Home About Us Our Publications Make a
Donation Email: glenn.benson@yourbrotherglenn.org
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(Romans
8:2)
Melchizedek
- Britannica
Melchizedek
biblical figure
Also known as: Melchisedech
Britannica
Editors History
Melchizedek, in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), a figure
of importance in biblical tradition because he was both king and priest, was
connected with Jerusalem, and was revered by Abraham, who paid a tithe to him.
He appears as a person only in an interpolated vignette (Genesis 14:18–20) of
the story of Abraham rescuing his kidnapped nephew, Lot, by defeating a
coalition of Mesopotamian kings under Chedorlaomer.
In the episode, Melchizedek meets Abraham on his return
from battle, gives him bread and wine (which has been interpreted by some
Christian scholars as a precursor of the Eucharist, so that Melchizedek’s name
entered the canon of the Roman mass), and blesses Abraham in the name of “God
Most High” (in Hebrew El ʿElyon). In return, Abraham gives him a tithe of
the booty.
Melchizedek is an old Canaanite name meaning “My King Is
[the god] Sedek” or “My King Is Righteousness” (the meaning of the similar
Hebrew cognate). Salem, of which he is said to be king, is very probably
Jerusalem. Psalm 76:2 refers to Salem in a way that implies that it is
synonymous with Jerusalem, and the reference in Genesis 14:17 to “the King’s
Valley” further confirms this identification. The god whom Melchizedek serves
as priest is “El ʿElyon,” again a name of Canaanite origin, probably designating
the high god of their pantheon. (Later, the Hebrews adapted another Canaanite
name as an appellation for God.)
For Abraham to recognize the authority and authenticity of
a Canaanite priest-king is startling and has no parallel in biblical
literature. This story may have reached its final formulation in the days of
King David, serving as an apologia for David’s making Jerusalem his
headquarters and setting up the priesthood there. Abraham’s paying tribute to a
Jerusalem priest-king then would anticipate the time when Abraham’s descendants
would bring tithes to the priests of Jerusalem ministering in the sanctuary at
the Davidic capital. The story may also relate to the conflict between the
Levite priests descended from Abraham and the Zadokite priests of Jerusalem,
who later changed their allegiance to Yahweh, the Hebrew god. The Zadokites
monopolized the Jerusalem priesthood until forcibly taken away to Babylon, at
which time Levite priests asserted their own hegemony; the Melchizedek episode
could reveal the reascendancy of Zadokite power.
The biblical account also poses textual problems. Abraham
paying a tithe to Melchizedek is an interpretation, though a likely one, of the
original biblical text, in which the matter is ambiguous; it seems incongruous
that Abraham gives a tenth of the booty to Melchizedek and then refuses to take
any of it for himself (verses 22–23). Again, some scholars have asserted that
it would be unusual for an author of Davidic times to construct a narrative
with a Canaanite protagonist.
Quick Facts
Also spelled: Melchisedech
Psalm 110, in referring to a future messiah of the Davidic
line, alludes to the priest-king Melchizedek as a prototype of this messiah.
This allusion led the author of the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament
to translate the name Melchizedek as “king of righteousness” and Salem as
“peace” so that Melchizedek is made to foreshadow Christ, stated to be the true
king of righteousness and peace (Hebrews 7:2). According to the analogy, just
as Abraham, the ancestor of the Levites, paid a tithe to Melchizedek and was
therefore his inferior, so the Melchizedek-like priesthood of Christ is
superior to that of the Levites. Furthermore, just as the Old Testament assigns
no birth or death date to Melchizedek, so is the priesthood of Christ eternal.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica The Editors of
Encyclopaedia Britannica
This article was most recently revised and updated by
Encyclopaedia Britannica.