16 who has been constituted not according to law of fleshly commandment, but according to power of indissoluble life.
and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades.
So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the principles of the world;
having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which [stood out] against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it also out of the way, having nailed it to the cross;
If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as [if] alive in [the] world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?
For it is borne witness, *Thou* art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec.
(for they are become priests without the swearing of an oath, but he with the swearing of an oath, by him who said, as to him, The Lord has sworn, and will not repent [of it], *Thou* [art] priest for ever [according to the order of Melchisedec];)
For the law constitutes men high priests, having infirmity; but the word of the swearing of the oath which [is] after the law, a Son perfected for ever.
the which [is] an image for the present time, according to which both gifts and sacrifices, unable to perfect as to conscience him that worshipped, are offered, [consisting] only of meats and drinks and divers washings, ordinances of flesh, imposed until [the] time of setting things right.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Hebrews 7
Commentary on Hebrews 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
The doctrine of the priestly office of Christ is so excellent in itself, and so essential a part of the Christian faith, that the apostle loves to dwell upon it. Nothing made the Jews so fond of the Levitical dispensation as the high esteem they had of their priesthood, and it was doubtless a sacred and most excellent institution; it was a very severe threatening denounced against the Jews (Hos. 3:4), that the children of Israel should abide many days without a prince or priest, and without a sacrifice, and with an ephod, and without teraphim. Now the apostle assures them that by receiving the Lord Jesus they would have a much better high priest, a priesthood of a higher order, and consequently a better dispensation or covenant, a better law and testament; this he shows in this chapter, where,
Hbr 7:1-10
The foregoing chapter ended with a repetition of what had been cited once and again before out of Ps. 110:4, Jesus, a high priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec. Now this chapter is as a sermon upon that text; here the apostle sets before them some of the strong meat he had spoken of before, hoping they would by greater diligence be better prepared to digest it.
Hbr 7:11-28
Observe the necessity there was of raising up another priest, after the order of Melchisedec and not after the order of Aaron, by whom that perfection should come which could not come by the Levitical priesthood, which therefore must be changed, and the whole economy with it, v. 11, 12, etc. Here,