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Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism

Melchizedek appears in two places in the Hebrew Bible: four verses of narrative in Genesis 14 and one line of Psalm 110. By the first century, Jews reading those two texts had built at least five different Melchizedeks out of them. The Qumran community made him a heavenly judge. A retelling of Genesis tidied him up. The Hasmonean kings borrowed his title. Philo turned him into reason, and Josephus into a Canaanite king. Then the letter to the Hebrews read the same two texts and found Jesus.

In one sentence: Second Temple Jews read Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 as a promise of a coming priest-king and reached for a heavenly deliverer, a divine Word or a righteous king of Jerusalem; Hebrews 7 shows that God kept His sworn oath in His Son Jesus, the one priest "forever" who is all three, so you can draw near to God through Him.

Key Takeaways

(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)

Types & Prophecy

  • The type. Melchizedek is a man in Genesis 14. Hebrews says he was "made like" the Son of God (ἀφωμοιωμένος, aphōmoiōmenos, Hebrews 7:3; the ESV has "resembling"). The resemblance runs from the Son to Melchizedek: the Son is the original, and Melchizedek is the likeness God placed in the narrative first.
  • The prophecy. Psalm 110:4 is a sworn oath: "The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek'" (ESV). Every reader surveyed below was waiting on that oath. Hebrews names the one it was sworn to.

Lessons about Jesus

  • Jesus proclaims the release Qumran waited for. He read Isaiah 61:1 in Nazareth and said, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21, ESV).
  • Jesus is the Word made flesh. Philo read Melchizedek as a figure of reason, and wrote that the high priest "is not a man but divine Word" (De Fuga 108, our translation). John writes, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14, ESV), and Hebrews calls Jesus our high priest forever (Hebrews 6:20).
  • Jesus is the righteous king of Jerusalem. He is "king of righteousness" and "king of peace" (Hebrews 7:2, ESV) in fact, where Melchizedek was so in name.
  • Jesus holds a priesthood no one inherits. He "holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever" (Hebrews 7:24, ESV).

Memory verses

✝️ Psalm 110:4 (ESV)

4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."

✝️ Hebrews 7:25 (ESV)

25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Be Transformed

  • Think. God swore an oath about His Son a thousand years before Jesus was born, and He kept it. The promises He has made to you rest on the same faithfulness.
  • Attitude. Hear the longing in these old readers, and in the people around you, as a question Jesus answers. They were waiting for something real, and He is what they were waiting for.
  • Do. Draw near to God through Jesus today, by name, in prayer. He "always lives to make intercession" for you (Hebrews 7:25, ESV).

Prayer

Father, you swore that your King would be a priest forever, and you did not change your mind. Thank you that your Son Jesus is that priest, holy and alive, praying for us now at your right hand. We come to you through Him, with nothing to offer but His one sacrifice. Keep us near to you until His enemies are made His footstool and He reigns from Zion.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Study outline

The two texts

Abram has just rescued Lot from four eastern kings. On his way home he is met by the king of Sodom and by Melchizedek:

✝️ Genesis 14:18-20 (ESV)

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Then he disappears. The Hebrew name מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק (malkî-ṣedeq) occurs in only two verses of the Old Testament, Genesis 14:18 and Psalm 110:4. The second is an oath:

✝️ Psalm 110:4 (ESV)

4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."

The psalm's king sits at the LORD's right hand (110:1) and rules from Zion (110:2). Psalm 76:2 puts God's dwelling "in Salem", parallel to "Zion", so a Jewish reader heard Jerusalem in the name. The parent study, Jesus, Priest in the Order of Melchizedek, works through both passages verse by verse.

