Hebrews 7
The full text of Hebrews 7 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him,
2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also "king of Salem," that is, "king of peace."
3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
4 Just consider how great he was: even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the spoils!
5 Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, from their own brothers and sisters—even though they too are descended from Abraham.
6 This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises.
7 And without any doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater.
8 In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living.
9 One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham,
10 because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.
11 If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—for the law given to the people was based on it—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek and not in the order of Aaron?
12 For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.
13 The one of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.
14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
15 And what we have said is even clearer if another priest like Melchizedek appears,
16 one who has become a priest not on the basis of a law of physical descent, but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.
17 For it is declared:
"You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek."
18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless—
19 for the law made nothing perfect—and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath,
21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:
"The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
'You are a priest forever.'"
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office;
24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.
25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Translation notes (8)
- Hebrews 7:1a The verse recalls Genesis 14:17-20, where Melchizedek meets Abraham after his victory over Chedorlaomer and the allied kings. Greek kopē (κοπή), 'cutting down', rendered here as 'defeat', can denote a slaughter in battle. The title 'God Most High' translates ho theos ho hypsistos, corresponding to the Hebrew El Elyon of Genesis 14:18.
- Hebrews 7:2a The author interprets the Hebrew name: Melchizedek combines melek, 'king', and tsedeq, 'righteousness', while Salem echoes shalom, 'peace'. The Greek participle hermeneuomenos, 'being translated', signals a deliberate etymology, grounding the priest-king typology of Genesis 14:18 in the meanings of the names themselves.
- Hebrews 7:3a The Greek terms apatōr, amētōr, agenealogētos ('fatherless, motherless, without genealogy') do not claim Melchizedek had no parents; they reflect a Jewish interpretive convention in which the silence of Genesis 14 about his ancestry, birth, and death is read typologically. The participle aphōmoiōmenos, 'made to resemble', makes Melchizedek the copy and the Son of God the pattern, not the reverse.
- Hebrews 7:11a Greek teleiōsis, 'perfection', denotes the completed fitness to draw near to God that the argument denies to the Levitical system. The phrase 'order of Melchizedek' takes up Psalm 110:4, the text that governs the whole chapter; the parenthetical clause notes that the law itself was enacted (nenomothetētai) on the basis of that priesthood, so its inadequacy implicates both.
- Hebrews 7:14a The verb rendered here as 'descended' is anatellō (ἀνατέλλω), 'to rise' or 'to spring up', an image used of the sun and of sprouting plants. The word carries messianic overtones, echoing the star that rises from Jacob in Numbers 24:17 and the 'branch' oracles of Zechariah, where the Septuagint uses the cognate noun anatolē.
- Hebrews 7:17a The quotation is Psalm 110:4, cited repeatedly in this epistle as the charter of the Melchizedekian priesthood. The Greek verb martyreitai, 'it is testified', is a passive form that treats Scripture itself as the witness, rendered here as 'it is declared'. The phrase kata ten taxin, 'according to the order', denotes the kind or manner of priesthood rather than a formal succession.
- Hebrews 7:21a The quotation is Psalm 110:4, cited from the Septuagint, where ou metamelēthēsetai (οὐ μεταμεληθήσεται), 'will not change his mind', renders the Hebrew nicham, 'to relent' or 'regret'. The earliest witnesses end the quotation at 'forever'; later manuscripts extend it with 'according to the order of Melchizedek', assimilating to verse 17.
- Hebrews 7:22a Engyos (ἔγγυος), 'guarantor', appears only here in the New Testament. In Greek legal usage the term denoted a surety who pledged his own person or property against another's obligation, a stronger claim than that of a mere mediator. This is also the first occurrence in Hebrews of diathēkē, 'covenant', the word that dominates the letter's central argument.
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