Book of Common Prayer

7 Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem. He was a priest of God who is the greatest of all. Melchizedek met Abraham when Abraham came back from killing some bad kings. And Melchizedek blessed him.

² Abraham divided all that he took away from the kings into ten parts. He gave Melchizedek one part. First, the name Melchizedek means the king who is true and right with God. Then he was king of Salem. That means king of peace.

³ He has no father or mother. The names of the family from which he comes are not written down. It is not written down that he was born or that he died. But, like the Son of God, he stays on being a priest for ever.

⁴ Just think how great he was! Even Abraham, the father of our people, gave him a tenth, one part out of ten, of all he brought back.

⁵ The sons of Levi, who are priests, have the right by law to take a tenth of what the people have. These people are their own brothers. They also are Abraham's children.

⁶ But Melchizedek was not from Levi's family. Yet he took a tenth of what Abraham had. And he blessed Abraham, to whom God made the promise.

⁷ Everyone knows this is true. The person who is blessed is not so great as the person who blesses him.

⁸ Here, priests take their tenth, but they are people who will die one day. But Melchizedek, who took his tenth, never dies. The holy writings say it is so.

⁹ And we say that Levi, the priest who takes the tenth from the people, gave his tenth through Abraham.

¹⁰ He was not yet born when Melchizedek met Abraham.

¹¹ It was while the sons of Levi were priests that the law was made for the people. If those priests were good enough, why would another priest need to come who was like Melchizedek? Why would he not be like Aaron?

¹² If the kind of priest is changed, then the law must be changed also.

¹³ The one we are talking about belonged to another tribe. No man from his tribe ever made sacrifices in God's house.

¹⁴ Everyone knows that our Lord Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. And Moses never said anything about priests coming from that tribe.

¹⁵ You can understand it even better when another priest comes who is like Melchizedek.

¹⁶ He was not made a priest by law. The law said that the priest must come from a certain tribe. But he was made a priest because he has power to live for ever.

¹⁷ This is what the holy writings say about him, `You are a priest for ever, like Melchizedek.'

¹⁶ She said, `I have no husband.' Jesus said, `You say, "I have no husband." That is true.

¹⁷ You have had five husbands, but the man you are living with now is not your husband. You have told the truth.'

¹⁸ The woman said, `Sir, this shows me you are a prophet of God.

¹⁹ Our fathers came to this mountain to worship God. But you people say Jerusalem is the place people must go to worship him.'

²⁰ Jesus said, `Woman, believe what I say. The time is coming when you will not come to this mountain or to Jerusalem to worship my Father.

²¹ You worship one whom you do not know. But we know whom we worship. The Saviour will come of the Jews.

²² But the time is coming, yes, the time is here already, when those who worship God will worship him in spirit and in a true way. My Father is looking for that kind of people to worship him.

²³ God is Spirit. Those who worship him must do so in spirit and in a true way.'

²⁴ The woman said to Jesus, `I know that Messiah is coming. His name is Christ. When he comes he will tell us everything.'

²⁵ Jesus said to her, `I who am talking to you am he.'

²⁶ When Jesus had said this, his disciples came back. They were surprised to hear him talking to a woman. But not one of them asked, `What do you want?' or, `Why are you talking to her?'