Two things in these texts pulled at later readers. The first is what they leave out. Genesis gives Melchizedek no father, no mother, no birth and no death. Even the Hebrew of Genesis 14:20 leaves a gap: it reads וַיִּתֶּן לוֹ מַעֲשֵׂר (wayyittēn lô maʿăśēr), "and he gave him a tenth," without saying who gave to whom. The ESV supplies "Abram", as Hebrews 7:4 does. The second is what Psalm 110 adds: a figure God will install, by oath, as priest and king together. Israel's Law kept those offices in two tribes, Levi and Judah (Hebrews 7:14). So every reader below is answering one question. Who is this priest-king, and when does he come?

Qumran: a heavenly Melchizedek

A Jubilee-and-Isaiah catena

A fragmentary Hebrew scroll from Cave 11, 11Q13 ("11QMelchizedek"), dated to roughly the mid-first century BC, is a pesher: a running commentary that strings several Old Testament texts together as one prophecy. Its second column quotes the Jubilee legislation, two psalms and Isaiah, and applies all of them to a single end-times figure called Melchizedek. Much of the column is lost. The translations below are our own, from the Hebrew of the official edition, and words in square brackets are the editors' restorations of a gap.1

It opens from Leviticus 25:13, "in [this] year of jubilee [you shall return,] each man to his property," and Deuteronomy 15:2, "every creditor shall release what he has lent" (II 2-3). Its interpretation "for the last days concerns the captives" (II 4), using Isaiah 61:1's word for them (השבויים, haššəbûyîm). Melchizedek "will bring them back to it and proclaim liberty to them, to release them [from the debt] of all their iniquities" (II 6). "Proclaim liberty" (וקרא להמה דרור, wəqārāʾ lāhēmmāh dərôr) is Isaiah 61:1's phrase, and דְּרוֹר (derôr, H1865) is also the word Leviticus 25:10 uses for the Jubilee's release. It is rare: seven occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, in Leviticus 25:10, Isaiah 61:1, Jeremiah 34 (four times) and Ezekiel 46:17. The shared Hebrew word does the connecting.

Isaiah 61:1 is the verse Jesus read aloud in the Nazareth synagogue and applied to Himself: "He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives ... to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19, ESV).

11Q13 read Isaiah 61 the same way some decades earlier, without Jesus' name attached: as a Jubilee release from "all their iniquities." It even puts Melchizedek where Isaiah 61:2 has the LORD: "it is the time of the year of favour for Melchizedek" (לשנת הרצון למלכי צדק, lišnat hārāṣôn ləmalkî-ṣedeq, II 9). Isaiah reads "the year of the LORD's favor" (Isaiah 61:2, ESV). That line of the scroll survives whole.

The scroll also dates the release: "this thing will [happen] in the first week of the jubilee after the ni[ne] jubilees, and the D[ay of Atone]ment is the e[nd of] the tenth jubilee, to make atonement in it for all the sons of [light and] the men of the lot of Mel[chi]zedek" (II 7-8). Only the first two letters of "nine" survive, and the word after "sons of" is lost; the editors supply "light" (בני [אור], bənê [ʾôr]). The phrase "the sons of Heaven and the lot of Melchizedek," which some popular English versions print, is not in the surviving letters. What survives names the people freed as "the men of the lot of Melchizedek."

The Psalm 82 judgment scene

The scroll's next move rests on Psalm 82:1: "God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment" (ESV). Both "God" and "gods" there are אֱלֹהִים (ʾĕlōhîm, H430). 11Q13 introduces the verse "as it is written concerning him in the songs of David, who said, 'Elohim [st]ands in the assem[bly of God]; in the midst of elohim he judges'" (II 10). "Him" is Melchizedek, named in the line before. So the scroll reads the psalm's first elohim as Melchizedek himself and the second as the heavenly beings he judges.

It adds Psalm 7:7-8 (7:8-9 in the Hebrew numbering), "return on high; God will judge the peoples," with אל (ʾēl, "God") where the Masoretic Text has the LORD. Then it quotes Psalm 82:2, whose interpretation "concerns Belial and the spirits of his lot" (II 12). "And Melchizedek will exact the vengeance of the judgments of G[od]" (II 13).

