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ways, by that which we may speak of as a natural growth through the unfolding of the life of the nations, and by a special discipline. Both elements are recognised in the Epistle. Melchizedek is set forth as the representative of the natural growth of man in fellowship with the Divine Spirit. The revelation to Israel (the ‘Law’) is interpreted as the special preparation and foreshadowing of a fellowship of man with God, in spite of sin and death.

( a ) The appearance of Melchizedek is of deep interest from the point which he occupies in the religious history of the world. ‘The King of Salem,’ ‘the Priest of the Most High God’ comes forward suddenly at a time of decisive change (Gen. 14:17 ff.), and then he passes away from the record of Scripture. His name does not occur again in the O. T. except in the phrase of the Psalm which is quoted by the writer of the Epistle (Ps. 110:4); and he is mentioned in the New Testament only in this Epistle. But the significance of his single appearance is unmistakeable. He stands out as the representative of the original revelation, of the primitive and normal relation of God and man, still preserved pure in some isolated tribe. He is a high-priest, so to speak, of men, of humanity, and not of a chosen race. He does not derive his office, so far as the record shews, from any special appointment. He is, as he appears in the history of revelation, ‘without father, without mother, without genealogy’ (Heb. 7:3). In him also civil and religious life appear in their true unity, as they must be finally united (comp. Zech. 6:13). Abraham marks a new departure, the beginning of a new discipline resting on a personal call (Gen. 12:1). Experience had shewn (Gen. 11) that the natural development of the divine life had been fatally interrupted. ‘But before the fresh order is established we have a vision of the old in its superior majesty; and this on the eve of disappearance gives its blessing to the new. So the past and the future meet, the one bearing witness to an original communion of God and man which had been practically lost, the other pointing forward to a future fellowship to be established permanently without the possibility of loss. At the same time the name of the God of the former revelation and of the God of the later revelation are set side by side, and identified (Gen. 14:22; comp. Deut. 32:8
f.).’ (p. 199; Additional Note on Heb. 7:1.) (
b ) But it is on the special revelation of God through Israel and the Christ that the writer of the Epistle chiefly dwells. This falls into two great divisions, corresponding essentially with the two ‘ages’ which sum up for us the divine history of the world, ‘this age’ (‘these days’) and ‘the age to come’ (6:5). God spake ‘ in the prophets ’ and then ‘ at the end of these days ,’ at the close of the first age, He spake in Him who is Son (1:1, 2a).

( a ) The special preparatory revelation of God is described in words which cannot be quoted too often: polumerw'" kai; polutrovpw" pavlai oJ qeo;" lalhvsa" toi'" patravsin ejn toi'" profhvtai" ...( ejlavlhsen hJmi'n ...); and it is of interest to notice that in his main argument the writer dwells by name on the three men who mark the three great epochs in the divine history, Abraham (6:13; 7:1 ff.), Moses (3:2 ff.; 7:14; 8:5; 9:19; 10:28; 12:21), and David (4:7); while in his outline of the victories of faith he continues the record through the primitive fathers of mankind, the Patriarchs, the Lawgiver and the Conqueror, the Judges, the Prophets, to the heroes of a later age in the last great struggle against heathen tyranny (11:35).

Thus the Epistle brings out clearly step by step that the advance towards the realisation of the inheritance of the promises is made through


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