7: Who Was Melchizedek?

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8: Is The Clergy/Laity Distinction Biblical?

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Welcome back to the Ready for Eternity podcast. My name is Eddie Lawrence.

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Who was Melchizedek? Melchizedek is a very mysterious person in the Bible with a name that is equally mysterious to pronounce.

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He appears in Genesis 14 18 with no introduction and is mentioned only one other time in the

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Old Testament in Psalms 110. The mystery surrounding him has led to a good deal of speculation.

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Some say he was the pre -incarnate Jesus due to passages in the book of Hebrews. Among the

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Jews there is a tradition that Melchizedek was Noah's son Shem. In this episode we'll consider the question who was

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Melchizedek? Melchizedek's name is formed from two

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Hebrew words that when put together translates as king of righteousness. The author of Hebrews makes this plain by giving us the translation in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 2.

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Since his name means king of righteousness, the Bible may be giving us his title and not his proper name.

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The mystery deepens. He was the first priest ever mentioned in the Bible. He was also the king of Salem, a city later known as Jerusalem.

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The fact that he was both a priest and a king should cause us to take note. These two roles were kept separate in Israel.

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Was Melchizedek the pre -incarnate Christ, Shem, or someone else altogether?

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Perhaps the main reason some Christians consider Melchizedek to be Jesus is because of this verse in Hebrews.

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He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the

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Son of God, he continues a priest forever. Hebrews 7 verse 3. In addition,

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Hebrews quotes a messianic psalm several times which connects Jesus with Melchizedek.

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The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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Psalms 110 verse 4. These passages seem to make

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Melchizedek out to be something other than a normal human, but is this what the author of Hebrews really meant to convey?

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Does Hebrews portray Melchizedek as divine? Not necessarily.

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The comments about Melchizedek's lack of genealogy probably derived from an ancient

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Jewish interpretive principle that implied that that which is not specifically mentioned in the biblical writings does not exist.

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The author of Hebrews isn't saying Melchizedek had no parents. Instead, he is saying

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Genesis tells us nothing about his ancestors. As was their custom, the

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Jews of this time period would express this as the Hebrew writer did in Hebrews 7 3.

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Since Genesis doesn't tell us about Melchizedek's parents, his birth, nor his death, these things didn't happen in a

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Jewish interpretive sense. What the Hebrew author is really doing is underscoring a lack of priestly genealogy, not a lack of human ancestry.

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Hebrews emphasizes that Jesus's priesthood is not like the Aaronic priesthood which could be only fulfilled by Aaron's descendants.

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A priest in the order of Aaron had to be descended from Aaron. In contrast, a priest of the order of Melchizedek did not depend upon his genealogy or his family line to qualify.

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A priest of the order of Melchizedek was granted the role directly by God. This is the difference in the nature of the two priesthoods.

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Jesus was not descended from Aaron and was not even of the tribe of Levi. The author of Hebrews quotes

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Psalms 110 verse 4 to make the point that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek because his priesthood does not rely upon succession.

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It should also be noted that Hebrews 7 3 does not say that Melchizedek was Christ, but that he resembled

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Christ or he was like Christ. This is an important distinction. They were not the same person, but they were both priests and they were both kings.

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Jewish rabbinical literature and oral traditions make the claim that Melchizedek was

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Shem, the son of Noah. There is nothing whatsoever in the Bible that makes this connection.

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Therefore, this view is based on nothing more than tradition. When did this tradition originate?

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It is alleged that in the 2nd century AD, Jewish rabbis who were opposed to Christianity wanted to build a case to show that Jesus could not be a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

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If the rabbis gave Melchizedek a genealogy, they reckoned they could undermine

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Jesus's priesthood. This theory, and let me emphasize the fact that this is a theory, this theory says that the rabbis claimed that the

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Jewish priesthood was passed down from Noah to Shem and from Shem all the way down to Aaron.

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We know who Shem's parents were, and if they could make Melchizedek out to be

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Shem, it would counter the statement found in Hebrews 7 3. For this theory to work,

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Shem needed to be alive during Abraham's time, since Abraham and Melchizedek met each other.

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To achieve this, those who embraced this theory claimed that the rabbis tinkered with the genealogies in Genesis 11, reducing the age at which these men had their firstborn sons.

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This had the effect of causing Shem to appear to have lived long enough to meet

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Abraham. Now whether this theory is true or not is a matter of debate.

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However, we know for certain that the Hebrew Masoretic text, which our modern Old Testaments are translated from, differs from other ancient versions of the

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Hebrew Bible. For example, two ancient translations of the

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Hebrew Old Testament, both of which predate the Masoretic text by about a thousand years, have an additional 100 years attached to the getting ages in the genealogies of Genesis 11.

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Listen to the reading of Genesis 11 verse 14 from the

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English Standard Version, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, and the

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Samaritan Pentateuch, and notice how they differ. When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered

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Eber, Genesis 11 14, English Standard Version. And Salah lived 130 years and became the father of Eber, Genesis 11 14,

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English translation of the Septuagint. And lived Selah 30 years and 100 years and begat

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Eber, Genesis 11 14, Samaritan Pentateuch. Just like Genesis 11 14, most of the men listed in Genesis 11 have had 100 years removed from the begetting ages in the

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Hebrew Masoretic text. All modern English Old Testament Bible translations derive from the

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Hebrew Masoretic text. Therefore, our Bibles have lower begetting ages.

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Clearly, the more ancient copies of the scripture are not in agreement with the newer

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Masoretic text. We can't say for certain when or why this change was made, but a number of Christian scholars agree that there was an intentional change made to the

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Masoretic text. Henry Smith of Associates for Biblical Research has done a great deal of study of the

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Genesis 11 genealogies. He comments that the Septuagint fundamentally preserves the original figures and Masoretic text primeval chronology is the result of a deliberate post -AD 70 corruption.

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Removing 100 years from the begetting ages gives the appearance that Shem lived long enough to meet

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Abraham. We don't know if this deliberate change in the Masoretic text was perpetrated by rabbis to undermine the priesthood of Jesus, but the theory does fit the facts.

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Having said that, let me emphasize that we really don't know why these dates have been changed.

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I bring this up because this is a popular explanation. It is most likely not the only possible explanation.

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Shem died 500 years before Abraham was born. There is not a shred of scriptural evidence that Shem was

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Melchizedek. We can confidently bust the myth that Shem and Melchizedek were the same person.

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Likewise, the Hebrew writer never said that Jesus and Melchizedek were the same person.

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The author of Hebrews only says that they were similar to each other in certain limited respects.

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Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High. He had the honor of being the first person in the

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Bible to claim this title. Nevertheless, the evidence indicates that he was nothing more than a normal human being.

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Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope this episode has deepened your understanding of Scripture.

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If you found this content valuable, please share it with your friends. For more biblical studies, visit our website at ReadyForEternity .com.

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That's the word ready, the number four, and the word eternity. ReadyForEternity .com.

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That's all for now. Keep studying your Bible, growing closer to God, and getting ready for eternity.