King of Righteousness
Patrick Reardon on an enigmatic character
The Old Testament provides a genealogy, at least in brief, for most of its ‘persons of the drama’. The clear exception is Melchizedek, who suddenly enters the biblical story in Genesis 14 and just as abruptly leaves it. Nothing whatever is said of his ancestry, the rest of his life, or his death. Melchizedek simply appears ‘without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life’ (Hebrews 7.3). In fact, Genesis 14 tells us only five things about him.
Salem
First, Melchizedek was a king. ‘Salem’, the city of his kingship, was an old
name for Jerusalem (Psalms 76.2). Indeed, the Jewish historian, Flavius
Josephus, took Melchizedek to be the founder (ho protos ktisas) of the
holy city (The Jewish War 6.438). Speculating on the etymology of
Melchizedek's name (melek-hassedeq), Josephus calls him a ‘righteous
king’ (basileus dikaios) (Antiquities 1.10.2).
Exploiting the resemblance of the name ‘Salem’ to the Hebrew word for ‘peace’,
shalom, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls Melchizedek ‘king
of peace’. Like Josephus, he sees etymological symbolism in Melchizedek's own
name, calling him ‘king of righteousness’ (basileus dikaiosynes)
(7.2).
Priest of the Most High
Second, Melchizedek was ‘the priest of God Most High’. In fact, he is the
first man to whom Holy Scripture gives the title ‘priest’ (kohen),
and it is Melchizedek’s priesthood that receives the greater attention in the
Bible. For example, while the Book of Psalms speaks of the Messiah's kingship as
derived from David (Psalms 78.70; 89.3–4, 20, 39, 45; 110 109.1–3), the
Messiah's priesthood is said to be ‘according to the order of Melchizedek’
(110.4).
Melchizedek was ‘the first to serve as priest to God’ (ierasato to Theo
protos), Josephus wrote, and long before Solomon built a temple at
Jerusalem, Melchizedek had already done so (to hieron protos deimamenos).
Indeed, Josephus traces the very name of Jerusalem (in Greek Hierosolyma)
to the ‘priest of Salem’ (hierus Salem) (The Jewish War
6.438). Following the lead of Psalm 110, the author of Hebrews sees in the
priesthood of Melchizedek the ‘order’ (taxsis) of the definitive
priesthood of Christ the Lord (5.6,10; 6.20; 7.17). The Bible's very silence
with respect to the death of that ancient priest of Salem is taken as a
prefiguration of the ‘unchangeable priesthood’ (7.24) of God's Son, to whom
Melchizedek was ‘made like’ (7.3). The latter was a living prophecy of the
definitive Priest who 'has become the surety of a better covenant’ (7.22).
Priorities
Third, Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek, just as Abraham's children gave
tithes to the Levitical priests (7.8–10). That detail argues for the
superiority of the ‘order of Melchizedek’ over the ‘order of Aaron’
(7.11).
Fourth, Melchizedek blessed Abraham, saying: ‘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’ (Genesis 14.19–20). This priestly
blessing too indicates the superiority of the ‘order of Melchizedek’,
inasmuch as ‘the lesser is blessed by the better’ (Hebrews 7.7).
Prefiguration
Fifth, Melchizedek ‘brought out bread and wine’ (Genesis 14.18). His
offering of bread and wine, moreover, was recognized as a priestly act; that is
to say, Melchizedek did this precisely ‘because he was’ a priest (as is
clear in the Septuagint's en de and the Vulgate's erat enim).
Melchizedek's offering of bread and wine, of course, was a type and
prefiguration of what transpired that night when God's priestly Son took the
loaf of bread and the cup of wine into his holy and venerable hands and
identified them as his Body and Blood. This is how the Christian Church has
always interpreted the act of that first priest, Melchizedek, ‘who gave the
wine and bread, the sanctified food, as a type of the Eucharist (eis typon
Eucharistias)’ (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 4.25).
Melchizedek was the ‘type of Christ, and he offered the same gifts that
prefigured the Mystery’ (John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 36.3).
‘Who had the bread and wine?’ asked Ambrose of Milan. ‘Not Abraham,’ he
answered, ‘but Melchizedek. Therefore he is the author of the Sacraments’ (De
Sacramentis 4.10). The living memory of Melchizedek thus abides deeply in
the worship of the Christian Church.
Patrick Henry Reardon is a senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity. www.touchstonemag.com.