Hebrews 7:20-22

Another element in the superiority of the covenant established upon the priesthood of Jesus is that in the very manner of the institution of His priesthood it was declared to be permanent. The long parenthesis of Hebrews 7:21 being held aside the statement of 20 22 reads thus: “And [introducing a fresh consideration] in proportion as not without an oath [was He made priest] … in that proportion better is the covenant of which Jesus has become the surety”. The parenthesis of Hebrews 7:21 is inserted to confirm by an appeal to Scripture [Psalms 110:4] the fact that by the swearing of an oath the Melchizedek priest was appointed, and to indicate the significance of this mode of appointment, viz.: that repentance or change of plan is excluded. That is to say, this priesthood is final, eternal. And the superiority of the priesthood involves the superiority of the covenant based upon it. The oath signifies therefore the transition from a provisional and temporary covenant to that which is eternal. καθʼ ὅσον. This form of argument is frequent in Philo, see Quis. Rev. Div. H., 17, etc. οὐ χωρὶς ὁρκωμοσίας, “not without oath-swearing”; the clause may be completed from that which follows, “has he been made priest,” as in A.V., although Weiss maintains that this is “sprachwidrig” and that the broken clause “kann natürlich nur aus dem Vorigen ergänzt werden”. But it is most natural and grammatical to complete it from the sentence in which it stands: “As not without an oath, so of a better covenant has Jesus become surety ”. The parenthesis thus furnishes the needed ground of this statement. He became surety by becoming priest, and as priest he was constituted with an oath. οἱ μὲν γὰρ “For the one [that is, the Levitical priests] εἰσὶν ἱερεῖς γεγονότες “have been made priests” Vaughan renders “are having become priests are priests having become so”. So Delitzsch, Weiss and von Soden. Westcott says: “The periphrasis marks the possession as well as the impartment of the office;” and on the “periphrastic conjugation” see Blass, sec. 62; Stephanus Thesaurus s.v. εἰμί, and cf. Acts 21:29, ἦσαν γὰρ προεωρακότες.]. ὁ δὲ μετὰ ὁρκ. “but the other [the new priest] with an oath,” μετὰ of course not being instrumental, but “interposito jurejurando”; where and how this oath is to be found is next explained, it is διὰ f1τοῦ λέγοντος … “through Him that saith to him. The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art,” etc. There is no call to translate πρὸς αὐτόν “in reference to Him”; neither is there any difficulty in referring the words ὤμοσε … μεταμελ. to God. “Though the words are not directly spoken by the Lord, they are His by implication. The oath is His” (Westcott). On the distinction between μετανοέω and μεταμέλομαι see Trench, Synonyms, 241. “He who has changed his mind about the past is in the way to change everything; he who has an after care may have little or nothing more than a selfish dread of the consequences of what he has done.” This, however, does not apply to the LXX (from which the quotation of this verse is taken) where both words are used to translate נָחַם. Cf. 1 Kings 15:29; 1 Kings 15:34. κατὰ τοσοῦτο “by so much,” that is, the superiority of the new covenant to the old is in the ratio of eternity to time, of what is permanent and adequate to what is transitory and provisional. κρείττονος διαθήκης “of a better covenant” [“id est, non infirmae et inutilis. Frequens in hac epistola epitheton, κρείττων, item αἰώνιος, ἀληθινὸς, δεύτερος, διαφορώτερος, ἔτερος, ζῶν, καινὸς, μέλλων, νέος, πρόσφατος, τέλειος ” (Bengel)], here first mentioned in the Epistle, but whose character and contents and relation to the “foregoing” covenant are fully explained in the following chapter. Here already its “betterness” is recognisable in this, that it supersedes the older, and is itself permanent because perfectly accomplishing the purposes of a covenant.