Whose descent. — Better, whose genealogy (Hebrews 7:3).
Received tithes. — Rather, hath taken tithes of Abraham, and hath blessed him that hath the promises. In Melchizedek we see a man who, though no law gave him pre-eminence, takes tithes of Abraham, and therefore appears in Scripture as holding a position of inherent and acknowledged superiority. This superiority is not dwelt upon, for the same thought will be presented still more strikingly in connection with the blessing (Hebrews 7:8). “Hath taken tithes,” “hath blessed:” here, as in many other passages, the writer refers to facts recorded in Scripture not as belonging to the past, but as they now stand before us in the unchanging and ever present word of God.