FOR HE WAS STILL
IN THE LOINS OF HIS FATHER WHEN MELCHIZEDEK MET HIM: eti gar en te osphui tou patros en (3SIAI) hote sunentesen (3SAAI) auto o melchisedek:
(Hebrews
7:5;
Genesis 35:11;
46:26;
1 Kings 8:19)
For (gar) introduces an
explanation, in this case the explanation of how it was possible that
through Abraham even Levi...paid tithes.
He was still in the loins of his
father (compare
Hebrews 7:5
"descended from Abraham" or more literally "to come out of,
from the loins of Abraham") - Levi was still in the loins (in
modern terms in the genetic/chromosomal makeup) of Abraham. In addition, the
Jewish priesthood was considered as being in Abraham. So if Levi (and the
Levitical priests) was in Abraham, when the great patriarch paid a tenth of
the spoils to Melchizedek, then it is as if Levi (and his descendants) had
paid a tithe to Melchizedek. In the same way, when "father Abraham" was
blessed by Melchizedek, all of Abraham's progeny were blessed, including the
tribe of Levi, whose reception of Melchizedek's blessing equated to their
submitting to his greater authority (the greater would bless the lesser
figure). And of course in His infinite wisdom the Holy Spirit Who inspired
this epistle knew full well that this line of reasoning would be very
appealing to the Jews, who placed a strong emphasis on the solidarity (a
feeling of unity as in interests, standards, and responsibilities that binds
members of a group together) of their race.
The New Living Translation tries
to help us understand this verse rendering it...
For although Levi wasn't born yet, the
seed from which he came was in Abraham's loins when Melchizedek collected
the tithe from him.
Constable comments that...
In the ancient oriental view of things,
people regarded a descendant as in one sense participating in the actions of
his ancestors (Hebrews
7)
Think of Adam the representative head
of all mankind - In Romans 5:12ff Paul uses the same principle of the
head representing all the subsequent offspring of all time. Paul explained
that the entire human race was considered to be in Adam, so that when
Adam sinned, I sinned and you sinned, not to mention that we also inherited
Adam's "sin virus" which made us "little sinners" even from the womb. Recall
Paul's teaching...
Therefore, just as through one man (Adam)
sin (the 100% contagious "sin virus") entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (this is
difficult to understand but Paul flatly states it as a fact, and it reflects
the principle of imputation - or receiving credit - so that when Adam
sinned, every human who was ever born "received credit" for that sin as if
they had themselves committed it. Don't ask me to try to explain this
further because I cannot. God says it and I believe it regardless of whether
I can fully comprehend it or explain it!) (See note
Romans 5:12)
(A W Pink's note below goes into a more detailed explanation)
In an similar way, the Levitical
priesthood was considered to have been present in the patriarch Abraham not
when he sinned but when he tithed and was blessed. Specifically the Jewish
race in general and the Levitical descendants were present when their great
patriarch and father acknowledged the superiority of Melchizedek by his
voluntary willingness to tithe to him and receive blessing from him.
Regarding the phrase in the loins of
his father, Leon Morris explains that...
This is a way of speaking we find here
and there in the Bible when the ancestor includes the descendants. So it was
said to Rebekah, not two children but "two nations are in your womb" (Gen
25:23). Again, Paul can say, "In Adam all die" (1Cor 15:22). Levi was thus
included in the payment of the tithe (and, of course, all the priests who
descended from him and whom the Hebrews esteemed so highly). The author
wants his readers to be in no doubt about the superiority of Christ to any
other priests and sees the mysterious figure of Melchizedek as powerfully
illustrating this superiority. (Ibid)
As an aside, someone today might argue
that in light of the fact that Christ was the "seed" of Abraham (see
Galatians 3:16), and thus "in the loins of" Abraham and so He too paid tithe
to Melchizedek. This argument breaks down because Abraham was not Messiah's
father. God was His Father and His birth was unique and supernatural.
Fausset explains it this way...
Christ did not, in this sense, pay tithes
in Abraham, for He never was in the loins of an earthly father [Alford].
Though, in respect to His mother, He was “of the fruit of (David’s, and so
of) Abraham’s loins,” yet, being supernaturally, without human father,
conceived, as He is above the natural law of birth, so is he above the law
of tithes. Only those born in the natural way, and so in sin, being under
the curse, needed to pay tithe to the priest, that he might make
propitiation for their sin. Not so Christ, who derived only His flesh, not
also the taint of the flesh, from Abraham. (Hebrews 7)
Warren Wiersbe also addresses this
question asking...
Since Jesus Christ came “of the seed of
Abraham” (see note
Hebrews 2:16),
does this mean that He too was a part of this experience? No, because Jesus
Christ is the eternal Son of God. His identification with Abraham was for
“the days of His flesh” (see note
Hebrews 5:7).
Since Christ existed before Abraham (John 8:58), He could not have been “in
Abraham” as were Aaron and his family. (Wiersbe,
W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor
or
Logos)
Let's review
the progression in the writer's logic -- Melchizedek was shown to be
greater than Abraham in
order to show that Melchizedek was greater that Levi and in turn greater
than Aaron from whose lineage came the Levitical priests. From this line of
logic, one can then deduce that if Melchizedek
is greater than Aaron, then Melchizedek's priesthood must also be greater
than Aaron's priesthood and in the final analysis, Messiah’s priesthood,
since it was of the order
of Melchizedek must be greater than the Aaronic Priesthood. This is why the
dull of hearing were not ready for for the writer's line of logic!
A W Pink has a lengthy explanation
on Hebrews 7:9,10 noting that...
