Melchizedek

“ Instead of offering thy victims to those gods which are no gods, offer them to Him who is above the heavens, and who rules all things.”
King Melchi replied,“Go and do what I have commanded thee, as thou valuest thy life.”
After that he turned to his wife Salem, and he told her that he purposed sacrificing one of his sons. The queen wept bitterly, because she knew that the king designed the immolation of Melchizedek, and she said, “Alas! I have suffered and laboured in vain.” ”

“ Then a man of a savage appearance will come forth to thee out of the forest. And after thou hast cut his hair and pared his nails, clothe him with the garments thou hast taken with thee, and ask him to bless thee."
Abraham did as he was bidden. He went to Tabor and called thrice, "O man of God!" and there came out to him Melchizedek. Then a voice was heard from heaven, which said, "As there remains no one on earth of the family of Melchizedek, it shall be said of him that he is without father and without mother, without beginning of days or end of life." ”

“ Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, blessed Abraham and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hands. ”

“ At last Machiventa Melchizedek beheld human teachers proclaiming a real God to mortal man. Like Isaiah the first, this leader preached a God of universal creation and upholding. "I have made the earth and put man upon it. I have created it not in vain; I formed it to be inhabited." "I am the first and the last; there is no God beside me." Speaking for the Lord God of Israel, this new prophet said: "The heavens may vanish and the earth wax old, but my righteousness shall endure forever and my salvation from generation to generation." ”

“ The i of דברתי is the same ancient connecting vowel as in the מלכי of the name Melchizedek; and it has the tone, which it loses when, as in Lam 1:1, a tone-syllable follows. The widemeaning על־דּברת, “in respect to, on account of,” Ecc 3:18; Ecc 7:14; Ecc 8:2, is here specialized to the signification “after the manner, measure of,” lxx κατὰ τὴν τάξιν. The priesthood is to be united with the kingship in him who rules out of Zion, just as it was in Melchizedek, king of Salem, and that for ever. ”

“ Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness as his name implies, and the King of Peace also, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, who was the forerunner and prototype of Jesus ‘made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’
Christ, as the Son offered by the Father and the sacrificial Ram, is prefigured in the neighbouring statue of Abraham with his son Isaac, whom he holds ready bound for the sacrifice. Beneath his feet is the ram caught in the bush. ”

“ Abraham was a shrewd and efficient business man, a wealthy man for his day; he was not overly pious, but he was thoroughly sincere, and he did believe in Machiventa Melchizedek.
7. THE MELCHIZEDEK MISSIONARIES Melchizedek continued for some years to instruct his students and to train the Salem missionaries, who penetrated to all the surrounding tribes, especially to Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. And as the decades passed, these teachers journeyed farther and farther from Salem, carrying with them Machiventa's gospel of belief and faith in God. ”

“ It may be disappointing, but to all appearance the “mighty king” is the king of Egypt, and not the god of Uru-salim.
Nevertheless, the description of Melchizedek in Heb. vii. 3, “without father, without mother,” makes it a quite legitimate question to ask: may not Abdi-ṭâba, in what he said to his suzerain, have made some mental reservation when writing what he did? ”

“ And Abraham gave him tithes of all." [4]
Michael Glycas says: "Melchizedek, though he is said in the sacred Scriptures to have been without father and mother, yet sprung from Sidos, son of Ægyptos, who built Sidon. When he had built a city on Mount Sion, named Salem, he reigned there thirteen years, and died a just man and a virgin." [5] And Cedrenus: "Melchizedek was the son of King Sidos, son of Ægyptos, but he was said to be without father and mother and of uncertain generation, because he was not of Jewish extraction, and because his parents were bad and not reckoned among the righteous." ”

