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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 7:3 - 7:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Without father, without mother, without descent (ἀπάτωρ, ἀμὴτωρ, ἀγενεαλόγητος)
The three adjectives N.T.o, olxx. The meaning is that there is no record concerning his parentage. This is significant as indicating a different type of priesthood from the Levitical, in which genealogy was of prime importance. No man might exercise priestly functions who was not of the lineage of Aaron.
Having neither beginning of days nor end of life
That is to say, history is silent concerning his birth and death.
But made like unto the Son of God (ἀφωμοιωμένος δὲ τῷ υἱῷ τοῦ θεοῦ)
The verb N.T.o. Made like or likened, not like. “The resemblance lies in the Biblical representation, and not primarily in Melchisedec himself” (Westcott). Son of God, not Son of man, for the likeness to Jesus as Son of man would not hold; Jesus, as man, having had both birth and death. The words likened unto the Son of God stand independently. Not to be connected with the following sentence, so as to read abideth a priest continually like the Son of God; for, as a priest, Melchisedec, chronologically, was prior to Christ; and, therefore, it is not likeness with respect to priesthood that is asserted. The likeness is in respect to the things just predicated of Melchisedec. Christ as Son of God was without father, mother, beginning or end of days; and, in these points, Melchisedec is likened in Scripture to him.
Abideth a priest continually (μένει ἱερεὺς εἰς τὸ διηνεκές)
Διηνεκής from διαφέρειν to bear through; born on through ages, continuous. Only in Hebrews. There is no historical account of the termination of Melchisedec's priesthood. The tenure of his office is uninterrupted. The emphasis is on the eternal duration of the ideal priesthood, and the writer explains the Psalm as asserting eternal duration as the mark of the Melchisedec order. Accordingly, he presents the following characteristics of the ideal priesthood: royal, righteous, peace-promoting, personal and not inherited, eternal. Comp. Isa 9:6, Isa 9:7; Isa 11:4, Isa 11:10; Isa 32:17; Isa 53:7. It is, of course, evident to the most superficial reader that such exposition of O.T. scripture is entirely artificial, and that it amounts to nothing as proof of the writer's position. Melchisedec is not shown to be an eternal high priest because his death-record is lost; nor to be properly likened unto the Son of God because there is no notice of his birth and parentage.