Hebrews 7:3

Without father, without mother - The object of the apostle, in thus producing the example of Melchisedec, was to show,

1. That Jesus was the person prophesied of in the 110th Psalm; which psalm the Jews uniformly understood as predicting the Messiah.

To answer the objections of the Jews against the legitimacy of the priesthood of Christ, taken from the stock from which he proceeded.

The objection is this: If the Messiah is to be a true priest, he must come from a legitimate stock, as all the priests under the law have regularly done; otherwise we cannot acknowledge him to be a priest: but Jesus of Nazareth has not proceeded from such a stock; therefore we cannot acknowledge him for a priest, the antitype of Aaron.

To this objection the apostle answers, that it was not necessary for the priest to come from a particular stock, for Melchisedec was a priest of the most high God, and yet was not of the stock, either of Abraham or Aaron, but a Canaanite. It is well known that the ancient Hebrews were exceedingly scrupulous in choosing their high priest; partly by Divine command, and partly from the tradition of their ancestors, who always considered this office to be of the highest dignity.

1. God had commanded. Leviticus 21:10 , that the high priest should be chosen from among their brethren, i. e. from the family of Aaron;

2. that he should marry a virgin;

3. he must not marry a widow;

4. nor a divorced person;

5. nor a harlot;

6. nor one of another nation.