“ He had once been a simple carpenter and a furious dissenter; but he was converted to Orthodoxy, became a monk, and rose to be Prior and finally Abbot. Yet he always kept the broad shoulders, fine ruddy face, and simple heart of the carpenter.
When the body appeared before the monastery gates, Melchizedek and all his monks came out to meet the martyr’s poor coffin, and escorted it to the grave, singing the funeral music. Not far from his grave rests the dust of another who was dear to us, Venevitínov, and his epitaph runs—
“He knew life well but left it soon”— and Vadim knew it as well. ”

“ The Melchizedeks are well-nigh perfect in wisdom, but they are not infallible in judgment. When detached and alone on planetary missions, they have sometimes erred in minor matters, that is, they have elected to do certain things which their supervisors did not subsequently approve. Such an error of judgment temporarily disqualifies a Melchizedek until he goes to Salvington and, in audience with the Creator Son, receives that instruction which effectually purges him of the disharmony which caused disagreement with his fellows ”

“ He could afford to acknowledge Melchizedek and any other authority that might appear, as his superior, and he would not take advantage, even when at the head of his men eager for more fighting, of the peaceful king who came out to propitiate him, because he knew that God would give him his land without wronging other people. And he scorned the wages of the king of Sodom, holding himself to be no mercenary captain, nor indebted to any one but God. In a word, you see faith producing all that is of importance in his conduct at this time. ”

“ It is likewise hard to think that any mere man should, at this time, be greater than Abram in the things of God, and that Christ should be a priest after the order of any mere man, and that any human priesthood should so far excel that of Aaron as it is certain that Melchizedek's did. 3. The most received opinion is, that Melchizedek was a Canaanite prince, that reigned in Salem, and kept up the true religion there ”

“ The lesson for this week is intensely interesting both to us who are older and to the children, but the points of deepest interest in each case will be different. For us the mysterious Melchizedek, “who passes over the stage a living king and priest,” and then is seen no more, possesses much of charm and fascination. The difference between the Abram who was enriched without protest in Egypt by a heathen king (Genesis 12:16) , and the Abram who disdains to take so much as a shoe lace from the king of Sodom (Genesis 14:23) , is also of interest to us. ”

“ But Melchizedek had no successor; and the Jews themselves admitted that the Christ would abide for ever. The ascending argument of the Apostle proves that He ever liveth, and has, therefore, an immutable priesthood. For, first, He is of the royal tribe, and the oath of God to David guarantees that of his kingdom there shall be no end. Again, in the greatness of His personality, He [128] is endowed with the power of an endless life. Moreover, as Priest He has been established in His office by oath. He is, therefore, Priest for ever. ”

“ The ancients looked upon the sun as the everlasting source of all existence, and personified it in various names; Melchizedek, king of the zodiac, appears to be one of the Bible personifications. But supposing Melchizedek to be not a real person, what becomes of the story of Abraham giving him tithes of his spoils? If this story be not fact, how much is allegory?
Is any portion of the history of Abraham a fact? In chap, xvi., we find part of the history of Hagar and Sarai; while, in Galatians, chap, iv., v. ”

“ But what sanctuary shall He enter? He could not approach the holiest place in the earthly temple. For if He were on earth, He would not be a Priest at all, seeing there are men ordained by the Law to offer the appointed gifts on earth. [145] The Jewish priests have satisfied and exhausted the idea of an earthly priesthood. Even Melchizedek could not found an order. If he may be regarded as an attempt to acclimatise on earth the priesthood of personal greatness, the attempt was a failure. It always fails, though it is always renewed. On earth there can be no order of goodness. ”

“ Even though, judging from Jos 10:1, Jos 10:3, where a much later king is called Adonizedek, i.e., Lord of Righteousness, this name may have been a standing title of the ancient kings of Salem, it no doubt originated with a king who ruled his people in righteousness, and was perfectly appropriate in the case of the Melchizedek mentioned here. There is no less significance in the name of the seat of his government, Salem, the peaceful or peace, since it shows that the capital of its kings was a citadel of peace, not only as a natural stronghold, but through the righteousness of its sovereign ”

