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“Jesus Is Precisely the Kind of High Priest We Need”
1 To strengthen my point, let us take a close look at this man “Melchizedek”—“king of Salem,” “priest of the Most High God,” who met Abraham as he was returning from “the defeat of the kings” and “blessed him,”
2 to whom Abraham apportioned, then, “a tithe of all the plunder.”+ To begin with, the name Melchizedek, in Hebrew, means “king of righteousness.” He is also called “king of Salem,” which means “king of peace.”
3 Independently of paternal descent, independently of maternal descent, independently of ancestral record, having neither a beginning of days nor of life an end, but portraying the Son of God, he continues in his priestly office without interruption.
4 Now notice just how great this man was—so great that even Abraham, the patriarch himself, gave him a tithe consisting of the choicest of all the spoils!
5 And whereas those descendants of Levi who receive the priesthood have the legal right to collect tithes from the people according to Torah, that is, from their fellow Israelites, even though they are also descendants of Abraham,
6 the priest whose descent was not traced from Levi collected a tithe from Abraham and invoked divine blessing upon the very man who had received the promises.
7 Now everyone knows that when one person blesses another, it is the more important of the two who invokes the divine blessing.
8 And while in the one case tithes are received by men who eventually die, in the case of Melchizedek a tithe is received by one about whom it is solemnly affirmed that he lives on.
9 In fact, one might even say that through Abraham the Levites, too, who receive tithes, themselves gave Melchizedek a tithe,
10 since the seed from which they would descend was there in Abraham’s body when Melchizedek met him.
11 So what are we to conclude from these things? If full and final priestly consecration had in fact been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (since the people were on the basis of this priestly office given Torah), why was there still need for there to come into office a priest of a different kind, appointed not in the order of Aaron, but in the order of Melchizedek?
12 If the priesthood is changed, you see, one is forced to conclude that there is a change, too, of Torah.
13 The priest about whom these things are spoken, you see, belongs to an entirely different tribe, a tribe from which no one has ever officiated at the altar.
14 Indeed, it is a well-known fact that Judah is the tribe from which our Lord descends, a tribe in reference to which, concerning priests coming from it, Moses didn’t say a thing.
15 And the matter becomes even clearer when we consider that it is in a way similar to Melchizedek that a different kind of priest comes into office,
16 one whose appointment is based not on a legal regulation pertaining to ancestral descent, but on the power of an indestructible life.
17 For it is solemnly declared:
“ˢYou are a priest, forever into the ages, in the order of Melchizedek.”+
18 There takes place, you see, on the one hand, an official cancellation of the previous regulation, because of its weakness and ineffectiveness
19 (Torah consecrated nothing fully and finally, you see), and the establishment, on the other, of a superior and more effective hope, by which we draw near to God.
20 And just as this hope has the weight and reliability of a divine oath (whereas descendants of Aaron are installed as priests, you see, without an oath from God,
21 Jesus’ installment was accompanied by a divine oath, when God said to him, “The LORD has sworn a solemn oath and will not go back on his word: ‘ˢYou are a priest forever into the ages’ ”+),
22 with the same degree of reliability it is a superior and more effective covenant whose terms Jesus, as guarantor, is now responsible for seeing through to fulfillment.
23 And whereas the Aaronic priests occupy their office temporarily and in a long line of succession, since death prevents each of them from continuing in office,
24 Jesus, because he lives on forever into the ages, continues in his priestly role permanently and inviolably.
25 That is why he is able, too, to save fully and completely+ those who keep coming through him into the presence of God, because he lives on and on and so can continue to appeal to God on their behalf.
26 Indeed, Jesus is precisely the kind of high priest we need: Holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners and exalted to even greater heights than the heavens,
27 who does not need day after day, as do the Aaronic high priests, first for the forgiveness of his own sins to offer up sacrifices, then for the forgiveness of those of the people to offer them up. This priest, you see, made sacrifice once and for all when he offered up himself.
28 Torah, you see, appoints as high priests mere men, who are so flawed and quick to breathe their last. The sworn oath, however, which came after Torah, appoints the Son, who has been fully and finally consecrated for priestly service forever into the very ages of the ages.