Hebrews 7:1-3 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abides a priest continually. 

The twofold purpose of Paul: [1] To show that Jesus Christ was the Person prophesied of in Psalms 110:1-7, which psalm the Jews uniformly held to refer to the coming Messiah. [2] To answer the objections of the Jews against Christ’s priesthood because He did not come from priestly stock and could not be the antitype of Aaron or fulfil Leviticus 21:10-15. From the Jewish viewpoint, Christ would be further disqualified because (1) No proselyte could be a priest; (2) No slave could be a priest; (3) No bastard could be a priest (Jews accused Him of being illegitimate); (4) No son of a Nethinim (temple servant of the priest) could be one; (5) No man whose father exercised a base trade such as the carpenter trade. Many Jews considered Him unfit to be a priest because of this.

Here Paul shows that the priest didn’t need to come from a particular stock, for Melchizedek was a priest of the most high God and not from Abraham or Aaron: He was a Canaanite. Jews considered any person not in the regular genealogies of Israel to be without a father and descent or genealogy. Then, too, Jews considered Melchizedek to be without a father and mother because he was a righteous man and should not be classed with the heathen. This special phraseology was not uncommon when a person was unknown or obscure. Such was their way of signifying that the parents were unknown.

‘Tenth part of all’ – It was customary among ancient nations to give a tenth of the spoils of war to the objects of their worship.

Hebrews 7:1-3 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abides a priest continually. 

‘Melchisedec’ – There are ten facts about Melchizedek: [1] He was the King of Salem, ancient Jerusalem (7:1; Gen. 14:18). [2] He was a priest of God in Abraham’s day. [3] He met Abraham when he [Abraham] was returning from his military victory. [4] Abraham gave him one-tenth of the spoils (7:2; Gen. 14:16-24). [5] Melchizedek was called the King of Righteousness. [6] He was called King of Salem, or King of Peace. [7] Melchizedek had no descent [Greek: agenealogetos] without genealogy; without recorded father or mother; and without recorded beginning of days or end of life (7:3, 6). He had a father, mother, birth, and death, but these were not recorded, so that he could be a type of Christ who was an eternal being really without beginning and ending (Mic. 5:2; Isa. 9:6-7; John 1:1-2; Heb. 1:8; Rev. 1:8-11). [8] He made a type of Christ so that Christ could be made a priest after his order (7:3; 5:6, 10; 6:15-20; 7:1-10, 15-21). As God Christ was not begotten, was not God’s Son, and had no birth or death. Only as man did the second person of the Divine Trinity have a begetting, a father, a mother, a birth and a death (Acts 13:33). The word Son supposes time, generations, father, mother, beginning, and conception – unless one is a son by creation, as Adam (Luke 3:38), and angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Gen. 6:1-4). Time, creation, and beginning are opposites to God and eternity and are absolutely impossible to reconcile with them. If sonship refers to deity, not to humanity, then this person of the Deity had a beginning in time and not in eternity. It is plainly stated in Psalms 2:7; Acts 13:33 and  Hebrews 1:5; 5:5 that God had a Son “this day” and not in eternity. It is stated in Hebrews 1:5-7; Luke 1:35 and Matthew 1:18-25 when this took place. It was nearly 2,000 years ago. It had been predicted that God would have a Son (Isa. 7:14; 9:6; Heb. 1:5; Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:32-35). This was fulfilled when the virgin conceived “of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 1:20), not at any other time. To say that God had an eternal Son would mean He had two; but it is plainly stated that Jesus was “the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14, 18; 3:16-18; 1Jn. 4:9). [9] He was an ordinary man (7:4). [10] He was greater than Abraham (7:4-7).

To be continued…