"And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the most high God.
And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.
And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand." GENESIS 14:18-20
The Priest-King Melchizedek gets only these few, suggestive lines in the whole of the Old Testament and yet in esoteric circles he is one of the most important figures in the Bible. Only Enoch, the righteous man 'who walked with God and was transported' has an similarly enormous tradition attached to such a fleeting mention. As the High Priest of a mysterious religious Order he was especially important to the Knights Templar who included him along with Solomon in one of their most important stained glass windows in Chartres Cathedral. Given that this is one of their most mysterious buildings, steeped in alchemical, astrological and esoteric symbolism and the one most assocaited with the Templar connection with the Ark of the Covenant, the fact that Melchizedek is featured there indicates that something unusual is going on. In the Gnostic PISTIS SOPHIA, he appears as a key player alongside Christ in the process of releasing souls from the darkness of the World of Matter to the Light Realms of God. So who is this man and why is is he so important?
Melchizedek appears fleetingly in the Old Testament in the brief passage mentioned above. He is described as the Priest of the most high God and comes out to meet Abraham after a major battle to give him 'bread and wine'. Significantly, Abraham is still called Abram at this point. He does not take on the later name until the Covenant is fully established and God is pleased with him. If this is so, then Melchizedek, as the Priest of the most high God, is a servant of God even BEFORE Abraham. Given that Abraham is regarded as the Patriarch of all the so-called 'Abrahamic Religions' (ie Judaism, Christianity and Islam) the fact that a Priest exists who is connected to God BEFORE Abraham's Covenant is established is quite remarkable. Melchizedek is clearly intended to be seen as the representative of a spiritual tradition which predates even Abraham. He is also not part of the dynastic bloodline of Noah, which makes this fact doubly significant. Melchizedek is a High Priest from an entirely different lineage.
Melchizedek offers Abraham 'bread and wine', blesses him and offers up a prayer to God. In esoteric terms, he is Initiating Abraham. A ritual is taking place in which Abraham is being sanctified in the name of the Most High. Melchizedek is translated as 'King of Righteousness' or 'King of Justice' and presumably has etymological links to Melchior, the name of one of the Three Wise Men of the Nativity and Zadok the Priest mentioned later in the Bible. He is from the city of Salem, meaning Peace (cf Shalom/Salaam). That the Initiation of Abraham involves bread and wine is extremely significant as it presages in a very profound way the ritual of the Last Supper:
"And as they were eating, Jesus tool bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." MATTHEW 26: 26-28
The symbolism of wine and bread is highly complex, and central to the Christian Mystery. The act of Communion inaugerated in the Last Supper is designed to evoke the taking on of Christ's nature through the ritual of eating the bread and drinking the wine which Christ's flesh and blood respectively. But it does not stop here. Bread and wine also represent the universal iconography of the White and Red of Initiation. From the white and red roses of Alchemy to the red and white triangles of the Sri Yantra, from the red and white outer pillars of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life to the red and white elements of the Pharoanic Crown, all symbolise the union of the Female and Male principles, symbolsing Wholeness and the Divine Marriage. On their most primal and physical levels, red symbolises menstrual blood while white signifies semen (female and male again), the two sacred bodily fluids of the early Gnostics and other Pagan Rites. This image of the Divine Union is contained within the iconography of the Last Supper and the Act of Communion both of which are clearly meant to echo the Rite of Initiation that Melchizedek carries out with Abraham.
