The Riddle of Melchizedek: Genesis 14.17-24

While Abram and his Amorite allies were heading back home after defeating the Eastern Coalition and rescuing Lot and others, the King of Sodom – who had escaped capture and doubtlessly mourned as his city was sacked – came out to meet Abram. They were joined by ‘Melchizedek the king of Salem,’ who treated them to bread and wine. He was a priest God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed by God Most High, who has handed over your enemies to you.’ Abram responded by giving Melchizedek a tenth of the treasures he’d taken from the eastern kings – the first instance of tithing in the Bible. The King of Sodom insisted that Abram keep the material treasures, formerly belonging to Sodom, that he had taken back from the eastern kings; Abram refused, but he insisted that his allies – the Amorite chieftains Abner, Eschol, and Mamre – get their fair share. 

This short ‘epilogue’ to the War of Kings in Genesis 14 is interesting on several episodes. In the first instance, we have the mention of Melchizedek, a priest of the Most High God. The Hebraic priesthood wouldn’t be established until the days of Moses, so who commissioned Melchizedek and what kind of priest is he? In the second instance, we have the first mention of tithing in the Bible. In the third instance, when this episode is taken together with the rest of Genesis 14, it reads like an ancient treaty sealing a pact between two parties; this has led some scholars to suspect that Genesis 14 is a copy of a written compact made between Abram and the King of Sodom, with Melchizedek of Salem bearing witness, on how to disperse the spoils after conquering the eastern kings. Most interesting of these three points, of course, is Melchizedek, not least because he’s mentioned not only elsewhere in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament. 

Who was Melchizedek?

There are three main theories regarding Melchizedek's identity. The first theory is that Melchizedek is another name for Shem, the son of Noah. Many Jewish scholars hold this view. Though Abram is ten generations removed from Shem, the ages listed in the geneaology of Genesis 11, if taken literally, allow for Shem to still be alive at this point in history. However, this is based on the Masoretic text, which is used by modern Jewish communities and in English translations of the Bible. The Greek Septuagint, written much earlier, reads differently regarding Shem’s age and has Shem dying hundreds of years before Abram’s birth. 

The second theory is that Melchizedek was the pre-incarnate Christ. In Hebrews 7.1-4, we read that Melchizedek was ‘without father, without mother, without geneaology, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.’ If we read these words literally, then we can only conclude that Melchizedek was a ‘Christophony,’ or an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament. However, the text doesn’t need to be read literally; most scholars believe that the writer of Hebrews is simply using Melchizedek as a ‘type’ of Christ in the same way that Adam is used as a ‘type’ of Christ in Romans 5 (and no one argues that Adam and Christ are one in the same!). Those who believe Melchizedek is the pre-incarnate Christ point to Jesus’ words in John 8.56 when he says, ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.’ Is Jesus referring to Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek in Genesis 14? Some say Yes. 

The third theory is the simplest: Melchizedek was a Canaanite king of the Canaanite city of Salem. In Hebrews 7.2 Melchizedek is called ‘King of Righteousness,’ which is a play on the Hebrew components of his name. The most grammatically correct reading of Melchizedek’s name isn’t ‘King of Righteousness,’ however, but ‘My King is Tsedeq.’ While it may be that Melchizedek was called ‘King of Righteousness,’ this wouldn’t have been a Christological title but the Canaanite equivalent of ‘the just king.’ We see this very thing in a 14th century BC epithet in a letter written to an Egyptian king. If Melchizedek’s name means ‘My King is Tsedeq,’ then he is named after the Canaanite god Tsedeq. Bear in mind that Melchizedek isn’t an Israelite nor a Hebrew; he’s a Canaanite. If his name means ‘My King is Tsedeq,’ he may have taken this name for himself or been given this name by his parents. It wasn’t uncommon in ancient Near Eastern culture for people to be named in junction with their gods; indeed, we see this even with many of the prophets of the Old Testament and how their names connect them to Yahweh. This third theory – that Melchizedek is the Canaanite king of the Canaanite city of Salem – is the simplest, most common-sense approach to Melchizedek’s identity. 

