Hebrews 7:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For this Melchisedec,— The apostle had spoken of an high-priest after the order of Melchisedec thrice before, ch. Hebrews 5:6; Hebrews 5:10 Hebrews 6:20 and he had hinted, that he had many things to say of him, and hard to be understood; all therefore which has been said in the preceding chapter is a digression; from which he now returns, in order to explain what he meant by strong meat. He had proved before, that Christ was far more excellent than Moses; that he was as properly called of God an high-priest as was Aaron; and that the Christian rest was promised also to the Jews: and now he undertakes to shew the dignity and excellence of the Christian high-priest to be infinitely superior to and greater than that of Aaron, or the Levitical high-priests. The topics by which he proves this, are, that the same priest now abideth always, and does not die, as the Aaronical priests do; and that he has no sins of his own to offer for, as they had. Before he enters into this, Melchisedec and Christ are compared together, as being like each other in several circumstances. Both were kings of peace and righteousness, and neither of them deduced their right to their respective priesthood from any succession: both of them exercised the office of blessing, as priests, and neither of them deriving their office from parentage, it follows, that no objection can be raised against the priesthood of the one, which does not equally lie against the priesthood of the other. See the notes on Genesis 14:18; Genesis 14:24.