There are a two main suggestions as to who he was, but both seem to be
based on assumptions:
Shem
"It is probable that Shem was the personage to whom Abraham paid tithes on his return from the slaughter of the kings. 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... the person called Melchizedec still lives. Now, Melchizedec is a word expressive of the character of the person who bore it. It signifies king of righteousness, or righteous king. He was the greatest king in Canaan, and reigned in Salem, which signifies peace, and is afterwards called Jerusalem; so that this righteous king was King of Peace. Shem, king of righteousness, and king of peace, and priest of the Most High God, is the type, contemporary with the holder of the promises, of the Seed, or Christ, on the throne of the Kingdom of God."John Thomas
A verse that could be used to support this is:
"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem!..."Genesis 9:26, NIV
In the Mormon book, Doctrine and Covenants (138:41), Shem is identified
as a great high priest. In the Apocrapha, Jasher (16:11) also says that
Melchizedek was "the same as Shem..." Hebrew tradition indicates
that at this time Shem was the oldest living human alive; making it appear
to those around him that he had no parents or relatives. Generations would
come and go, and Shem would still be there. But none of these sources
are inspired, none carry any authority.
- How would an elderly geriatric rule and protect a town?
- How can one prove that it was Shem?
Christ
This is an idea put forward by Herbert Armstrong, Plain Truth:
Since Jesus is known as the Prince of Peace, surely no other human can
be called the King of Peace... Also note that he had no father or mother or
family tree. He didn't lose his records, they say, since he couldn't have
become a priest (Ezra 2:62), but since he had "neither beginning of days,
nor end of life" (Heb 7:3), he has aways existed from eternity: that is,
he is part of the Diety!
Because Mechizedek is always a high priest ("abides continually"), he must
be Jesus Christ.
From fragments of writings near where the Dead Sea Scrolls where found,
shows that this idea was also held strongly by the Qumran community, as
well as some Jewish and Gnostic sects of the first century AD.
But in Hebrews it says that Melchizedek was "like the Son of God", providing a simple argument against this
interpretation. The Greek word for "like" used in this verse is
used to describe two separate identities, one of which is a copy of the
other.
Himself
This may seem hard to believe, but Melchizedek was just himself. Divinely
appointed by God for the role of High Priest, he was fully human, had
parents, was born, lived, and died. [this covered on the next page]
He did not need to prove his pedigree to become a Levite Priest (Ezra 2:62), since 400
years were to elapse before these priests came into existance.
King of Salem
It seems that everyone agrees on this one point. Melchizedek was the
king of a town called Salem. The word "Salem" means peace.
But even when it is clear that this is Jerusalem, (e.g. Psalm 76:2), there
are still other interpretations:
There are two points to be made from this quote.
- The passage of "scripture" quoted, is in no way scriptual. It
only appears in the Joseph Smith Translation.
- Salem is not a name for Saturn: another Hebrew word is used. In
Amos 5:26, the word pedestal ("Kaiwan" in the
footnotes of the NIV) most likely refers to Saturn. See Gesenius
A suggestion that since he was king of a town, he was also of "royal"
descent, that is his father was king before him, sounds plausible.
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