Hebrews 7: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The writer looks back at Melchizedek, the king-priest who met Abraham, and argues that he was greater than the priests descended from Levi, since Abraham paid him a tenth and received his blessing. Because Scripture speaks of a priest in Melchizedek's line rather than Aaron's, the writer concludes that the priesthood has changed and the law tied to it must change with it. Jesus, who came from the tribe of Judah, became priest by God's oath and by a life that cannot be destroyed, so his priesthood is permanent. Unlike the other high priests, he offered a sacrifice once for all when he offered himself.

Claim by Claim

1. 7:1
   • Melchizedek was king of Salem.
   • Melchizedek was priest of God Most High.
   • Melchizedek met Abraham as Abraham was returning from defeating the kings.
   • Melchizedek blessed Abraham.
2. 7:2
   • Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.
   • Melchizedek's title means first of all king of righteousness.
   • He is also king of Salem, which means king of peace.
3. 7:3
   • Melchizedek is without a father.
   • Melchizedek is without a mother.
   • Melchizedek is without recorded genealogy.
   • Melchizedek has no beginning of days.
   • Melchizedek has no end of life.
   • Melchizedek has been made like the Son of God.
   • Melchizedek remains a priest without interruption.
4. 7:4
   • The readers are told to consider how great Melchizedek was.
   • Abraham the patriarch gave Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils.
5. 7:5
   • Those of the sons of Levi who receive the priesthood have a commandment to collect tithes from the people according to the law.
   • The people they collect tithes from are their own brothers.
   • Those brothers are descended from Abraham.
6. 7:6
   • Melchizedek, whose descent is not traced from the sons of Levi, collected a tithe from Abraham.
   • Melchizedek blessed the man who held the promises.
7. 7:7
   • Beyond all dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater.
8. 7:8
   • In one case, men who die receive tithes.
   • In the other case, the one who receives tithes is attested as living.
9. 7:9
   • Speaking in a manner of speaking, Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham.
10. 7:10
    • Levi was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met Abraham.
11. 7:11
    • The people were given the law on the basis of the Levitical priesthood.
    • If perfection had come through the Levitical priesthood, there would have been no further need for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek.
    • If perfection had come through the Levitical priesthood, there would have been no need for a priest to be named after an order other than Aaron's.
12. 7:12
    • When the priesthood is changed, a change of the law necessarily follows.
13. 7:13
    • The one about whom these things are said belongs to a different tribe.
    • No one from that tribe has ever officiated at the altar.
14. 7:14
    • It is plain that our Lord descended from Judah.
    • Moses said nothing about priests in connection with the tribe of Judah.
15. 7:15
    • The point is even more abundantly clear.
    • Another priest arises resembling Melchizedek.
16. 7:16
    • This priest has become a priest not according to a law of a fleshly commandment.
    • This priest has become a priest according to the power of an indestructible life.
17. 7:17
    • It is testified of him: 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'
18. 7:18
    • The former commandment is set aside.
    • The former commandment is set aside because it was weak.
    • The former commandment is set aside because it was useless.
19. 7:19
    • The law made nothing perfect.
    • A better hope is brought in.
    • Through that better hope we draw near to God.
20. 7:20
    • He was made priest not without an oath.
21. 7:21
    • The Levitical priests were made priests without an oath.
    • This priest was made priest with an oath by the one who spoke to him.
    • The one who spoke said, 'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.'
    • The one who spoke said, 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'
22. 7:22
    • To that same degree, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.
23. 7:23
    • The Levitical priests were many in number.
    • They were many because death prevented them from continuing in office.
24. 7:24
    • Jesus continues forever.
    • Because he continues forever, he holds a priesthood that does not pass to another.
25. 7:25
    • He is able to save completely those who come to God through him.
    • He lives always.
    • He lives always in order to intercede for them.
26. 7:26
    • Such a high priest was fitting for us.
    • He is holy.
    • He is without evil.
    • He is undefiled.
    • He is separated from sinners.
    • He has been made higher than the heavens.
27. 7:27
    • He has no need, as the other high priests do, to offer sacrifices daily.
    • The other high priests offer sacrifices first for their own sins.
    • The other high priests then offer sacrifices for the sins of the people.
    • He did this once for all.
    • He did this by offering up himself.
28. 7:28
    • The law appoints as high priests men who have weakness.
    • The word of the oath came after the law.
    • The word of the oath appoints the Son.
    • The Son has been made perfect forever.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

7:1

Melchizedek appears in only three verses of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 14:18-20. Abraham, coming back from defeating a coalition of kings who had carried off his nephew Lot, is met by this king-priest, who brings out bread and wine and blesses him. "The slaughter of the kings" means the defeat of those kings in battle, not a massacre afterward. Salem is generally taken to be an older, shortened name for Jerusalem. "The most high God" renders the title used in the Genesis story, El Elyon, God Most High.

