01/05/2024
Who is Mysterious Melchizedek?
Melchizedek is one of the most interesting characters in the Bible. Over the centuries, he has been identified as Shem (Noah’s son), Christ, the Holy Spirit, a heavenly redeemer figure, an angel, or simply a Gentile priest and king in Salem (=Jerusalem).
If you are reading through the Bible with me this year (https://www.1517.org/oneyear), we are introduced to Melchizedek today in Genesis 14. He greets Abraham, brings him bread and wine, blesses the patriarch, and receives the tithe that Abraham gives him. Then, just like that, he walks off the stage of biblical history.
Until Psalm 110. Then he’s back. David speaks of his Lord, the Messiah, as a “priest in the order of Melchizedek” (v. 4). Well, that piques our interest!
It piqued the interest of the Qumran community, too, for among the Dead Sea Scrolls was a fragmentary document (11QMel) that named the heavenly redeemer figure, who shows up at the end of time to lead the forces of light against the forces of darkness, Melchizedek.
Other 1st-century Jewish writers, too, Josephus and Philo, have a few fascinating things to say about him.
But the crown jewel of the Melchizedek message is in Hebrews 7, where he is said to be “without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever” (v. 3).
Most take this as an argument from silence, that is, since neither his parentage, birth, or death are mentioned in the Torah, it’s as if they did not exist. Others argue that the author of Hebrews is echoing some of the traditions about Melchizedek that were circulating in Jewish circles at the time.
Half a lifetime ago, I wrote my thesis about Melchizedek. You can hear my summary of that work in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMtuuXjc0Ng
Whoever he was—and for the record, I think he was a Gentile priest and king—Melchizedek helps us to understand better the priesthood of Jesus, who continues a priest forever for us.
