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 Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:34 am
Genesis 14:18-20
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying,
"Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
And blessed be God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand."
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
So who was Melchizedek? A Christ type, person or thing which, by appointment of God, prefigured an aspect, or aspects, of Christ, or
a Christophany, an appearance of the preincarnate Christ in the Old Testament, or after his ascension.
What do we know? He was a priest of the most high God, he came with bread and wine, Abram gave him a 10th of everything (the first tithe), he blessed Abram, he was from Salem (now know as Jerusalem), and we see his mention in Psalm 110:4 and through out Pauls writting to the Hebrews in Ch 5-7. That's about it. Your thoughts?
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:51 am
Melchizedek's one of the great mysteries of the Bible. He appears in Genesis, gets a mention in Psalms, and is compared with Jesus in Hebrews. That's all the Bible tells us.
Now, given that Jesus was called (quoting from Psalms) "... a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek", I kinda doubt He was Melchizedek. I'd sooner think that verse was simply comparing two high priests of ... unusual origins (or, in Mel's case, no apparent origin). So we can probably rule out theophany or Christophany.
But as to who Mel was ... I have no idea. He came from nowhere, he did his thing, and he vanished ... without apparent beginning, without recorded end.
Now, some translate his name as "king of righteousness", which could be a prophetic reference to Christ (just as Joshua, or "Yeshua", the basis for the Greek name Jesus).
I think everything we know about Mel points to him being a ... prototype Christ, a forerunner and symbol of the coming Jesus (specifically, symbolizing His "high priest" nature). And I know "prototype" isn't the best word, but it's all I can come up with for now. sweatdrop I'll do some poking about and see if I can come up with any other ideas.
==========
By the way, minor point here ... probably not important, but ...tradition says Paul wrote Hebrews. Nothing in Hebrews says it's by Paul. The writing style and the doctrinal content are different from his normal work.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 9:17 am
Dragonbait By the way, minor point here ... probably not important, but ... tradition says Paul wrote Hebrews. Nothing in Hebrews says it's by Paul. The writing style and the doctrinal content are different from his normal work. Well technically no Paul did not write Hebrews. The common believe is that he outlined or dictated it to someone who then sent it on to the Hebrews or that one of Paul's companions wrote it. As for the writing style and doctrinal content, that could easily be explained to the fact that he is writing to Hebrews and not Gentiles. If you wanna get really technical God wrote Hebrews through divinely inspiring someone, quite possibly the apostle Paul or one of his companions. wink
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 11:23 am
Dragonbait Melchizedek's one of the great mysteries of the Bible. He appears in Genesis, gets a mention in Psalms, and is compared with Jesus in Hebrews. That's all the Bible tells us. Now, given that Jesus was called (quoting from Psalms) "... a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek", I kinda doubt He was Melchizedek. I'd sooner think that verse was simply comparing two high priests of ... unusual origins (or, in Mel's case, no apparent origin). So we can probably rule out theophany or Christophany. But as to who Mel was ... I have no idea. He came from nowhere, he did his thing, and he vanished ... without apparent beginning, without recorded end. Now, some translate his name as "king of righteousness", which could be a prophetic reference to Christ (just as Joshua, or "Yeshua", the basis for the Greek name Jesus). I think everything we know about Mel points to him being a ... prototype Christ, a forerunner and symbol of the coming Jesus (specifically, symbolizing His "high priest" nature). And I know "prototype" isn't the best word, but it's all I can come up with for now. sweatdrop I'll do some poking about and see if I can come up with any other ideas. ========== By the way, minor point here ... probably not important, but ... tradition says Paul wrote Hebrews. Nothing in Hebrews says it's by Paul. The writing style and the doctrinal content are different from his normal work.
But I do believe that he can be looked at as a Biblical type. That is he model's Christ in many of his attributes and stories.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 12:57 pm
Well, since Melchizedek came before Moses and the laws, he probably wasn't subject to the Aaronic order. So he wouldn't need a geneology to be a priest. Kind of like how Adam and Eve's kids weren't concerned about marrying their relatives -- that was before God made incest a no-no.
I tend to think of him (Mel) as a real person, and a real priest -- along his own special lines, not part of Aaron's line.
Though certainly I agree with you that he models Christ.
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