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MELCHISEDEC.

[HEBREWS. returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;

All that is known of Melchisedec is to be found in three verses of the book of Genesis which run thus: "And Melchisedec, 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 thine hands. And he gave him tithes of all” (Gen. xiv. 17, 20). This is the most mysterious passage in the Book of Genesis. Here Abraham comes across one of whose parentage not a word is said, and yet he is called the priest of the Most High. Now all the ideas of the Israelites respecting priests were connected with their parentage or genealogy, and their consecration. But from whom did this man receive his priesthood? To what succession did he belong? Who consecrated him? And to the service of what Deity was he consecrated? and how did he exercise his priesthood? What was its manner? It may be well to endeavour to answer these questions seriatim.

To what succession did he belong? There are some intimations, few it is true, but such as cannot be set aside, that an ancient worship of the true God existed in Palestine, of which Melchisedec was the last interpreter.1 If the extreme wickedness of the Pales

1 The reader will find a most interesting examination of this matter in "The Journal of Sacred Literature," No. xxi., for April, 1860, vol. xi. The essay is entitled, “A Critical Inquiry into the Route of the Exodus." The first argument is derived from the pre-Exodus name of Horeb as "the Mount of God." "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro . came to the Mount of God, even to Horeb." It appears that in the immediate vicinity of the mountain there was a tribe of Midianites who worshipped the true God. This was the tribe of which Jethro was the chieftain, for it is said of him that Jethro "rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians" (Exod. xviii. 5-12).

...

The next argument is from a prophecy of Ezekiel respecting Tyre (Ezek. xxviii. 11-19), extremely difficult to interpret of the Tyre of Jewish history at any period, but quite in accordance with the fact that in the beginning of the Tyrian nation, when they inhabited the desert to the south of Palestine, they were in the favour of God, and had a worship and ritual acceptable to Him, from which they declined through the luxury and consequent wickedness brought upon them by their traffic. This worship had its chief seat in the Mount of God (verse 14). It had symbolic cherubim and stones like those on the breastplate of Aaron. The following is an extract giving the pith of the argument: "It has been usually supposed that this prophecy was addressed to some actual king of Tyre. This we believe to be perfectly impossible. Tyre, from its first foundation on the Syrian coast, was always so pre-eminently idolatrous, that no kings of this Baal and

CHAP. VII.]

MELCHISEDEC.

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tinian tribes be urged against this, we reply that it is only likely their degradation was not original barbarism, but a fall from the true God, which made their case infinitely worse.

That he belonged to some sort of succession of King-Priests is evident from this, that five hundred years after Abraham's time the king of Jerusalem, who fought against Joshua, and who must have been his successor, had a name of exactly the same character, Adonizedec, the Lord of Righteousness; but by this time the witness for Truth and Righteousness had become extinct, for Adonizedec was arrayed with certain heathen kings against one whose ancestor his own forefather had blessed in the name of the

Astarte worshipping city could have merited the praises here bestowed by Ezekiel upon the primitive orthodoxy of the object of the prophecy. Nor could there have ever been a period when the Syrian Tyre could have deserved the title of the guardian cherub of the Holy Hill of God.' The worship of Baal was contemporary with the foundation of the city. The temple of this Deity was as old as the city itself. The fervour of idolatrous bigotry and superstition never seems to have been intermitted. Ithobal, the manservant' of Baal, was a favourite name of the kings. Nor would it be easy to understand to what territory ever possessed by the Syrian Tyre the name of the Holy Hill of God' could be applied. But assume that the Tyrian people is here signified under the figure of its king, and that the first stanza relates to the innocent youth of the Phoenician nation when they inhabited the Negeb (south desert), and when Mount Sinai was the great gathering place of their religious assemblies, and the whole prophecy becomes clear and intelligible.

"The concurrent testimony of sacred and profane history proves the Phoenicians to have been a Cushite colony from Chavilah, on the Persian Gulf, who first settled in the Negeb, and were afterwards transferred by the Assyrians to the Mediterranean coast, south of Libanon. Thus Herodotus, i. 1, 'the Persian historian states that the Phoenicians emigrated from the Erythræan to the Mediterranean;' again from vii. 8, 9, 'the Phonicians anciently came from the Erythræan and settled in Syria by the sea-border.' In the early days of their settlements in the Negeb, they cultivated the pure worship of Jehovah (Elion ?) which they had brought from the yet uncorrupted parent nation of Chavilah. Afterwards, enriched by a lucrative commerce, they waxed fat and kicked,' and began to prefer the idols of Egypt or Canaan to the eternal Creator. Then their power was broken. They were cast as profane from the Mount of God, and transplanted by the Assyrians out of the Negeb, a situation unrivalled in the world for a maritime people."

It is to be remembered that the verbs of the 16th and 17th verses should be rendered in the past tense rather than in the future. "I will cast thee out as profane," "I will destroy thee," should rather be rendered, "I cast thee out," "I destroyed thee."

It is clear, then, that if there was a very ancient revelation of the Supreme God in Palestine, that Melchisedec derived his knowledge of God Most High from it, and that he was probably its last priest or representative, for it is beyond measure improbable that in the time of Abraham God should raise up this greatest of priests, and allow his priesthood to expire after he had had a momentary interview with Abraham. If he was the representative of the old state of things which was passing away, and Abraham of the new, then all is consistent. The witness of the faith of Elion passes by blessing to the new faith of Jehovah and His Christ.

