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Melchizedeck & Mount Zion
I was wondering if anyone knows any of Melchizedeck's history?
I know that he was the king of Salem and know as the priest of God Most High as mentioned in Genesis 14. Does anyone know why he is called the priest of God? What is his backround? Why did God choose him to be His priest?
He is also mentioned in Hebrews 7 if anyone wants to reference that.
Also, why is Mount Zion considered holy (and where is it if anyone knows)?
One of the places that the perfection of Mount Zion is mentioned is in Psalm 50.
I know that he was the king of Salem and know as the priest of God Most High as mentioned in Genesis 14. Does anyone know why he is called the priest of God? What is his backround? Why did God choose him to be His priest?
He is also mentioned in Hebrews 7 if anyone wants to reference that.
Also, why is Mount Zion considered holy (and where is it if anyone knows)?
One of the places that the perfection of Mount Zion is mentioned is in Psalm 50.
Comments
+God Bless.
Melchizedek appears in Genesis 14:18-20; he is both a priest and a king; he reconciles the justice of God (the king's business) with his mercy (the function of the priest). His name means 'the king of righteousness', and the title 'king of Salem' means 'king of peace'. There is a view that he may be a theophany - that is a preincarnate appearance of Christ.
In Hebrews 6:14 and Hebrews 7, he is a type, an image if you like, of Christ. Like Christ he is immortal and sinless and his priesthood can transform humanity. His sacrifice is offered once and for all; he is sinless. All of these are like our Lord Himself. This eternal priesthood is contrasted with the purely earthly priesthood of the Jewish Levites, and seen as much superior. The message, of course, is that the priesthood of Christ is superior to the law of the Jews; not, of course, that He abolishes that Law, He does not - but He brings a new covenant which is superior.
Mount Zion was an area of Jerusalem and is used figuratively to describe God's kingdom.
I hope this helps.
In Christ,
John
Dear God's Kid,
Melchizedek appears in Genesis 14:18-20; he is both a priest and a king; he reconciles the justice of God (the king's business) with his mercy (the function of the priest). His name means 'the king of righteousness', and the title 'king of Salem' means 'king of peace'. There is a view that he may be a theophany - that is a preincarnate appearance of Christ.
Why did God choose this man to his a priest? I thought that only Abraham and his descendants at that time knew God. How can there be a preincarnate appearance of Christ? Isn't Christ only supposed to appear twice in human form--once to bring redemption(already brought) and once to bring judgement(end of the world)? How can Melchizedeck [a man] be immortal and sinless? No one is sinless but God alone.
Would you happen to know where Salem is?
Thanks for the clarification on Mount Zion.
In the book the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, there is a story about a monk who wished to know who Melchizedek was, and in a vision he saw that Melchizedek was in fact a real man.
Please pray for me (especially between 5 and 6pm EST ;D).
I hope that Κηφᾶς has answered your questions.
It is clear that Melchizedek is a 'type' of Our Lord, and he may even be, as has been suggested, a theophany - that is an appearance of the Word - who, as we know, existed from the beginning, begotten, not made. He is certainly a prototype for the Christian priesthood. But the many echoes of Our Lord, including his title of 'King of Salem (Peace) make the theophany explanation the most likely. The fact that only one person is immortal and sinless is more evidence in this direction.
Although 'Salem' was later taken as a shortened form of Jerusalem, it is unlikely that it was a place in Abraham's time.
Hope this helps,
In Christ,
John
Certainly Melchizedek was superior to Abraham who paid him tithes
So St. Ephraim certainly contradicts the notion of theophany. Likewise, St. John Chrysostom refers to him only as bearing "the type of our High Priest," but makes no indication that it is the pre-incarnate High Priest Himself.
I was, however, surprised at St. Ephraim's view that Melchizedek received his priesthood from his father, Noah, since I had always understood his being "without father, without mother, without geneaology....but....remaineth a priest in perpetuity" (Heb. 7:3) as showing how the New Testament priesthood is by election and not hereditary as it was for the Levites.
I wasn't aware of St. Ephraim's view - and thanks for drawing it to our attention. I have not seen other Orthodox Fathers or commentators taking this view, and suspect it may have been a local tradition.
It would be good to know more - if there is more to be known.
In Christ,
John
Dear Othodox11,
I wasn't aware of St. Ephraim's view - and thanks for drawing it to our attention. I have not seen other Orthodox Fathers or commentators taking this view, and suspect it may have been a local tradition.
It would be good to know more - if there is more to be known.
