And they indeed from among the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have commandment to take tithes from the people according to the law, that is from their brethren, though these are come out of the loins of Abraham
This verse turns on a simple legal fact. The priests came from Levi's family, and the law ordered them to collect a tenth from Israel. Hebrews sets that legal right beside an older scene. Long before the law, Abraham chose to give a tenth to Melchizedek, a priest of God. Which priesthood does Scripture treat as greater?
The Levites did not take tithes because they were great men. They took them because a written law said so. That puts their whole system below the priest Abraham had honoured.
While Abraham had given tithes, the law commanded the Levites, who were descended from Abraham, to take tithes from their Hebrew brothers. In Abraham they were subordinate to Melchizedek; under law their brothers were subordinate to them. How clearly this shows that law was lower than the Melchizedek priesthood, and so was only meant to last a while.
Why should a tenth settle a question of rank? Here, paying it is not just support for religious workers. It is an admission of who stands higher.
Consider the greatness of this man to whom even the patriarch Abraham, the head of the Hebrew race, gave the tenth of the spoil. The giving of the tenth was the acknowledgment of superiority. Tithes are given to a superior. So if there was one above the head of the whole Jewish race, think how important that was for the Hebrews. They were not to dwell on the greatness of Abraham, but on the One greater, even Christ Himself!
Those who paid and those who collected came from the same family. Office, not blood, put one group above the other. Men have copied that arrangement ever since.
He adds that the sons of Levi who served as priests had a command to receive tithes from their brothers. That was because they held the higher position. They were brothers by birth, yet the Levites stood nearer to God. The priests had access to God and stood in His place. So their brothers had to treat them as their spiritual superiors. I need not say how men carry this out today. They have pushed themselves in between the people and God. They have made anyone who wants to draw near to God come through the priest, as they think. And the result is that people have had to hand over very large tithes.
On its own, this verse honours the priesthood of Levi. Hebrews gives the office its full weight first. Then it weighs that office against something heavier.
Their brothers honour the priests of Levi's family in their place, as the law commands — although those brothers are children of Abraham just as the priests are. So the priesthood of Levi is a high office, and here is the proof: it takes tithes from the descendants of Abraham. Now the father comes before the children, and the possessor is greater than the heir. But Abraham himself gave tithes to a man who was a priest of God without any descent from Levi. Israel claimed the promises as their inheritance because the nation came from Abraham. Yet Abraham, who held those promises, had accepted blessing from another priest.
The first readers of this letter honoured Aaron's line. The answer does not attack that. It traces the family tree back one more step, to a scene in their own Scriptures.
The other descendants of Abraham honoured the house of Aaron as priests of Levi. But Abraham himself honoured Melchizedek — and so did Levi, and of course Aaron, since both were still unborn within him. So the father of the faithful clearly acknowledged another and higher priesthood.
The tithe here belongs to a commandment under law. Commentators draw a line between that system and Christian giving.
In our present day of grace no law is given as to tithing. Instead the measure of our giving is "as he may prosper" (1 Cor. 16:2) or "as he purposes in his heart" (2 Cor. 9:7). Each believer weighs the amount before God. God's people may give to the needs of the Lord's servants, as giving to the Lord.
- Commandment. The Levites' right to a tenth came from a written law, not from personal greatness. What a law grants, a law can take away.
- Confession. Paying a tenth admits rank. The one who receives it is the greater.
- Kinship. Payers and receivers were all Abraham's children. Office alone set one group above the other.
- Comparison. Abraham, the father they all boasted in, paid a tenth to a priest outside Levi's line. The older order was the higher one.
- Consequence. No law now fixes a tenth. Each believer gives as God has prospered him, and so supports the Lord's servants.
but he who has no genealogy from them has tithed Abraham, and blessed him who had the promises.
Verse 6 sets one man against the whole system described just before it. Levi's sons took tithes because the law gave them the right by birth; this man had no such pedigree, and that is exactly the point.
In this description of Melchisedec there is no record of an ancestor and no record of an heir. He did not receive his priesthood from anyone, and he did not pass it on to anyone — but the record is "that he lives" (v. 8). He was a priest in his own right.
The Levites collected tithes from their own relatives. Melchizedek collected from Abraham, the man all those relatives came from.
