1 This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God Most High. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him.
2 Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means “king of justice,” and king of Salem means “king of peace.”
3 There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors—no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God.
4 Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle.
5 Now the law of Moses required that the priests, who are descendants of Levi, must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Israel, who are also descendants of Abraham.
6 But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham. And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God.
7 And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed.
8 The priests who collect tithes are men who die, so Melchizedek is greater than they are, because we are told that he lives on.
9 In addition, we might even say that these Levites—the ones who collect the tithe—paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him.
10 For although Levi wasn’t born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham’s body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him.
11 So if the priesthood of Levi, on which the law was based, could have achieved the perfection God intended, why did God need to establish a different priesthood, with a priest in the order of Melchizedek instead of the order of Levi and Aaron?
12 And if the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it.
13 For the priest we are talking about belongs to a different tribe, whose members have never served at the altar as priests.
14 What I mean is, our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never mentioned priests coming from that tribe.
GOOD NEWS TRANSLATION
1 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and a priest of the Most High God. As Abraham was coming back from the battle in which he defeated the four kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him,
2 and Abraham gave him one tenth of all he had taken. (The first meaning of Melchizedek's name is “King of Righteousness”; and because he was king of Salem, his name also means “King of Peace.”)
3 There is no record of Melchizedek's father or mother or of any of his ancestors; no record of his birth or of his death. He is like the Son of God; he remains a priest forever.
4 You see, then, how great he was. Abraham, our famous ancestor, gave him one tenth of all he got in the battle.
5 And those descendants of Levi who are priests are commanded by the Law to collect one tenth from the people of Israel, that is, from their own people, even though they are also descendants of Abraham.
6 Melchizedek was not descended from Levi, but he collected one tenth from Abraham and blessed him, the man who received God's promises.
7 There is no doubt that the one who blesses is greater than the one who is blessed.
8 In the case of the priests the tenth is collected by men who die; but as for Melchizedek the tenth was collected by one who lives, as the scripture says.
9 And, so to speak, when Abraham paid the tenth, Levi (whose descendants collect the tenth) also paid it.
10 For Levi had not yet been born, but was, so to speak, in the body of his ancestor Abraham when Melchizedek met him.
11 It was on the basis of the levitical priesthood that the Law was given to the people of Israel. Now, if the work of the levitical priests had been perfect, there would have been no need for a different kind of priest to appear, one who is in the priestly order of Melchizedek, not of Aaron.
12 For when the priesthood is changed, there also has to be a change in the law.
13 And our Lord, of whom these things are said, belonged to a different tribe, and no member of his tribe ever served as a priest.
14 It is well known that he was born a member of the tribe of Judah; and Moses did not mention this tribe when he spoke of priests.
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