Melchizedek: A Biblical and Historical Profile - 119 Ministries

[Music] hello and welcome to another teaching from 119 ministries our ministry believes that the whole bible is true and directly applicable to our lives today if you would like to know more about what we believe and teach please visit us at testeverything.net if you enjoy this video don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to our channel by hitting the button down below we hope you enjoy studying and testing the following teaching [Music] the biblical figure melchizedek is shrouded in mystery he's mentioned only a couple of times in the old testament and yet he plays a significant role in the new testament book of hebrews the author of hebrews appeals to melchizedek to develop important theological points about the priesthood of messiah let's dig into the biblical and historical material about this figure and see what we can learn melchizedek first appears briefly in the book of genesis when king qatar laermore and his allies looted sodom they captured abram's nephew lot when abram heard of this he formed a small army to defeat them in battle and rescue his nephew as he returns home two kings come out to meet abram the king of sodom and the mysterious king of salem melchizedek genesis 14 17-20 after his return from the defeat of qaeda laermore and the kings who are with him the king of sodom went out to meet him at the valley of chave that is the king's valley and melchizedek king of salem brought out bread and wine he was priest of god most high and he blessed him and said blessed be abram by god most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and abram gave him a tenth of everything melchizedek brings abram bread and wine and blesses them abram responds by giving melchizedek a tenth of the spoils he won in battle then we don't hear about melchizedek again until he's seemingly mentioned out of nowhere in psalm 110 before we get to the next mention of melchizedek there is already a lot here in genesis to unpack the meaning of the name there are two parts of the name melchizedek you have malki my king and sedek righteousness the traditional interpretation of this name is king of righteousness however this is not the only possible translation typically to make the phrase king of righteousness in hebrew the words used would be melech zedek not malchi zedek the e suffix on malki the letter yod in hebrew adds the meaning my to the word to make it possessive which would translate to my king is righteous t desmond alexander and david w baker explain complicating the matter is a grammatical issue regarding the e suffix on the first element malki the suffix may simply be the first singular possessive translated as my king or an archaic genital element meaning king of so it could possibly go either way maybe genesis 14 18 is using a form of hebrew grammar that is no longer in use and that the translation king of righteousness is correct however when one uses more conventional hebrew grammar the yod at the end of a noun is a suffix that adds the meaning of my to the word you normally don't have the suffix in a construct phrase that is the connection of two nouns to make a this noun of that noun construct so based on conventional hebrew grammar it seems more consistent to translate malchistic as a name that means my king is righteous so why then does the author of hebrews interpret the name as king of righteousness if it's more likely my king is righteous according to conventional hebrew grammar the most likely explanation is that the author of hebrews like other jewish writers of his time interpreted the name allegorically for theological purposes as new testament scholar craig keener writes the author of hebrews may appeal here to ideas possibly known to his audience greek speaking jews often allegorized names including this one the idea that king of righteousness in hebrews is an allegorical interpretation instead of a one-to-one translation makes sense in light of the context for instance the author interprets melchizedek's title king of salem to mean king of peace which is his way of presenting melchizedek as a symbol of peace this exegetical tradition is also found in the first century writings of josephus and philo who likewise interpret melchizedek's name and title allegorically as righteous king and king of peace furthermore the author's mention of melchizedek having no father and mother in the next verse is certainly an allegorical statement based on the silence of the text as we'll cover later given that king of righteousness in hebrews is likely an allegorical interpretation rather than a literal translation there isn't much holding us back from going with the conventional rules of hebrew grammar and thus translating malki as my king instead of king of who was melchizedek in genesis now some might wonder why this difference matters it's either king of righteousness or my king is righteous who cares well there are interesting implications if we take malki to be a possessive word meaning my king if malki does mean my king it's possible that this is a theophoric name that means the name bears the name of a deity for example the name malkiel means my king is l l of course is the singular of elohim god you also have malkiyah or malki yahu in hebrew which contains the divine name yah so the name means my king is yah if we continue with this train of thought that melchizedek is a theophoric name then sedic wouldn't