The Mysterious Melchizedek
Dieric Bouts. “Melchizedek Presents Bread and Wine to Abram,” Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament, top left wing of the triptych, (oil on panel), c. 1464-1467.
St. Peter’s Church, Leuven, Belgium.
(Listen to an audio version of the blog post above!)
Here’s the question:
“Who the heck is Melchizedek?”—Diane
Here’s the answer:
Melchizedek is a very mysterious figure, indeed. He appears only three times in Scripture, twice in the Old Testament (Genesis 14: 18-20; Psalm 110: 4) and once in the New Testament (Hebrews 5-7).
We meet Melchizedek for the first time in Genesis 14 when Abram (later, Abraham) returns from rescuing his nephew Lot from Chedorlaomer and the kings of the north who kidnapped Lot. As Abram meets with Bera, king of Sodom, here’s what happens . . .
“When Abram returned from his defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to greet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). Melchizedek, king of Salem [ שָׁלֵ֔ם, shaw-lame’, “peace”] brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High. He blessed Abram with these words: ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, the creator of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who delivered your foes into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”
(Genesis 14: 17-20)
In Genesis, an introductory genealogy precedes each major character in the narrative, but Melchizedek simply appears out of nowhere [Melchizedek is two words in the Hebrew text: צדק, mal-kee’, “king”; מלכי, tseh’-dek, “righteousness,” but one word in the Greek Ἑβδομήκοντα (LXX): Melcisedevk; and the Latin Vulgate: Melchisedech]. Melchizedek presents Abram with gifts of bread and wine. Abram then offers Melchizedek a tenth of the plunder . . . at which point Melchizedek vanishes as quickly and as mysteriously as he had appeared! Melchizedek is certainly a very important figure, for Abram gives him a tenth of the plunder. Melchizedek is a priest of some sort, although certainly not a Levitical priest, for the Levitical priesthood is not established until Exodus 28-29. Psalm 110—a Psalm of David—supports his priestly identity, however, for it reads:
“The LORD says to my lord:
‘Sit at my right hand,
while I make your enemies your footstool.’
The scepter of your might:
the LORD extends your strong scepter from Zion.
Have dominion over your enemies!
Yours is princely power from the day of your birth.
In holy splendor before the daystar,
like dew I begot you.
The LORD has sworn and will not waver:
‘You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek.’”
(Psalm 110: 1-4 )
Notice how this psalm of David begins: “The LORD [ יְהוָ֨ה, Yahweh] says to [David’s] lord: Sit at my right hand . . .” So, just who is David’s lord? When Jesus asks the crowds about the Messiah’s identity in this passage, someone replies: “The son of David.” Jesus then asks: “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord?” (Matthew 22: 42-44). Clearly, the “lord” referred to in Psalm 110 is someone greater than David himself. So, who is it?
The epistle to the Hebrews identifies David’s “lord” as Jesus, making the typology of Melchizedek-Jesus explicit:
“It is clear that our Lord [Jesus] arose from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. It is even more obvious if another priest is raised up after the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become so, not by a law expressed in a commandment concerning physical descent but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed [i.e., by resurrection]. For it is testified: ‘You [Jesus] are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’”
(Hebrews 7: 14-17)
Hebrews thus views Jesus as the fulfillment and completion of the Melchizedekian priesthood.
What’s more, Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215 A.D.) was among the first to understand the bread and wine offered by Melchizedek to Abram as a prototype of the Eucharist. In his Stromata, Clement writes: “Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who gave bread and wine, furnishing consecrated food for a type of the Eucharist” (Stromata, IV, 25). This is the typology so beautifully portrayed by Dieric Bouts in his Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament, a triptych commissioned by the Leuven Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament in 1464 for the newly-built St. Peter’s Church in Leuven, Belgium [a detail of which served as the opening image of this blog].
Dieric Bouts. Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament (oil on panel), c. 1464-1467.
St. Peter’s Church, Leuven, Belgium.
The center panel of the altarpiece portrays the Last Supper, with Jesus offering the Eucharist as the visual focal point. The figures around the table are not the Apostles, but members of the Leuven Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament who commissioned the altarpiece! The top left wing of the triptych features Melchizedek offering bread and wine to Abram; the bottom left wing features a Jewish Passover meal. The top right wing portrays the Israelites gathering manna in the wilderness; the bottom right wing portrays an angel feeding Elijah in the wilderness. The folding right and left wings of the triptych thus present typological precursors of the Eucharist.