Who is Melchisedec?

[hector]

Hi,

I doing a bit of reading and was wondering who Melchisedec is? I belive he is a priest but he is discribed as

"Without father, without mother, without descent having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually."

in the bible. Why is he discribed in such a way?

Thanks in advance.




"And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all."
Genesis 14:18-20


"For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils."
Hebrews 7:1-4

 

[Svt4Him]

He is a foreshadow of Jesus, in that he was high priest, but nothing else is known about him. Anything you hear apart from this is speculation.

 

[Apologist]

He is a foreshadow of Jesus, in that he was high priest, but nothing else is known about him. Anything you hear apart from this is speculation.

That is true. There are two camps of thought on this subject:

1) He was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ

and

2) He was a priest who had no record of his ancestral background which is why it says, "without father or mother" etc.

I would fall into camp #2 as it makes the most sense to me in context.

Soli Deo Gloria

 

[hector]

That is true. There are two camps of thought on this subject:

1) He was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ

and

2) He was a priest who had no record of his ancestral background which is why it says, "without father or mother" etc.

I would fall into camp #2 as it makes the most sense to me in context.

Soli Deo Gloria

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Number 1 fits the verses.

But number 2 falls down as far as I can understand when the verse says

"having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually."

Unless they are speaking metaphorically?

 

[Rafael]

Some believe Jesus appears throughout the old testament. Here's a couple more to add to Melchizedek -
One of the three men that spoke with Abraham before going to Sodom & Gomorha:

Gen 18:1 And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Gen 18:2 And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

The three Hebrew Children in the firey furnace - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego:

Dan 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

 

[Lyle]

From what the Bible says, he is a picture of Christ in the old testiment, if not Christ Himself.... Maybe so, there is evidence showing the he was Christ, a sort of pre-Messiah appearence. read the accounts fromHebrews, it should explain it, cause what we know is that he was perfect and had no beginning. He was a High Priest even before all that was established....

 

[hector]

thank you all for your answers

 

[WesleyJohn]

The name Melchizedek is used 10 times in all of scripture (8 of those in the book of Hebrews). If you read all 10 passages, you will know everything that is revealed to us in scripture about Melchizedek. Primarily, the author of Hebrews used the story of Melchizedek to make a point to his audience about the priesthood of Jesus (our Great High Priest). Melchizedek is certainly an interesting character, and we could speculate all day about who he is exactly (Is he Christ? Is he a priest? Is he a king? Some have even suggested that he is one of Noah's other sons) ...but that's probably not what's really important.

What is really important is that Jesus is greater than the Aaronic priests because Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek, and Moses (consequently all of his descendents) gave a tithe to Melchizedek and was blessed by Melchizedek. Because Jesus is greater than Aaron, then the sacrifice offered by Jesus is greater than that offered by the Aaronic priesthood. And so, the author of Hebrews wants us to put our faith in the one-time sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross, instead of the weekly and yearly imperfect sacrifices offered by the priests in the temple.

Here are the 10 references:

Gen 14:18
Ps. 110:4
Heb 5:6
Heb 5:10
Heb 6:20
Heb 7:1
Heb 7:10
Heb 7:11
Heb 7:15
Heb 7:17

Peace,

WJ

 

[Apologist]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Number 1 fits the verses.

But number 2 falls down as far as I can understand when the verse says

"having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually."

Unless they are speaking metaphorically?

I already gave the answer to that.
If there were no geneological records of him then he would be in the Hebrew mind: "having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, etc."

 

[opheiletes]

The name Melchizedek is used 10 times in all of scripture (8 of those in the book of Hebrews). If you read all 10 passages, you will know everything that is revealed to us in scripture about Melchizedek. Primarily, the author of Hebrews used the story of Melchizedek to make a point to his audience about the priesthood of Jesus (our Great High Priest). Melchizedek is certainly an interesting character, and we could speculate all day about who he is exactly (Is he Christ? Is he a priest? Is he a king? Some have even suggested that he is one of Noah's other sons) ...but that's probably not what's really important.

What is really important is that Jesus is greater than the Aaronic priests because Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek, and Moses (consequently all of his descendents) gave a tithe to Melchizedek and was blessed by Melchizedek. Because Jesus is greater than Aaron, then the sacrifice offered by Jesus is greater than that offered by the Aaronic priesthood. And so, the author of Hebrews wants us to put our faith in the one-time sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross, instead of the weekly and yearly imperfect sacrifices offered by the priests in the temple.

Thanks for the great info WJ, but one thing puzzled me.

Who cares if Jesus is a high priest of one order or the other, isn`t He God according to Christian belief (co-existant with the father, of one substance) ?

 

[Rechtgläubig]

Who cares if Jesus is a high priest of one order or the other

23Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely[3] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever. (Hebrews 7)

 

[WesleyJohn]

Thanks for the great info WJ, but one thing puzzled me.

Who cares if Jesus is a high priest of one order or the other, isn`t He God according to Christian belief (co-existant with the father, of one substance) ?

Great question...

Remember that Hebrews was originally written to an audience of First Century (probably Jewish) Christians who had not yet solidified what Orthodox belief was. Further, there may have been some non-Christians (or even doubting Christians) in the audience who weren't sure they wanted to put their faith in this man named Jesus instead of the sacrificial system they were used to. Much of the book of Hebrews is making this argument that we can absolutely put our faith in Jesus and in His one-time sacrifice because He is the Great High Priest. This bit about Melchizedek is one leg of the argument to help support that Jesus was greater than the temple priests.

Peace,

WJ

 

[opheiletes]

Great question...

Remember that Hebrews was originally written to an audience of First Century (probably Jewish) Christians who had not yet solidified what Orthodox belief was. Further, there may have been some non-Christians (or even doubting Christians) in the audience who weren't sure they wanted to put their faith in this man named Jesus instead of the sacrificial system they were used to. Much of the book of Hebrews is making this argument that we can absolutely put our faith in Jesus and in His one-time sacrifice because He is the Great High Priest. This bit about Melchizedek is one leg of the argument to help support that Jesus was greater than the temple priests.

Peace,

WJ

Thanks to both of you, the passage and the explanation does make sense. I'm used to the "Qu'ranic" system of scriptures where everything written is said to be aimed at the present day worshippers (which often doesn't make much sense, hence my presence here )

I like your signature by the way:

Agios, agios, agios Kirios, ho Theos, ho pantokrator, ho en kai ho on kai ho erhomenos