Question:  Dear Greg,

            Who was King Melchizedek?

            Angie

Answer:  Dear Angie,

            Melchizedek was a priest and the king of Salem (Genesis 14:18).  Salem means peace.  Because very little information is given in the Bible about Melchizedek there has been much speculation about him.

            Some believe that Melchizedek was an angel who took on human form, but Hebrews 5:1 ways priests were human beings.  Some believe that Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, but Hebrews 7:3 says that Melchizedek is “like” the Son of God, not that he was the Eternal Son of God.

            Most Bible scholars believe that Melchizedek was a human being who was a type of Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 7:3 says that he was like Christ in that the Bible gives no evidence where he came from, in some ways like Jesus Christ who had a maternal physical bloodline, but no paternal physical bloodline.  Because Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit to the human mind Jesus Christ “came out of nowhere” – which accounts for the fact that Melchizedek is a mysterious biblical figure, because he was “like” Jesus Christ.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht