2 - The Background Sources I: The Old Testament

Summary

INTRODUCTION

By ‘background sources’ I mean to indicate those sources for the figure of Melchizedek which may be dated in or before the first century A.D. and are, therefore, either earlier than, or roughly contemporaneous with, the Epistle to the Hebrews. I do not mean to imply that all of these sources were used by the author of Hebrews, but wish, rather, to put all of the evidence together in such a way as to make the growth of the Melchizedek traditions clear. For convenience I have divided this material into two chapters, but in principle chapters 2 and 3 belong together as one.

Melchizedek is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament in passages involving extreme difficulty in text, language, and date. The difficulty in understanding the references to Melchizedek in these passages is further increased by the fact that in both passages primary interest does not focus upon Melchizedek but upon some other figure: Abram in the first instance, and the Jerusalemite king in the second. Nevertheless, these passing references to Melchizedek, partly because of their citation in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and partly because of their place within very important Old Testament texts, have produced an abundance of secondary literature. The lack of certainty in the dating of these two passages, which has led to their being assigned variously to dates ranging from pre-Israelite times to the period of the Maccabees, has provided a fertile ground for theory-building and speculation. Yet, if they do nothing else, the volumes of secondary literature demonstrate that the Old Testament evidence may be pressed beyond all reasonable measure; this we must try to avoid.