Melchizedek

Life and work

Melchizedek appears without introduction or explanation in Genesis, immediately after Abram's rescue of Lot and his defeat of the invading kings who had taken him captive. As king of Salem (widely understood as an early name for Jerusalem) and 'priest of God Most High,' Melchizedek brought out bread and wine to Abram and blessed him: 'Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.' Abram responded by giving him a tenth of everything he had recovered (Genesis 14:18-20) — the first tithe recorded in Scripture.

Melchizedek is not mentioned again by name until Psalm 110, a royal psalm in which the LORD declares to David's greater son, 'You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek' (Psalm 110:4) — pairing kingship and priesthood in one figure centuries before either office existed as Israel later knew them, and setting up an eternal priesthood distinct from the Levitical line that would not yet exist for another four centuries.

The book of Hebrews devotes an extended argument to Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1-17), reading Genesis's silence about his birth, death, or genealogy as itself significant: 'without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, [he] remains a priest continually' (Hebrews 7:3). The author's point is not that Melchizedek was literally eternal, but that Genesis's silence about his origin and end makes him a fitting type of Christ's own priesthood — one that does not depend on Levitical descent, and one that (unlike Aaron's, which required constant renewal through death and succession) needs no successor. Hebrews further notes that Abraham, and so Levi still 'in the loins' of his ancestor, paid tithes to Melchizedek — meaning the Melchizedekian priesthood, in the author's reasoning, is greater than the Levitical priesthood that would later receive Israel's tithes (Hebrews 7:4-10).

Extra-biblical evidence

No extra-biblical historical record of Melchizedek survives; he is known only from Genesis, Psalm 110, and Hebrews. Later Jewish and Christian traditions that speculate about his identity (some ancient interpreters even proposed he was Shem) go well beyond anything the biblical text itself claims.

Scripture references

• Genesis 14:18-20 — Blesses Abram and receives a tenth of the spoils
• Psalm 110:4 — Prophesied pattern for an eternal priest-king
• Hebrews 7:1-17 — Extended argument for Christ's priesthood 'after the order of Melchizedek'

Further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Melchizedek