A better priesthood: Melchizedek, the oath and the Son who lives to intercede

Hebrews 7 is the centre of the letter's argument that Jesus is a better priest. It rests on two Old Testament texts.

• The first is Genesis 14:17-20, where Abram returns from rescuing Lot, and Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High (El Elyon), brings out bread and wine, blesses Abram and receives a tenth of everything from him. The scene occupies four verses, and Melchizedek never appears again in Genesis.
• The second is Psalm 110:4, where the LORD swears to David's Lord, 'You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.' Between these two texts lie roughly a thousand years, depending on how Abraham is dated. Psalm 110 is headed as David's, and Jesus treated it as such (Mark 12:35-37).

Salem is usually identified with Jerusalem, because Psalm 76:2 sets 'Salem' parallel to 'Zion', though some scholars question the equation. Melchizedek's name is a Semitic name meaning 'my king is righteous' or 'king of righteousness', and Hebrews 7:2 adopts that translation. A Canaanite name in a Canaanite city is notable. Melchizedek serves the same God whom Abram calls 'the LORD, God Most High' (Genesis 14:22). That is why Abram gives him a tenth and takes no reward from the king of Sodom.

As in chapter 5, the author is unknown (see the previous class), the date is most likely before AD 70, and the readers were Jewish Christians under pressure. The writer is giving a sermon, and this chapter is its densest exposition. He has promised it in 5:10 and delayed it in 5:11 to 6:20.

Hebrews 7 is Scripture exposition in the style of a close reading. The writer takes two texts, reads them slowly, notices what they say and what they omit, and draws conclusions. Two features are characteristic.

• The first is typology: Melchizedek is a person in a real historical scene, and the writer sees in the way Scripture portrays him a pattern that is realised in Christ.
• The second is argument from silence. Genesis gives Melchizedek no genealogy, no birth and no death, and Hebrews 7:3 reads that silence as part of the portrait: as Scripture presents him, he has no recorded beginning or end. The Greek says he has been 'made like' (aphomoiomenos) the Son of God. The likeness is in the text's portrait, and it runs from the shadow to the reality. The writer does not say that Melchizedek was without parents in fact. He says that Scripture presents him without them.

The writer also uses the logic of Jewish scriptural argument, in which a figure's greatness is shown by comparison with others: who blesses whom, who pays tithe to whom. Each step is a deduction from a law the readers accept, including the law of Numbers 18 about tithes to Levites. The writer finally argues that if the priesthood is changed, the law must change with it (7:12), because the law and the priesthood were bound together at Sinai.

Verses 1–3

Melchizedek was 'king of Salem and priest of God Most High'. He 'met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him', and Abraham 'apportioned to him a tenth of everything'. The writer gives two translations of the name: 'king of righteousness' and then 'king of peace' for 'king of Salem'. The order is deliberate, because in Scripture righteousness comes before peace (Isaiah 32:17; Psalm 85:10). Then verse 3: 'Without father or mother or genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God, he remains a priest for all time.' Priests had to prove their descent (Ezra 2:61-63). Melchizedek has no recorded descent and no recorded end, and yet he is a priest. The words 'for all time' (eis to dienekes) mean continually, and they describe the way he appears in the text, not a claim that he is eternal in himself.

Verses 4–10

'Consider how great Melchizedek was.' The writer gives three arguments.

• First, Abraham, the patriarch, gave him a tithe of the plunder (7:4).
• Second, Melchizedek blessed Abraham, and 'indisputably, the lesser is blessed by the greater' (7:7).
• Third, in the Levitical system 'mortal men' collect the tithe, but of Melchizedek 'it is affirmed that he lives on' (7:8), that is, Scripture records no death. Verse 5 reminds the readers that the law already commands the sons of Levi to collect a tenth from their brothers. That is the law of Numbers 18:21-28, and Hebrews takes it for granted. The Levites are descended from Abraham like those they tax, but Melchizedek, outside Levi's line, received a tenth from Abraham himself. Verses 9-10 push this further: Levi 'paid the tenth through Abraham', because he was 'in the loin of his ancestor'. The words 'so to speak' mark this as an argument, not a literal claim: Abraham acted for his descendants (compare Adam in Romans 5:12-19).

Verses 11–14

The writer now raises the central question: 'if perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on this basis the people received the law), why was there still need for another priest to appear?' Psalm 110:4, written long after Sinai, speaks of another priest. 'When the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed as well' (7:12). The reason this change is possible is that Jesus is from Judah. 'It is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, a tribe as to which Moses said nothing about priests.' The verb translated 'descended' (anatetalken) means 'has risen' or 'sprung up', and it is the verb related to the noun used in the Greek Old Testament for the Branch (Zechariah 3:8; 6:12). The writer does not play on this explicitly, but some scholars hear the Branch language behind the verb.