But compare him with the priests of the tribe of Levi. Here is one who is not of that tribe at all, so he had no such official right to receive tithes. He is not counted as one of their line. And he received tithes not just from the children of Israel — not from the people, or "laity," as the word really means — but from Abraham himself.
The verse names Abraham by what God had given him: the promises.
Melchisedec did not only receive tithes from Abraham. He also blesses the man who received the promises. This is the man who was told he would be a blessing, and through whose seed all the nations of the earth are to be blessed — and he himself is blessed.
If anyone on earth stood beyond needing a blessing from another man, it was Abraham. Kelly points out that the blessing ran in both directions in that meeting.
God's promises might seem to exempt from the blessing of any man the one who held those promises more distinctly than any other man. But it was not so. This royal priest, who had no family connection with Aaron and his sons, blessed Abraham openly and in the most special way. He blessed Abraham on behalf of God Most High, and blessed God Most High on behalf of Abraham.
Melchizedek stands above Abraham here. Hole marks what that does and does not mean.
Remember what the point is here. It is not that Melchizedec was a greater man than Abraham in his character, or that he knew more of God — about that we have no information either way. The point is simply that we must acknowledge him as holding a higher position from God. And in that higher position, or order, he was a picture of Christ.
Kelly finds the same principle at work in Luke 2.
Beyond all dispute, the inferior is blessed by the superior. So in Luke 2 Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary, but he did not dare to bless the Child, even though in another sense he blessed God, or gave thanks to Him. In that Child his eyes had seen God's salvation.
Melchizedek is nowhere said to sacrifice. What he does is give and bless — and commentators read that silence as deliberate, shaping how Christ's priesthood after this order is to be understood.
Nothing is said of any sacrifice being offered by Melchisedec to God. Rather, he brought out from God what symbolises life and joy, and blessed the man who had the promises. So when Christ comes it will not be to put away sin by sacrifice, but to refresh and bless His people. Blessing characterises the Melchisedec priesthood of Christ.
Commentators differ over the timing. One account looks ahead to when Christ comes. Grant says believers have this priest today.
Every detail in this whole story fits us well. We may be confident that our Melchizedek exists for us today. He is not One who will only be that in the millennium, though then He will be openly recognised as such. Meanwhile we have this ministry of bread and wine. We have One with us who blesses us from the Most High God, and who, on our part, blesses the Most High God.
- No pedigree. Melchizedek came from no priestly line. No register gave him the right to tithes. He was a priest in his own right.
- Not from the people. He took tithes from Abraham himself, not from ordinary worshippers. The Levites came from Abraham's own line.
- Blessed the promise-holder. Abraham held God's promise of blessing for all nations. Even he received a blessing from another man.
- Rank, not character. The greater blesses the lesser. That is about the place God gives a man, not about who was the better man.
- Blessing, not sacrifice. No record shows Melchizedek offering a sacrifice. He gives and blesses — and blessing marks Christ's priesthood of that order.
But beyond all gainsaying, the inferior is blessed by the better.
The writer of Hebrews is comparing two priesthoods. Here he pauses on a rule no one could argue with: the one who gives a blessing stands above the one who receives it. From that plain fact he draws a hard conclusion. Abraham, the ancestor of Israel's priests, bowed to a greater priest.
The argument rests on who does what. Abraham handed over a tenth of the spoil. Melchizedek handed back a blessing. Neither man did the other's part.
Abram did more than pay tithes to Melchizedek. Melchizedek also blessed him, and, as we are told, "It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior." The person who gives a blessing is greater than the person who receives it. So Abram did not presume to bless Melchizedek. Abram's act showed that he stood under Melchizedek. Melchizedek's act showed that he stood above Abram. Together they give a double picture and proof of that greater dignity.
Look at who was on the receiving end.
God said Abraham would be a blessing, and that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Yet here Abraham himself is the one who is blessed, and beyond dispute "the inferior is blessed by the superior."
Melchizedek was the priest-king who met Abraham. The verse is often read as a comment on the two men's spiritual worth.
Remember what the point here is. It is not that Melchizedek was a greater man than Abraham in character, or that he knew more of God — about that we have no information, one way or the other. The point is simply that God gave him a higher position, and that has to be admitted. In that higher position, or order, he was a picture of Christ.
