Hebrews 7:11

εἰ μὲν οὖν τελείωσις.… “If then there was [or had been] perfecting by means of the Levitical priesthood for upon it [as a basis] the people have received the law what further need was there [or would have been] that another priest should arise after the order of Melchisedek and be styled not after the order of Aaron?” εἰ μὲν οὖν introduces a statement of some of the consequences resulting from the introduction of a priest of another order. It argues the failure of the Levitical priesthood to achieve τελείωσις. “ Perfection is always a relative word. An institution brings perfection when it effects the purpose for which it was instituted, and produces a result that corresponds to the idea of it. The design of a priesthood is to bring men near to God (Hebrews 7:19), and this it effects by removing the obstacle in the way, viz. men's sin, which lying on their conscience impedes their free access to God; compare Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 10:1; Hebrews 10:14 ” (Davidson). On the rendering of ἦν see Sonnenschein's Greek Gram., 355, Obs. 3. ὁλαὸς γὰρ ἐπʼ αὐτῆς νενομοθέτηται, the omitted clause is “and we are justified in demanding perfectness from the priesthood,” because it is the soul of the entire legislation. All the arrangements of the law, the entire administration of the people, involves the priesthood. If there is failure in the priestly service, the whole system breaks down. It was idle to give a law without providing at the same time for the expiation of its breaches. The covenant was at the first entered into by sacrifice, and could only be maintained by a renewal of sacrifice. The priesthood stood out as the essential part of the Jewish economy. νομοθετεῖν to be a νομοθέτης used in classics sometimes with dative of person, as in LXX, Exodus 24:12, τὰς ἐντολὰς ἅς ἒγραψα νομοθετῆσαι αὐτοῖς. Sometimes it is followed by accusative of that which is ordained by law. The use of the passive here is peculiar, cf. also Hebrews 8:6. The νόμος contained in the word, and expressed separately in Hebrews 7:12, is not the bare law contained in commandments, but the whole Mosaic dispensation. τίς ἔτι χρεία, this use of ἔτι is justified by an instance from Sextus Empiricus quoted by Wetstein: τίς ἔτι χρεία ἀποδεικνύναι αὐτά; ἓτερον, not ἄλλον but another of a different kind. ἀνίστασθαι so Acts 7:18, ἀνέστη βασιλεὺς ἕτερος and cf. the transitive use in Acts 2:24; Acts 2:32; Acts 3:22; Acts 3:26; Acts 7:37. καὶ οὐ … λέγεσθαι. The negative belongs rather to the description κ. τ. τάξιν Ἀ. than to the verb and Burton's rule (481) applies. “When a limitation of an infinitive or of its subject is to be negatived rather than the infinitive itself, the negative οὐ is sometimes used instead of μή.” λέγεσθαι “be spoken of” or “designated”.