Who the heck is Melchizedek?

Abel, Melchizedek, and Abraham making their sacrifices to God.

Before joining the Catholic Church, I had never heard of Melchizedek. If asked, I probably would have confused him with Methuselah and said he was some Old Testament guy that lived a long time.

It turns out he is an Old Testament guy, though I don't know how long he lived. Rather, he is remembered as the model of priesthood. But weren’t there lots of priests in the Old Testament? Why him?

In Genesis 14:18, he is introduced as “king of Salem…and he was priest of God the Most High.” Abram has just returned from recuing his nephew Lot. Melchizedek takes bread and wine and blesses Abram. It is the first instance of priesthood in the Bible, and it includes use of bread and wine, blessings, and tithe.

Melchizedek comes to represent a prefiguration of a king of peace (salem) who brings justice, a priest who honors God, and the offering of the Eucharist. There is some speculation that Melchizedek is the title (“king of righteousness”) for Shem, first-born son of Noah.

However, unlike Levitical priesthood, the priesthood of Melchizedek is not based on heredity. It is a priesthood of diving appointment, a calling to service.

St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote, “The order certainly is that which comes from his sacrifice and which comes down from it: because Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God; because he offered bread; and because he blessed Abraham.  And who is more a priest of the Most High God than our Lord Jesus Christ, who, when He offered sacrifice to God the Father, offered the very same which Melchizedek had offered, namely bread and wine, which is in fact His Body and Blood.”

In Hebrews (referring to Psalm 110), Jesus is called “a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” He is both king and priest. Similarly, when a Christian priest is ordained, he serves in persona Christi and also joins the “order of Melchizedek.”

By virtue of baptism, all Christians shares in Christ’s priesthood and are called to offer sacrifices of ourselves. Some receive a special calling to the vocation of priesthood, a diving appointment not based on heredity.

The Catechism says, “The Christian tradition considers Melchizedek, ‘priest of God Most High,’ as a prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique ‘high priest after the order of Melchizedek’; ‘holy, blameless, unstained,’ ‘by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified,’ that is, by the unique sacrifice of the cross (1544).”