Israel's priests came from Abraham's line. So what their father did that day, they did.
So, in the person of their father Abraham, the priests of Aaron's order paid tithes and received the blessing, instead of receiving tithes and giving out blessing. What is more, they were dying men, and they paid tithes to one who, Scripture testifies, lives. Clearly, then, the rank of the Melchizedek priesthood is far above that of Aaron.
The rule is not confined to priests. Jacob, an old refugee, blessed the king of Egypt.
At that moment Jacob was only a displaced person, a refugee standing in front of the great king. Yet he knew he was the greater man, because he knew the true God. He knew enough of Him to be sure that God's pledged presence and guidance was worth more than all the glory Egypt had to offer. He had the better, and Pharaoh, for all his outward majesty, had the less... Are we always alive to the favour we stand in, and so lifted above the favours and attractions of the world?
Believers also bless God. Does that turn the rule around?
Blessing always starts with the greater one. It is just so for those who belong to God's "spiritual house" today — all their blessing came from God. Our response is of such a kind that God accepts it through Jesus Christ, in the Spirit's grace and power. We may reverently say that blessing God in that sense ministers to His happiness! What an honour given to the redeemed today!
The scene is more than an argument about rank. It shows in advance what Christ does for those who trust God.
Melchizedek lived long before Levi. He received tithes from Levi's great ancestor Abraham, and blessed him as the greater man. Lovely picture of the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ bestowed on the man of faith!
- Rule — the greater blesses; the lesser receives. Abraham took the blessing and gave the tithe. He never blessed Melchizedek in return.
- Rank — the greatness here is the position God gave, not personal character or knowledge. Commentators keep those two apart.
- Reach — Israel's priests came from Abraham. Their whole line received blessing where it should have been giving it.
- Reflection — the same rule explains Jacob blessing Pharaoh. The man who knows God stands above the world's greatest, however small he looks.
- Result — all blessing starts with the greater, so ours starts with God. What we give back is response. Christ is the greater priest who blesses those who trust Him.
And here dying men receive tithes; but there [one] of whom the witness is that he lives;
Hebrews 7 weighs two priesthoods against each other, and this verse sets them side by side. On one side are dying men who take tithes; on the other, a priest of whom Scripture reports only life.
Earlier the writer weighed the two priests by the dignity of the worshipper. Here he weighs them on a different scale.
The honour of the priest is as the dignity of the worshipper. On this principle the pre-eminence of Melchizedek has already been shown. But (verse 8) the priests are now compared in another balance. Dying men take tithes from Israel. But the receiver of Abraham's offering knows no end of life. It is witnessed that he lives. Life is better than mortality, and continuing is greater than dying. By that much Melchizedek is greater than the anointed ministers of Levi's house.
The point is not about the man himself. It rests on how the Spirit of God wrote the account — and on the contrast with Aaron's line, whose deaths Scripture records again and again.
The mystery is not in the person, but in the way the Spirit of God records his appearance and action in the scene, so as to make him a fitting type of the Lord Jesus. Scripture says not a word about his birth or his death. It is completely silent about his ancestors. It gives no hint of the ending of his office, or of any successor... For instance, verse 8 refers to Melchizedek. All that is meant of him is that Scripture testifies to his life, not his death. But Scripture often speaks of the death of Aaron and his sons.
Because Scripture says so little about him, some have made Melchizedek more than human. The chapter itself rules out both guesses.
The record about Melchizedek is "he lives" (v. 8). Some have thought that Melchizedek was an angel, but we are left in no doubt that he was a man (v. 4). Others have said it was the Son of God Himself, but again we read, "made like the Son of God" (v. 3). Melchizedek was neither the Son of God nor an angel; he was a man with a priesthood that was entirely his own.
Strip the account back and one fact remains standing.
He received tithes from Abraham, and he blessed Abraham. This showed the high and outstanding dignity of this otherwise unknown and mysterious person. The only thing testified of him — no father or mother named, no beginning of life, no death that may have taken place — is that he lived.
That one fact carries straight over to Jesus:
There is no thought of weakness or of illness. The outstanding feature — and perhaps the only thing really said of Melchizedek — is that he LIVED. This at once gives to the priesthood of Jesus a dignity and glory which are unique.
