Abstract
BRIEF indeed is the original documentary evidence for the existence of Melchisedech, priest and king of Salem. Three verses of Genesis (14, 18-20) picture him succinctly and then allow him to pass quietly out of the life-story of Abraham. But this dignitary, though he ruled a tiny state, and must have been very insignificant in comparison to other rulers of his time, has been from his day to our own a subject of interest; first to the Hebrews, then, after the famous comparison between Christ and Melchisedech in the Epistle to the Hebrews, to the Christians. Among the Christians themselves, he has been a center of controversy. The early Trinitarian heretics and Gnostics chose him as a figure around which to weave error and speculation. The Reformation period found him the object of countless treatises in connection with the question of sacrifice. Criticism relegated him to mythology, but seems today ready to treat him less unkindly. Since Paul, at least, we find him a constant topic of exegetical interest. Of the many questions that arise in the study of Genesis 14 we are going to limit ourselves to one: Was there a sacrifice on the occasion of the meeting of Abraham and Melchisedech? A strictly literal translation of the passage runs as follows:
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