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Heb_7:5. Admission of the relatively privileged position of the Levitical priests.
καί ] the explanatory: and certainly.
οἱ μὲν κ . τ . λ .] preparatory to the adversative ὁ δὲ κ . τ . λ ., Heb_7:6.
οἱ ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν Λευῒ τὴν ἱερατείαν λαμβάνοντες ] those of the sons (descendants) of Levi who obtain the office of priest. For not all Levites, but only those of them who claimed lineage from the house of Aaron, were entitled to enter upon the priesthood. Comp. Exo_28:1 ff.; Num_3:10; Num_3:38; Num_3:16; Num_18:1 ff., al. Mistaken is the opinion of Delitzsch, Maier, and Moll (in coinciding with Hofmann), that the ἐκ in ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν Λευΐ is the causal ἐκ of origin: “those who receive the priesthood from the sons of Levi, i.e. by virtue of their descent from Levi, in such wise that their person is not taken into account as such, but only in so far as they belong to this lineage.” If that had been intended, οἱ ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν Λευῒ ὄντες καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὴν ἱερατείαν λαμβάνοντες must have been written.
ἐντολὴν ἔχουσιν ἀποδεκατοῦν τὸν λαὸν κατὰ τὸν νόμον ] have a charge to tithe the people according to the law. Comp. Num_18:20-32; Deu_14:22-29; Neh_10:38-39; de Wette, Lehrb. der hebr.-jüd. Archäologie, 3 Aufl. p. 273 f.; Delitzsch, Talmudische Studien, XIV. Justification of Heb_7:5[81] (in Guericke’s Zeitschr. f. d. gesammte luth. Theol. u. Kirche, 1863, H. 1, p. 16 ff.).
κατὰ τὸν νόμον ] belongs not to ΤῸΝ ΛΑΌΝ (Seb. Schmidt, Hammond, Starck, Böhme, Hofmann), against which even the non-repetition of the article after ΛΑΌΝ decides; nor yet to ἈΠΟΔΕΚΑΤΟῦΝ (Owen, Delitzsch, Alford, Maier, Ewald), but to ἘΝΤΟΛῊΝ ἜΧΟΥΣΙΝ .
In the closing words, ΤΟΥΤΈΣΤΙΝ ΤΟῪς ἈΔΕΛΦΟῪς ΑὐΤῶΝ , ΚΑΊΠΕΡ Κ . Τ . Λ ., Bleek, after the example set by Böhme, erroneously finds the sense: “that, although they are the posterity of Abraham, the lauded patriarch, who are tithed by the Levitical priests, yet they are, after all, still the brethren of the latter, i.e. fellow-Israelites; which cannot be so astonishing as when Abraham himself paid the tithes to Melchisedec.” On the contrary, the elucidation of τὸν λαόν by ΤΟΥΤΈΣΤΙΝ ΤΟῪς ἈΔΕΛΦΟῪς ΑὐΤῶΝ serves to bring into more striking relief the singularity of the ἈΠΟΔΕΚΑΤΟῦΝ ; since elsewhere only the higher receives tithes from the lower, not the equal from the equal (as here an Abrahamides from an Abrahamides), and this singularity of the ἈΠΟΔΕΚΑΤΟῦΝ is then yet further manifested by ΚΑΊΠΕΡ ἘΞΕΛΗΛΥΘΌΤΑς ἘΚ Τῆς ὈΣΦΎΟς ἈΒΡΑΆΜ . The author can therefore only design, by means of Heb_7:5, to characterize the priests as primi inter pares. This superiority, however, in regard to their own fellow-Israelites, the author concedes only in order immediately after, Heb_7:6, to oppose to the same the inferiority in regard to Melchisedec.
ἐξέρχεσθαι ἐκ τῆς ὀσφύος τινός ] So the LXX. render the Hebrew éÈöÈà îÅçÇìÀöÅé ô× , Gen_35:11; 2Ch_6:9.
[81] The justification consists of the attempted proof that in the post-exilian age the tenth was no longer levied in the first place by the Levites,—who had been wont only afterwards to render to the priests the portion pertaining to the same,—but the priests themselves had entered upon the right of levying the tenth, which had been originally assigned to the Levites. Nevertheless, however the matter may have stood in this respect, there was hardly any need of a justification of the words Heb_7:5, since no statement whatever as to the mode of receiving the tenths is contained in the same; on the contrary, these words are equally appropriate for indirect as for direct levying of the tithes.