Jesus reached for the same psalm. Accused of blasphemy for calling Himself God's Son, He quoted Psalm 82:6 back at His accusers: "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?" (John 10:34, ESV). So two first-century readings treat this psalm's elohim language as live ground for a claim about who God's agent is.

A heavenly, composite portrait

11Q13 then quotes Isaiah 52:7 almost whole, "how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace" (II 15-16), and identifies the messenger: "the messenger is [the anointed of the spir]it, as Dan[iel] said" (II 18). Only the first letters of Daniel's name survive. The editors restore Daniel 9:25's "an anointed one, a prince" after it, which fits the gap, and the quotation itself is lost. Near the column's end the scroll explains Isaiah 52:7's "your God," and the editors restore Melchizedek's name there as well (II 24-25).

So Jubilee law, two psalms and Isaiah, probably with Daniel, are braided into one heavenly figure who proclaims release, whose day brings atonement, who judges Belial, and who is called Melchizedek. That is a far larger role than anything in Genesis or the Psalms. Melchizedek's name has become the peg for a new eschatological figure.

A different figure from Genesis, read with caution

Genesis gives no hint that its Melchizedek was anything but human. Qumran took his name, already attached by Psalm 110:4 to a future priest-king, and built an elohim-tier redeemer around it.

Some interpreters go further and read 11Q13's heavenly Melchizedek as a direct identification of Jesus as God in the flesh. That is a real position, and the scroll's own vocabulary does not require it. Psalm 82 itself shows why: its elohim are told "like men you shall die" (82:7), and Jesus reads them as those "to whom the word of God came" (John 10:35, ESV). Whether those elohim are human judges or spiritual beings is itself contested. Either way, the title does not by itself make its bearer divine.

The Zadok Calendar's reading of 11Q13

This site's reckoning of the Dead Sea Scrolls' 364-day calendar (see The Zadok Calendar) follows Dr. Ken Johnson, Th.D. (BibleFacts Ministries). The scroll places the release in the first week of the jubilee after nine jubilees (II 7); Johnson reads that week, one Shemittah after the ninth Jubilee in this calendar's reckoning, as landing around AD 32. The AD date is Johnson's application of the site's chronology to the scroll. The scroll gives no year.

Genesis retold

The Genesis Apocryphon fills the gaps

The Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20), an Aramaic retelling of Genesis from Cave 1, keeps Melchizedek human and fills in what Genesis 14 leaves open. It glosses the place: "He came to Salem; i.e., Jerusalem." It has Melchizedek bring out "food and drink for Abram and for all the men who were with him." And it ties the tenth to the plunder: "he gave to him a tenth of all the possessions of the king of Elam and his allies" (column 22, trans. John C. Reeves).2 Hebrews 7:4 reads the tithe the same way: Abraham "gave a tenth of the spoils" (ESV). This is a retelling close to Genesis's own register, with the gaps smoothed over.

Jubilees leaves a gap of its own

Jubilees, a second-century BC retelling that Qumran also copied, reaches the same scene and breaks off. The surviving text of Jubilees 13:24-25 runs from Abram arming his servants straight to a law of tithing: "... for Abram, and for his seed, a tenth of the first fruits to the Lord, and the Lord ordained it as an ordinance for ever that they should give it to the priests" (trans. R. H. Charles). Melchizedek's name is not in what survives.

Why is contested. The break may be a scribal accident in the Ethiopic manuscripts; it may also be a deliberate cut by a writer who wanted Abram's tithe to go to Levi's line and to no one else. The text cannot settle it. What survives shows a reader for whom the tithe mattered more than the man who received it.

Priest-kings in Jerusalem

In the second century BC the Hasmonean family, having won Judea's independence, held the high priesthood and the rule of the nation together. Their decree for Simon reads that the people "were well pleased that Simon should be their governor and high priest for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet" (1 Maccabees 14:41, KJV Apocrypha). A later critic, writing in the Assumption of Moses, says of these rulers: "they shall call themselves priests of the Most High God" (6:1, trans. R. H. Charles). That is Melchizedek's title from Genesis 14:18.

