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o{ ejstin ] Mark 7:34; and with meqermhneuovmenon Mark 5:41; 15:22, 34. Comp. Lk. 12:1; Gal. 4:24 f.

There is no exact parallel in Scripture to this kind of use of names, which is common in Philo (comp. Siegfried, ss. 190 ff.). The nearest approach to it is perhaps in John 9:7 Silwavm ( o} eJrmhneuvetai jApestalmevno" ). But the importance attached to names in the O. T. sufficiently explains it. Comp. Is. 8:1, 18; 9:6. OEhler, O. T. Theology , § 88.

Heb. 7:3. The delineation of Melchizedek is expressive also negatively. The silence of Scripture, the characteristic form, that is, in which the narrative is presented, is treated as having a prophetic force. Melchizedek stands unique and isolated both in his person and in his history. He is not connected with any known line: his life has no recorded beginning or close.

Philo not unfrequently draws arguments from omissions in the Biblical narrative. Examples are given by Siegfried, Philo von Alexandrien , 179: e.g., Quod det. pot. insid. § 48 (1.224 M.).
ajp. ajm. ajgen. ] Vulg. sine patre, sine matre, sine genealogia. The Pesh. renders these words by a paraphrase: ‘whose father and mother are not written in genealogies.’

The words ( ajpavtwr, ajmhvtwr ) were used constantly in Greek mythology (e.g., of Athene and Hephaestus); and so passed into the loftier conceptions of the Deity, as in that of Trismegistus quoted by Lactantius
(4.13): ipse enim pater Deus et origo et principium rerum quoniam parentibus caret
ajpavtwr atque ajmhvtwr a Trismegisto verissime nominatur, quod ex nullo sit procreatus. This familiar usage was suited to suggest to the readers of the Epistle the nature of the divine priest shadowed out in the type. The word ajmhvtwr is used by Philo of Sarah, De ebriet. § 14 (1.365 M.); and in Euripides Ion speaks of himself as ajmhvtwr ajpavtwr te gegwv" ( Ion 109).

Philo in a striking passage ( De Prof. § 20; 1.562 M.) describes the Levites as being in some sense ‘exiles who to do God's pleasure had left parents and children and brethren and all their mortal kindred’: oJ gou'n ajrchgevth" tou' qiavsou touvtou , he continues, levgwn eijsavgetai tw'/ patri; kai; th'/ mhtriv Oujc eJwvraka uJma'" kai; tou;" ajdelfou;" ouj ginwvskw kai; toi'" uiJoi'" ajpoginwvskw uJpe;r tou' divca meqolkh'" qerapeuvein to; o[n . The words throw light on Lk. 14:26.

In the case of the Jewish priests a Levitical (Aaronic, Num. 16, 17) descent was required on the father's side, an Israelitish, on the mother's. (Comp. Ezra 2:61 f.)
ajgenealovghto" ] without genealogy , without any recorded line of ancestors. He did not trace back his claims to the priesthood to any forefather (comp. Heb. 7:6). Perhaps the word (which is not found elsewhere) suggests, though it does not express, the thought that he had no known descendants, and was not the author of a priestly line.

Compare: Subito introducitur sicut et Elias (Primas.). mhvte ajrc. hJm. mhvte z. t. e[cwn ] Scripture records nothing of his birth or of his death, of the beginning of a life of manifold activity ( ajr. hJmerw'n , comp. Heb. 7:7), nor of the close of his earthly existence. Nothing in the phrase indicates a miraculous translation or the like. The silence may perhaps seem to be more significant, since the death of Aaron is described in detail: Num. 20:22 ff.
ajfwmoiwmevno" t. uiJ. t. q. ] Non dicitur Filius Dei assimilatus


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