In Christ,
John
The quote is taken from Selected Prose Works by St. Ephraim. I got the quote from Wisdom, Let Us Attend: Job, the Fathers, and the Old Testament and so I'm afraid I don't have access to the original source to see if there is any further information.
Actually, a Coptic priest was telling us something about Melchizedek the other day. Supposedly some ancient manuscripts from one of the monasteries in Egypt - near Nag Hamadi I think - had recently been made avaiilable to the public. It gave quite a few details about Melchizedek, such as his lineage from Adam, etc. He was reading it in some Arabic book about the tasbeha - unfortunately I don't remember the title. You might find something if you ask around.
Actually, a Coptic priest was telling us something about Melchizedek the other day. Supposedly some ancient manuscripts from one of the monasteries in Egypt - near Nag Hamadi I think - had recently been made avaiilable to the public. It gave quite a few details about Melchizedek, such as his lineage from Adam, etc. He was reading it in some Arabic book about the tasbeha - unfortunately I don't remember the title. You might find something if you ask around.
Was it called the Deknar?
Also, does anyone know about how many years were between the time of the ark/Noah/Shem and the time of Rebekah/Jacob?
According to St. Ephraim the Syrian "this Melchizedek is Shem, who became a king due to his greatness; he was the head of fourteen nations. In addition, he was a priest. He received this from Noah, his father, through the rights of succession. Shem lived not only to the time of Abraham, as Scripture says, but even to the time of Jacob and Esau, the grandson of Abraham. It was to him that Rebekah went to ask and was told, "Two nations are in your womb and the older shall be a servant to the younger." Rebekah would not have bypassed her husband, who had been delivered at the "high place," or her faather-in-law, to whom revelations of the divinity came continually, and gone straight to ask Melchizedek unless she had learned of his greatness from Abraham or Abraham's son......"
So St. Ephraim certainly contradicts the notion of theophany. Likewise, St. John Chrysostom refers to him only as bearing "the type of our High Priest," but makes no indication that it is the pre-incarnate High Priest Himself.
I was, however, surprised at St. Ephraim's view that Melchizedek received his priesthood from his father, Noah, since I had always understood his being "without father, without mother, without geneaology....but....remaineth a priest in perpetuity" (Heb. 7:3) as showing how the New Testament priesthood is by election and not hereditary as it was for the Levites.
Let's see: Shem lived 600 years. (Gen 11:10)
Aphaxad lived 35 yrs before Salah (12). Salah lived 30 yrs before Eber(13). Eber lived 34 yrs before Peleg(14). Peleg lived 30 yrs before Reu(15). Reu lived 32 yrs before Serug(16). Serug lived 30 yrs before Nahor(17). Nahor lived 29 yrs before Terah(18). Terah lived 70 yrs before Abram(19).
35+30+34+30+32+30+29+70+at least 75= 365
Well, there is no doubt that Shem was alive for Abram (Abraham) and his sons.
Gr. Melchisedek, from the Hebrew meaning "King of righteousness (Gesenius)] was King of Salem (Gen. xiv, 18-20) who, on Abraham's return with the booty taken from the four kings, "bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God, blessed him", and received from him "the tithes of all" (v. 20). Josephus, with many others, identifies Salem with Jerusalem, and adds that Melchisedech "supplied Abram's army in a hospitable manner, and gave them provisions in abundance. . .and when Abram gave him the tenth part of his prey, he accepted the gift" (Ant., I, x, 2). Cheyne says "it is a plausible conjecture that he is a purely fictitious personage" (Encyc. Bib., s.v.), which "plausible conjecture" Kaufmann, however, rightly condemns (Jew. Encyc., s.v.). The Rabbins identified Melchisedech with Sem, son of Noe, rather for polemic than historic reasons, since they wished to set themselves against what is said of him as a type of Christ "without father, without mother, without genealogy" (Heb., vii, 3). In the Epistle to the Hebrews the typical character of Melchisedech and its Messianic import are fully explained. Christ is "a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech" (Heb., vii, 6; Ps., cix, 4); "a high priest forever", etc (Heb., vi, 20), i.e. order or manner (Gesenius), not after the manner of Aaron. The Apostle develops his teaching in Heb., vii: Melchisedech was a type by reason
* of his twofold dignity as priest and king,
* by reason of his name, "king of justice",
* by reason of the city over which he ruled, "King of Salem, that is, king of peace" (v. 2), and also
* because he "without father without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God, continueth a priest forever." (v. 3).