“ This description does not answer to any man who ever lived on the face of the earth; nearly everybody claims to have had a father and a grandfather; everybody has had a mother. Everybody was one hour old before he grew older; and after existing some few score years, more or less, every man has, sooner or later, died. So Melchizedek could not have been a man. In Malachi, chap iv., v. ”

“ The Trinity Teacher Sons come the nearest to being the personal representatives of the Universal Father in a local system; they are at least Trinity-origin beings. This second circle is a domain of extraordinary interest to all the peoples of Jerusem.
The third circle is devoted to the Melchizedeks. Here the system chiefs reside and supervise the almost endless activities of these versatile Sons. From the first of the mansion worlds on through all the Jerusem career of ascending mortals, the Melchizedeks are foster fathers and ever-present advisers. ”

“ Also there is supposed to be the confirmation of special events in the scripture narrative. Professor A. H. Sayce, for instance, has the following upon the existence of such a line of kings ruling at Jerusalem as Melchizedek is described to be in Genesis:
"Among the cuneiform tablets found at Tel el-Amarna in Upper Egypt, are letters to the Pharaoh from Ebed-tob, king of Jerusalem, written a century before the time of Moses. ”

“ MELCHITES. The name which is given to the Syriac, Egyptian, and other Christians of the Levant; who, though not Greeks, follow the doctrines and ceremonies of the Greek Church, and submit to the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. The term Melchites is borrowed from the Hebrew or Syriac word Melec, which signifies king. So that Melchites is as much as to say Royalists, and is a term of reproach, given to the orthodox by the Eutychians, or Jacobites, on account of their implicit submission to the edicts of the emperors, for the publication and reception of the above-mentioned council. ”

“ The Apostle, encouraging Believers, who fled for refuge, tells them their fore-runner is gone to heaven, and is acting there as High Priest for them, after the Order of Melchisedec—it is essential to this Order only to make intercession in heaven. From which passage we may then conclude, that Melchisedec and the second Person in the ever blessed Trinity were, and are the same; for none but Christ in our nature ever did, or will intercede for us in heaven. ”

“ Abraham died thirty-five years before Shem reached his five hundred and second year, after the flood. At this date, Isaac was one hundred and ten, and Jacob fifty; so that they were contemporary with Shem for these periods of their lives. There is no account of Shem's death in the scripture; on the contrary, it is testified, as we have seen, that the person called Melchizedec still lives. Now, Meichizedec is a word expressive of the character of the person who bore it. It signifies king of righteousness, or righteous king. ”

“ Gasparde is the French feminine; in English the masculine is Jasper. It is extremely common in Germany; and has suffered the penalty of popularity, for Black Kaspar is a name of the devil, and Kaspar is a Jack Pudding.
Melchior is evidently the universal Eastern Malek, or Melchi (a king) ; but he is in much less favour than his companion; though sometimes found in Italy as Melchiorre, as well as in Germany and Switzerland in his proper form, and in Esthonia contracted to Malk.
Balthasar may be an imitation of Daniel’s Chaldean name of Belteshazzar (Bel’s prince) . ”

“ As soon as the rebel Melchizedec heard Emana Christos was come, and with him the fore-mentioned noblemen, he set himself to exert the utmost of his power to draw together forces of all kinds from every part he could get them, and his army was soon increased to such a degree as, 286 notwithstanding the presence of Emana Christos, to strike terror into all the territory and towns of Dembea. Nothing was wanted but a king of the royal race for whom to fight. ”

“ A “buzzer” whizzed raspingly through Mr. Melchizedech’s office. Composedly the Chief rose from his chair and, crossing the outer room, opened the front door. An enormous man in a black wide-awake hat with a heavy caped ulster faced him. The visitor leaned heavily upon a crutch-handled stick.
“Mr. Melchizedech?” he wheezed, for the stairs had temporarily robbed him of his breath. ”