---
title: "Melchizedek in Second Temple Judaism"
category: "theology"
description: "How Jews between the Testaments read Genesis 14 and Psalm 110: Qumran's heavenly redeemer, the Genesis retellings, Hasmonean priest-kings, Philo and Josephus, and how Hebrews 7 answers them."
tags: ["person/melchizedek", "hebrews", "genesis", "psalms", "dead-sea-scrolls", "jubilees", "second-temple", "priesthood", "method/typology", "lang/hebrew", "lang/greek"]
draft: false
primary_passage: "Psalm 110:4"
bible_references: ["Genesis 14:17-20", "Psalm 76:2", "Psalm 110:1-4", "Leviticus 25:8-13", "Deuteronomy 15:2", "Isaiah 61:1-2", "Luke 4:18-21", "Psalm 82:1-8", "Psalm 7:7-8", "John 10:34-36", "Isaiah 52:7", "Daniel 9:24-27", "John 1:14", "Hebrews 1:5", "Hebrews 1:13", "Hebrews 5:11-14", "Hebrews 6:19-20", "Hebrews 7:1-4", "Hebrews 7:14-16", "Hebrews 7:21-27", "Hebrews 10:12-13", "Revelation 19:11-16", "Revelation 20:4-6"]
date_created: 2026-09-26
date_modified: 2026-10-22
ai_provider_models:
  - anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
---

# 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](https://the-way.lewy.au/about/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](#the-two-texts). What Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 say, and the silences they leave.
- [Qumran: a heavenly Melchizedek](#qumran-a-heavenly-melchizedek). 11Q13 braids Jubilee law,
  Isaiah and two psalms into an end-times redeemer.
- [Genesis retold](#genesis-retold). The Genesis Apocryphon fills a gap; Jubilees leaves one.
- [Priest-kings in Jerusalem](#priest-kings-in-jerusalem). The Hasmoneans and the language of
  Genesis 14 and Psalm 110.
- [Philo and Josephus](#philo-and-josephus). An allegory and a history.
- [What Hebrews does with the same texts](#what-hebrews-does-with-the-same-texts). The oath kept in
  Jesus.
- [Discussion Questions](#discussion-questions). Six, for a group or on your own.

## 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 <span dir="rtl">מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק</span> (*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](https://the-way.lewy.au/jesus/melchizedek-priesthood/),
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 <span dir="rtl">וַיִּתֶּן לוֹ מַעֲשֵׂר</span> (*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.[^11q13]

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
(<span dir="rtl">השבויים</span>, *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"
(<span dir="rtl">וקרא להמה דרור</span>, *wəqārāʾ lāhēmmāh dərôr*) is Isaiah 61:1's phrase, and
<span dir="rtl">דְּרוֹר</span> (*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" (<span dir="rtl">לשנת הרצון למלכי צדק</span>, *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"
(<span dir="rtl">בני [אור]</span>, *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
<span dir="rtl">אֱלֹהִים</span> (*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 <span dir="rtl">אל</span> (*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](https://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/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).[^1q20] 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.[^cbsb] 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.[^esvsb] 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](https://the-way.lewy.au/about/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?

## References & Recommended Reading

- **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](https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/11QMelchizedek.pdf).
  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](https://biblefacts.org)), whose recorded studies first drew this site to the
  scroll, supplies the chronological reading on the [Zadok Calendar](https://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/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](https://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](https://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 <span dir="rtl">דְּרוֹר</span>, <span dir="rtl">מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק</span> and Μελχισέδεκ.

### On this site

- [Jesus, Priest in the Order of Melchizedek](https://the-way.lewy.au/jesus/melchizedek-priesthood/): Genesis 14,
  Psalm 110 and the whole argument of Hebrews 7-10.
- [The Zadok Calendar](https://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/zadok-calendar/): the 364-day calendar and its Jubilee cycles.

[^11q13]: 11Q13 column II, Hebrew as edited in DJD 23 (1998); line numbers are the edition's.
    See References.
[^1q20]: The dataset numbers this passage 1:101-102; standard editions place it in column 22 of the
    scroll.
[^cbsb]: NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan), note on Genesis 14:18.
[^esvsb]: ESV Study Bible (Crossway), note on Hebrews 7:3.