Who was Melchizedec?
Priest of God Most High
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Genesis 14:18-20
Melchizedec appears in Scripture only in three places: Genesis 14:18-20, Psalm 110:4, and Hebrews 6:20-7:21. The author of Hebrews draws his preliminary discussion of Melchizedec from the Genesis account. His point is to show that Melchizedec is an Old Testament type of Christ. The author is here attempting to prove the superiority of the priesthood of Melchizedec to the Levitical priesthood. Then he will show that Christ, as a priest, after the order of Melchizedec, is also superior to the Levitical priesthood. These first three verses lay the historical background out of which these arguments are drawn. Melchizedec is said to be “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God.”
There is no record in Scripture of the genealogy of Melchizedec. This is not to conclude that he was not fully human. It does, however, show a type of Christ, the Son of God, who also fits the above description.
The name Melchizedec literally means “King of Righteousness.” He was the king of Salem or Jerusalem. Salem simply means peace. Therefore, by his name and location he was the king of both righteousness and peace, two attributes, which further link him in type to Christ. Obviously, in Scripture, there is no one greater than Jesus Christ Himself is. This could include Melchizedec, as he was simply a type of Christ.
