Who is Melchizedek and what’s his significance?

The Sacrifice of Melchizedek by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, c.1742

Melchizedek is a mysterious figure, appearing once and then referred to less than a handful of times elsewhere in the Scriptures. And yet, he is an important figure that helps us better understand Jesus Christ. Our Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews speaks about the High Priesthood of Jesus as the mediator of the New Covenant and then briefly mentions Melchizedek at the end of the passage. So who is Melchizedek?

Melchizedek first shows up in Genesis chapter 14. Abram’s nephew Lot has been captured by wicked kings and so Abram leads his tribe against their tribes in battle to rescue him. After victory, Abram, who would eventually be renamed Abraham, wants to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for the victory. To do so, Abram meets up with this mysterious friendly king of Salem, Melchizedek. This king happens to be a “priest of God Most High”, offers a sacrifice of bread and wine, and gives a blessing to Abram. Abram then gives him a tithe. And that’s it; that’s the end of Melchizedek’s story. He kind of comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere– never heard of again. 

His name only briefly comes up later in Psalm 110, which refers to King David: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” The psalm here is speaking of the fact that Melchizedek was both a priest and king, as King David is. This is also in contrast to the Levitical priesthood associated with the tribe of Levites that came to be exercised in Exodus with Aaron as the first appointed priest of this tribe. The psalmist ties King David’s priesthood to Melchizedek’s rather than the Levitical priesthood since David was not a descendant of that tribe. This psalm is quoted again in the New Testament in our Letter to the Hebrews now, not to refer to King David, but to Jesus Christ. Like King David, and according to genealogy, in the line of King David, Jesus is both a king and high priest, but not as Aaron was for the Levites, but as Melchizedek was, far before Aaron was on the scene. There was a sort of “natural” or more primordial priesthood that can be seen prior to Exodus in the patriarchs before it became more restricted to the Levites with Aaron after the false worship that is offered at the foot of Mount Sinai when the people fall into idolatry.

How is Melchizedek significant for understanding Christ? Well, it doesn’t take a Catholic rocket scientist to connect Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine as a sacrifice to God in thanksgiving over a victory of battle with evil and what Jesus does in the Eucharist. The Hebrew name of Melchizedek is significant as well, meaning “king of righteousness”. Geography is also important here in that Melchizedek is the king of Salem. Psalm 76 locates Salem as being in Zion, the city of Judah that would later be known as Jerusalem. This is the same place where Jesus, as the king of righteousness, would offer his thanksgiving sacrifice for the victory over death and a greater evil far worse than earthly kings, the evil of Satan himself. The connection between Melchizedek is not simply coincidence, but biblical prophecy pointing forward thousands of years to what Jesus would later accomplish and fulfill in the events of Holy Week.

The Church mentions Melchizedek as well in relation to the Mass within the catechism. “Thus in the Offertory we give thanks to the Creator for bread and wine, fruit of the "work of human hands," but above all as "fruit of the earth" and "of the vine" — gifts of the Creator. The Church sees in the gesture of the king-priest Melchizedek, who "brought out bread and wine," a prefiguring of her own offering” (CCC 1333). In the Mass, we too offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, not only for the gift of creation, but especially of redemption, mirroring the offering of Melchizedek but united to that of Christ’s offering. This is spelled out even more explicitly in the Roman Canon (Eucharist Prayer 1) after the Institution Narrative of the Last Supper; “Be pleased to look upon these offerings with a serene and kindly countenance, as once you were please to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the just, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Mechizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.” We see in all these old figures and their sacrificial offerings as prophecies of the Lord’s own sacrifice.

7th century mosaic depicting the offerings of Abel, Abraham, and Melchizedek in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare

Blessed be God Most High.

Fr. Brian Trueman