How deliberate the borrowing was is debated. "High priest for ever" may echo Psalm 110:4 or may simply be the language of a permanent office. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible states that the Hasmoneans justified their joint office by appeal to Melchizedek.3 Either way, the decree carries its own limit: "for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet." The Hasmonean "forever" had an expiry clause. The LORD's oath in Psalm 110:4 has none: He "will not change his mind."

Philo and Josephus

Philo: Melchizedek as reason

Philo of Alexandria, writing allegorically for a Greek-speaking Jewish audience, reads Melchizedek in Legum Allegoriae 3.79-82 as the rightful king of the soul. God made him "king of peace" and "His own priest" (3.79). Set against "the tyrant mind" (ὁ τύραννος νοῦς, ho tyrannos nous), this king "is right reason" (ὁ ὀρθὸς λόγος, ho orthos logos, 3.80). "For he is a priest, reason, having the One who Is as his portion" (ἱερεὺς γάρ ἐστι λόγος κλῆρον ἔχων τὸν ὄντα, hiereus gar esti logos klēron echōn ton onta, 3.82). The logos in this passage is reason ruling a person's soul. Translations of Philo are ours.

Philo does call a high priest the divine Word elsewhere: "we say that the high priest is not a man but divine Word" (λόγον θεῖον, logon theion, De Fuga 108). That passage expounds the Levitical high priest of Leviticus 21 and does not name Melchizedek. Readers who call Philo's Melchizedek "the Logos" are joining the two passages. Neither passage makes that identification in so many words.

Josephus: Melchizedek as history

Josephus treats Melchizedek as a historical figure. In the Antiquities he is king of Solyma, whose name "means 'righteous king'; and such he was, by common consent, so that for this reason he also became priest of God," and "later he called Solyma Hierosolyma," Jerusalem (Antiquities 1.180, Whiston's 1.10.2). In the Jewish War the city's first founder was "a Canaanite chieftain, called in his ancestral tongue 'Righteous King', for such indeed he was." He "was the first to serve God as priest" and, having first built the temple, named the city Jerusalem (Jewish War 6.438, Whiston's 6.10.1). The War never uses the name Melchizedek; Whiston's English supplies it in brackets. Translations of Josephus are ours.

What Hebrews does with the same texts

Hebrews brings Melchizedek in with a warning: "About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing" (Hebrews 5:11, ESV). The Greek name Μελχισέδεκ occurs eight times in the New Testament, all of them in Hebrews 5:6 to 7:17. The author then builds on two texts only, Genesis 14 and Psalm 110, and reads them as they stand.

He reads the silence

Where Jubilees has a gap and the Genesis Apocryphon fills one, Hebrews reads the silence as Scripture's own design:

✝️ Hebrews 7:3 (ESV)

3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

The ESV Study Bible's note takes this as the silence of the record: Genesis gives no parents and no death, and Melchizedek stays an ordinary man who is a type of Christ.4 Hebrews keeps him on earth, king of an earthly Salem, blessing a real Abraham (7:1-2). And the word ἀφωμοιωμένος, "made like," puts the Son first. God shaped the Genesis account so that a priest with no recorded beginning or end would stand in Scripture as a likeness of His eternal Son.

He reads the oath

The centre of Hebrews 7 is the oath of Psalm 110:4. The Levitical priests took office without one, "but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: 'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever"'" (Hebrews 7:21, ESV). "This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant" (7:22, ESV). He became a priest "by the power of an indestructible life" (7:16, ESV), and He offered a sacrifice once: "he did this once for all when he offered up himself" (7:27, ESV).

