Priest of God Most High

Melchizedek is presented as a historical king-priest of Salem. Other readings of his identity are attributed, and no verdict is given: the Targums read “Malka Zadika, who was Shem bar Noah, the king of Yerushalem”; Calvin reports that “Therefore, many imagine Melchizedek to have been Shem; to whose opinion I am, for many reasons, hindered from subscribing”. Keil reports views “as Church fathers, Rabbins, and others have conjectured”, and sees in him “a type of the God-King and eternal High Priest Jesus Christ”. Hebrews reads typologically from the BSB xrefs of this chapter; that is not a later dogmatic verdict. Josephus explains that “That name signifies, The righteous King”. Augustine, on a checked line, writes that “He was then openly blessed by Melchizedek, who was priest of God Most High”. On Salem, Keil writes, “It must be Jerusalem, therefore, which is called by the old name Salem in Ps. lxxvi. 2”; Josephus, “they afterwards called it Salem Jerusalem”; Calvin “I readily believe that Salem is to be taken for Jerusalem”, yet of a contrary opinion says “I do not oppose it”. Ps 76:2 sets Salem beside Zion; see Gen 14:18 → Ps 76:2. El Elyon may have a Canaanite high-god background, or it may be the God Abram names with the Lord in 14:22; the background is described, and 14:22 is not denied. Ps 110:4 takes the priest and the name; see Gen 14:18–20 → Ps 110:4. See Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest and Melchizedek, the blessing, and the tenth, in early reading.