The silence of Scripture about the facts of Melchisedech's birth and death was part of the divine plan to make him prefigure more strikingly the mysteries of Christ's generation, the eternity of His priesthood. Abraham, patriarch and father of nations, paid tithes to Melchisedech and received his blessing. This was all the more remarkable since the priest-king was a stranger, to whom he was not bound to pay tithes, as were the children of Israel to the priests of the Aaronic line. Abraham, therefore, and Levi "in the loins of his father" (Heb. vii, 9), by acknowledging his superiority as a type of Christ (for personally he was not greater than Abraham), thereby confessed the excellence of Christ's priesthood. Neither can it be fairly objected that Christ was in the loins of Abraham as Levi was, and paid tithes to Melchisedech; for, though descended from Abraham, he had no human father, but was conceived by the Holy Ghost. In the history of Melchisedech St. Paul says nothing about the bread and wine which the "priest of the most High" offered, and on account of which his name is placed in the Canon of the Mass. The scope of the Apostle accounts for this; for he wishes to show that the priesthood of Christ was in dignity and duration superior to that of Aaron, and therefore, since it is not what Melchisedech offered, but rather the other circumstances of his priesthood which belonged to the theme, they alone are mentioned.
[coptic]+ Pi`<rictoc aftonf>[/coptic] Melchizedek wasn't immortal or sinless per se. However, the fact that he appears out of nowhere, with no information about his family history or anything, provides a good analogy to Christ, who has existed before all time and has no beginning and no end. Although, even if he were sinless, that would not be impossible, as we have examples in the New Testament of people who were sinless (e.g. St. John the Baptist (I believe) as well as the Holy Theotokos herself).
Time Out. NO ONE WAS SINLESS BUT CHRIST. John the Baptists as well as the Theotokos Both had the original sin. That would be an Immaculate conception and there was only one Immaculate conception- Christ's the Immaculate conception of St. Mary is a catholic Ideaology- As Orthodox we do NOT believe this.
However, we do not inherit sin, nor its guilt. But as baby whose mother was crack-addicted, the detrimental affects of the sin of Adam lived on.
God Bless and Pray for me and my weakness
For God had made man thus (that is, as an embodied spirit), and had willed that he should remain in incorruption. But men, having turned from the contemplation of God to evil of their own devising, had come inevitably under the law of death. Instead of remaining in the state in which God had created them, they were in process of becoming corrupted entirely, and death had them completely under its dominion. For the transgression of the commandment was making them turn back again according to their nature; and as they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again.
The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists, evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good. By nature, of course, man is mortal, since he was made from nothing; but he bears also the Likeness of Him Who is, and if he preserves that Likeness through constant contemplation, then his nature is deprived of its power and he remains incorrupt. So is it affirmed in Wisdom: "The keeping of His laws is the assurance of incorruption."[8] And being incorrupt, he would behenceforth as God, as Holy Scripture says, "I have said, Ye are gods and sons of the Highest all of you: but ye die as men and fall as one of the princes."[9] (5) This, then, was the plight of men. God had not only made them out of nothing, but had also graciously bestowed on them His own life by the grace of the Word. Then, turning from eternal things to things corruptible, by counsel of the devil, they had become the cause of their own corruption in death; for, as I said before, though they were by nature subject to corruption, the grace of their union with the Word made them capable of escaping from the natural law, provided that they retained the beauty of innocence with which they were created. That is to say, the presence of the Word with them shielded them even from natural corruption, as also Wisdom says: God created man for incorruption and as an image of His own eternity; but by envy of the devil death entered into the world."[10] When this happened, men began to die, and corruption ran riot among them and held sway over them to an even more than natural degree, because it was the penalty of which God had forewarned them for transgressing the commandment. Indeed, they had in their sinning surpassed all limits; for, having invented wickedness in the beginning and so involved themselves in death and corruption, they had gone on gradually from bad to worse, not stopping at any one kind of evil, but continually, as with insatiable appetite, devising new kinds of sins. Adulteries and thefts were everywhere, murder and rapine filled the earth, law was disregarded in corruption and injustice, all kinds of iniquities were perpetrated by all, both singly and in common. Cities were warring with cities, nations were rising against nations, and the whole earth was rent with factions and battles, while each strove to outdo the other in wickedness.
There is no talk of inheritance, but a nature that tended to sin but through grace and union with the WORD can remain in the state of incorruption. This is why St. Mary, full of grace, did not sin. In a real way she was union with the Logos (Word), and even bore Him.
they could have sinned (it was possible)...they just didn't...
I am pretty sure that's what the Immaculate Conception is all about.. that St. Mary could not sin, was born without the effect of sin as aforementioned... we don't believe in this, but we do believe she did not sin
I just wanted to try to provide a little clarification and another way to phrase it...