He appears only briefly, in Genesis, just after Abram (Abraham) has rescued Lot:
18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. 19And he blessed him and said:Of course, the fact that Abram tithed to Melchizedek is crucial, it signifies that he was a priest of God.
"Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
20And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand."
And he gave him a tithe of all. (Gen. 14:18-20, NKJV)
The next place we read about him is Psalm 110, a Messianic prophesy:
The LORD has swornMelchizedek is not mentioned again until the book of Hebrews, where he is mentioned nine times in chapters 5 through 7. The gist of the Hebrew references is that Christ is a High Priest, but not as a "son of Levi" but of the order of Melchizedek.
And will not relent,
"You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek." (Psalm 110:4, NKJV)
Melchizedek is offered as Jesus' right and justification to be proclaimed a priest, since He did not have the proper tribal bloodlines according to the law of Moses.
Doesn’t this all seem very mysterious, a true imponderable? Who was Melchizedek? Who were his descendants? Who were his ancestors? Was he a Christophany (Old Testament appearance of Christ)?
Those who favor the Christophany view point to a passage in Hebrews:
2to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace," 3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. (Hebrews 7:2-3, NKJV)which is indeed suggestive but not without other interpretations such as a statement of lack of knowledge of Melchizedek's family tree, or perhaps it is a reference that the priesthood of Melchizedek that is eternal.
I don’t have a clue. The priest Melchizedek is a true enigma.
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