✝️ Hebrews 7:24-25 (ESV)

24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

This shows that God keeps His oath, and keeps it in a person. The priest-king every reader above was waiting for is Jesus, God's Son, and His priesthood is the reason you can come to God at all. The doctrine is Christ's high priesthood: He made atonement by offering Himself once (7:27), and He lives now to intercede for you (7:25).

What the readers were reaching for

Each reader above reached for something Hebrews finds in Jesus. Hebrews does not name Qumran, Philo or Josephus; the lines below set what each of them wrote beside what Scripture says of Jesus.

  • Qumran wanted a heavenly deliverer who would proclaim release and bring atonement. Jesus proclaimed Isaiah's liberty and said it was fulfilled (Luke 4:21), and His one offering deals with sin itself (Hebrews 7:27).
  • Philo wanted the divine Word as priest. His high priest "is not a man but divine Word" (De Fuga 108). "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14, ESV), and that Word entered "the inner place behind the curtain" as "a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 6:19-20, ESV).
  • Josephus and the Hasmoneans wanted a righteous priest-king in Jerusalem. Melchizedek's titles, "king of righteousness" and "king of peace" (Hebrews 7:2, ESV), are Jesus' in fact. He is descended from Judah (7:14), and appointed by an oath that has no expiry clause.

Did Hebrews know this conversation?

Whether the author of Hebrews knew 11Q13 or anything like it is contested. In favour: Hebrews spends its first chapter proving the Son is greater than the angels, and uses Psalm 110 to do it: "to which of the angels has he ever said, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'?" (Hebrews 1:13, ESV). A reader who knew an angelic Melchizedek would hear that as an answer. Against: Hebrews never calls Melchizedek an angel, never cites Isaiah 61 or Psalm 82, and builds only from Genesis 14 and Psalm 110. The case is open. The argument of Hebrews stands on Scripture either way.

The King who is still to reign

Psalm 110 has a priest and a king, and Hebrews places them in order. Christ "sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet" (Hebrews 10:12-13, ESV). His priestly work is finished and continuing: one sacrifice, and intercession now. His rule "from Zion" (Psalm 110:2) waits for the day His enemies are made His footstool. That day is the Lord's return to reign on the earth (Revelation 19:11-16; 20:4-6), as the statement of faith sets out.

Discussion Questions

  1. 11Q13 links Leviticus 25:10 and Isaiah 61:1 through the one word derôr, "liberty." What does reading Luke 4:18-21 with the Jubilee in mind add to what Jesus claimed in Nazareth?
  2. Genesis 14 says nothing about Melchizedek's parents or death. Jubilees seems to lose him, the Genesis Apocryphon fills in details, and Hebrews 7:3 reads the silence. What does each response to a gap in Scripture teach you about reading one yourself?
  3. Hebrews 7:3 says Melchizedek was "made like" the Son of God. Why does it matter which of the two is the original?
  4. The Hasmonean decree made Simon high priest "for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet." Set that beside Psalm 110:4's "will not change his mind." What is the difference between the two "forevers"?
  5. Hebrews 1:13 asks "to which of the angels" God said Psalm 110:1. How would a reader who believed in an angelic Melchizedek hear Hebrews 1 and 7?
  6. Jesus "always lives to make intercession" for those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25). What would change this week if you prayed as though that were happening while you pray?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path

The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.

Group study · 40 minutes

Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism

Psalm 110:4

The point Second Temple Jews read Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 as a promise of a coming priest-king and reached for a heavenly deliverer, a divine Word or a righteous king of Jerusalem; Hebrews 7 shows that God kept His sworn oath in His Son Jesus, the one priest "forever" who is all three, so you can draw near to God through Him.

