Christ the Eternal High Priest

Comparative commentary by Victoria Emily Jones

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The Pentateuch describes how the Levitical priesthood was established by God to provide mediation between himself and the people of Israel. Chosen from the tribe of Levi, the priests carried out the sacrificial service in the tabernacle and later the Temple (Exodus 28:1; Numbers 3:5–9; 18; Deuteronomy 18:1–8).

The author of Hebrews describes Jesus Christ as a high priest, but one who is superior to those who came before (and who were, if we date Hebrews to before 70 CE, still active in Jerusalem) because Christ is eternally available to God’s people and is morally flawless, not needing to atone for his own sins (Hebrews 7:23–25, 27).

But Jesus is descended from Judah, not Levi, so how could he fulfil a priestly function? The writer invokes Melchizedek, a mysterious Old Testament figure whose Hebrew name means ‘My King Is Righteousness’. He was the king of Salem (an ancient name for Jerusalem; see, e.g., Psalm 76:2) and a priest living in the time of Abraham (Abraham paid tithes to him in gratitude for the food and blessing he gave him after a battle; Genesis 14:17–20). But his genealogy is never mentioned.

His name appears again in Psalm 110:4, where God pronounces to a messianic king, ‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchiz’edek’. The writer of Hebrews applies this verse to Jesus (Hebrews 7:17, 21).

In art, Melchizedek’s presentation of bread and wine to Abraham often appears as a prefiguration of the Last Supper, as in this Netherlandish altarpiece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here Christ institutes and presides over a new ritual for his followers: a commemorative meal of bread and wine that are his body and blood, broken and spilt, through which ‘we draw near to God’ (Hebrews 7:19).

This reconciling sacrifice is portrayed as occurring in the heavenly throne room in the Russian icon You Are a Priest Forever, where Christ appears dressed in the vestments of an Orthodox priest and stretched wide on the cross, covered by seraphic wings. He is both giver and gift, both offerer and offered, and this gift, this offering, extends to all people for all time.

The itinerant religious painters who worked throughout Romania in the premodern era, including the preeminent Alexander Ponekhalsky of the Maramureș region, were particularly fond of picturing this paradox using an iconography of Christ the grapevine, his blood become wine. From the hole in Christ’s speared side grows a fruitful abundance, which he presses into a cup for the health and life of his church.

‘Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer’ (Hebrews 8:3). What does Jesus have to offer? His own self. As priest, on behalf of his people, he sacrificed not sheep, goats, bulls, or doves but his own sinless flesh. And he ever lives to intercede for his people by virtue of that sacrifice (Hebrews 7:25), as mediator of the new and better covenant (Hebrews 8:6).

See full exhibition for Hebrews 7–8

Hebrews 7–8

Revised Standard Version

Hebrews 7

7 For this Melchizʹedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him; 2and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest for ever.

4 See how great he is! Abraham the patriarch gave him a tithe of the spoils. 5And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brethren, though these also are descended from Abraham. 6But this man who has not their genealogy received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8Here tithes are received by mortal men; there, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. 9One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizʹedek met him.

11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitʹical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizʹedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizʹedek, 16who has become a priest, not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life. 17For it is witnessed of him,

“Thou art a priest for ever,

after the order of Melchizʹedek.”

18On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19(for the law made nothing perfect); on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

20 And it was not without an oath. 21Those who formerly became priests took their office without an oath, but this one was addressed with an oath,

“The Lord has sworn

and will not change his mind,

‘Thou art a priest for ever.’ ”

22This makes Jesus the surety of a better covenant.

23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; 24but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever. 25Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect for ever.

8Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man but by the Lord. 3For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” 6But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

8 For he finds fault with them when he says:

“The days will come, says the Lord,

when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah;

9not like the covenant that I made with their fathers

on the day when I took them by the hand

to lead them out of the land of Egypt;

for they did not continue in my covenant,

and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord.

10This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, says the Lord:

I will put my laws into their minds,

and write them on their hearts,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

11And they shall not teach every one his fellow

or every one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

for all shall know me,

from the least of them to the greatest.

12For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sins no more.”

13In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

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