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A TENTH PART OF ALL.

[HEBREWS. 2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first

most High God. That there was a succession of witnesses for the truth of God in Salem or Jerusalem seems certain, for it is not likely that God would raise up one contemporaneously with Abraham to testify to his truth. It would be far more significant that the last witness for a purer and more ancient faith should solemnly bless the wandering stranger from the God of Whom he was the priest, and so make over to this man and his descendants his own witness for the true God.

Of what deity was Melchisedec the priest? Of El Elion. Now these two words are of totally different derivations: El from a root signifying power, and Elion from a root signifying exaltation. The initial letter in each is totally different. The word Elion is not commonly used in the Old Testament to designate the Supreme Being; only in this place, and twice in the Psalms, but these are sufficient to shew that it is lawful to give Him this name. According to Gesenius it was the original Divine name among the Phoenicians, and so presumably among the Canaanitish nations; but the worship of the true God under this name soon gave way to names indicating the powers of nature.

The designation of Melchisedec as the priest of Elion seems to imply that he was the acknowledged priest of the Supreme under this name, and probably that he was the only one, the original pure worship fast dying out. We shall consider the exercise or manner of his priesthood a little further on.

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'King of Salem." This was either Jerusalem, or a place called Salem, not far from Sychem, the great preponderance of both authority and probability being in favour of the former.

"Priest of the most High God." This, we repeat, implies that among the Canaanitish nations he was the acknowledged priest, though not a word is said about his call or consecration. If he had been in the least degree connected with idolatrous worship it would have been impossible for Abraham to have received his blessing.

"Who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings." This connects Melchisedec with the history as being a real personage, and not in any sense a mythical one.

2. "To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all." Thus acknowledging him as a true priest of God.

CHAP. VII.]

KING OF PEACE.

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being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

3 Without father, without mother, † without † Gr. without pedigree. descent, having neither beginning of days, nor

"First being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King," &c. This must indicate the true character of Melchisedec, for a wicked, or even a warlike prince, would not have had such names preserved to us by the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

"King of Salem, which is King of peace." Jerusalem (n)

signifies either possession of peace, or foundation of peace. The significance of the two names points to the Lord as the King who shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and justice in the earth, and Whose name shall be "the Lord our righteousness," and "the Lord our peace." "He is our peace who hath made both one (Ephes. ii. 14).

3. "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning," &c. The figure is not a strained one if we can but transport ourselves back to the times of the Law. It answers fully the objections which the Jew would make to the priesthood of Christ on the score of His descent. The Jew would ask, how can the Lord be a priest since He is not of the tribe of Levi? As far as we can gather, though it seems a bold thing to say, the qualification of the Aaronic priest was not character but descent-an unimpeachable pedigree having no flaw on either side.1 Thus it is recorded in Ezra ii. 62, that a certain family "sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the Priesthood." When, then, the Jew asked "how could Jesus of the tribe of Judah be a priest?" the answer is that the most venerable and honoured of all earthly priests had no pedigree-not a word recorded respecting his descent or successors; so far as the sacred record is concerned, he had neither beginning of days nor end of life. He comes for a moment on the stage of sacred history as if he were the denizen of another world, and then disappears, and

1 On the mother's side as well, though it is not certain that she must be of the Levitical tribe, yet she must be an Israelite.

K

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LIKE UNTO THE SON OF GOD.

[HEBREWS. end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

yet he leaves the type of so exalted a priesthood that, centuries afterwards, the Christ, the Eternal Son, is pronounced a High Priest for ever after his order. Bishop Wordsworth on this place very finely says:-"The Apostle expressly declares here that there was a Divine meaning in the silence of scripture, not recording the birth, parentage, or death of Melchisedec, as compared with the priests of the line of Aaron, and that this silence prophecies of Christ."

"But made like unto the Son of God." "Made like unto the Son," i.e., in the pages of Scripture. He is made like unto the Son, both in what is written of him and in what is not written.

It is written of him that he was the greatest of all merely human priests, for the father of the faithful, the friend of God, the inheritor of the promises of Salvation, receives his blessing. He is made like unto the Son of God in that his priesthood is in some way connected with the exhibition of bread and wine; he did not bring forward a sacrifice which he slew and whose blood he presented, but he brought forth that which his great Antitype consecrated as the perpetual memorial and means of application of His own sacrifice.

It is not written of him that he had predecessors or successors— that he was of a priestly race or family, and that at his departure from this world others were invested with his priestly robes, as Eliezer was with the robes of Aaron (Num. xx. 26).

What, in a word, was the characteristic of his priesthood? It was no other than its absolute uniqueness. He was one-none going before him, none succeeding him; and so he was the fitting type of One Whose priesthood is unique and unapproachable, a King as well as Priest; as a King dispensing righteousness, as a Priest dispensing peace.

"Abideth a priest continually." Where? There can be but one answer. In his great Antitype: the Priesthood of Aaron has passed away, but not so that of Melchisedec. That abideth. If Christ be a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec, then the priesthood of Melchisedec has not and never will pass away. If it be replied the priesthood abides, but the priest has passed away, we