The Greatness of Melchizedek
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, met Abraham and blessed him as he returned from defeating the kings, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means king of righteousness, then also, king of Salem, meaning king of peace. 3 Without father, mother, or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, m he remains a priest forever.
4 Now consider how great this man was: even Abraham the patriarch n gave a tenth of the plunder to him. 5 The sons of Levi who receive the priestly office have a command according to the law to collect a tenth from the people o—that is, from their brothers and sisters—though they have also descended from Abraham. 6 But one without this lineage collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. p 7 Without a doubt, the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case, men who will die receive a tenth, but in the other case, Scripture testifies that he lives. q 9 And in a sense Levi himself, who receives a tenth, has paid a tenth through Abraham, 10 for he was still within his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.
A Superior Priesthood
11 Now if perfection came through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the law r ), what further need was there for another priest to appear, said to be according to the order of Melchizedek and not according to the order of Aaron? s 12 For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must be a change of law as well. 13 For the one these things are spoken about belonged to a different tribe. No one from it has served at the altar. 14 Now it is evident that our Lord came from Judah, t and Moses said nothing about that tribe concerning priests.
15 And this becomes clearer if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 who did not become a priest based on a legal regulation about physical descent but based on the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it has been testified:
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek. ,u
18 So the previous command is annulled because it was weak and unprofitable v 19 (for the law perfected w nothing), but a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. x
20 None of this happened without an oath. For others became priests without an oath, 21 but he became a priest with an oath made by the one who said to him:
The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever.” ,y
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant. z
23 Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. 24 But because he remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede a for them.
26 For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. b 27 He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all time when he offered himself. c 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, d who has been perfected e forever.
7:1–3. The author now turns to discuss Melchizedek the priest (7:1–28). The few details about Melchizedek (7:1–3) are taken from Gn 14:18–20. In distinction to the necessity of Aaronic ancestry as a prerequisite for Levitical priestly service (Heb 7:14), nothing is said either of Melchizedek’s birth and ancestry or his death and posterity (7:3a). For the author’s purpose, this fact demonstrates the existence in Scripture of another order of priesthood wholly separate from the Levitical. In this, Melchizedek serves as a type or embodied prophecy of Christ’s non-Levitical and eternal priesthood (7:3b), which is confirmed not only directly in Ps 110:4 (already cited in Heb 5:6) but also by his name (“king of righteousness”) and his title (“king of peace”), both redolent of Christ’s messianic office and dignity (7:2; cf. Is 9:6; Jr 23:6; Zch 9:9–10).
7:4–10. Attention is now drawn to the fact that, according to Gn 14, Abraham, though the heir of the promise and even in his hour of triumph, clearly behaves as Melchizedek’s inferior, in both paying him tithes and receiving his blessing (7:4, 6). Abraham was under no legal obligation to pay tithes to Melchizedek as Israelites would later be required by God’s law to pay a tithe to the Levitical priesthood; hence, his paying of a tithe amounted to a voluntary recognition of Melchizedek’s inherent dignity as a priest of God (7:5–6; cf. 7:16). “Scripture testifies that he lives” (7:8) looks back to 7:3 and the silence of the record regarding Melchizedek’s birth and death. By the absence of this information, the type is perfected and more perfectly foreshadows Christ’s eternal priesthood.
7:11. With the ground thus laid, the author sets out to show that, of the two priesthoods reported in Scripture, Jesus’s is superior (7:11–28) and the only source of salvation (see 5:9). The author is criticizing the Levitical institutions precisely for failing to provide in themselves the forgiveness of sins and the perfection of the conscience (7:18–19; 9:13–14). The readers of the letter, tempted to return to the comfortable paths of their former faith and associations, were inclined to precisely the opposite conclusions—namely, that perfection could come through the Levitical priesthood and that the sacrifices could make perfect those who offered them. The author’s contrast is between two ways of salvation—one by ritual performance and the other by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The argument advanced is designed to correct a misplaced confidence in rituals and to confirm the conviction that salvation is and could only be in Christ alone.
7:12–19. The author rejects the argument that since the inauguration of the Levitical priesthood came later, it superseded Melchizedek’s order; for long after Aaron, the Word of God (Ps 110:4) speaks of another priest in the order of Melchizedek (7:12–17). The law was served by the priesthood that upheld it, and the priesthood was, in turn, regulated by the law. But the law made no provision for a priesthood outside the tribe of Levi, and Jesus was of the tribe of Judah (7:13–14). Christ’s appointment as priest and all the more as an eternal priest of a wholly different order thus constitutes a superseding of the Levitical institutions and a further demonstration that they were by no means God’s definitive provision for the salvation of humankind. That point is now repeated in a striking statement of the ineffectuality of that ritual. The author heaps scorn on it precisely for its failure to bring the sinner near to God (7:18–19).
7:20–22. The superiority of Christ’s priesthood is further confirmed by its enactment through divine oath (7:20–21). Characteristically, the author anticipates the development of this argument in 8:6–13. It is noteworthy that in this first reference to the new covenant, Jesus is said to be its guarantor (7:22). In keeping with the author’s already well-established perspective, the new covenant is not something the faithful of the former epoch awaited in hope but that Christians today enjoy as a present possession. One does not require a guarantor for what one already has (6:17–20). The new covenant, the rest of God, the promise, even salvation itself are presented in Hebrews as different aspects of the future consummation and the fulfillment of the world to come.
7:23–28. The permanence of Christ’s priesthood sets it above the Levitical (7:23–25). Christ’s priesthood does not need to be replaced generation after generation, which lends a continual efficacy to all aspects of his priestly work, including his intercession (Is 53:12; Jn 17:8–9; Rm 8:34).