Melchizedek Who Was Melchizedek? And

Melchizedek Who Was Melchizedek? And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him one tenth of everything. Gen. 14:18-20 Thomas, T.K. 2000. "Melchizedek, King and Priest." The Ecumenical Review, vol: 52, no: 3, p. 403.

In this article, Thomas explores the many faces of Melchizedek: head of a pagan priesthood, heavenly judge, angel, king of Salem, "forerunner of Christ." As a priest, Melchizedek was "above the law," a "cosmic" religious leader possibly blessed with the role of uniting different religions. He certainly wasn't just the "king of Salem"; as Genesis 14: 18-20 states, he was the "priest of God Most High," holy enough to bless Abram and then be given one-tenth of everything Abram had.

In addition, we know he was very special because he was "without father or mother" in the same sense as Jesus. Because he was a Gentile, Melchizedek has significance for both Christians and Jews as a "Jesus-like" figure. But Thomas takes this notion a step further to suggest that Melchizedek was most significant as the "High Priest of the Cosmic Religion." He was an immortal priest forever, high above other priests, yet without religious affiliation.

Thus he can be seen as a "cosmic Christ," a symbol of tolerance and unity among all religions. Jorgensen, Janyce. 2003. "Between Text and Sermon: Hebrews 7:23-28." Interpretation, vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 297+. Jorgensen also sees Melchizedek as a "prefigure" to Jesus, or a symbol to represent the fact that "the good gifts given to humanity in Jesus were there in God's mind from the very beginning." She also mentions Melchizedek as a kind of mediator between all priests before the establishment of the Levitical Order of the priesthood.

Scott, Bud; Williamson, Peter; Whitters, Mark; Schumann, Matt; Hockton, Peter; Hutchison, Fred; Nuzzo, James. 2009. "The Jewish Jesus." First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, no. 193, pp. 5+. This group of writers echoes many of the statements made by Thomas, as well as the Psalm passage that mentions Melchizedek multiple times: "You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4).

But this article actually says that while Christians are indebted to the Jews for Christ, Jews and Christians alike are indebted to the Gentile Melchizedek for Jesus' priesthood. In their words, Christ's priesthood can't be traced to Aaron, "but to Melchizedek, the mysterious non-Jewish 'priest of the Most High God' (Heb. 7:1). Melchizedek is a mysterious figure; his appearance in the Old Testament is strikingly brief. However, he has become a central, honored figure among Christian and Hebrew scholars. Personally, I choose to believe Thomas' interpretation of the story of Melchizedek.

To think of him as a holy, cosmic priest of the universe, sent to presage the coming of Christ, is a wonderful vision. And it makes so much sense that God would have had the "gifts of Jesus (Jorgensen, 2003)," namely tolerance and reconciliation,.