Messianic Jews 7:1-10
Letter to the Messianic Jews
In my last post, we began a new mini-series on Yeshua’s Malki-Tzedek Cohenhood Surpasses the Levitical. We’re exploring Messianic Jews 7:1-10 on The Priority of the Malki-Tzedek Cohenhood. We covered the first three verses in the last post and will examine the final seven verses in this passage.
The Priority of the Malki-Tzedek Cohenhood
1 This Malki-Tzedek, king of Shalem, a cohen of God Ha‘Elyon, met Avraham on his way back from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him; 2 also Avraham gave him a tenth of everything. Now first of all, by translation of his name, he is “king of righteousness”; and then he is also king of Shalem, which means “king of peace.” 3 There is no record of his father, mother, ancestry, birth or death; rather, like the Son of God, he continues as a cohen for all time. 4 Just think how great he was! Even the Patriarch Avraham gave him a tenth of the choicest spoils. 5 Now the descendants of Levi who became cohanim have a commandment in the Torah to take a tenth of the income of the people, that is, from their own brothers, despite the fact that they too are descended from Avraham. 6 But Malki-Tzedek, even though he was not descended from Levi, took a tenth from Avraham. Also, he blessed Avraham, the man who received God’s promises; 7 and it is beyond all dispute that the one who blesses has higher status than the one who receives the blessing. 8 Moreover, in the case of the cohanim, the tenth is received by men who die; while in the case of Malki-Tzedek, it is received by someone who is testified to be still alive. 9 One might go even further and say that Levi, who himself receives tenths, paid a tenth through Avraham; 10 inasmuch as he was still in his ancestor Avraham’s body when Malki-Tzedek met him.” ~ Hebrews 7:1-10 (CJB)
These last seven verses show five ways in which Malki-Tzedek is great. [1]
1. He took a tithe of the spoils of battle from Avraham, even though:
a. Avraham was the Patriarch, the father of all the Jews and thus the greatest of them;
b. Malki-Tzedek had no family connection with Avraham, whereas the Levitical priests receive tithes from their own brothers, from whom support is more naturally to be expected than from non-relatives; and
c. Malki-Tzedek was not explicitly entitled to collect tithes from anyone, whereas the Levitical cohanim have a commandment in the Torah to take a tenth of the income of the people. The comparison of the Levitical priests with Malki-Tzedek leads later to their similarity with Yeshua.
2. Malki-Tzedek blessed Avraham, which implies that Malki-Tzedek was greater than Avraham.
3. The Levitical priests receive tithes even though mortal, whereas Malki-Tzedek is testified to be still alive, that is, the text of the Tanakh does not tell us that he died.
4. An ordering of greatness is set forth as follows: Greatest, Malki-Tzedek, who received a tenth from Avraham; second greatest, Avraham, who paid it; third, Levi, who, even though he himself receives tenths, paid a tenth through Avraham, inasmuch as he was still in his ancestor Avraham’s body when Malki-Tzedek met him; fourth, Levi’s descendants, the cohanim, who are the ones who actually receive tenths, rather than Levi; and least, the people of Israel, who pay them.
5. The Jewish people were given the Torah in connection with the system of cohanim derived from L’vi. But this system was not the final one, nor was it possible through it to reach the goal of being eternally in God’s presence; this will be demonstrated in the next four chapters. This fact allows the possibility of and, more than that, shows the need for, another, different kind of cohen, to be compared with Malki-Tzedek, a cohen who by implication is greater than the greatest of the Levitical high priests, Aharon.
In my next post, we’ll continue in our mini-series on Yeshua’s Malki-Tzedek Cohenhood Surpasses the Levitical Part ~ Part 2. We’ll explore Messianic Jews 7:11-19 on the Transitory Cohenhood of Aaron vs. the Eternal Cohenhood of Yeshua.
[1] Jewish New Testament Commentary by David Stern.
My Heart is for Israel 
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m semi lousy with MS Word, so not sure about the numbers. Still enjoying the study though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hopefully, it’s still semi-readable. I wish WordPress would support MS Office. Tables are also a bear.
LikeLike
Supposedly Word will, but I can’t figure it out. You are supposed to be able to write in Word and publish directly…but not me. Anyway, take a look now. Tell me what you think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Email me with your tricks of the trade. I create all my posts in Office 365 and copy & paste into WordPress. Always have to do a lot of editing before publication. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten most of my HTML training.
LikeLike
Well, you just recited all of my tricks LOL, as that is exactly what I do. Sometimes in reverse; write them on WordPress and copy and paste them to Word. It depends. LOL, we are old and out of touch, Don
LikeLiked by 1 person
Look at your post, now, though
LikeLike
I’m at the gym. Will have to figure out what the fifth point is when I get home.
LikeLike
Oh…5. Oops. Well, look and we can get you fixed up. You are my pet project today!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha. Will be home in about an hour or so.
LikeLike
Hey, take a look. Seems to be fine in the desktop, not as perfect in the reader.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I finally looked at my original Word doc and I had left out the fifth point entirely. Seems all fixed now. I noticed you did some unique HTML coding to fix it. Will have to go back and study it a little more. Thanx for your help.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well I didn’t do any of that. I just took out the number bullets and typed them manually LOL. I am not that smart! I don’t mess with HTML unless I use the HTML cleaner website I use now and then, and I just type in and format it, and copy and past the finishe HTML. Should have thought to to that this time actually
https://html-cleaner.com/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll have to give that a try.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not everything on that will fomat in WordPress, but blockquotes, boldface, italics and stuff does. Don’t know about bullets or numbers though
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Don, I think that Melchizedek died even though he represented Christ. If you look at other passages how they used symbolism it is proper to use the same logic as it is explained. For an example: the sacrifices of animals represented the forgiveness of sins even though it did not remove your sins only God held your sins until the time of Christ would come. Now Jesus literally removes sins by having faith in Him. So you see that even though it represented Jesus it really didn’t do what Jesus was going to do so in the same way Melchizedek symbolized Jesus but was just a regular man who was born from parents and died. It was just not known, when and how.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, verse 8 states he is still alive. What other passages are you referring to?
LikeLiked by 1 person
My reply was way too long so I decided to make it into a post. I will link you to it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good stuff!
LikeLike
I see you got point 5 in there! Yay! I may need to study some on the topic of Melchizedek, as I have not so much really done so. I have heard some make a case that he was a Christophony, though. I have not thoughts on the matter, but only note I have heard some make that case.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t recall any of the possible Chrstiphony appearances having a specific name. Let us know what you find.
LikeLike
I have heard that said to, to counter the other thought! Eh, it will be a while I am sure before I get to this.
LikeLiked by 1 person