NOTES for Gen 14:18

Melchizedek is one of the most enigmatic figures of the Old Testament. In the Book of Genesis he is called "king of Salem" and vice of the deity, whose name sounds in Hebrew, like El Elyon. In the King James Version translation (as, indeed, in many others), this name is quite correctly translated, as the "God Almighty" (the translation "high god" or "lifted god" is also possible). But we have all the same before us a proper noun, which hardly can be in general translated. Besides, the name with which the God of Abraham had never revealed Himself to Abraham. This name is indeed met nowhere else in the Bible, and the God of Israel was never called like that anywhere. Then who is Melchizedek? He is obviously a prophet.

In particular prophet, and not a priest, because the corresponding Hebrew word of priest started to be used only in the time of Moses and Aaron, and before, it was probably used to indicate in particular a prophet, just like its related words in other Semitic languages. There is nothing surprising: the ancient world knew several gods and several prophets. And the fact that Melchizedek is not only a prophet, but also a king, apparently testifies, that until the conquest by David, Jerusalem (Salem is the ancient name of Jerusalem) was a city-sanctuary, which at that time in the Middle East was a lot. And here is this prophet of a certain unknown god to us blesses Abraham. Why?

Perhaps, because Abraham was a winner, worthy of blessing. But another thing is possible: Melchizedek blesses Abraham by revelation. For, God has never limited His circle of relationships only with His own people. The sparks of revelation in the heathen world are scattered everywhere. Unfortunately, in the heathen world they went out often and quickly, went out without having time very often to ignite; Reason for which God needed a special nation, with whom He bound Himself with special relationships.

But sometimes these sparks burst; and it is probably what happened with Melchizedek, when he saw Abraham, the future leader of the people of God. From the point of view of our world, not yet transformed, all this is just a history, an ancient history and having for us today no particular meaning. But for the Kingdom each such glare of the spiritual light is precious. For they all belong to the Kingdom, forming its integral part.

Abram's battle with the five kings is the first of the many wars that entered sacred history. For an ancient person, with his primitive weapons and ways of waging war, battle was a critical life situation in which he needed all his strength and wisdom. His gods fought together with him, and the outcome of the war testified to their strength as well. That is why Abram's victory in this battle had to demonstrate the superiority of his God and His authority over the whole Holy Land. The offering of the mysterious king Melchizedek speaks of the same thing. Abram sees that God is already beginning to fulfill His promise and expects more, so he refuses the help of the king of Sodom: God Himself will make him rich. This is heard at the beginning of the next episode, where the words about a "great reward" are spoken. Remaining an ordinary person of his time, Abram waits for the time when the still unclear and undefined Promise will be fulfilled, and that is why he finds himself at the center of the history of God and the world.

In the story of the war of the kings, the reader's main attention is naturally drawn to the figure of Melchizedek. Meanwhile, the story is interesting also because it lets us better understand the situation that was taking shape in Palestine in Abraham's time. There was no unified authority in this territory then, and wars between small city-states located mainly in Galilee and in the Jordan Valley were commonplace. Tribes living on the adjacent lands were often drawn into such wars. That is what happened to Lot: after settling near Sodom (Gen 13:12), he was taken captive together with the inhabitants of the city defeated in the war (vv. 11-12). Abraham had to rescue his relative who had fallen into trouble, and he did so by attacking the victors' camp at night (vv. 14-16). And Melchizedek, as was customary in those days, blessed the returning victor (vv. 17-20).

Who, then, was Melchizedek? In the story's text he is called a "priest," but the corresponding Hebrew word came to mean priest only much later, after the Exodus; in the time of the Patriarchs it meant not a priest, but a prophet. Besides, the god in question here has no relation to the God of Abraham. Although in the Russian text he is called "God Most High," his Hebrew name ("El Elyon") occurs only in this story, and Abraham himself never called his God by this name. Melchizedek plainly did not serve the God of Abraham. And yet his god was not an ordinary Baal, of the sort found in great numbers in antiquity both in Palestine and in other Near Eastern lands. Judging by the fact that he was called "possessor of heaven and earth," he was not a simple patron of a city or region, as the Baals were. He was probably a heavenly god like the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter, and his worship reflected faint gleams of an ancient monotheism that had already almost completely disappeared.

And now this prophet of the heavenly god blesses Abraham, and his blessing is filled with a meaning that perhaps Melchizedek himself never thought of, a meaning that will be fully revealed much later, when in Christ the possibility of communion with the God of Abraham is opened to everyone and the vague premonitions of paganism are replaced by the clarity of true communion with God.

The story of the war of the kings in Genesis is mysterious. Not because it describes a war of kings whom historians have still been unable to identify - there were many kings, or more precisely rulers of city-states, in Palestine in Abraham's time. And not because Abraham managed, by a sudden night attack, to recover the spoil and the captives. The city militias of the Palestinian towns were not very organized; they were not the Roman army with its carefully planned military camp and disciplined soldiers who knew what guard duty was. The most interesting figure here is Melchizedek, the mysterious "king of Salem," the "priest of God Most High."

He is the one to whom Abraham gives a tithe. He gives it to him and to his god. To a god who has nothing to do with the God of Abraham. "God Most High" is only an attempt to translate the name of Melchizedek's god; in Hebrew it sounds like El-Elyon. This El-Elyon is the god Melchizedek serves. The God of Abraham is nowhere and never called by this name. He has other names of His own, which He reveals to Abraham and later to Moses. The name El-Elyon is not among them. Melchizedek's god is worshiped in Shalem, or Salem in the Synodal translation, which is the old name for Jerusalem. There, in Jerusalem, a sanctuary existed even before Abraham appeared in Palestine, and it became Yahwistic only after David conquered Jerusalem, then still Shalem, much later than the events described in the story. Most of all, Melchizedek was a minister in this sanctuary. Only not a priest, of course. The corresponding Hebrew word denotes a Levitical priest, and such priests did not yet exist in Abraham's time. Its root is etymologically connected with the idea of prophecy, so that the word originally meant a prophet rather than a priest.

So Melchizedek, king of Shalem-Salem and prophet of the deity named El-Elyon, blesses Abraham, who in the story, by the way, is called a "Hebrew." The Hebrews never called themselves Hebrews in their own language; their self-designation was always different. In antiquity, only an outsider could call a Hebrew a Hebrew, someone for whom the Hebrews were nomads, newcomers, barbarians. The story was plainly composed by local inhabitants of pre-Hebrew Palestine who venerated El-Elyon and his prophet Melchizedek.

Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and Abraham accepts his blessing. He still knows too little about his own God to distinguish Him from El-Elyon, the local storm-god who, like all storm-gods, was "lord of heaven and earth," and sometimes, like another storm-god, Zeus, also "father of gods and men." The time will come when Abraham understands the difference between the storm-god and his own God. It will come, but not at once: there will be more encounters that will explain much to Abraham. The whole path still lies ahead, and so does acquaintance with the unknown God.