Verses 15–19

Psalm 110 is applied: another priest like Melchizedek has appeared, 'one who has become a priest not by a law of succession, but by the power of an indestructible life'. The old basis was a rule of descent from Aaron (literally, a law of a fleshly commandment). The new basis is life: the Greek akatalytos means 'that cannot be dissolved', and most commentators connect it with Christ's resurrection (compare Acts 2:24; Romans 6:9). Verse 18 says: 'the former commandment is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect)'. The 'former commandment' here is the rule governing the Levitical priesthood. The writer does not say the moral content of the law is gone. He says the law's system of priestly access could not bring people to completion, and 'a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God' (7:19). Drawing near is priestly language.

Verses 20–22

The oath. The Levitical priests were appointed without God's oath. Psalm 110:4 opens: 'The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind.' An oath is the strongest form of divine promise, and the writer already used it in 6:13-18. Because of it, 'Jesus has become the guarantee (enguos) of a better covenant'. This is the only use of 'guarantee' in the New Testament and the first use of 'covenant' in the letter; Hebrews 8 develops it.

Verses 23–25

The contrast of numbers: many priests, because death kept them from continuing; one priest, who 'lives forever' and 'has a permanent priesthood'. The Greek adjective for permanent (aparabatos) can mean 'unchangeable' or 'not passing to another', and both senses are argued; either way the priesthood has no successor in the office. 'Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.' 'Completely' (eis to panteles) can mean fully or for all time. Intercession is what a priest does. Paul also says that Christ at God's right hand intercedes (Romans 8:34), and John calls him the advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1).

Verses 26–28

'Such a high priest truly befits us.' Five phrases follow: holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He does not need to offer 'daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people'. The wording compresses the daily offerings with the yearly Day of Atonement, and commentators differ on how it lines up with Leviticus 6:19-23 and 16:6-17. The point is that he 'sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself' (ephapax). The chapter ends with the comparison of the law, which appoints weak men, and the oath, which 'came after the law' and appoints a Son 'made perfect forever'.

Hebrews 7 shows the Old Testament's own testimony that the Levitical priesthood was not final. Three lines of Scripture make the case.

• The first is Genesis 14, where Abraham honours a priest outside his family and outside the later Levitical line.
• The second is Psalm 110, where a king, David's Lord, is declared a priest by oath.
• The third is Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8, which promise a new covenant. The writer argues that the Old Testament pointed past itself.

The chapter also states several doctrines at once. Christ's priesthood rests on the power of an indestructible life, so it is tied to the resurrection. It rests on the oath of God, so it cannot fail. It is permanent, so it needs no successor, and it works through intercession, so salvation is complete and continuing. The completeness of Christ's offering (7:27) is the ground on which the New Testament teaches that believers draw near without further sacrifice (10:19-22). The sinlessness in 7:26, 'holy, innocent, undefiled', is the reason his sacrifice is sufficient.

Finally, Hebrews 7 limits what it says. The New Testament calls Jesus a priest only in Hebrews. The notion that Christians have priestly access and offer spiritual sacrifices appears in 1 Peter 2:5 and 9 and Revelation 1:6, but the individual 'priest' (hiereus) is never a church officer in the New Testament. How far Hebrews 7 shapes the church's ministers is a question the traditions answer differently, and the next classes return to it.

Everything in the chapter is about Christ, and the connections are of three kinds. Melchizedek is a type: a king who is also a priest, whose name and city speak of righteousness and peace, whose bread and wine are recorded (Genesis 14:18), and whose portrait in Scripture has no recorded beginning or end. The writer says plainly that he is 'like the Son of God', not that he is the Son. Psalm 110:4 is a promise: a Davidic king declared a priest forever by God's oath, which the writer says is fulfilled in Jesus. And the single offering of Jesus is fulfillment of the sacrifices in Leviticus: once for all (7:27), offering himself, where the high priest had offered animals and first offered for himself.

The New Testament shows how this fits the rest of its account of Jesus. He is a king descended from David (Matthew 1:1) and the Lord whom David called Lord (Mark 12:35-37). He is raised and seated at God's right hand (Acts 2:34-35), which is the place of Psalm 110:1, and from there he intercedes (Romans 8:34). He is the Son of God and became fully human, so he fits us (Hebrews 2:14-17). The indestructible life of 7:16 is the life of the one raised from the dead, who 'always lives to intercede' (7:25). Hebrews 9:28 speaks of Christ offered once to take away the sins of many, an echo of Isaiah 53:12. The oath, 'a priest forever', means that this is the last word on priesthood.

The contrast is also with Aaron, and it ties back to this course's earlier classes. Aaron and his sons bore the iniquity of the sanctuary (Numbers 18:1), and Joshua, Aaron's successor in office, had to be cleansed by God before he could serve (Zechariah 3). The Son needs neither. What the old priests pictured in part, the Son does fully: he bears sin, he enters the true holy place, and he opens the way.