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Heb_7:23. Καί ] parallel to the καί , Heb_7:20.
καὶ οἱ μὲν πλείονές εἰσιν ἱερεῖς γεγονότες ] and they on the one hand have as several (or as a plurality) become priests, i.e. of Levitical priests there is a multiplicity. Attention is not here called to the peculiarity that many priests always existed contemporaneously the one with the other (so Erasmus, Paraphr., Braun, Delitzsch), or that “the Levitical priesthood was not given to one, but to a lineage” (Hofmann). That which is meant is—as is evident from the immediately following διὰ τὸ θανάτῳ κωλύεσθαι παραμένειν , and from Heb_7:24—the successive plurality, in that one dies after another, and consequently the one succeeds the other. For the author in thus speaking has before his mind the high priests, since it is just with these that Christ is placed in parallel. Comp. Heb_7:26 ff., al.
διὰ τὸ θανάτῳ κωλύεσθαι παραμένειν ] because (wrongly de Wette: “by the fact that”) they are (wrongly de Wette and Bisping: “were”) prevented by death from continuing.
παραμένειν ] not: ἐν τῇ ἱερωσύνῃ (so Oecumenius, who is followed by Grotius, Seb. Schmidt, Storr, Kuinoel, Klee, Stein, Bloom-field, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. pp. 459, 437; Alford, Maier, Kurtz, Hofmann, Woerner, and others). It denotes, as is clear from the corresponding διὰ τὸ μένειν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα , Heb_7:24, to continue in life. Comp. also Php_1:25, and Meyer ad loc.