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"Who Assumed Melchizedek’s Priesthood?
Why Melchizedek, a minor biblical character, became so significant in Jewish and Christian interpretation.

Prof. RabbiJoshua Garroway

In the recently published Minor Characters Have Their Day, Jeremy M. Rosen, an English professor at the University of Utah, considers the contemporary literary and dramatic landscape in which sidekicks, villains, and bit players from the great western canon have been propelled into starring roles. Among the unexpected protagonists trotted out in recent years: Penelope, Cassandra, Hamlet’s buddies, King Lear’s jester, and Huck Finn’s father. Even the wolf from The Three Little Pigs is finally getting his due.

This “minor character elaboration,” as Rosen calls it, is nothing new. Ancient examples abound. Aeneas, sporadically mentioned in the Illiad, is fully fleshed out by Virgil; Joseph’s wife, Asenath, finds expression in an ancient novella known as Joseph and Asenath. The little-known biblical figures of Enoch and Baruch become apocalyptic heroes in the books of Enoch and Baruch respectively.

So, too, Melchizedek. The oft-overlooked priest-king of Salem scarcely appears in the Bible, yet centuries later he becomes a source of fascination in Jewish and Christian literature alike. Salem
Melchizedek appears but twice in the Tanakh, in Gen. 14:18-20 and Psalm 110:4. Modern interpreters generally regard the first episode as a later insertion into Abram’s encounter with the king of Sodom, especially since his mention by name is framed by a reference to an unnamed “king of Sodom”:

Gen 14:17 When he returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh, which is the Valley of the King.

14:18 And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High.14:19 He blessed him, saying, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 14:20 And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your foes into your hand.” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the possessions for yourself.” (NJPS with adjustments)

Verse 21 picks up right from v. 17—“the king of Sodom went out to meet him (v. 17) . . . and the king of Sodom said (v. 21)—suggesting that the Melchizedek scene has been added. Usually this insertion is explained as an effort to legitimate the Davidic throne in Jerusalem. Melchizedek, the hoary king of Salem—that is, Jerusalem—blesses the patriarch whose descendent, David, will one day make that city his capital.

Others say it is David’s priest, Zadok, who finds legitimation through Melchizedek.[5] On this reading, Zadok was the Jebusite cult leader in Jerusalem whom David, following his conquest of the city, appointed over the Israelite cult. A biblical editor foreshadows David’s endorsement of a non-Israelite priest by showing Abraham pay a tithe to a non-Israelite priest, Melchizedek, who presides over a cult in (Jeru)salem dedicated to “God, the Most High” (Gen. 14:18)."