Need for a New Priesthood^(A)

^11 (B)Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?

A New Covenant^(A)

⁷ For if that ^(B)first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God; for ^(A)if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died ^[a]in vain.”

¹⁷ For ^[a]He testifies:

¹⁸ For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of ^(B)its weakness and unprofitableness, ¹⁹ for ^(C)the law made nothing ^[b]perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of ^(D)a better hope, through which ^(E)we draw near to God.

²¹ (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him:

¹⁵ And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest

⁶ As He also says in another place:

⁹ But now ^(A)after you have known God, or rather are known by God, ^(B)how is it that you turn again to ^(C)the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the ^(A)Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and ^(B)I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ^11 (C)None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the ^(D)Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, ^(E)and their sins ^[a]and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

^13 (F)In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.