eption of the
Priest-King in the religious insight of the profounder men, or at least
in their earnest groping for better things. All this notwithstanding,
his use of the allegory is original and most felicitous. He adds an
idea, fraught with consequences to his argument. For the central thought
of the passage is the endless duration of the priesthood of Melchizedek.
The Priest-King is Priest for ever.

We have spoken of Melchizedek's story as an allegory, not to insinuate
doubt of its historical truth, but because it cannot be intended by the
Apostle to have direct inferential force. It is an instance of the
allegorical interpretation of Old Testament events, similar to what we
constantly find in Philo, and once at least in St. Paul. Allegorical use
of history has just as much force as a parable drawn from nature, and
comes just as near a demonstration as the types, if it is so used by an
inspired prophet in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. This is
precisely the difference between our author and Philo. The latter
invents allegories and lets his fancy run wild in weaving new
coincidences, which Scripture does not even suggest. But the writer of
the Epistle to the Hebrews keeps strictly within the lines of the Psalm.
We must also bear in mind that the story of Melchizedek sets forth a
feature of Christ's priesthood which cannot be figured by a type of the
ordinary form. Philo infers from the history of Melchizedek the
sovereignty of God. The Psalmist and the Apostle teach from it the
eternal duration of Christ's priesthood. But how can any type represent
such a truth? How can the fleeting shadow symbolise the notion of
abiding substance? The type by its very nature is transitory. That
Christ is Priest for ever can be symbolically taught only by negations,
by the absence of a beginning and of an end, in some such way as the
hieroglyphics represent eternity by a line turning back upon itself. In
this negative fashion, Melchizedek has been assimilated to the Son of
God. His history was intentionally so related by God's Spirit that the
sacred writer's silence even is significant. For Melchizedek suddenly
appears on the scene, and as suddenly vanishes, never to return.
Hitherto in the Bible story every man's descent is carefully noted, from
the sons of Adam to Noah, from Noah down to Abraham. Now, however, for
the first time, a man stands before us of whose genealogy and birth
nothing is said. Even his death is not mentio