Among the Levites, death kept ending the office.
The Levites also received tithes until they died, at which point this dignity ceased. Death kept interrupting this order of things. How then could the order itself be permanent? But now, the true Receiver of tithes, the true Blesser, is the One of whom it is truly witnessed that He lives. Melchizedek is a type of this only because Scripture gives no record of his death. Christ's priesthood is permanent, because He lives.
The verse is not only an argument about an old system. It describes the Priest believers have right now.
We get the present gain of His ministry, for our Priest now lives in the power of an endless life!... We are told the priests of Aaron's order were "mortal men" (Hebrews 7:8, 23), and that "the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office." But our Priest belongs to an order to which death did not apply. There he received tithes, as the one "of whom it is testified that he lives."
- Record. Scripture names no parents, no birth, no death and no successor for Melchizedek. The argument rests on what it leaves unsaid.
- Witness. Scripture testifies to his life, not his death. Aaron's line is the opposite: Scripture keeps reporting their deaths.
- Man. He was not an angel and not the Son of God, but a man "made like the Son of God," holding a priesthood that was his own.
- Balance. Dying men take tithes on one side; on the other, one who knows no end of life — and life outweighs mortality.
- Result. A priesthood broken by death could never be permanent. Christ's is permanent, because He lives — and the gain of it is ours now.
and, so to speak, through Abraham, Levi also, who received tithes, has been made to pay tithes.
Abraham once met a priest named Melchizedek and gave him a tenth of everything. Hebrews 7 says Levi was in that moment too, unborn inside his ancestor, so the tribe that later collected Israel's tithes had already paid them.
Levi's tribe collected tithes from the rest of Israel. Hebrews turns that privilege around.
The very sign that proves Levi's rank as priest is the receiving of tithes. That same sign makes him a witness to the greater honour of the earlier priest. For Abraham carried all his unborn descendants within him when he met Melchizedek. Levi did homage when his father bowed. And so the very man who takes his brothers' tithes had earlier paid tribute to one greater than himself.
Why should one man's gift count for someone not yet born? Levi had no separate life of his own, and his line of priests did not yet exist.
The whole Levitical priesthood did not yet exist. Levi was unborn, still inside Abraham. So in Abraham, Levi gave tithes to Melchizedek... The priesthood of Melchizedek was therefore above that of the sons of Levi, the priesthood of Aaron.
Jewish readers could not brush this off as a Christian invention. The proof lay in their own Scriptures, and it swept Aaron in along with Levi.
After all, one telling fact stood in front of them. Whoever wrote the letter to the Hebrews, it was not a Christian who wrote the book of Genesis, but Moses. And Moses testifies to the honour Abram paid to Melchizedek by giving him tithes... No argument could be more clear or conclusive. The other descendants of Abraham honoured the house of Aaron as Levitical priests. But Abraham himself honoured Melchizedek — and so Levi himself, and of course Aaron, who were still inside him.
This is not just a question of rank. Israel's whole religious system rested on its priesthood, so a lower priesthood brings the system down with it.
All this argument is most effective with a Jew. Great as Aaron was, Melchizedek was greater. And Levi paid tithes in Abram. What the writer wants to show is that the whole Jewish system must go. It is set aside, so there must be another priest. There would have been no cancelling of the old thing if it were to continue. But the priesthood being changed, you must have the whole system changed.
Following the argument was one thing. Accepting where it left a Jewish believer was another.
Now that line of reasoning would be conclusive to a Jewish mind. The argument was faultless, and the development complete. But what an astounding conclusion! He had always looked up to the chief priests and all the leaders of the people as standing in the very place of God Himself. Now Another is presented to him. He knows who it is — Jesus, the Son of God. He has professed to believe in Him. This One sets aside all these priests.
The same reasoning reaches past Levi. What one man does can count for everyone still inside him. That is how the whole race fell in Adam — and why a second Head is good news.
"In Adam" speaks of representation, as the apostle argues about Levi and Abraham (Heb. 7:9-10)... In the same way we were still inside Adam when he fell and the sentence of death came on him. Thank God, we have heard the voice of Another — Head and Representative too of His race — who says, "Because I live, you also will live" (John 14:19).