In these verses the (writer) meets the
last objection which a carping Jew could make upon the subject. Against what
the (writer) had been saying, it might be advanced:
Granting that Abraham himself paid
tithes to Melchizedek, it does not follow that Melchizedek was superior to
all Abraham’s descendants. Abraham was, in some sense, a priest (Gen.
12:7), yet he was not so by virtue of any office which God had
instituted in His "Church: (Ed note: Church does not appear in
the OT - perhaps a better word here would be "congregation"). But in the
days of Moses, Jehovah did institute an order and office of priesthood in
the family of Aaron, and were not they, by Divine appointment, superior,
because superceding the earlier order of Melchizedek?
Many find it difficult to follow (the
writer's) line of thought, and that, because they are so ill-acquainted with
the most important truth of headship and representation. Let us quote here
from F. S. Sampson...
Abraham was truly the covenant-head of
his posterity in the line of Isaac and Jacob, in whose descendants the
promises made to him were fulfilled. It was in virtue of this covenant with
Abraham, that the Jews inherited their distinguished privileges as a nation.
It was the transaction with Abraham which brought them into the relation of
a ‘peculiar people’ to Jehovah; and hence, in his patriarchal character
and acts, he stood forth as the representative or federal head of the
nation, so far as all the promises, privileges, and institutions of the
Judaical were concerned. He was both their natural progenitor and their
covenant-head, by the appointment of God. We must remember that He was
concerned, through His providence and promises, in all this business.
Therefore, when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek as a priest of the most
High God, and received a blessing from him, it was a historical fact
intentionally introduced by God’s providence, with a view to its becoming a
feature of the type (so to speak) which Melchizedek, in his history and
functions, was foreordained to present, of the supreme and eternal High
Priest. This providential incident prefigured and represented, by the Divine
intention, the supremacy of the antitype; and in it Abraham acknowledged the
official superiority of the type, not only over himself, but over his
posterity then in his loins, represented by and acting in him.
The principle of federal
representation lies at the very base of all God’s dealings with men, as
a careful study of
Romans 5:12-19
and 1 Corinthians 15:45–47 reveals. Adam stood for and transacted on
the behalf of the whole human race, so that what he did, they legally did;
hence his sin, guilt and death, are imputed (reckoned, credited to
the account) to all his posterity, and God deals with them accordingly. So
too Christ stood for and transacted on the behalf of all His seed, so that
what He did, they legally did; hence, His meeting the demands of the law,
His death and resurrection-life, are imputed to all who believe on
Him.
In like manner, Abraham stood for and
transacted on the behalf of all his posterity, so that God’s covenanting
with him, is to be regarded as His covenanting with them also. Proof of this
is found in the title here (and nowhere else) given to Abraham, viz., the
patriarch (see note
Hebrews 7:4),
which means
Thus the (writer) here brings to a head
his argument by pointing out that, virtually (for all practical purposes, in
effect though not in literal fact) and representatively (not personally and
actually), Levi himself had paid tithes to Melchizedek. We repeat, that
Abraham in Genesis is not to be considered only as a private individual, but
also as the head and representative of all his children. When Abraham gave
tithes he did so not only in his own name, but also in that of all his
descendants. Abraham had been called of God and separated to His service as
the head of His elect people. There was more than a natural relation between
him and his descendants. Jehovah promised to be a God unto him and to his
seed after him, and therefore Abraham covenanted with God in the name of and
as the representative of his seed. What God gave unto Abraham He gave unto
his children, but he received the grant of it as the representative of his
children, who, four hundred years later, took possession of it. (Hebrews 7:4-10 Melchizedek)
Pink then draws an application of
these great truths to the lives of believers all of whom are in Christ
in a way similar (but more profound and eternal because of Who Christ
is) to Levi's being in Abraham at the time of his transaction with
Melchizedek in Genesis 14...
The all-important and inexpressibly
blessed truth for us to lay hold of is that in Hebrews 7:9, 10 we have an
illustration of the most soul-satisfying truth revealed in Holy Writ. Just
as Levi was “in Abraham”, not only seminally but representatively, so
every one of God’s children was “in Christ” when He wrought out that
glorious work which has honored and pleased God high above everything else.
When the death-sentence of the law fell upon Christ, it fell upon the
believer, so that he can unhesitatingly say, “I was crucified with Christ”
(see note
Galatians 2:20).
So too when Christ arose in triumph from the tomb, all His people shared His
victory (see notes
Ephesians 2:5;
2:6).
When He ascended on high, they ascended too. Let all Christian readers pray
earnestly that God may be pleased to reveal to them the meaning,
blessedness, and fullness of those words “In Christ” (see notes on
in Christ
and
in Christ Jesus).
(Hebrews 7:4-10 Melchizedek)
Now let us briefly summarize what the
writer has been saying in Hebrews 7:4-10, as he seeks to convince these
professing Jewish brethren that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham , the
great grandfather of Levi, and so he is also greater than the Levitical
priesthood. The writer gives 4 reasons...
(1) Hebrews 7:5-6: The Levitical
priests also received tithes from their brethren, and yet the fact that they
descended from their "father" Abraham indicated that the Levitical
priesthood was inferior to Melchizedek's, to whom Abraham paid a tithe.
(2) Hebrews 7:7: Abraham the
lesser was blessed by Melchizedek the greater.
(3) Hebrews 7:8: The Levitical
priests eventually died but, Christ Who ministers according to the order of
Melchizedek lives forever.
(4) Hebrews 7:9-10: Levi, who
although the great-grandson of Abraham, was represented by Abraham and in
this sense actually also paid tithes to Melchizedek.
