Hebrews 7:4

Θεωρεῖτε δὲ πηλίκος οὗτος. “But observe how great this man was.” His greatness is recognisable in his receiving tithes of Abraham, and in giving him his blessing, cf. Hebrews 7:1-2. These points are emphasised by several details. The first evidence of greatness is that it was no less a man than Abraham who gave him a tithe of the spoils ᾦ δεκάτην, κ. τ. λ. Ἀβραὰμ is in emphatic place, but the emphasis is multiplied by the position of ὁ πατριάρχης. It is as if he heard some of his readers saying, “He must be mistaken, or must refer to some other Abraham and not the fountain of all our families and of Levi and Aaron”. He adds ὁ πατρ. to indicate that it is precisely this greatest of men to whom the people owe even their being, of whom he says that Melchizedek was greater. ἀκροθινίων is perhaps chosen also for the purpose of magnifying the gift. The Greeks after a victory gathered the spoils in a heap, θῖνι, and the top or best part of the heap, ἄκρον, was presented to the gods. Cf. Frazer's Pausanias, ver. 281.