The key text is quoted again, this time as a whole and in the right order (unlike 6.20). Revised Standard Version‘s literal “it is witnessed” means “Scripture witnesses” as in verse 8, rather than “God witnesses” as in King James Version and Knox, though the two ideas are closely linked. Compare 10.15 , where the verb is used in the same sense (though in the active voice) of the Holy Spirit’s witness in Scripture.

For the scripture says may be rendered as “For in the holy writings one may read.”

You will be a priest forever, in the priestly order of Melchizedek may be expressed as “You will always be a priest of the kind that Melchizedek was” or “… like Melchizedek was.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .