1 - Introduction

Summary

THE SCOPE OF THIS INQUIRY

The purpose of this work is to investigate the tradition about Melchizedek from its setting in the Old Testament through roughly the first five centuries of the Christian era. This is a rather complex undertaking in several ways. The sources themselves are sometimes quite difficult to disentangle and interpret. For instance, one of the more important texts, a text from Qumran, throws new light on the understanding of Melchizedek in the first century A.D. One is disappointed, therefore, to find that this text is so fragmentary that less than half of what was at least a two-column work can be read; furthermore, the reading itself depends upon a piecing together of the text which may or may not be correct. The Old Testament sources are very difficult to interpret. In Gen. xiv. 18–20 we have a passing mention of Melchizedek as a priest-king who brings refreshment out to Abram who is just returningfrom battle, and in Ps. ex. 4 we have a mysterious formula by which the king in Jerusalem is declared to possess a priesthood ‘according to the order of Melchizedek’. These two passing references provide no clear grounding for our inquiry in the Old Testament, and much work has been required to make any sense out of these two Old Testament sources. Both Philo and Josephus deal with Melchizedek and throw some light on the development of tradition from the first century B.C. to the first century A.D. Further, we possess two documents from Qumran which give us information for that same period. Nothing, however, adequately prepares us for the extraordinary use to which Melchizedek is put in the Epistle to the Hebrews.