priest for ever” (Heb 7:3). The reason why Melchizedek is said to be “without father or mother or genealogy” is that Jews puzzled over him, because in Genesis 14 he is to have been kōhēn lĕ’ēl ‛elyôn, “a priest of God Most High,” and they wondered how someone could be called a priest of God without a genealogy. The explanation of that puzzling question comes from the rootless character of verses 18–20 in Genesis 14, where they have been secondarily inserted in the story of the return of Abram