Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 7:11

"Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it hath the people received the law), what further need [was there] that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be reckoned after the order of Aaron?" — Hebrews 7:11 (ASV)

Here “perfection” (GK 5459) means the condition in which people are acceptable to God. The work of the priests of the line of Levi aimed at bringing about this acceptability, but our author tells us that they failed. That the writer of Ps 110 speaks of another priest shows that the Levitical priests had not accomplished what they aimed at. The words in parentheses show that the law and the priesthood were closely connected. We ought not to think of the law and the priesthood as two separate things that happened to be operative at the same time among the same people. The priesthood was the very basis of the law. Without that priesthood it would be impossible for the law to operate in its fullness. Thus the declaration by the psalmist (v.17) that there would be another priest was devastating. He looked for a priest “in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron.” The Aaronic priesthood was not succeeding and thus had to be replaced by a more effective priesthood.