Bible Strands
Hebrews 7:16
one who has become a priest not by a law of succession, but by the power of an indestructible life.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The author addresses Jewish Christians in the midst of explaining how Christ’s priesthood supersedes the Levitical system, specifically contrasting earthly succession with divine appointment.
The words — ἐντολῆς σαρκίνης (entolēs sarkinēs) translates literally to “of a fleshly commandment,” referring to the Mosaic regulation that limited priestly office to physical descent.
The thread — This rejection of human-derived religious structures aligns with the apostolic warnings against returning to “weak and worthless principles” (Galatians 4:9) and dying to the “basic principles of the world” (Colossians 2:20).
Why it lands — It demands the reader cease measuring spiritual authority by human lineage or regulation and instead recognize Christ’s permanent, resurrection-sustained office as the only valid foundation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
Cross-references
- Galatians 4:3 So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.
- Galatians 4:9 But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
- Colossians 2:20 If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:
- Revelation 1:18 the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.
- Colossians 2:14 having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
- Hebrews 7:3 Without father or mother or genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God, he remains a priest for all time.
- Hebrews 7:28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
- Hebrews 10:1 For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
- Hebrews 7:17 For it is testified: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
- Hebrews 7:21 but Jesus became a priest with an oath by the One who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’”