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Hebrews 7:3 – Without Genealogy
7:3 – “without genealogy” (agenealogetos – only found here in the NT)
- “That is a word that, so far as we know, no Greek writer ever used before.” (Barclay)
- Two possible meanings based upon the word itself:
- No recorded genealogy
- No actual genealogy
Now let’s look at some of the Greek words used in this verse to corroborate the above explanations. The first is agenealogetos. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words says this word “denotes ‘without recorded pedigree’ . . .” Vine’s goes on to say that “the narrative in Gen. 14 is so framed in facts and omissions as to foreshadow the person of Christ” (NT, p. 262).
The abridged Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) says agenealogetos “occurs only in Heb. 7:3, where Melchizedek is said to be ‘without genealogy.’ Unlike the Aaronic priests, he has no traceable descent” (p. 114).
Word Meanings in the New Testament states that this word “is compounded of alpha-negative and the verb genealogeõ (found in NT only in v. 6), ‘to trace ancestry.’ So it clearly means ‘without genealogy’ (NASB, NIV) that is, without a recorded pedigree. We should not assume, as some have wrongly done, that Melchizedek was without human ancestry” (p. 424).
In their book The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Conybeare and Howson write that this word means “without table of descent.” They go on to explain, “The priesthood of Melchisedec was not, like the Levitical priesthood, dependent on his descent, through his parents, from a particular family, but was a personal office” (p. 800).
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