Hebrews 7:1

CHRIST; THE ANTITYPE OF MELCHIZEDEK;

JESUS' PRIESTHOOD IS SUPERIOR TO THAT OF THE LEVITES;

A DESCRIPTION OF JESUS; THE PERFECT HIGH PRIEST

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all (being first by interpretation, King of righteousness, and then also King of Salem, which is King of peace, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God) abideth a priest continually. (Hebrews 7:1-3)

Melchizedek had already been mentioned a number of times, but here the author of Hebrews turns to a fuller exploitation of what must be termed the boldest argument in the entire Bible, based upon the historical account of Melchizedek in Genesis 14 and what had doubtless seemed for ages like a minor statement in Psalms 110:4. The inspired author of this epistle reveals that the reference in Psalms 110:4 is not a minor thing at all. On the contrary, it was something God swore to! God himself, in that reference, made mention of a priest forever "after the order of Melchizedek," and therein lay the key to unravel the mystery of that Messiah whose kingship descended through Judah, but whose priesthood was that of an altogether different order from the one enjoyed by the Levites. In the verses before us, Melchizedek is said to be like "unto the Son of God," and that Christ is after the likeness of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:14), indicating clearly that Christ must be understood as the antitype of Melchizedek, making all the things of Melchizedek's life typical of certain things in the life of Jesus Christ. The likeness is noted in the following study.

MELCHIZEDEK AND JESUS

The following likenesses in type and antitype are plain: (1) The word "Melchizedek" means "King of righteousness," thus the very name becomes a title of the Lord Jesus Christ. (2) "King of Salem" means "King of peace," and thus the title of Melchizedek is another appropriate title of our Lord (Isaiah 9:6ff; Psalms 72:7). (3) Melchizedek was both king and priest, a double dignity not enjoyed by any illustrious Hebrew, not even Moses, and startlingly typical of Jesus Christ who is both king and high priest. (4) Melchizedek received tithes of Abraham, even as Christ receives gifts of them that love and follow him. (5) Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine; and, although not specifically mentioned here because it was not germane to the argument, the fact itself is a strong suggestion of the Lord's institution of the Lord's Supper. (6) He blessed Abraham; Christ blesses his followers. (7) Melchizedek's priesthood encompassed service to Gentiles and Jews alike, as witnessed by his reception of Abraham; and Christ likewise is the High Priest of all mankind, having no racial or other limitation. (8) The eighth likeness between Melchizedek and Christ is a little more difficult to understand because it is not founded on anything that Melchizedek did or said, and not even upon anything that is said about him in the Genesis narrative, this eighth similarity being made to depend upon the manner and form of the Genesis record, with special reference to what is not said. See below.

The statement by the author of Hebrews that Melchizedek had no father, no mother, no genealogy, no beginning of life, and no end of days, simply means THAT HE HAD NONE OF THOSE THINGS IN THE SCRIPTURAL RECORD, and does not mean that he was actually born in a manner different from other men. Unlike the Levites who received their priestly offices through meticulously kept and guarded genealogies, Melchizedek, in his single glorious appearance in the sacred scriptures, flashes upon the holy record absolutely dissociated from everything either preceding or following that remarkable event. Ancestry? As far as the scriptures were concerned, he had none. Descendants? Not a word about any of them. Beginning of life? There was no record of his ever having been born, being an infant, or youth; he appeared in history once only, in royal, priestly dignity, with not even a hint of how any of this came to exist. End of days? As far as the scriptural record goes, he could be alive yet. There is no record of his death as there was of Moses, and of Aaron (Numbers 20:22ff); and for all the scriptures say to the contrary, he still stands after all those centuries, in endless glory, a priest of the Most High God, receiving tithes of Abraham, and blessing him. The author of Hebrews, through inspiration, saw that it was by God's purposeful design that the story of Melchizedek had been so deployed upon the sacred page in isolated splendor, and that purpose was to make Melchizedek's priesthood suggest the endless priesthood of Jesus. To be sure, Melchizedek's priesthood only gives an impression of being endless whereas that of Jesus is actually so.