be an adjective meaning righteous but the name of a deity what's interesting is that while sadiq does mean righteous there is also a well-known canaanite deity named zedek before we get there let's look at a passage in joshua we have a parallel here that may give us a push in the direction that melchizedek is actually a theophoric name joshua 10 1-3 as soon as adoni zedek king of jerusalem heard how joshua had captured a.i and had devoted it to destruction so adonis zeddick king of jerusalem sent to hohem king of hebron here we have this king of jerusalem by the name of adoni zadok adoni in hebrew is my lord again you have the e or yod suffix here adding the meaning my to the word so the name literally means my lord is zedek keep in mind that jerusalem and joshua's day was a canaanite territory jerusalem didn't become the capital city of israel until king david's time so here we have a canaanite king named adoni zedek my lord ezedec he is the king of jerusalem which is widely considered to be the same region as salem in the time of abram jerusalem in joshua's day was a canaanite territory and it's reasonable to think that salem likewise was under canaanite control during abram's time and also zedek is a canaanite deity here's what the scholar bernard botto says regarding the god zedek the west semitic deity zedek righteousness is found in the bible only in the personal names melchizedek and adonizadek both canaanite kings of pre-israelite jerusalem scetic is probably to be identified with the deity known as asar among the amorites and kittu in babylonia and thus a hypostasis or personification of the sun god shamish's function as divine overseer of justice the cult of zedek appears to have been well established in pre-israelite jebusite jerusalem melchizedek also blesses abram in the name of god most high el elyon since l is the name of the chief canaanite deity in ugaritic and phoenician literature many scholars say that melchizedek was referring to a canaanite god this would make sense in light of what we already covered however immediately after this encounter with melchizedek when interacting with the king of sodom abram identifies yahweh as el elyon for abram yahweh not any pagan god is the true god most high this became an important exegetical point that later biblical and extra-biblical writers used to incorporate melchizedek theologically into the priesthood of abram's god yahweh now even as a canaanite king it's possible that melchizedek became a worshiper of yahweh some time before this encounter with abram that would mean he worshipped yahweh as god most high since the text doesn't say that would only be an assumption but it's an assumption that was widely held by later jewish writers perhaps yahweh revealed himself to melchizedek in the same way he revealed himself to abram it's not impossible for that to have been the case after all the people in abram's family and community were polytheists and yet abram became a follower of yahweh why couldn't something similar have happened with melchizedek you also have other figures that aren't part of abraham's line or the people of israel proper and yet they still recognized yahweh as the true god considered jethro he was a priest of midian but he recognized and blessed yahweh whatever the case may be later biblical and extra-biblical writers adopted melchizedek into their own theological framework and he became an important figure but based solely on the information provided in genesis melchizedek as a historical person appears to have been a canaanite king in summary it's very possible that melchizedek malkie sadik means my king iscetic as in the canaanite deity scedic this is based on several points number one the e or yod suffix on malki means that the word most likely translates to my king two malki is used in theophoric names like malkiel meaning my king is el and malki yah meaning my king is yah number three sadiq is a canaanite deity number four there is a parallel name in joshua a dhoni sadik which means my lord is zedek number five adonis was the king of jerusalem which was a canaanite territory at that time number six jerusalem and salem are widely considered to be the same region in psalm 76 ii for example salem is used in synonymous parallelism to zion identifying salem as jerusalem number seven since adoniscetic means my lord ascetic and he was king of jerusalem it makes complete sense to take this back a few hundred years earlier to genesis 14 and read the name melchizedek as meaning my king ascetic both of these men were kings of the same canaanite territory at different times based on this information one could reasonably conclude that the historical melchizedek in genesis was an ancient canaanite king but this doesn't preclude the possibility that he had become a follower of yahweh some time before his encounter with abram this is a widely held theory among scholars regarding the historical melchizedek and it makes sense within the context of genesis 14. but there are a couple of other popular theories worth discussing in judaism the historical melchizedek of genesis is traditionally believed to have been noah's son shem since this theory appears in later rabbinic literature it's quite possible that the reason for identifying shem with melchizedek was to counter christianity according to the scholar philip e hughes the theory that melchizedek and noah's eldest son shem were one and the same person was introduced by rabbinical