Melchizedek
In the Hebrew Bible, Melchizedek was the king of Salem and priest of . He is first mentioned in Genesis 14:18–20, where he brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram, subsequent to Abram's victory in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim.
In Christianity, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ is identified as "High priest forever in the order of Melchizedek", and so Jesus assumes the role of High Priest once and for all. Chazalic literature – specifically Targum Jonathan, Targum Yerushalmi, and the Babylonian Talmud – presents his name as a nickname for Shem.
Joseph Blenkinsopp has suggested that the story of Melchizedek is an informal insertion into the Genesis narration, possibly inserted in order to give validity to the priesthood and titles connected with the Second Temple. It has also been conjectured that the suffix "-zedek" may have been or become a reference to a Canaanite deity worshipped in pre-Israelite Jerusalem.
Name
In the majority of Masoretic Hebrew texts the name is written as two words, , rendered in one word in both the Septuagint and Vulgate. The Authorised King James Version of 1611 renders the name "Melchizedek" when translating from the Hebrew, and "Melchisedec" in the New Testament.The name is composed from the two elements:, 'king', and, which means either 'righteousness' or the proper name Zedek. With the addition of the compaginis indicating the archaic construct form, means 'king of', so that the name literally translates to 'king of righteousness' or 'my king is Zedek', indicating that he worshipped Zedek, a Canaanite deity worshipped in pre-Israelite Jerusalem. The latter, however, is often dismissed since Hebrews 7:2 gives the translation of the name Melchizedek as "king of righteousness", although Robert R. Cargill has recently argued in favour of that etymology. Mainstream scholarly understanding of these names is that they refer to the concept of righteousness and not to a god.
The name is formed in parallel with , a king of Jerusalem mentioned in Joshua 10:1–3, where the element is replaced by . Parallel theophoric names, with Sedeq replaced by Yahu, are those of Malchijah and Adonijah, both biblical characters placed in the time of David.
Hebrew Tanakh
Genesis 14
The narrative of Genesis 14 is part of the larger story telling how Abram returns from defeating king Chedorlaomer and meets with Bera the king of Sodom, at which point:Some textual critics classify the narration as not being derived from any of the usual pentateuchal sources. It has been speculated that verses 18–20 are an informal insertion into the narration, as they interrupt the account of the meeting of Abraham with the king of Sodom. There is no consensus on when or why the story might have been added. It may have been inserted in order to give validity to the priesthood and tithes connected with the Second Temple. It also may have been inserted to give validity to the superiority of the Zadokite priests over the Levite priests.
Lebanese Protestant scholar Kamal Salibi observes that, which literally does mean 'tenth', might more loosely be used to mean 'portion', and, or 'from all', might refer just to food in the giver's possession, so that the whole verse might mean "He gave him a portion of food".
Genesis 14:18 introduces Melchizedek, a "Priest of the Most High God", a term which is re-used in Genesis 14:19–20 and Genesis 14:22. The term "Most High" is used another twenty times to refer to the God of Israel in the Psalms. Giorgio Levi Della Vida suspects that this is a late development, and Joseph Fitzmyer connects Genesis 14 with the mention of a god called "Most High," who may appear according to one of three possible translations of a 750 BC inscription found at Al-Safirah in Syria. Remi Lack considers that the Genesis verses were taken over by Jewish redactor, for whom El was already identified with YHWH, El-Elyon became an epithet for the God of Israel.
Tithe recipient
Due to an ambiguity in the Hebrew text, it is unclear who gave tithe to whom: Abram to Melchizedek, or Melchizedek to Abram: the verse in question states simply, "And gave him tithe from all". Most translations of this verse preserve the ambiguity, "he gave to him", but some modern translations make explicit the mainstream interpretation of Abram being the giver and Melchizedek the recipient.Hebrews 7:9-10 explicitly states that Levi paid tithes through Abraham to Melchizedek.Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Book of Jubilees, Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and Rashi all read Abram as the giver of the tithe to Melchizedek. The Rogatchover Gaon, also understanding Abram to be the tithe giver, comments that the presented tithe was not a standard tithe as described in the Torah, but was a one-time "tribute offering", such as Moses gave to God in Numbers 31:41.
Expressing a kabbalistic point of view, the Zohar commentary to Genesis 14 cites Rabbi Yitzchak as saying that it was God who gave a tithe to Abram in the form of removing the Hebrew letter from his own throne of glory and presenting it to the soul of Abram for his benefit.
Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk interprets the phrase "And he gave him tithe from all" as a verbal continuation of Melchizedek's speech, i.e., Melchizedek exclaimed that God had chosen to gift Abram a tenth of God's possession of the entire human race in the form of the seven nations of the land of Canaan, including the cities of Sodom that Abram succeeded in saving. Rabbi Meir Simcha argues that continued speech of this sort was a common form of prophetic expression.
Psalm 110
The second and final Hebrew Bible mention of Melchizedek is in Psalm 110:4. The many translations that follow the Septuagint translate it as:Although the above is the traditional translation of the text, the Hebrew text can be interpreted in various ways, and the New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh,, for example, has:
Another alternative keeps Melchizedek as a personal name but changes the identity of the person addressed: "You are a priest forever by my order, O Melchizedek" – here it is Melchizedek who is being addressed throughout the psalm.
The majority of Chazalic literature attributes the primary character of the psalm as King David who was a "righteous king" of Jerusalem and, like Melchizedek, had certain priest-like responsibilities, while the Babylonian Talmud understands the chapter as referring to Abram who was victorious in battling to save his nephew Lot and merited priesthood. The Zohar defines the noted Melchizedek as referring to Aaron the Kohen Gadol.
Samaritan Pentateuch
In Genesis 14, the Samaritan Pentateuch reads in place of the Masoretic , with addition of a letter .William F. Albright views the Samaritan wording as authentic as does the New American Bible.
Regarding the residence of Melchizedek, Samaritan tradition identified a "Salem" as a place on the slopes of Mount Gerizim which served as a blessing place of the children of Israel upon their initial crossing of the Jordan river. The Samaritans allocate Gerizim as the site intended for the Temple, and thus the "" text serves an obvious sectarian purpose. However, this practice is not solely associated with the Samaritans: the possessive suffix is also found in the 3rd- or 2nd-century BC Book of Jubilees, and Greek possessive suffixes are even used in the Septuagint version of Genesis.
New Testament
With respect to Genesis 14:20, Hebrews chapter 7 verses 2 and 4 in the New Testament state that the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoil to Melchizedek.Psalm 110:4 is cited in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews as an indicator that Jesus, regarded in the letter as the Messiah, had a right to a priesthood pre-dating the Jewish Aaronic priesthood.
In Judaism
Hasmonean dynasty
The Babylonian Talmud recounts that Hasmonean rulers used to identify themselves as "High Priest of El Elyon": "When the Hasmonean kingdom became strong and defeated the Greeks, they instituted that people should mention the name of Heaven even in their legal documents. And therefore they would write: In year such and such of Yoḥanan the High Priest of the God Most High." Scholars have observed that the Hasmoneans used Melchizedek's example of monarch-priest to justify occupying both offices.Late Hellenistic Judaism
refers to Melchizedek as a "Canaanite chief" in The Jewish War, but as a priest in Antiquities of the Jews.Philo identifies Melchizedek with the Logos as priest of God, and honoured as an untutored priesthood.
The Second Book of Enoch is apparently a Jewish sectarian work of the 1st century AD. The last section of the work, the Exaltation of Melchizedek, tells how Melchizedek was born of a virgin, Sofonim, the wife of Nir, a brother of Noah. The child came out from his mother after she had died and sat on the bed beside her corpse, already physically developed, clothed, speaking and blessing the Lord, and marked with the badge of priesthood. Forty days later, Melchizedek was taken by the archangel Gabriel to the Garden of Eden and was thus preserved from the Deluge without having to be in Noah's Ark.
The Story of Melchizedek is a short pseudepigraphon composed in Greek in the first three centuries AD, probably in a Jewish milieu. It survives today only in Christian recensions, but in at least ten languages.
Dead Sea Scrolls
is a fragment of a text, dated to the end of the second or start of the first century BC, about Melchizedek, found in Cave 11 at Qumran in the West Bank and part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Melchizedek is seen as a divine being in the text and is referred to as "El" or "Elohim", titles usually reserved for God. According to the text, Melchizedek will proclaim the "Day of Atonement" and he will atone for the people who are predestined to him. He also will judge the peoples.The Genesis Apocryphon repeats information from Genesis.
The Qumran Scrolls, also indicate that Melchizedek was used as a name of the Archangel Michael, interpreted as a heavenly priest; Michael as contrast with Belial, who is given the name of 'king of wickedness'. The text of the Epistle to the Hebrews follows this interpretation in stating explicitly that the name in Greek translation means , omitting translation of the possessive suffix; the same passage interprets Melchizedek's title of king of Salem as translating to 'king of peace', the context being the presentation of Melchizedek's as an eternal priesthood associated with Jesus Christ.