The author now turns to discuss Melchizedek the priest. The few details about Melchizedek (7:1–3) are taken from Genesis 14:18–20. In distinction to the necessity of Aaronic ancestry as a prerequisite for Levitical priestly service (Heb. 7:14), nothing is said either of Melchizedek’s birth and ancestry or his death and posterity. For the author’s purpose, this fact demonstrates the existence in Scripture of another order of priesthood wholly separate from the Levitical. In this, Melchizedek serves as a type or embodied prophecy of Christ’s non-Levitical and eternal priesthood, which is confirmed not only directly in Psalm 110:4 (alrea…