Who was this mysterious Melchizedek? And which Salem had him for king? Lenski noted some of the strange speculations on the identity of Melchizedek as follows:

Rabbi Ismael, about 135 B.C., thought him to be Shem, Noah's son; this opinion has been accepted by Luther and others. Philo ... did not regard Melchizedek as a historical person. Origen thought him to be an angel being. Hierakas, at the end of the third century, made him a temporary incarnation of the Holy Spirit, others a similar incarnation of the Logos.[1]

Of course, these speculations are unconvincing, because there is not a word in the Genesis record to make Melchizedek any less historical than Abraham, Amraphel, Arioch, Chederlaomer, or Tidal. Salem is equally historical, there being at least two such ancient places, either of which could have been the dominion of Melchizedek. Josephus identified it with Jerusalem, saying "They afterward called Salem JERUSALEM."[2] Macknight identified it thus,

According to Jerome, who saith he received his information from some learned Jews, it was the town which was mentioned (Genesis 33:18) as a city of Shechem, and which is spoken of in John 3:23, as near to Aenon, where John baptized. This city, being in Abraham's way, as he returned from Damascus to Sodom after the slaughter of the kings, many are of Jerome's opinion that the northern city was Melchizedek's city, rather than Jerusalem, which was situated farther to the south.[3]

The difficulty that makes people seek an unhistorical Melchizedek rises not in the Old Testament, where he plainly is historical, but in the New Testament where the reference to "no father, no mother, no genealogy, no beginning of life or ending of days" is confusing until one sees the divine purpose in so presenting him in the Bible. Lenski saw this as follows:

The sudden way in which the scriptures draw back and close the curtain on Melchizedek is the divine way of making him a type of Jesus, the King-Priest, who like Melchizedek, stands alone and unique in his priesthood and is absolutely distinct from the long Aaronic succession of priests.[4]

Priest of God Most High, one of the titles of Melchizedek, is of the utmost significance to religious thought. This means absolutely that the Jews did not develop, evolve, discover, nor in any sense whatever originate monotheism; for this Melchizedek, who was not a Jew, is in the scriptures positively identified with the Most High God, the same Most High God who put the finger of heavenly light upon him as a type of the Messiah in Psalms 110:4. Polytheism was never able completely to crowd out the worship of the one true and only God; and some residue of that original and true worship was centered in Salem while Melchizedek was priest and king there. Westcott commented thus, "There were traces of a primitive (monotheistic) worship of El in Phoenicia side by side with that of Baal, the center of Phoenician polytheism."[5] The revelation of God regarding Melchizedek devastates the common notion that the Hebrews contributed monotheism to the world, in any sense that they originated the concept of it.

The slaughter of the kings can be softened a bit by making it read "the defeat of the kings"; but there is no need for this. The Bible calls things by their right names; hence, sinners are never referred to as the socially immature, nor the poor as the economically disadvantaged!

And blessed him are words that identify Melchizedek as superior in dignity to the great patriarch of all the Hebrews, even Abraham; and later the author appeals to the truism that the less is blessed of the greater. The greater dignity of Melchizedek is further emphasized by the fact that Abraham recognized his authority and paid tithes to him from all the spoils from his victory.

There are only three short verses in Genesis about Melchizedek, and added to that, a single sentence concerning him in Psalms 110:4, written centuries after Melchizedek lived; and yet there is before us an immense amount of dissertation on this ancient type of Christ. The astonishing fact, seized upon by the writer of Hebrews, is that so long after Abraham and Melchizedek lived, GOD HIMSELF by means of his inspired writer in Psalms 110, should WITH AN OATH make that ancient character a likeness of David's greater Son, the Messiah, indicating very forcefully that, from the beginning, God had purposed to provide what Westcott called "a higher order of divine service than that which was established by the Mosaic Law."[6] The reason for bringing all this up at the time our author wrote is plain, as Lenski said,

The readers, former Jews who were now thinking of returning to Judaism, are here confronted with their great forefather Abraham and are shown how he accepted the royal priest Melchizedek long before Levi and Aaron were born and the Aaronic priesthood came into existence. The readers want to be true sons of Abraham, yea, are thinking of returning to Judaism for that very reason. Well, let them look at Abraham and at the one priest to whom Abraham bowed. Let them consider what God said through David regarding the royal priest and regarding the Messiah-Christ who is typified by Melchizedek.[7]

[1] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistle of James (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1938), p. 207.

[2] Josephus, Life and Works of, translated by William Whiston (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston), p. 44.

[3] James Macknight, Apostolic Epistles (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1960), p. 537.

[4] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 213.

[5] Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), p. 171.

[6] Ibid., p. 170.

[7] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 208.