Hebrews 7:9

Hebrews 7:9. And so to say (a phrase which, like ‘as it were,' is used to moderate a strong expression or to qualify a statement that is not literally true; the other sense of the original, ‘in a word,' ‘to speak briefly,' is not appropriate here).

An obvious objection to the previous reasoning is that Abraham was not a priest. It was therefore not unnatural that he should pay tithes and receive the blessing. But the objection is answered by the fact that as Abraham had obtained the promise, he was the representative of all his descendants. Levi was in him, not physically and seminally merely, but representatively; and so Abraham on his own behalf and on theirs recognised a priesthood beyond the limits of the dispensation which belonged to his own line.