The
last point of the superiority of Christ’s priesthood is now set before us.
Under the old covenant the priests were many in number; under the new there is
one. They were removed by death; but He abides, i.e. He lives for ever. There
priesthood passed to another; but His priesthood is aparabatos, unchangeable.
This rare word is not found elsewhere in the Greek Bible. Many have translated
it ‘without a successor’, ‘not transferable’; but such a meaning is not found anywhere
else. M[oulton]M[illigan] points out that the technical use compared with the
later literary meaning constitutes a very strong case against the rendering ‘not
transferable’. (Thomas Hewitt, The Epistle to the Hebrews: An Introduction
and Commentary [Tyndale New Testament Commentaries; London: The Tyndale
Press, 1960], 124-25)
