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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Heb_7:4. Θεωρεῖτε ] is imperative, whereby a strain is to be put on the attention for that which follows: but behold, namely, inwardly, i.e. consider.
πηλίκος ] how great, i.e. how high and exalted.
οὗτος ᾧ καὶ δεκάτην Ἀβραὰμ ἔδωκεν κ . τ . λ .] Resuming of the historic notice already adduced at the beginning of Heb_7:2, in order then further to argue from the same. By the choice and position of the words, however, the author brings out the πηλίκος in its truth and inner justice. (Choice of the words ἁκροθίνια and πατριάρχης ,—the latter in place of the elsewhere more usual ὁ πατήρ in regard to Abraham,—and effective placing of the characterizing title ὁ πατριάρχης at the close of the proposition at a far remove from the name Ἀβραάμ .)
καὶ δεκάτην ] καί is not the merely copulative “also,” as Heb_7:2 (Hofmann), but is used as giving intensity. It gives intensity, however, not to the subject (so Luther, Grotius, Owen, Carpzov: “Abraham himself also”),—for then ᾧ καὶ Ἀβραὰμ δεκάτην ἔδωκεν must have been written,—but the predicate: to whom Abraham gave even the tenth.
ἀκροθίνια ] composed of ἄκρος and θίν , in the N. T. a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον , denotes the uppermost of the heap, the choice or best thereof. The expression is most current with regard to the first-fruits of the harvest presented to the Godhead; not seldom, however, is it used of the best, which was selected out of the spoils of war as an offering consecrated to the Godhead. In our passage, too, ἀκροθίνια denotes not simply the spoils acquired by Abraham (so Chrysostom: τὰ λάφυρα ; Oecumenius: ἐκ τῶν σκύλων καὶ λαφύρων , Erasmus, Luther, Vatablus, Calvin, Schlichting, Böhme, Kuinoel, Stuart, Bloomfield, and the majority), but the choicest, most valuable articles thereof. Theophylact: ἐκ τῶν λαφύρων τῶν κρειττόνων καὶ τιμιωτέρων . Not that the meaning of the author is, that Abraham gave to Melchisedec the tenth part of the most choice objects among the booty acquired, but that the tithes which he presented to Melchisedec consisted of the choicest, most excellent portions of the booty.
ὁ πατριάρχης ] he, the patriarch. The sonorous name of honour πατριάρχης , composed of πατριά and ἀρχή , designates Abraham as the father of the chosen race, and ancestor of the people of Israel. Comp. Act_2:29, where David is distinguished by the same title of honour, and Act_7:8-9, where the twelve sons of Jacob are so distinguished.