πού qn ΡΕ 9. The chief point in this is that the priest is alsoa
king. ἀπάτωρ, ἀμήτωρ, ἀγενεαλόγητος ‘‘ without father, without mother, with-
3. ἀπάτωρ, ἀμήτωρ, dyeveadoyntos: μήτε ἀρχὴν ἡμερῶν, μήτε
b Gen. xiv.
> AQ , Σοὶ εἰς τὸ διηνεκές.
~ ” A lal ~ A lol ζωῆς τέλος ἔχων - ἀφωμοιωμένος δὲ τῷ υἱῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ, μένει ἱερεὺς. κ᾿ A 4. ' Θεωρεῖτε δὲ πηλίκος οὗτος, ᾧ kai! δεκάτην"
1T.R. in SACDcE**KLP, vg., Syrt, Arm.; omit και with BD*E%, ἆ, e, Syrsch, Cop. Apparently καὶ has been introduced from verse 2.
out genealogy,” that is, he stands in Scripture alone, no mention is made of an illustrious father or mother from whom he could have inherited power and dignity, still less can his priestly office and service be ascribed to his belonging to a priestly family. It is by virtue of his own personality he is what he is; his office derives no sanction from priestly lineage or hereditary rights; and in this respect he is made like to the Son of God. Of course it is not meant that in point of fact he had neither father nor mother, but that as he appears in Scrip- ture he is without father. [τὸ δὲ ἀπάτωρ κ.τ.λ. οὐ διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν αὐτὸν πατέρα ἢ µητέρα, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ μὴ ἐν τῇ θείᾳ γραφῇ κατὰ τὸ φανερώτατον ἐπωνομ- άσθαι. Epiphanius in Wetstein.] On Philo’s use of the silence of Scrip. see Siegfried’s Philo., p. 179. Philo is quite aware that this kind of interpretation will be said γλισχρολογίαν μᾶλλον ἢ ὠφέλειάν τινα ἐμφαίνειν (De Somn., ii. 45). ἀπάτωρ, Wetstein quotes from Pollux.: 6 μὴ ἔχων μητέρα, ἀμήτωρ, ὥσπερ ἡ ᾿Αθηνᾶ - καὶ ἀπάτωρ, 6 μὴ πατέρα ἔχων, ὡς ὁ Ἥφαιστος. So Apollo was αὐτοφυὴς, ἀμήτωρ. Other examples in Wetstein. In a slightly different sense the word occurs in [ph. in Taur., 863; in Soph, Elec., 1154 we have μήτηρ ἀμήτωρ ; and Ion (Eur. Jon, 100) says of himself ὡς yap ἀμήτωρ ἀπάτωρ τε γεγώς.
Ver.3. ἀγενεαλόγητος, resolved in νετ. 6 into μὴ γενεαλογούµενος, does not occur in classical nor elsewhere in Biblical Greek. The dependence of Levitical priests on genealogies and their registers is illustrated by Neh. vil. 64. μήτε ἀρχὴν ἡμερῶν - - - “having neither beginning of days nor end of life,” 4.ε., again, as he is represented in Scripture. No mention is made of his birth or death, of his inauguration to his office or of his retirement from it. The idea is conveyed that so long as priestly services of that particular type were needed, this man performed them. He is thus the type of a priest who shall in his single person discharge for ever all priestly functions. ἀφωμοιωμένος δὲ τῷ vid τ. Θεοῦ “but made like
to the Son of God”’. δὲ attaches this clause to the immediately preceding, ‘“‘ having neither etc., ” but in this respect made like to the Son of God, see i. 2, ix. 14 andi. 10,12. ‘‘ Such a comparison is. decisive against attributing these char- acteristics to Melchisedek in a real sense. They belong to the portrait of him, which was so drawn that he was ‘ made like” the Son of God,—that by the features absent as well as by the positive traits a figure should appear corresponding to the Son of God and suited to suggest Him” (Davidson). μένει ἱερεὺς εἰς τὸ διηνεκές ‘“abideth a priest continually ”. This statement, directly resting upon the preceding clause, is that towards which the whole sentence (vv. I, 3) has been tending. It is the per- manence of the Melchisedek priesthood on which stress is laid. See below. eis τὸ διηνεκές is not precisely ‘ for ever,” but ‘for a continuance,” or per- manence. Appian (De Bell. civ., i. 4) says of Julius Cesar that he was created Dictator: εἰς τὸ διηνεκές, permanent Dictator. ‘The permanent character of the priesthood is here described, not its actual duration” (Rendall). It was+not destined to be superseded by another. Bruce is not correct in saying: ‘“‘ The variation in expression (εἰς τὸ διηνεκές instead of εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, vi. 20) is pro- bably made out of regard to style, rather than to convey a different shade of meaning”. But he gives the sense well: “If he had had in history, as doubtless he had in fact, a successor in office, we should have said of him, that he was the priest of Salem in the days of Abraham. As the case stands, he is. the priest of Salem.”