The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 190

Rom. "· I; whl'rc righteousness and peace typical significance of Melohizedek is now nrc the characteristics of the Mcssiah's further seen in what passed between him kingdom): this significo.nce, however, is and Abraham, in respect to tithe and bless- not. o.fterwards made I\ point of, being merely ing. Alford's inference, that 1r11/l.l,cos olJTos, noticed by the way); without father, without referring as it does, not to the antitype, but mother, without genealogy, having neither to the man himself, implies some mysterioua beginning of da}'II nor end of life ; but made greatness beyond what appe8.1'8 in the ori• like unto the Son of God ; abideth a priest ginal record, doea not follow. Of one who continually. It is this le.nguage especially simply blessed and received tithes from the the.t has been supposed to inTolve something great patriarch, the expression is not too more than human about the historical Mcl- strong. Observe the emphatio position, at chizedek. But we have only to enter into the end of the Greek sentence, of l, ..-11.Tp1- the mind of the writer to see that it is not d.px11s, equivalent to •• he, the patriarch." so. For it is the ideal of the psalm, con- Abraham's being this, the father and repre- C'eived ns suggested by the historical type, fentative of the chosen race, is what is that gives its colour to the language used. shown in what follows to gi vc peculi11r sig• And, indeed, how strangely suggestive is nificance to the transaction. The word a.,cpo• thnt fragment about the priestly king (Gen. fl/11111. (properly, "the chief spoils"), which xiv. 18-21) so unexpectedly interposed in is not in the LXX., Heems introduoed to the I ife of Abraham I In the midst of a enhance the picture: "Qum Abrahami pr<r history in which such a point is made of prie fuerant, ut victoris" (Bengel). the parentage and descent of the patriarchs Vers. 5-7.-And they indeed of the aona of Israel, at a time of peculiar glory of the of Levi who reoeive the offloe of priesthood first and gree.test of them, one suddenly have commandment to receive tithes of the nppears on the scene, a priest and king, people aooording to the Law, that is, of their not of the peculiar race e.t all, his parentage brethren, though these have oome out of the and ancestrv unrecorded and unknown, who loins of Abraham : but he whose genealogy blesses and· receives tithes from Abraham, is not counted from them bath received tithes and then as suddenly disappears from view. of Abraham. As much as to se.y, "Let it We hear no more of him; as about his not be said that the tithing of Abraham by origin, so about his end, Scripture is silent. Melchizedek implies no higher priestly pre- And so he "abides" before the mind's eye, rogative than the tithing of Abraham's de- apart from any before or after, the type of scendants by the sons of Aaron; for there an unchnnging priesthood. For the mean- is this difference : They, in virtue only ing of the word a,••v•aAOY11Tur (in itself of a special ordine.nee of the Law, not of denoting the e.bsenoe, not of ancestors, but original right, were allowed to tithe their of a traced genealogy), cf. ver. 6, l, ~11 /J-11 brethren, 1 though descended from the same -y<veaAO"fDO/J-EYQS •( at/TWV, That of a'ft'aTt,JP, great ancestor; he, though not of them or a.,,_-f,.,.,,,p, is illustrated by the Le.tin ex- of the race at all, in virtue of his own in- pression, "Null is me.joribns ortus." On herent dignity, tithes the whola race as "'made like (l>µaw6µ.,vas) unto the Son of represented in its patriarch." (We observe God," Chrysostom says, "We know of no how, in place of the aorist tll"'"'• usecl when beginning or end in either case : in the one, the mere historical incident was referred to, because uone e.re recorded; in the other, we have here the perfect ll•ll•1<aT"'"' (as also because they do not exist." The idea ,bll.try111C< in what follows, and ll•ll•1<aT..,-r11.1 in seems to be that Melchizedek is thus assimi• ver. 9), denoting a completed act, of which laied to Christ in the sacred record, by what the effects and significance remain : 111el- it leaves untold no less than by what it chizedek, who represents the priesthood after tells. It is not said that he is like him his order, being viewed in permanent rela- ( tµ.o(as ), but made like ( l>µ.a,auµ.EJ1as) : i.e. tion to Abraham, who represents the chosen represeuted in such wise as to resemble him. race.) And hath bleased him that bath (i.e. It mav be here remarked that, though the the holder of) the promises. But, without terru '" Son of God" is used in the Epistle all controversy, the leas is blesoed of the generally to denote the Messiah as mani- better. The superiority eviuei..oed by be- fested in time, his easential eternal beiug 1 There 1s no essential inaccuracy in what is here, as elsewhere, distinctly intimated; tilso that "the Son of God" is regarded as is said here with respect to the law or tithes, the archetype of the comparison: "Non viz. that the priests received them from the dicitur Filiu• DEi assimilatus Melchizedeko, people. The Levites, in fact, received them M,d contra; nam Fili us DEi est antiquior et of the other tribes, and paid a tithe of their e.rclwiypus '' (Bengel). tithes to the priests (Numb. xvii. 24, 2G- Ver. 4.-Now oonsider how great this man 28; Neh. x. 38). The priests thus received was, unto whom Abraham, the patriarch, them virtually from the people, though not ~ven gave a tenth of the Mpoi.li. 'fhe directly at their hand11.  'l'HE EPISTLE 'fO 'l'HE HEBREWS.