Meaning of MELCHIZEDEK

"king of justice."
King of Salem (probably Jerusalem, cf. Ps. 76:3) and priest of the Most High (Gen. 14:18).

He went to meet Abraham, victorious in the battle of the kings who had taken Lot prisoner; He offered him bread and wine, and blessed him. For his part, the patriarch gave him a tithe of the loot.

The Epistle to the Hebrews makes a notable typological application of this mysterious appearance. Aaron, with his successors, was an anticipatory figure of Christ, our High Priest, considered above all in his work of atonement (Lev. 16; Heb. 9:11-12:24).

But since Aaron was a sinner and mortal, his priesthood had to be transmitted with constant interruptions; On the other hand, he was insufficient, because he could offer nothing more than symbols (animal sacrifices) that represented the great sacrifice of the cross (Heb. 7:23, 27; 10: 1-4).

The redeemer of the world, considered in his resurrection and his perpetual office, had to exercise a priesthood of an entirely different order: that of Melchizedek.

In effect, Melchizedek was:
(a) King and priest (Gen. 14:18), in the same way that Christ will be king and priest on his throne (Zech. 6: 12-13).

(b) King of justice according to the meaning of his name, and King of Peace (Heb. 7:2), two terms that equally characterize the Messiah (Is. 9:5; 11:5; 32:1; Jer. 23 :5-6; 72:1-3, 7).

(c) Melchizedek is “without father, nor mother, without genealogy; for he has neither beginning of days nor end of life »(Heb. 7: 3). Its beginning and end are unknown; He does not appear in any Levitical genealogy, the only one recognized; It is even unknown who his father and mother were.

In this, Melchizedek is the type of eternal Christ, who suddenly appears in the midst of Israel without descending from Aaron and without belonging to the priestly tribe, and who by the power of his resurrection remains our high priest forever (Heb. 8: 13-16, 24: Jn. 1:1; 8:58; Rom. 6:9).

(d) Unlike Aaron, it is by oath that God directly confers upon his Son this priesthood, in the same way that the consecration of Melchizedek was not made by the established way in Israel (Ps. 110:4; Heb. 7 : 2-22).

(e) Melchizedek offered Abraham bread and wine as a communion meal (Gen. 14:18). This brings the thought to the bread and wine of the supper that is taken in memory of the sacrifice already consummated on the cross (Lk. 22:15-20).

(f) Melchizedek received from Abraham (and consequently from Levi, who was yet to come from him) the tithe of everything. He shows himself superior to the patriarch, to whom he gave his blessing; Therefore, his priesthood is of a higher order than that of the Levitical priests and that of Aaron (Heb. 7: 4-10).

Thus, the priesthood of Christ surpasses in excellence all Jewish and human priesthoods (Heb. 7:26-28). Thus it becomes the basis of the New Covenant, announced by the prophets and infinitely superior to the Old (Heb. 7:11-12, 22; 8:6-12).

This type of Melchizedek thus exalts the unique and totally effective and non-transmittable ministry of the eternal Son of God. Therefore, the practice of the Church of Rome of applying to each of its priests the pronouncement: "You are a priest, according to the order of Melchizedek" constitutes a serious error.

It is evident that this claim lacks foundation, since this priesthood of Christ is non-transferable (cf. the original Greek in Heb. 7:24, "aparabaton", in the interlinear Greek-Spanish New Testament [Clíe, Terrassa, 1984] ).

In Christ, all believers are part of the royal priesthood in which He has been pleased to associate us (1 Pet. 2:5, 9-10; Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10). In contrast to the clear statements of the Scriptures, one can also mention the confusion into which the Mormons have fallen, who also seek to perpetuate in their "Church of Latter-day Saints" not only the priesthood of Melchizedek, but together and in parallel with this also that of Aaron.