Melchizedek

(king of righteousness) (Gen 14:18; Ps 110:4; Heb 5:6 and elsewhere) — king of Salem, priest of God Most High. Upon Abraham’s return from defeating four eastern kings and recovering the people and goods they had taken, Melchizedek went out to meet him with bread and wine, blessed him, and received from him a tenth of all the spoil taken from the enemy. His dwelling place was in all likelihood the site on which Jerusalem was later built, though various opinions exist on this point (see Salem).

His priesthood was acknowledged not only by Abraham but also by those from whose goods the tithe was given him. It is clear from everything that Melchizedek enjoyed great renown (Heb 7:1); but we know nothing whatever of the time of his birth, his years, his life, or his ancestors (Heb 7:3). He is so mysterious both in his own person and in his priesthood that many varied opinions have existed and still exist about him, some of them quite strange and unfounded. According to later Jewish tradition, he was Shem, who could still have been living, at the age of some 150 years, at the same time as Abraham.

According to another tradition, he belonged to the family of Ham or of Japheth. But neither tradition existed in apostolic times. Some have maintained that under the person of Melchizedek is meant an incarnate angel or some other supernatural being that lived for a time among men. Finally, there have been those who saw in the person of Melchizedek an Old Testament appearance of the Son of God. One sect, called the Melchizedekians, maintained that he was an incarnation of some divine power, or even of the Holy Spirit.

One thing alone is certain: that Melchizedek was simply a descendant of Adam by natural descent from him; but nothing is known to us of him beyond, perhaps, that he was an especially great and significant person. Yet Scripture’s very silence about him is itself significant and typological. The psalmist prophesied of the Messiah that He would be “a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110:4), and the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews repeatedly points out that this prophecy was fully realized in Jesus Christ (Heb 5:5-10; 6:20; 7:21).

Like Melchizedek, the Lord Jesus Christ is King and High Priest (Zech 6:12-13); like Melchizedek, He is incomparably higher than Abraham or his descendants. He is eternal, just as Melchizedek is represented as being without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life (Heb 7:3). “Made like unto the Son of God,” the holy apostle Paul finally remarks of him, “abideth a priest continually” (v. 3).