the twelve tribes, supplies the two essential positive points. But the divinely intended omissions of the sacred text are also significant.

3. On Melchisedech’s Origin there is complete silence no mention of the father or mother or ancestral line. And he is without certificate of birth or of death. The inspired page presents him in this negative manner as a living Priest, and so, being assimilated to the Son of God in the quality of a type, he remains a priest in perpetuity. Not that the three adjectives; "without father, without mother, without recorded descent" should be taken together. St Paul did not think of Christ having no temporal father, having no eternal mother, and having no priestly genealogy, though he had a royal one. It is simply as possessing a divinely given negative certificate of life that Melchisedech is a type of the Eternal Priest. Whether St Paul knew certain facts now revealed by the Tell el Amarna tablets about the kings of Jerusalem claiming kingship not by succession by divine appointment must remain doubtful and, in any case, contributes nothing to the exegesis of this passage.

4-10 Superiority of Melchisedech over Abraham and Levi. The Argument here is easily grasped that Abraham the Patriarch w2as great was simply a Hebrew axiom.. Yet he gave tithes to Melchisedech from the choicest of spoils and received blessing from him.

5-6. Levitical priests had the right to receive tithes from their brethren, though these also had the dignity of children of Abraham, but in the person of Melchisedech one who was no levite laid Abraham himself under tithe,. Melchisedech also blessed the very Patriarch in whom the promise of future blessing was vested.

7. And undoubtedly the bestowal of authoritative priestly blessing is the act of a superior.

8. Moreover, the levitical priests, being priests in line of succession, had death written on them even while they gathered tithes, but Melchisedech lives on without a successor, having that negative diploma of life mentioned above.

9-10. To put the matter almost paradoxically, Levi the tither was tithed by Melchisedech, for Levi was then included in the still potential fatherhood of the childless Abraham. The word "loins," is a Hebraism for virility or generative power. Aquinas raises the objection: "But Christ also was in the loins of Abraham when Melchisedech tithed and blessed him! He answers: Seminally, no: as to the bodily substance taken from the Blessed Virgin, yes. The Virginal conception of Christ makes the difference.

11-28. Imperfect and Perfect Priesthood. The appointment of a Priest according to the order of Melchisedech marks the Aaronic priesthood as transitory, 11-14;

(a) 9-12 Perfection is the end of every divine arrangement, and if perfection was to come through the Levitical priesthood this priesthood being the basis of the whole cultural system of the Mosaic Law why should another cultural system of the Mosaic Law why should another a different Priest arise according to the order of Melchisedech and not be called according to the order of Aaron??

12. A theocratic law lapses totally when its priesthood lapse. Now the Aaronic priesthood does lapse with introduction of the Melchisedechian priesthood, and with it lapses the law which has no provision for any other but a Levitical priesthood.

13. It is historically evident that "Our Lord" note the title of whom the oracle of priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech was spoken, has come from the tribe of Juda, no member of the which tribe ever had access to the altar to perform priestly functions, and moreover, the Law of Moses has no inkling of any connection between priesthood and that same tribe of Juda.

(b) 15-17. This is still more evident from the mode of duration of the priesthoods. The Priesthood which arises according to the order of Melchisedech is a lasting personal priesthood, not a priesthood transmitted from father to son according to a law of carnal succession.

16. The Melchisedechain Priests holds his priesthood according to the power of an indissoluble (or unending) life, for the oracle says: "Thou are a Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.

(c) 18-19 Thus come back to the idea of, or perfection, the former regime is set aside because of its weakness and unprofitableness. Really the law brought nothing to perfection, for of itself it conferred no interior sanctity and it gave no power to do the good which it commanded. With the setting aside of the law we hail the introduction of a better hope note the word "better" three times in this chapter and ten times elsewhere in Hebrews and through this better hope we draw near to god in the confidence which arises from pardon and the spirit of adoption and the assurance of glory. The realized by the priesthood of Christ is all these things; forgivensss and grace and glory.

20-22. Another circumstance which marks the superiority of the priesthood of Christ is the solemnity of the oath which ratifies it and confirms its irrevocable finality. The priests of the House of Aaron were inaugurated without any divine oath, but Christ with an oath never to be repented of. In this respect Jesus stands as the sponsor (or surety, or mediatorial guarantor) of a better covenant. Covenant or covenant-testament appears here for the first time and will appear sixteen times in the iequel in eleven changes of context. This sentence, 20a, 22, with its parenthesis, 20b, 21, has an indescribable majesty in our author’s Greek.

e. 23-25. As unending life was contrasted with fleshly succession in 15-17, the oneness and permanence of Christ’s priesthood is finally set against the multiplicity of priests whom death prevented from remaining.

23. They were many, for no one of them, all being mortal, could remain, but he, because he remains for ever, has a priesthood which does not pass away (?pa??ß?t??) .

24. The DV here does not represent the full force of the Gk which means: ’He, because he remains for ever, holds his priesthood as a priesthood untransmissible, everlasting’.

25. Hence he is also a perpetual Saviour, a perpetual Mediator, an everliving Advocate, ’able to save perfectly—or perpetually (Vg, Coptic, Syriac)—those who come to God through him, always living to make intercession for them.’ (cf. Romans 8:34, the tones of which are here echoed). At the end of the sentence Vg substitutes ’us’ for ’them’. The presence of Christ’s sacred humanity in heaven is itselfa perpetual pleading, our names are better written in his sacred wounds than the names of the twelve tribes on the gems of Aaron’s pectoral, and his heart’s desire for our salvation is before God always.

26-28 Conclusion— 26. Such indeed was the High Priest whom in all fitness we should have—utterly holy and exalted and effective. He is all piety towards God (?s???), without any tinge of harmful malice (??a???) which would diminish our confidence in him, without any defilement to dim the lustre of his holiness—hence separated from sinners with a transcendence which has raised him above the heavens.

27. His work is absolutely efficacious, for he has no need day by day, like the high priests—that is, toties qzioties on Expiation Day —to offer sacrifices for his own sins, then for those of the people. For the people alone he came to offer, and this he did once for all, offering himself.

28. In fine— and the sentence sounds like a triumphal chant—the law sets up men as high priests—men having weakness, that is, sin and mortality, but the word of the oath announced through the mouth of David, long after the law, sets up One who is Son (again without the article) and whose perfection is consummated for ever in priestly achievement and in glory.

N.B.—27a creates a difficulty. It was only on Expiation Day (Lev 16) and not ’daily’ that the high priest was bound to offer sacrifice first for himself and then for the people. Some commentators answer that St Paul is referring to the actual practice of the high priest, who offered the double sacrifice every day; but such practice is not otherwise attested. The most satisfactory answer is that St Paul’s gaze here is entirely on the high priest and Expiation day. He mentions the daily sacrifices of ’every priest’ for the first time specifically in 10:11, and in a new context. In the present context, which is entirely high-priestly, ?a?’?µ??a?, meaning ’day by day’, refers to each Expiation day as it came round once a year.