Melchizedek's Lair: The City of Salem

Salem is the future Jerusalem. The title ‘Jerusalem’ comes from the combination of the Sumerian word for ‘city’ plus the name ‘Salem.’ In the 14th century Amarna tablets – letters between Egyptian and Canaanite officials – the place is called urusalim, ‘the city of Salem.’ When David captures Salem and makes it the capital of the Israelite United Kingdom around 1000 BC, the city is commonly known as ‘the city of Salem,’ or (in our English translations) ‘Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem is mentioned for the first time in the Egyptian Execration Texts written between the 19th and 18th centuries BC, where it’s called ‘Rusalimum.’ The name appears again in the Amarna Tablets as Urusalim around the 14th century BC. Abdi-Hiba, a vassal of Egypt who was reigning in Jerusalem at the time, sent letters to the Egyptian pharaoh Amenophis IV (a.k.a. Akhenaten) in which he promised his loyalty. Much later Assyrian texts around 700 BC detail King Sennacherib’s siege of ‘Ursalimmu.’ 

Interestingly, it seems that Jerusalem may have been originally named after a Canaanite god Shalem. The founders would’ve established their town and put it under the care of the god Shalem, naming the town after him. This would be shocking, of course, if the city was originally built by Hebrews who worshiped Yahweh, but this isn’t the case, as the city was in existence even before God called Abram to follow him. In the Canaanite pantheon, Shalem (or Shalim) is the god of the dusk (evening time), and his brother Shahar is the god of morning. Both were sons of El, the chief god in the Canaanite pantheon, and they were tasked with beginning and ending each day. Both Shalem and Shahar are associated with the planet Venus, and in Isaiah 14 Satan is associated with Venus in a ‘remythologizing’ of the Canaanite pantheon. Isaiah 14’s subliminal messaging is clear to those familiar with the Canaanite pantheon: the ‘morning star’ (referring to Venus and translated as ‘Lucifer’ in the Latin Vulgate, from which we receive the name by which Satan is associated but which isn’t actually given to him anywhere in the Bible) was cast out of heaven rather than born of El. Isaiah is turning Canaanite mythology on its head: they believed ‘Satan’ to be born of their chief god, but in reality he was an evil outcast of the true Creator. Thus when we get to Jerusalem, ‘the city of Salem,’ which is named after the god Shalem, the city formerly dedicated to the Canaanite deity – who in actuality is the fallen Diviner from the Garden – is repurposed by Yahweh and becomes His chosen city. The message is clear: Yahweh steals Satan’s territory and makes it His own. 

In Abram’s day, Salem was in the hands of the Canaanite king Melchizedek, and it would remain in foreign hands until King David took it from the Jebusites and made it his capital nearly a thousand years after Abram first encountered Melchizedek. Joshua 10.1-4 contains the first explicit biblical reference to Jerusalem, whose inhabitants were Canaanites. In that text, Adoni-zedek, the King of Jerusalem, formed a coalition with neighboring kings and attacked Gibeon. Joshua and his army defeated them, but Jerusalem wasn’t taken. Judges 1.8 tells us that the Judahites captured Jerusalem and destroyed it by fire, though they didn’t occupy it. Jebusites from the neighboring city of Jebus moved into the city and rebuilt it. They clung to the city until it was taken by King David and made it his capital. Jerusalem remained the capital of Israel until the kingdom split in two under David’s grandson Rehoboam; at that point it became the capital of Judah (or ‘southern Israel,’ as opposed to the splintered ‘northern Israel’). The city would be destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and rebuilt under the Persians. The city would be destroyed yet again in 70 AD by the Romans before being rebuilt again. From the Middle Ages to today, the city has been a focal point for the advance of Islam. Islam, one of the chief opponents of God’s kingdom, is likely spearheaded by fallen ‘sons of God,’ and their focus on Jerusalem isn’t trivial: it is an attempt on their part to symbolically ‘reclaim’ the city lost to them in 1000 BC. 

Melchizedek the Priest

The passage tells us that Melchizedek, King of Salem, was also a priest of El Elyon, ‘The Most High God.’ While some scholars believe this is a direct reference to the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon, it could also be a reference to Yahweh. Remember that Yahweh hadn’t revealed his name yet; Abram called him El Shaddai, ‘God Almighty,’ and it’s possible that he was also called El Elyon, ‘The Most High God,’ by others. Everyone knew there were a lot of gods out there, but the God of Abram was the mightiest of them all, the ‘top dog’ deity. However, because El, the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon, is also called El Elyon, we can’t be certain that Melchizedek wasn’t a pagan priest. This, of course, opens a big can of worms: ‘Was the chief god of the Canaanites an early version of Yahweh?’ This is how some people have approached it, but a more likely solution to the problem is that Melchizedek was a worshipper of the Living God and that he called him El Elyon. Muslims worship ‘God,’ and Christians worship God, but we do not worship the same deity; in the same way, a Canaanite could worship El Elyon, identified with the Canaanite pantheon, whereas a God-fearer would worship El Elyon, the ‘Most High God’ exalted even above El. The words remain the same, but the meaning is different.

That Melchizedek worships the Creator is striking, but not surprising. Remember that when God punitively scattered the nations at Babel, he set members of his divine council over them. The ‘sons of God’ were tasked with managing the nations justly and holding them in good order until God reclaimed the nations under the promised Messiah. The ‘sons of God’ went rogue sometime between Genesis 10 and Genesis 12, but this doesn’t mean that no one knew of the Creator. Though these rogue sons of God sought the worship and service of those put under their care, some people continued to worship the true God. Melchizedek is best classified as a ‘God-fearer,’ a title given to those who worshipped the Creator without being a member of one of the tribes of Israel. 

Melchizedek and Christ

Melchizedek is mentioned again in Psalm 110, a ‘Messianic Psalm’ that prophecies Christ’s victory over the nations:

Yahweh says to my King:

  ‘Sit at My right hand

  Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’

The Lord will stretch out Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,

  ‘Rule in the midst of Your enemies.’

Your people will volunteer freely on the day of Your power;

  In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn,

  Your youth are to You as the dew.

The Lord has sworn and will not [e]change His mind,

  ‘You are a priest forever

  According to the order of Melchizedek.’

The Lord is at Your right hand;

  He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.

He will judge among the nations,

  He will fill them with corpses,

  He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.

He will drink from the brook by the wayside;

Therefore He will lift up His head.

    [Psalm 110]

The psalmist prophecies that the victorious King will be ‘a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’ The Hebrew word for ‘order’ is best translated here as ‘manner,’ so that Christ will be a priest forever ‘in the manner of’ Melchizedek. What, then, does this mean? Remember that Melchizedek was a ‘priest-king,’ serving two roles. In the same way, Christ is both King and Priest. Hebrews 7-8 builds upon Psalm 110 to establish the point that Christ is our High Priest who intercedes for us before God. Melchizedek is thus a ‘type’ of Christ, a signpost towards the Messianic King promised throughout scripture. 

It’s interesting to note that during the Intertestamental Period – the time period between Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and Matthew, the beginning of the New Testament – Melchizedek became a prominent figure in Jewish thought. The political Hasmoneans justified their priestly-royal rule by aligning themselves with Melchizedek, a practice that was continued by the Sadducees of Jesus’ day. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, Melchizedek is mentioned again and again, portrayed as a heavenly redeemer, a leader of the forces of light, tasked with releasing the captives and reigning during the Messianic Age. He’s portrayed as the heavenly High Priest to whom even archangels go to be forgiven of their sins. When we come to the New Testament, Psalm 110 - the Messianic psalm in which Melchizedek is referenced - is found in multiple books of the Bible. When we come to Hebrews 7, all this ‘background information’ is present in the minds of the original readers, so that it becomes evident to them that Jesus Christ is the real heavenly High Priest far above even Melchizedek.