0–5min

Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

5–12minRead it aloud BSB

Psalm 110:4 4The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

12–25minLook closer
What does it say?
What did it mean to them?
What does it mean for us?
Page 1 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism

The study in brief
  1. The two texts. What Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 say, and the silences they leave.
  2. Qumran: a heavenly Melchizedek. 11Q13 braids Jubilee law, Isaiah and two psalms into an end-times redeemer.
  3. Genesis retold. The Genesis Apocryphon fills a gap; Jubilees leaves one.
  4. Priest-kings in Jerusalem. The Hasmoneans and the language of Genesis 14 and Psalm 110.
  5. Philo and Josephus. An allegory and a history.
  6. What Hebrews does with the same texts. The oath kept in Jesus.
  7. Discussion Questions. Six, for a group or on your own.
Notes
Page 2 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism

12–16minStep 1 · The two texts

1The Hasmonean decree made Simon high priest "for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet." Set that beside Psalm 110:4's "will not change his mind." What is the difference between the two "forevers"?

16–20minStep 2 · Qumran: a heavenly Melchizedek

211Q13 links Leviticus 25:10 and Isaiah 61:1 through the one word derôr, "liberty." What does reading Luke 4:18-21 with the Jubilee in mind add to what Jesus claimed in Nazareth?

Step 3 · Genesis retold
Step 4 · Priest-kings in Jerusalem
Step 5 · Philo and Josephus
20–35minStep 6 · What Hebrews does with the same texts

3Genesis 14 says nothing about Melchizedek's parents or death. Jubilees seems to lose him, the Genesis Apocryphon fills in details, and Hebrews 7:3 reads the silence. What does each response to a gap in Scripture teach you about reading one yourself?

4Hebrews 7:3 says Melchizedek was "made like" the Son of God. Why does it matter which of the two is the original?

5Hebrews 1:13 asks "to which of the angels" God said Psalm 110:1. How would a reader who believed in an angelic Melchizedek hear Hebrews 1 and 7?

6Jesus "always lives to make intercession" for those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25). What would change this week if you prayed as though that were happening while you pray?

Page 3 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism

35–40minBe transformed
  • Think. God swore an oath about His Son a thousand years before Jesus was born, and He kept it. The promises He has made to you rest on the same faithfulness.
  • Attitude. Hear the longing in these old readers, and in the people around you, as a question Jesus answers. They were waiting for something real, and He is what they were waiting for.
  • Do. Draw near to God through Jesus today, by name, in prayer. He "always lives to make intercession" for you (Hebrews 7:25, ESV).
Memory verse

The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."

Psalm 110:4 (ESV)
Pray together

Father, you swore that your King would be a priest forever, and you did not change your mind. Thank you that your Son Jesus is that priest, holy and alive, praying for us now at your right hand. We come to you through Him, with nothing to offer but His one sacrifice. Keep us near to you until His enemies are made His footstool and He reigns from Zion.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Notes
The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/melchizedek-in-second-temple-judaism/
Page 4 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
Group study · step by step

Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism

Psalm 110:4

Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

Read it aloud Psalm 110:4

Step 1The two texts — What Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 say, and the silences they leave.

1The Hasmonean decree made Simon high priest "for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet." Set that beside Psalm 110:4's "will not change his mind." What is the difference between the two "forevers"?

Step 2Qumran: a heavenly Melchizedek — 11Q13 braids Jubilee law, Isaiah and two psalms into an end-times redeemer.

211Q13 links Leviticus 25:10 and Isaiah 61:1 through the one word derôr, "liberty." What does reading Luke 4:18-21 with the Jubilee in mind add to what Jesus claimed in Nazareth?

Step 3Genesis retold — The Genesis Apocryphon fills a gap; Jubilees leaves one.
Step 4Priest-kings in Jerusalem — The Hasmoneans and the language of Genesis 14 and Psalm 110.
Step 5Philo and Josephus — An allegory and a history.
Step 6What Hebrews does with the same texts — The oath kept in Jesus.Key verses: Hebrews 7:3; Hebrews 7:24-25

3Genesis 14 says nothing about Melchizedek's parents or death. Jubilees seems to lose him, the Genesis Apocryphon fills in details, and Hebrews 7:3 reads the silence. What does each response to a gap in Scripture teach you about reading one yourself?