scholars before the end of the first century with the purpose it would seem of counteracting the superior importance assigned by christians to melchizedek as a type of christ on the basis of the doctrine of the epistle to the hebrews what is the exegetical rationale for the theory that the historical melchizedek was shim well it seems to be based solely on the fact that according to the chronologies listed in genesis 11 shim was still alive for a little over 200 years after abram's birth that's the only connection that they were alive at the same time that's it interestingly enough the rabbinic literature is full of these leaps and logic we could compare this interpretation of melchizedek as shem with the popular rabbinic belief that abraham's wife katura whom he married after sarah's death was actually the same person as hagar this theory is based on a creative interpretation of genesis 25 1 which says abraham took another wife this verse could also be translated literally as quote then again abraham took a wife it's inferred from this that katura was hagar who was married to abraham before and then again taken to be his wife so you can see the leap in logic there we shouldn't be surprised to see a similar non-sequitur in rabbinic literature as it concerns melchizedek that's just the nature of a lot of the rabbinic literature but there doesn't seem to be any kind of biblical basis for identifying the historical melchizedek with shim the fact that their lives overlapped chronologically does nothing to prove that they're the same person another theory in christianity though it's not that popular is that melchizedek was a theophany that is an appearance of the pre-incarnate messiah yeshua but this theory is unlikely for one there's nothing in the text of genesis 14 that indicates melchizedek was anything more than a regular human in other theophanies the person encountering god always seems to be somewhat aware that they are in the presence of the divine but there's nothing in genesis 14 that suggests abram thought he was encountering god in his interactions with melchizedek finally the theophany view is based largely on how melchizedek is described in hebrews but the author of hebrews himself distinguishes yeshua from melchizedek the author says that melchizedek resembles yeshua not that they are the same person now while it doesn't make sense for melchizedek to be the pre-incarnate messiah yeshua the biblical data is still compatible with the idea of melchizedek being a type of messiah that is a prophetic foreshadow this doesn't mean of course that there needs to be a one-to-one match between the melchizedek of genesis and yeshua at every point we'll unpack this more a little bit later for now let's move on to see how this melchizedek profile develops after genesis 14. the development of the melchizedek tradition while melchizedek was a historical person in abram's life when we look beyond the scope of genesis 14 we discover that there is more going on with this figure in the bible melchizedek is adapted into a theological type or symbol regardless of who melchizedek was in history the melchizedek figure came to be associated with several important theological themes while it's true that sedek was the name of a canaanite deity the word sadiq means righteousness thus melchizedek came to be associated with the theme of righteousness he was king of salem and thus he became associated with themes of kingship and jerusalem since jerusalem means city of peace he became associated with themes of peace he was a priest and thus became associated with the theme of priesthood later biblical and extra-biblical authors built upon this melchizedek profile and eventually began to speak of the messiah in connection with these themes let's look at the second mention of melchizedek in the old testament which is found in psalm 110 yahweh says to my lord sit at my right hand until i make your enemies your footstool yahweh sends forth from zion your mighty scepter rule in the midst of your enemies your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments from the womb of the morning the dew of your youth will be yours yahweh has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever after the order of melchizedek yahweh is at your right hand he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath he will execute judgment among the nations filling them with corpses he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth he will drink from the brook by the way therefore he will lift up his head scholars refer to psalm 110 as a royal psalm it's a psalm proclaiming the enthronement of a king the psalm superscription reads a psalm of david and david of course is the king of israel whose name is associated with the lineage of israelite kings in addition to the expected messianic king verse 1 reads yahweh says to my lord the recipient of this prophetic oracle from yahweh is a king whom david calls adoni my lord verse 4 then associates this king with the priestly order of melchizedek just like the last mention of melchizedek in genesis 14 we have this concept of a priest king in psalm 110. as an interesting side note psalm 110 is quoted some 14 times in the new testament which is more than any other psalm the new testament authors taught that this psalm was embodied in the person and ministry of yeshua the ultimate priest king to summarize what we learned from the psalm an eternal priestly office that is somehow