Hebrews 7:1–10

7:1–2 In Genesis the encounter of Abraham and Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18–20) is surrounded by the patriarch’s interaction with the king of Sodom (Gen. 14:17, 21–24). Abraham’s nephew Lot had moved into Sodom, exposing his family to both physical and spiritual danger (Gen. 13:13; 14:8–12; 18:20–19:29; 2 Pet. 2:6–8). After Abraham defeated Sodom’s enemies, its monarch met the patriarch and offered him Sodom’s wealth as the victor’s spoils (Gen. 14:17, 21). But Abraham declined, having sworn before “the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth,” to accept no reward from Sodom (Gen. 14:22–24). Such a transaction would have entangled Abraham in a covenantal alliance with that notoriously evil metropolis, which was rushing unwittingly toward destruction.

By contrast, Abraham’s encounter with Melchizedek, “king of Salem, priest of the Most High God” (Heb. 7:1, echoing Gen. 14:18), displayed their shared devotion to the true creator and possessor of the universe, whom both knew as “God Most High” and whom Abraham called by his covenant name, “LORD.” Melchizedek pronounced God’s blessing on Abraham, and Abraham apportioned “a tenth part,” the Lord’s tithe, of the spoils he had recaptured in battle (cf. Gen. 28:22; Lev. 27:30–32; Num. 18:21–32). The significance of these two actions, demonstrating Melchizedek’s priestly, mediatorial superiority to the great patriarch Abraham, will be elaborated on in verses 4–10 of Hebrews 7.

Melchizedek’s name and political position in the ancient Near East attest that he was a king. As our author notes, his name in Hebrew means “king [melek; in compound words, melki-] of righteousness [tsedeq].” His name thus brings to mind Hebrews 1:8–9, which applies Psalm 45:6–7 to the Son: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. . . . You have loved righteousness . . . therefore God, your God, has anointed you.”

Melchizedek’s political position was “king of Salem,” meaning “king of peace” (Hb. shalem = Gk. eirēnē). The parallelism of “Salem” and “Zion” in Psalm 76:2 indicates that Salem was an older name for Jerusalem, which would become David’s capital and the site of the temple. Although “peace” (eirēnē) appears rarely in Hebrews (11:31; 12:14; 13:20), it expresses the result of the atoning sacrifice that priests offer, namely, a relationship of communion between guilty people and the holy God (cf. Rom. 5:1–11; Eph. 2:14–18). Psalm 110:4 emphasizes that Melchizedek is the pattern for a priestly order, but one distinctive of this order is its confluence with kingship.

7:3 In Greek, three negated adjectives—“fatherless, motherless, genealogy-less”—appear abruptly without conjunctions and are followed by a participial phrase containing more negations: “having neither beginning of days nor end of life.” Melchizedek is set apart from ordinary human experience by these five missing pieces—father, mother, family tree, birth, and death. Some have understood this description as teaching that the priest-king who met Abraham was a supernatural manifestation of God in human form (theophany)—specifically, an appearance of God the Son in human history before his incarnation (Christophany). However, it is more probable that our preacher does not view Melchizedek as a Christophany. Rather, he treats the silences of Genesis 14—facts about the historical Melchizedek that Moses omitted from the narrative of his encounter with Abraham—as intended by the Holy Spirit, Scripture’s divine author, to portray that ancient priest-king as “resembling [aphomoioō] the Son of God.” Melchizedek is like God’s Son, but he is also distinct from him.

The same relationship (similarity with distinction) is expressed in Hebrews 7:15, where the resemblance is traced in the opposite direction, with Jesus being described as “another priest . . . in the likeness of [kata tēn homoiotēta] Melchizedek.” This interpretation is consistent with the timeline in Hebrews of Jesus’ priestly career: God’s Son assumed human nature like ours, was obedient under temptation and suffering, offered his life as a sacrifice, and consequently became (2:17; 6:20) and was designated (5:10) High Priest “after the order of Melchizedek.” It also fits the natural reading of the Genesis account, which presents Melchizedek as holding an established political position as king of Salem, unlike theophany accounts in which God’s appearances are brief and extraordinary (Gen. 18:1–33; 32:22–32; Ex. 3:1–4:17; Josh. 5:13–15).

