The sect of the Melchizedechians described by Epiphanius (
Haer.
lv.) offers some points of interest. As an offshoot of the Theodotians (Epiph.
l. c.
i.; p. 468) they started from humanitarian views of Christ, and naturally looked for some higher Mediator. Melchizedek, they argued, was higher than Christ, because Christ was appointed after his order. Christ was ordained by God to turn men from idols and shew them the way to the true knowledge of this eternal High-priest. They therefore made their offerings to the name of Melchizedek (§ 8
eij" o[noma touvtou tou' Melcisede;k hJ...ai{resi" kai; ta;" prosfora;" ajnafevrei
), in order that through him offerings might be made
(
prosenecqh'/
) for them and they might find life through him. He was in their judgment the priest who brought men to God (
eijsagwgeu;" pro;" to;n qeovn
).
The tradition, or fiction, as to Melchizedek in the Book of Adam is singularly picturesque. To him and Shem, it is said, the charge was given to bear the body of Adam to Calvary, and place it there where in after time the Incarnate Word should suffer, so that the blood of the Saviour might fall on the skull of the Protoplast. In the fulfilment of this mission Melchizedek built an altar of twelve stones, typical of the twelve apostles, by the spot where Adam was laid, and offered upon it, by the direction of an angel, bread and wine as a symbol of the sacrifice which Christ should make in due time. When the mission was accomplished Shem returned to his old home, but Melchizedek, divinely appointed to this priesthood, continued to serve God with prayer and fasting at the holy place, arrayed in a robe of fire. So afterwards when Abraham came to the neighbourhood he communicated to him also the holy mysteries, the symbolical Eucharist. (Dillmann,
Das Christl. Adambuch d. Morgenl.
ss. 111 ff., 1853.)
Additional Note on Hebrews 7:1. The Biblical Idea of Blessing.
The idea of blessing in its simplest form, the solemn expression, that is, of goodwill towards another by one who occupies in this respect a position of superiority towards him, is a natural recognition of the spiritual influence of man upon man. The idea often becomes degraded, materialised, perverted: it gives rise to the opposite conception of cursing; but in Scripture it assumes a characteristic form which throws light upon the Biblical teaching as to man's relation to God.
The two words which are used in the Old and New Testaments for
blessing ËrEBe ( Ër"B; , H1385) and eujlogei'n appear to convey two fundamental
thoughts which are included in the act. The first ( ËrEBe ), from a root which
describes kneeling, prostration, seems to express the feeling of reverent adoration which arises from the recognition of a spiritual presence by him who blesses; and the second ( eujlogei'n ) marks the utterance of the good which is supposed to be prophetically seen or ideally anticipated and realised. Thus the two words when taken together describe the conception of blessing in its loftiest sense as involving a true perception of what God is and what His will is, both generally and towards the person over whom it is pronounced, according as the blessing is addressed to God Himself or to man.
The patriarchal blessings bring out this idea of blessing distinctly. This appears in the first exercise of the father's prophetic power (Gen. 9:25 ff.). The curse and the blessing of Noah pronounced upon his sons is the