Mysterious Melchizedek

Not a Well-understood Man

Premise of the book this far: Jesus is better

Better than the angels

Better than Moses, Joshua or any other previous leader

Better than any previous high priest

A tough passage…more background than anything else

The point of the passage will be in next week’s lesson

Keep in mind the point of Hebrews: Jesus is better...

Found only in two places in the OT

Genesis 14

King of Righteousness, King of Salem (Genesis)

A priest of the Most High God

Abraham paid a tithe of everything

…may have been of all he had or of the spoils of the battle

Probably linked to Jerusalem

Was this a Christophany??

Psalm 110

Linkage looking forward to a priest-king after the “order of Melchizedek”

A glimpse of the eternal kingdom of God

Much in extra-Biblical Literature

Speculative at best

Heretical at worst

…some make him an angel

…some a messiah-type figure who was still present

…some make him of a higher ranking than Jesus

In early Christian period (time of Hebrews’ writing) a popular figure among Jews

Hebrews 5, 6 and 7

He is without genealogy—

Literal—a theophany

Figurative—just lacking a recorded history

As special and significant as he was, Christ is better still

What We Know

Abraham gave him tithes

What does that prove?

He was superior to Abraham

He was given honor by those who would later receive tithes (Levitical priesthood)

Indirectly, all Abraham’s descendants gave him tithes

Since 10% of all of Abraham’s belongings went to him

Since that would have ultimately been the inheritance of of his offspring

Since his offspring became the nation of Israel…including the Levitical priests....

A Needed Point to Make

We are given in Scripture all we NEED to know about him

Speculation may be interesting…but much legend and falsehood now surrounds some conversation regarding him

Take what the Scripture gives us

Take it for the point it is given; we’ll connect the dots next week

Don’t attempt to make a doctrine where there is none

We have foreshadowing

We have typology

We have some interesting connections...

We do not have a divine being

Next week we will see the why and how of Jesus being better