What Genesis does not tell us about Melchizedek makes him exceptional in Genesis, a book structured by genealogies in which births and deaths, fathers and (among the patriarchs) even mothers are listed (Gen. 5:1–32; 6:9–10; 10:1–32; 11:10–32; 16:15; 21:1–7; 23:1–2; 25:7–26; 29:31–30:24; 35:16–36:43; 49:33; 50:22–26). To have one’s name embedded in these genealogies is to have a place in the covenantal history of Abraham and his offspring (Gen. 12:1–2; 15:5; 17:1–8; 22:15–18). Yet Melchizedek, though a worshiper of the same “Most High God” who called Abraham to himself, appears and disappears suddenly in Abraham’s story, altogether lacking genetic “credentials” or generational context.

7:4–5 The actions of Melchizedek and Abraham—blessing and tithing, respectively—show “how great this man was.” Even Israel’s “patriarch” (this honorific title appears only here in Hebrews) gave Melchizedek a tenth of the plunder, thereby acknowledging Salem’s priest-king as his intermediary to God.

The Levites “are descended from” Abraham—literally they “have come out of [his] loins” (exelēlythotas ek tēs osphyos), anticipating verse 10. Levi’s descendants were set apart by the law’s command stipulating that the Israelites were to donate the Lord’s tithes to them. Their calling to serve God’s sanctuary (first tabernacle, then temple) meant that, instead of farmland, the Levites received the Lord as their inheritance, and the rest of Israel was to provide for them as they served on Israel’s behalf in God’s presence (Num. 18:20–24; Deut. 18:1–2).

7:6–7 In the exchange of tithe and blessing, both Abraham and Melchizedek acknowledged Melchizedek’s privileged position as priestly mediator between the patriarch and his divine Lord. Tithes offered in worship were tokens of the worshipers’ awareness that God is the source of all they possessed. To entrust the Lord’s tithe to a priest was to recognize the priest’s authority to intercede with God on one’s behalf. The tithe went from worshipers through the priest to God. A blessing pronounced in God’s name enacted the priest’s authority to confer God’s grace on worshipers. Blessing thus proceeded from God through the priest to the worshipers.

Melchizedek is described as “this man who does not have his descent from them” (v. 6), since he was “without . . . genealogy” (v. 3). Abraham, on the other hand, is the one “who had the promises” (v. 6). These descriptions emphasize, first, that the priestly credentials qualifying a priest according to Melchizedek’s order differ from those qualifying Levitical priests; and, second, that Abraham’s ultimate blessedness as a recipient of God’s promises (6:12, 15; 11:8–11, 13, 17) is mediated by a Melchizedek-like priest.

7:8 A twofold contrast between Levitical priests and Melchizedek (actually, the priest of whom Melchizedek was a preview) anticipates the inferences that will be drawn from Psalm 110:4 (Heb. 7:23–24). First, the Levites were many “men,” whereas Melchizedek was singular, “one of whom it is testified.” Second, their plurality was needed because they were “mortal men.” Actually, the Greek is more vivid: “dying men” (apothnēskontes anthrōpoi). On the other hand, the silence of the Genesis text concerning Melchizedek’s “beginning of days [or] end of life” (7:3) can be construed as Scripture’s testimony (martyroumenos) that “he lives.”

This inference is reinforced by the other OT Melchizedek text, Psalm 110:4, in which “it is witnessed [martyreitai] of him” that he is priest forever (Heb. 7:17). Thus Moses’ Holy Spirit–directed authorial restraint portrayed the ancient priest-king Melchizedek in such a way that he “[resembles] the Son of God” (7:3), the priest who “always lives to make intercession for” those who approach God through him (7:25). Someone might object that the fact that Melchizedek’s death is not recorded in Genesis does not in itself testify to his endless life. But our preacher is already interpreting this feature of Genesis 14 in light of Psalm 110:4 and the fulfillment of both OT texts in Jesus, the risen High Priest who lives and serves forever (Heb. 13:20).

7:9–10 One further conclusion is drawn about the relationship between Melchizedek’s priesthood and that of Israel’s priests, descended from Levi. The principle of covenantal representation means that descendants are considered to have participated in their ancestors’ actions, for good or ill. Abraham’s offspring would be multiplied and blessed because Abraham believed God (Gen. 15:5–6; 17:1–8). On the other hand, Adam, father of the human race, disobeyed God’s prohibition in Eden, and by that one sin his offspring in all succeeding generations are reckoned to be sinners, liable to death (Rom. 5:12–19; 1 Cor. 15:21–22). Likewise, since Levi, Abraham’s great-grandson, “was still in the loins [en tē osphyi] of his ancestor,” our author concludes that the Levitical-Aaronic priests, whose ministry was supported by tithes from Israel’s other tribes, were already acknowledging that Melchizedek’s priesthood was superior to their own because through Abraham they offered tithes to Melchizedek, the superior priest.