“Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.”
Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever — Melchizedek's lack of genealogical record is read as an absence of priestly succession markers. The phrase about perpetual existence suggests an unrecorded beginning and end. The resemblance to the Son of God establishes Melchizedek as a type of Christ, without origin or terminus, eternal in his priesthood.
Church Fathers on Hebrews 7:3
Paul wishing to show the difference between the New and Old [Covenant], scatters it everywhere; and shoots from afar, and noises it abroad, and prepares beforehand. For at once even from the introduction, he laid down this saying, that “to them indeed He spoke by prophets, but to us by the Son” c. i. 1, 2, and to them “at sundry times and in various manners,” but to us through the Son. Afterwards, having discoursed concerning the Son, who He was and what He had wrought, and…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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