related to or like the priesthood of melchizedek is bestowed upon the davidic king addressed in the psalm this davidic priest king of psalm 110 will have a scepter a symbol of reigning power he will rule and execute judgment among the nations he will sit at yahweh's right hand which is a symbolic position of honor and distinction his rule will extend from zion into the midst of the enemy's territory in light of psalm 110 we can add the themes of ideal davidic kingship and eschatological justice to the melchizedek profile so as early as psalm 110 melchizedek is seen as a theological symbol he offers a biblical model for the combination of priestly and royal offices which is applied to the king addressed in the psalm when we get to the extra-biblical jewish literature from the second temple era there are even more beliefs and ideas added to this melchizedek figure many of these concepts are derived from the biblical text using you could say speculative exegesis for example while josephus recognized that melchizedek was a canaanite he understood him to be the first priest before yahweh he also understood that melchizedek built the first temple in jerusalem since melchizedek was a priest of god most high it made sense in josephus mind that he would have a temple to serve at even though the text says nothing about this as scholar eric mason writes josephus says that melchizedek built the first temple in the city this is striking because josephus implies that it was melchizedek's temple that was destroyed by the babylonians in jw6437 josephus states this instruction 1468 years six months after the foundation of the temple this clearly associates the foundation of the temple with melchizedek rather than solomon who is not mentioned in the context presumably josephus was not bothered that a canaanite is credited with the establishment of israel's temple instead he seems more interested in appealing to the antiquarian tastes of his roman leadership philo of alexandria also had some interesting ideas about melchizedek he considered melchizedek the eternal lagos or word of god the same terminology used of yeshua in john 1. the jewish community at qumran comes up with even more interesting ideas among the dead sea scrolls is a document called 11q melchizedek or 11q13 which is dated to around 100 bc tim hegg gives an excellent summary of this document in this remarkable text a number of things stand out first melchizedek is clearly connected to the final restoration and redemption of israel both in a physical as well as spiritual way he proclaims jubilee to the captives understood as a release from the debt of their sins he is able to do this because viewing this eschatological day of redemption under the rubric of yom kippur he will atone for all the sons of light and the people who are predestined to him the quote favorable year of adonai found in isaiah 61 2 is interpreted here as the year of melchizedek's favor secondly melchizedek will establish a righteous kingdom because he will act as the righteous judge psalm 82 1 is then offered as proof interpreted to be speaking of melchizedek it is written about him in the songs of david elohim has taken his place in the congregation of el here the meaning seems inescapable that melchizedek is referred to as elohim then psalm 7 7-8 is added as additional corroboration over it i.e the congregation of el take your seat in the highest heaven el will judge the peoples thus in 11 13 melchizedek is the divine judge who sits in the highest heavens and who executes divine justice upon the righteous and the unrighteous in so doing he saves the righteous and condemns the wicked belial and those with him bringing in the day of salvation prophesied by isaiah so this document portrays melchizedek as a heavenly being who launches an eschatological jubilee that releases people from their sins melchizedek is a heavenly savior figure that reigns during the messianic era and carries out judgment upon the wicked while he is never called messiah he is portrayed as a heavenly high priest who makes atonement for the sons of light on yom kippur shockingly when the author quotes isaiah 61 2 he even goes so far as to substitute yahweh for melchizedek as we can see some second temple jewish writers went a little overboard with how they viewed this figure there is no indication from the old testament that melchizedek was any kind of divine being but this type of thing actually isn't surprising to see in second temple jewish literature melchizedek isn't the only figure that some jewish writers in the second temple era made these kinds of claims about for instance the book of enoch portrays the patriarch enoch as the eschatological judge and savior who sits on yahweh's throne and reigns at the end of the age for more on that see your teachings testing the book of enoch and the son of man in the book of enoch there was a lot of speculation and anticipation among various groups in this time period regarding the messianic figure prophesied to come since melchizedek is mentioned in important messianic texts like psalm 110 it's easy to see how he would become part of the discussion melchizedek in the book of hebrews like other jewish writers of his time the author of hebrews utilizes melchizedek as a theological symbol beyond who he was historically but he does so in a different way he uses melchizedek as a literary type to exalt yeshua the messiah throughout the book the author of hebrews compares