- One act. Abraham gave his tenth in one moment. Scripture counts it for everyone still inside him.
- One tribe. Levi was not yet born, yet he paid. So the tribe that later collected Israel's tithes ranks below Melchizedek.
- One argument. The proof comes from Moses' own record, so no Jewish reader could deny it. Abraham bowed, and Levi and Aaron bowed in him.
- One consequence. Change the priesthood and the whole system built on it goes too. The old order ends, which shows it was never meant to continue.
- One principle, twice used. What your representative does counts as yours. That is how all died in Adam — and how all who belong to Christ live, because He lives.
For he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchisedec met him.
Genesis records one meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek, the priest who received a tenth of Abraham's spoil. The writer of Hebrews builds a whole argument on one point: Levi, whose line later collected Israel's tithes, did not yet exist when they met.
The wording pictures a family line before it exists. (Older translations read "his father" here.)
The loins are the part of a man that pictures the seat of strength. Descendants are pictured as coming out of the loins of a man. Genesis 35:11; Hebrews 7:10.
The timing is the hinge of the argument. One commentator points out what an earlier birth would have allowed Levi:
So, to put it this way, the same law testifies that Levi too — who receives tithes — paid tithes in principle, through Abraham as the go-between. This is because he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him and received the tenth of the spoils. Had Levi been born earlier, he might have claimed independence and exemption. As it was, Israel, Aaron, and all of them were joined together in the homage of that one man, the father of the chosen people.
Receiving a tenth was the very mark of Levi's rank. Here that mark turns against him.
Nor is this all (verses 9, 10). The receiving of tithes is the very sign that proves his priestly dignity. By that sign, Levi is himself a witness to the greater honour of that earlier priest. For Abraham carried all his unborn descendants within him when he met Melchizedek. Levi did homage when his father bowed. And so the very man who takes his brothers' tithes had earlier paid tribute to one greater than himself.
One man can stand for all who come from him. Commentators trace that same principle back to Adam and forward to Christ.
"In Adam" speaks of place — of one man representing others. The apostle argues in the same way about Levi and Abraham (Hebrews 7:9-10)... We too were in the loins of Adam when he fell and the sentence of death was passed on him; and in him we die. Thank God, we have heard the voice of Another, Head and Representative of His race too, who says, "Because I live, you also will live" (John 14:19). In Adam we die: in Christ we live.
Another writer puts every reader inside the same picture:
The Spirit of God says of Levi, "He was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him" (Hebrews 7:10). In the same way, every one of us was represented in Adam when the old creation was on trial.
This is not a small point about family history. It settles the rank of two priesthoods, and of the systems built on them.
This whole argument is very effective with a Jew. Great as Aaron was, Melchizedek was greater. And Levi paid tithes in Abraham. What he is seeking to show is that the entire Jewish system must go; it is set aside, so that there must be another priest. There would have been no cancelling of the old thing if it were to continue. But since the priesthood is changed, you must have the whole system changed.
The lower rank is not Levi's alone. It belongs to everything built on him:
The entire legal system is therefore seen to be inferior to the blessed Person whom Melchizedek pictures, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The passage turns the reader away from ancestry and toward a Person.
The apostle says: dwell on the greatness of this man. Even the patriarch Abraham, the head of the Hebrew race, gave him a tenth of the spoil. The giving of the tenth was an acknowledgment of superiority. Tithes are given to a superior. So if there was One above the head of the whole Jewish race, think how much it mattered for the Hebrews. They were not to dwell on the greatness of Abraham, but on the One greater — Christ Himself!
- Unborn. "In the loins of his ancestor" is the Bible's way of speaking of descendants still to come. Levi was inside Abraham, not yet born, when Melchizedek met him.
- Bound. Because he was unborn, Levi could not claim exemption. Israel, Aaron, and all were bound up in the homage of that one man.
- Outranked. A tithe proves rank. So the tribe that collected Israel's tithes is on record as paying tithes to a greater priest.
- Represented. One head can act for all who come from him — the same principle by which we fell in Adam and now live in Christ.
- Replaced. If Levi is the lesser, the whole system resting on him must go. A change of priesthood brings a change of everything attached to it.