What's Your Name? Who's Your Daddy?
The Catechism mentions Melchizedek in three paragraphs (nos. 58, 1333, 1544). He is listed as a “Gentile” in number 58. Before Abraham, the Hebrew patriarch (cf. Gn 14:13) from whom the nation of Israel ultimately descends, everyone is considered a Gentile, as opposed to in later times when only non-Hebrews/Israelites were designated as Gentiles (cf. Gal 2:14-15). In this later sense, the Gentiles (“the nations”) are distinguished from God's chosen people of Israel.
In the earlier usage of “Gentile,” Abram's forefathers, Abel and Noah, are listed as Gentiles too (Catechism, no. 58). It’s possible, then, that another ancestor of Abram could be Melchizedek and still be described as a Gentile. A traditional argument made in ancient Jewish writings, and among some early Church Fathers as well, is that Shem, the righteous firstborn son of Noah, is Melchizedek. (The words “Semite” and “Semitic” are derived from “Shem” or “Shemites,” illustrating that modern Jews are descendants of Shem.) According to this argument, Shem received a blessing from his father Noah (Gn 9:26) and eventually passed it on to his descendant Abraham.
Scholars debate whether Abram's genealogy in Genesis 11 is exhaustive or just mentions certain figures among a longer list of ancestors. The Bible records that Shem lived 600 years (Gn 11:10-11), while Abram only 175 (Gn 25:7). If the Bible's genealogical list of Abram's descendants was intended to be precise, a very elderly Shem could have walked the earth with Abram and blessed him, preceding him in death by only 25 years. But if the Book of Genesis was written to provide only the highlights of Abram's ancestry in chapter 11, as many scholars believe, Melchizedek would not have been Shem but perhaps one of his descendants, since the Bible never records that “the blessing” departed from Shem’s line.
Other scholars believe that Melchizedek was a priest-king outside of Abraham's line. They argue that God could have raised up a priest outside of the Shemitic line and that, as a priest, this person could have provided a blessing irrespective of his ancestral pedigree.
To help identify Melchizedek, one must make sense of the strange description that the Letter to the Hebrews provides about the ancient priest-king. While the idea of royal priesthood was not uncommon in the ancient Near Eastern world, no one had a priestly pedigree like Melchizedek’s:
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of kings and blessed him; and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is king of Salem, that is king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. (Heb 7:1-3)
The mysterious words of Hebrews 7:3 have baffled many scholars, and we can appreciate why some have erroneously argued that Melchizedek was the Holy Spirit or the “pre-Incarnate Word (see Jn 1:1-14), since he “resembled the Son of God,” was without father or mother or genealogy and had “neither beginning of days nor end of life.”
Comparing Priesthoods
Hebrews 7:1-3 becomes less mysterious when seen in light of the overall purpose of the whole chapter: to illustrate that Melchizedek's priesthood, particularly as fulfilled in Jesus, fulfills the temporary levitical law and priesthood (Heb 7:11-14).
Levitical priestly service had a distinct “beginning of days and end of life” (cf. Heb 7:3). Recall that God fulfilled His promise to make a great nation of Abram’s descendants (Gn 12) by establishing Israel via a covenant with Moses, who was of the tribe of Levi (Ex 2:1-10). Under the Mosaic Covenant, God chose the tribe of Levi not only to offer the sacrifices associated with the wilderness tabernacle (cf. Ex 32:29) — and eventually those associated with the Temple — but also to be responsible for all of the tabernacle’s furnishings (Nm 1:47-54; 2:5-10).
Those Levites who were direct descendants of Aaron were appointed priests (Ex 40:12-15) and received assistance from their brother Levites (Nm 3:9-10). (Any other Israelites who attempted to serve as priests would die (cf. Nm 3:10; 18:7).) In addition, all Levites, whether priests or not, had a distinct beginning and end of their service in the tabernacle and/or Temple, starting at age 30 and finishing at 50 (see, e.g., Nm 4:1-3, 23).
Furthermore, all Levites who served in the wilderness tabernacle, and later the Temple, had to certify their genealogy, i.e., furnish credible proof regarding the identity of their mother and father and other ancestors (cf. Heb 7:3). We know this because after the Babylonian exile, when the Israelites returned to Jerusalem in the latter sixth century BC, some alleged Levites were not allowed to serve in the Temple, because “they could not prove their fathers' houses nor their descent” (Neh 7:61; see 61-65; Ezr 2:59-63).
In contrast, Melchizedek possessed his priesthood not by virtue of his earthly mother or father, i.e., his ancestral heritage, but because of a mysterious, special relationship with God. In addition, whereas the sacrificial service of levitical priests had “beginning of days” and “end of life” — a limited ministry from ages 30 to 50 for which they had to be ordained — Melchizedek possessed his priesthood “forever,” i.e., as a lifelong gift from God. Similarly, David’s son, King Solomon, was “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110:4) because his priesthood has no formal beginning and end within his lifetime.
Jesus: Perfecting the Priesthood of Melchizedek
Ancient Israel and the disciples of Jesus had no doubts about the historical reality of Melchizedek. David associated his royal line with Melchizedek’s priesthood. Psalm 110 speaks about how David’s “lord,” and therefore ultimately Jesus, is a priest forever “after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110:1, 4). Because Solomon had ascended to the throne during his father David’s lifetime (1 Kgs 1:43) and thereby became the “Lord King” (1 Kgs 1:37), David could speak of his son as “my lord.” As David’s son and kingly lord, Solomon is the person whom God (that is, “the Lord”) first designated as a priest-king priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek in some sense (see Ps 110:4). David undoubtedly served as a priest-king (2 Sm 6:12-13, 17; 24:25), as did Solomon (1 Kgs 3:4, 15). As the ultimate “son of David” (Mt 1:1), Jesus perfectly fulfills Psalm 110:4.
In the New Covenant, Jesus is designated as a “high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 6:20), an order which fulfills the levitical priesthood and laws that encompassed the various Old Covenant sacrifices that God prescribed (Heb 7:11-12). Jesus follows in the royal priestly line of Melchizedek and David (Mt 1:1; 22:41-46), not Aaron's levitical priesthood. He too is a “priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” yet in a profoundly different manner from Melchizedek and Solomon. Their priesthood ended with their deaths. Jesus manifested His Melchizedekian priesthood on earth in a distinctive way when He offered His life unto death. The Letter to the Hebrews summarizes:
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered; and being made perfect He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. (Heb 5:8-10)
How does Christ’s Sacrifice continue forever and how does He offer it according to the order of Melchizedek on earth? Suffice it to say for now that our Lord’s Melchizedekian priesthood did not end with His death on Calvary; it was distinctively exercised on Calvary, culminated in everlasting glory in the heavenly sanctuary, and is exercised on earth at Mass through the Church’s ministerial priests who act in the person and power of Jesus.
Thomas J. Nash is Director of Special Projects at Catholics United for the Faith. He is the author of Worthy Is the Lamb: The Biblical Roots of the Mass (Ignatius Press) from which this column is excerpted and condensed with permission of Ignatius Press. He is also a co-author of Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass (Emmaus Road Publishing).