7:2

The argument here rests on the sound of the Hebrew names. "Melchizedek" divides into melek, king, and tsedeq, righteousness. "Salem" resembles shalom, peace. Drawing meaning out of a name this way was ordinary practice among ancient interpreters. The tenth is a tithe, the customary gift of a tenth of one's income or plunder to a god or to his priest.

7:3

In Israel a man could serve as priest only by proving descent from Levi through Aaron, and priestly family records were kept and checked. Genesis gives Melchizedek no parents, no ancestry, no birth and no death; he simply appears and disappears. The writer argues from that silence in the record. He is not claiming Melchizedek had no human parents, but reading what the page does and does not say.

7:4

"Patriarch" means founding ancestor of a people. "The tenth of the spoils" refers to goods captured in battle; the Greek word means the top of the heap, the choicest part of what was taken.

7:5

The tribe of Levi was set apart for service at the sanctuary and given no farmland of its own, so it lived on the tenth collected from the other tribes (Numbers 18). "Come out of the loins of Abraham" is an old way of saying descended from him. The point is that Levites collect from relatives who are their equals in ancestry.

7:6

"Him that had the promises" is Abraham, to whom God promised land, descendants, and blessing reaching all nations (Genesis 12).

7:7

In this culture a blessing ran downward, from the greater person to the lesser: father to son, king to subject, priest to worshiper. That social fact is the whole weight of the argument.

7:8

The contrast is again between what the record reports. Levite priests are men who die and are replaced, generation after generation. Of Melchizedek, scripture reports no death, so the writer speaks of him as one who goes on living.

7:9

"As I may so say" flags a deliberately loose way of putting things. The writer knows he is stretching a point and says so before making it.

7:10

Ancient thinking treated a descendant as in some sense already present in the body of his ancestor before birth, so what the ancestor did could be counted as done by the descendant. That assumption is what makes the argument work.

7:11

"Perfection" here means completion, bringing something all the way to its intended goal, not moral flawlessness. Aaron was Moses' brother and Israel's first high priest; every lawful priest traced descent from him, so "the order of Aaron" means the regular Israelite priesthood.

7:13

"Gave attendance at the altar" means served as a priest, doing the work of slaughtering, burning and presenting offerings at the altar in the sanctuary. Only men of Levi's tribe did that work.

7:14

"Sprang out of Juda" means descended from Judah; Juda is the older spelling. Judah was the royal tribe, the tribe of David, and pointedly not the priestly one.

7:16

"Carnal" in 1611 English meant simply of the flesh, bodily, without the sexual sense it now carries. "A carnal commandment" here means the rule about bodily descent, being born into the right family. "Endless life" translates a word meaning indestructible, a life death cannot undo.

7:17

This is a quotation of Psalm 110:4, a psalm addressed to a king. The single line about Melchizedek is the hinge of the entire chapter, and it is quoted again in verse 21.

7:18

"Disannulling" is an old word meaning cancellation or setting aside. "Unprofitableness" means uselessness for this particular purpose, not worthlessness in every respect.

7:19

"Draw nigh" means come near, and it carries a physical picture. Under the older system ordinary worshipers could not enter the sanctuary; priests could go only so far, and the high priest alone entered the innermost room, once a year.

7:20

An oath is a solemn promise. Swearing one in God's name made the promise binding, and no one could take it back later.

7:21

"Sware" is the old past tense of swear. "Repent" in 1611 English meant change one's mind or think better of something; the line says God will not go back on the oath, not that God will not sin. The quotation is Psalm 110:4 again.

7:22

"Surety" is a legal term: the person who stands behind someone else's debt or promise and is liable if it is not kept. "Testament" renders the Greek word diatheke, which covers both a last will and a binding agreement between parties, which is why English Bibles alternate between "testament" and "covenant" for the same word.

7:23

"Were not suffered to continue" means were not allowed to keep the office; "suffer" in 1611 English usually meant permit. Over the centuries of the temple, dozens of men held the high priesthood in turn.

7:24

"Unchangeable" translates a word that can mean either not passing on to a successor or simply permanent, and the sentence does not choose between the two.

7:25

"To the uttermost" can mean completely, all the way through, or it can mean for all time. The Greek carries both senses and the sentence does not settle which is meant. "Make intercession" means to plead on someone's behalf, the way an advocate speaks for a client before a judge or a courtier speaks for someone before a king.

7:26

"Became us" means was fitting for us, suited to what we needed; it has nothing to do with becoming something. "Harmless" in 1611 English meant innocent, free of malice, rather than merely not dangerous. "Undefiled" carries a ritual sense: a priest had to stay clear of whatever made him unfit to serve, such as contact with a corpse.

7:27

Under the law the high priest offered a sacrifice for his own sins before he could offer one for the people, most visibly on the Day of Atonement each year (Leviticus 16), while sacrifices were also offered at the temple every morning and evening. "Once" here means once for all, a single act that never needs repeating.

7:28

"Infirmity" means weakness, covering both moral frailty and mortality. "Consecrated" translates the verb behind "perfection" in verse 11: brought to completion, fully qualified, arrived at the intended goal, rather than made morally pure.