yeshua to key people to show how yeshua is greater the author's goal is to encourage his readers to stay faithful to messiah and he does this by arguing that messiah is the greatest revelation from god he is greater than the angels he is greater than moses and the promised land he is greater than the levitical priesthood he is greater than all the sacrifices so the author is making an argument from the lesser to the greater if we are called to heed god's previous revelation through moses the priesthood and so forth how much more are we to be faithful to god's greatest revelation of himself in yeshua the messiah also on the flip side it was very bad when israel refused to heed god's previous revelation how much worse is it to refuse to stay faithful to the messiah here's an example of the author employing this line of reasoning hebrews 10 28-29 anyone who has set aside the law of moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the son of god and who has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace so how does melchizedek fit into this argument well first remember that the author uses melchizedek as a theological symbol or metaphor not a historical person here's how the scholar dr walter brugerman puts it it is futile to seek a connection between melchizedek and jesus in any historical way the connection is based on other kinds of parallels which are theological and not historical the text does not claim that jesus is derived or descended from melchizedek but rather is like him or belongs to the order of the linkage concerns the similarity of function rather than any identity of person any attempt to penetrate behind the typology into history is illegitimate but the claim made for the function should not be overlooked the writer of hebrews seeks to ground the authority of the gospel in something beyond history the inscrutable appearance of melchizedek provides a way for such a trans-historical claim the text of hebrews is not interested in melchizedek except as a metaphor and a way of speaking having established that there are three main points that the author is making with which melchizedek is related number one even though he is not a son of aaron yeshua is still a legitimate priest according to scripture this can be established on the basis of melchizedek who functioned as a legitimate priest in scripture even though he was not a son of aaron number two yeshua qualifies for this priesthood quote not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life number 3 yeshua's priesthood is greater than the levitical priesthood at the very end of chapter 6 the author declares that yeshua has quote become a high priest forever after the order of melchizedek so the author sees yeshua as the davidic priest king who fulfills the prophecies of psalm 110 then chapter 7 is where we encounter the bulk of the information related to melchizedek the author goes back to the genesis reference and interprets it in light of psalm 110. let's look at some passages hebrews 7 1-3 for this melchizedek king of salem priest of the most high god met abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him and to him abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything he is first by translation of his name king of righteousness and then he is also king of salem that is king of peace he is without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life but resembling the son of god he continues a priest forever the first thing to point out is that the author of hebrews uses midrashic methods of interpretation throughout his epistle which can often be confusing to modern readers for example the author argues from silence to support his conclusions that is to say if the scriptures don't specifically say something about a person or event then certain determinations could be made based on the silence of scripture as scholar ff bruce explains historically melchizedek appears to have belonged to a dynasty of priest kings in which he had both predecessors and successors if this point had been put to our author he would have agreed at once no doubt but this consideration was foreign to his purpose the important consideration was the account given of melchizedek and holy writ to him the silences of scripture were as much due to divine inspiration as were to its statements when the author speaks of melchizedek being without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life he is arguing from silence since the biblical text never records anything about melchizedek's death it can be said that melchizedek continues a priest forever the author's point about melchizedek having no recorded genealogy also demonstrates that one could be a legitimate priest even if they have no connection to aaron or the tribe of levi so if someone objects and says yeshua can't be a priest because he's not from the tribe of levi well this analogy to melchizedek addresses that objection now the author would actually agree with the objection in one sense since he's not from the tribe of levi yeshua can't be a priest on earth there are already priests who serve in the earthly tabernacle but the author is not talking about the earthly priesthood there's another priesthood mentioned in the scriptures which doesn't depend on tribal lineage in melchizedek the author finds a higher priesthood one that transcends the earthly realm and continues forever to be clear the reality of yeshua's heavenly priesthood does not replace the