4Hebrews 7:3 says Melchizedek was "made like" the Son of God. Why does it matter which of the two is the original?

5Hebrews 1:13 asks "to which of the angels" God said Psalm 110:1. How would a reader who believed in an angelic Melchizedek hear Hebrews 1 and 7?

6Jesus "always lives to make intercession" for those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25). What would change this week if you prayed as though that were happening while you pray?

Be transformed
  • Think. God swore an oath about His Son a thousand years before Jesus was born, and He kept it. The promises He has made to you rest on the same faithfulness.
  • Attitude. Hear the longing in these old readers, and in the people around you, as a question Jesus answers. They were waiting for something real, and He is what they were waiting for.
  • Do. Draw near to God through Jesus today, by name, in prayer. He "always lives to make intercession" for you (Hebrews 7:25, ESV).
Page 1 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism

The point Second Temple Jews read Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 as a promise of a coming priest-king and reached for a heavenly deliverer, a divine Word or a righteous king of Jerusalem; Hebrews 7 shows that God kept His sworn oath in His Son Jesus, the one priest "forever" who is all three, so you can draw near to God through Him.

The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/melchizedek-in-second-temple-judaism/
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  • 11Q13 ("11QMelchizedek"), column II. Hebrew text as edited by F. García Martínez, E. J. C. Tigchelaar and A. S. van der Woude, Qumran Cave 11.II (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 23; Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 221-241, pl. XXVII, reproduced in F. García Martínez and E. J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 1206-1209, consulted as a scan hosted at marquette.edu. Copyrighted edition: short phrases quoted with attribution, restorations marked in brackets as the editors mark them, translations ours. Dr. Ken Johnson, Th.D., BibleFacts Ministries (biblefacts.org), whose recorded studies first drew this site to the scroll, supplies the chronological reading on the Zadok Calendar page; the study no longer relies on his wording of the text.
  • Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20), column 22, English translation by John C. Reeves (University of North Carolina at Charlotte course materials), as held in the scrollmapper deuterocanonical dataset. Quoted briefly with attribution.
  • Jubilees 13:22-29 and Assumption of Moses 6:1, trans. R. H. Charles; 1 Maccabees 14:41, KJV Apocrypha. All as held in the scrollmapper deuterocanonical dataset. Extra-biblical witnesses, cited as history and never as Scripture.
  • Philo of Alexandria, Legum Allegoriae 3.79-82 and De Fuga et Inventione 108. Greek text of L. Cohn and P. Wendland, Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt (1896-1915), in the First1KGreek edition (Open Greek and Latin, CC BY-SA 4.0, github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek, tlg0018.tlg002, tlg0018.tlg017). Translations ours.
  • Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.180 (Whiston 1.10.2) and Jewish War 6.438 (Whiston 6.10.1). Greek text of B. Niese, Flavii Iosephi opera (1885-1895), in the Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0, github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit, tlg0526.tlg001, tlg0526.tlg004), checked against William Whiston's public-domain English translation. Translations ours.
  • ESV Study Bible (Crossway), notes on Hebrews 7:3 and Psalm 110:4; NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan), notes on Genesis 14:18 and Hebrews 7:3. ESV verse text throughout.
  • Original-language data from this project's bible-text.db: unfoldingWord interlinear for Genesis 14:18-20, Leviticus 25:10, Psalm 82:1, Psalm 110:4, Isaiah 61:1 and Hebrews 7:3; MACULA Hebrew (WLC) and Greek (SBLGNT) concordance for דְּרוֹר, מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק and Μελχισέδεκ.

On this site

  1. 11Q13 column II, Hebrew as edited in DJD 23 (1998); line numbers are the edition's. See References. ↩

  2. The dataset numbers this passage 1:101-102; standard editions place it in column 22 of the scroll. ↩

  3. NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan), note on Genesis 14:18. ↩

  4. ESV Study Bible (Crossway), note on Hebrews 7:3. ↩