Genesis 14:18

Hebrew Bible

16 He retrieved all the stolen property. He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, as well as the women and the rest of the people. 17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram in the Valley of Shaveh (known as the King’s Valley). 18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.) 19 He blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 Worthy of praise is the Most High God, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.

Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1.10.2

Classical

2 After rescuing the Sodomite captives, including Lot, Abraham came home in peace. The king of Sodom met him in the King’s dale, where Melchizedek, king of Salem (meaning “righteous king,” an apt title, for he truly was righteous) and also priest of God, welcomed him and his men generously, providing abundant provisions. As they dined, he praised Abraham and blessed God for subduing his enemies beneath him. After Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils, Melchizedek gladly accepted. The king of Sodom requested that Abraham keep the loot but restore his citizens, and Abraham refused the reward, taking only what his men had already eaten, but still insisting his three friends—Eschol, Enner, and Mambre—take their rightful share.

 Notes and References

"... Melchizedek is a priest: although Targum Pseudo-Jonathan does not use the word khn here, Shem is so styled in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 38:6, 24. Furthermore, the expression ‘at that time he was ministering’ makes best sense if ‘ministering’, mšmš, is taken to mean ‘acting as priest’, since an ordered temporal succession of priests is attested elsewhere in rabbinic tradition. The title Shem the Great suggests a well-known worthy with a history to his credit: what this might be, we shall discover presently. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan uniquely calls him the righteous king, an interpretation of the name Melchizedek found also in Philo and Josephus. This meaning of the name was known also to the writer of Hebrews 7:2, as is Targum Pseudo-Jonathan’s note that he ‘went out to meet Abram’. None of these unique details in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan seems directed against Christianity. Rather, the Epistle to the Hebrews may here be dependent on Jewish tradition episodes from Genesis certainly pre-dates the Christian era, and is intent on presenting Abraham as a sacrificing priest ..."

Hayward, Robert Targums and the Transmission of Scripture into Judaism and Christianity (pp. 9-10) Brill, 2010

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.