levitical priesthood again the author of hebrews affirms the ongoing service of the levitical priesthood on earth for more on this see your teachings hebrews 7 12 a change in the law and animal sacrifices in light of messiah the point about melchizedek resembling the son of god is to say that melchizedek is a type or foreshadow of yeshua again just as melchizedek's priesthood doesn't depend on tribal lineage neither does yeshua's melchizedek's priesthood in the author's mind was begun by god and continues forever by virtue of the silence and scripture likewise messiah's priesthood is established by god himself and continues forever now the author goes on to speak about how the melchizedek priesthood is superior to the levitical priesthood hebrews 7 4-10 see how great this man was to whom abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils and those descendants of levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people that is from their brothers though these also are descended from abraham but this man who does not have his dissent from them received tithes from abraham and blessed him who had the promises it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior in the one case tithes are received by mortal men but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he lives one might even say that levi himself who receives tithes paid tithes through abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when melchizedek met him so not only does melchizedek's priesthood not depend on the tribe of levi but also it pre-existed the tribe of levi it's greater than the levitical priesthood since abraham from whom levi is descended gave tithes to him and was blessed by him it can even be argued according to the author that levi himself tithed to melchizedek by proxy through abraham since levi came from abraham as tim hegg writes the obvious conclusion of such an argument is that the priesthood which derives from melchizedek must be superior to that which derives from abraham since melchizedek is seen to have a superior rank when compared to abraham with all that said since this different priesthood does not depend on tribal lineage like the earthly priesthood how does one qualify for it the author tells us hebrews 7 13-17 for the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar for it is evident that our lord was descended from judah and in connection with that tribe moses said nothing about priests this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of melchizedek who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life for it is witnessed of him you are a priest forever after the order of melchizedek yeshua qualifies as the heavenly high priest on the basis of his resurrection from the dead yeshua's work on the cross made atonement for sin reconciling men with god which is the function of a priest all authority in heaven and on earth was given to messiah and he ascended to the right hand of yahweh this was foretold beforehand in psalm 110 yeshua's priesthood was confirmed with a covenant oath in psalm 110 yahweh promises david's lord that he would be a priest forever melchizedek's priesthood is once again used as the template for yeshua's priesthood it's not based on tribal lineage and it continues forever the author's use of melchizedek was to demonstrate how yeshua the messiah is the ultimate priest king he's the promised savior and heavenly high priest spoken of in psalm 110 while other jewish communities exalted melchizedek as some sort of divine redeemer figure the author of hebrews uses melchizedek as a type to exalt yeshua in conclusion melchizedek was a historical person in abram's life while there is not enough information to be definitive it seems likely that he was a canaanite king nevertheless melchizedek was eventually adapted into a theological symbol connected to themes of righteousness ideal kingship and priesthood jerusalem peace and eschatological justice due to his association with these themes melchizedek became part of the overall jewish discussion and expectations regarding the messiah some jewish communities like the qumran community were misguided in how they viewed melchizedek as a divine messianic figure the author of hebrews in contrast to those ideas uses melchizedek as a metaphor to establish the legitimacy and superiority of messiah's priesthood exalting yeshua as the ultimate priest king we pray you have been blessed by this teaching and remember continue to test everything [Music] shalom it is because of you our generous supporters who make it possible to offer these high quality teachings completely free of charge if you feel led to support 119 ministries so that we can continue this effort please visit testeverything.net and click on the support 119 tab learn how you can partner with us to take the whole word of god to the nations you

Channel: 119Ministries

Views: 181,803

Keywords: 119Ministries, torah, bible, hebrew roots, Psalm 110, Hebrews 6, Hebrews 7, Melchizedek, a biblical profile, who is Melchizedek, the identity of Melchizedek, King of Jerusalem, Zadek, King of Peace, Abraham and Melchizedek, the order of Melchizedek, order of Melchizedek, Genesis 14, Jesus Melchizedek, Jesus, Yeshua, YHWH, TANAKH, TANACH, Old Testament, New Testament, Hebrews 7:2, Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 5:10, Genesis 14:18

Id: sKOPBzp4uGg

Length: 40min 42sec (2442 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 18 2020