But the mystery of Christ's connection with Melchizedek does not stop there, for the biggest exposition on Melchizedek does not occur in the Old Testament but in the New, in the anonymous, and highly unusual EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. Historically this Epistle has been attributed to Paul, but modern scholars are not so sure. Apart from the usual doubts about style, HEBREWS conveys such an unorthodox and usually passed over view of Christ, not as the Son of God so much as a member of an apparently eternal Order of Melchizedek that it feels very out of place in Paul's canon. And yet it is here, perhaps, that the esoteric Mystery of Melchizedek really comes to the fore. For according the author of the EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, Melchizedek was more than human:
"For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of Peace;
Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." HEBREWS 7:1-3
Here, at the heart of the New Testament, which is usually thought of as a celebration of the uniqueness of Christ, Melchizedek is being described as a superhuman figure, eternal, unbegotten, a High Priest of God outside Time and Space; a High Priest who initiated Abraham into the Mysteries of the Most High God, linked, therefore, to Moses, Aaron and by extension the whole Priest Caste of the Tribe of Levi, the Cohanim (linked but superior, by dint of his immortality).
But this is not all, for according to the EPISTLE OF THE HEBREWS, Christ himself is the new High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek. Indeed he is the first to appear who is of the same nature as the original Melchizedek, eternal, unbegotten, immortal.:
"For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
And it is yet far more evident : for that after the similitude of Melchizedek there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of eternal life.
For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." HEBREWS 7:14-17
The Priest-King Melchizedek gets only these few, suggestive lines in the whole of the Old Testament and yet in esoteric circles he is one of the most important figures in the Bible. Only Enoch, the righteous man 'who walked with God and was transported' has an similarly enormous tradition attached to such a fleeting mention. As the High Priest of a mysterious religious Order he was especially important to the Knights Templar who included him along with Solomon in one of their most important stained glass windows in Chartres Cathedral. Given that this is one of their most mysterious buildings, steeped in alchemical, astrological and esoteric symbolism and the one most assocaited with the Templar connection with the Ark of the Covenant, the fact that Melchizedek is featured there indicates that something unusual is going on. In the Gnostic PISTIS SOPHIA, he appears as a key player alongside Christ in the process of releasing souls from the darkness of the World of Matter to the Light Realms of God. So who is this man and why is is he so important?
Melchizedek appears fleetingly in the Old Testament in the brief passage mentioned above. He is described as the Priest of the most high God and comes out to meet Abraham after a major battle to give him 'bread and wine'. Significantly, Abraham is still called Abram at this point. He does not take on the later name until the Covenant is fully established and God is pleased with him. If this is so, then Melchizedek, as the Priest of the most high God, is a servant of God even BEFORE Abraham. Given that Abraham is regarded as the Patriarch of all the so-called 'Abrahamic Religions' (ie Judaism, Christianity and Islam) the fact that a Priest exists who is connected to God BEFORE Abraham's Covenant is established is quite remarkable. Melchizedek is clearly intended to be seen as the representative of a spiritual tradition which predates even Abraham. He is also not part of the dynastic bloodline of Noah, which makes this fact doubly significant. Melchizedek is a High Priest from an entirely different lineage.Melchizedek offers Abraham 'bread and wine', blesses him and offers up a prayer to God. In esoteric terms, he is Initiating Abraham. A ritual is taking place in which Abraham is being sanctified in the name of the Most High. Melchizedek is translated as 'King of Righteousness' or 'King of Justice' and presumably has etymological links to Melchior, the name of one of the Three Wise Men of the Nativity and Zadok the Priest mentioned later in the Bible. He is from the city of Salem, meaning Peace (cf Shalom/Salaam). That the Initiation of Abraham involves bread and wine is extremely significant as it presages in a very profound way the ritual of the Last Supper:
"And as they were eating, Jesus tool bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." MATTHEW 26: 26-28
The symbolism of wine and bread is highly complex, and central to the Christian Mystery. The act of Communion inaugerated in the Last Supper is designed to evoke the taking on of Christ's nature through the ritual of eating the bread and drinking the wine which Christ's flesh and blood respectively. But it does not stop here. Bread and wine also represent the universal iconography of the White and Red of Initiation. From the white and red roses of Alchemy to the red and white triangles of the Sri Yantra, from the red and white outer pillars of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life to the red and white elements of the Pharoanic Crown, all symbolise the union of the Female and Male principles, symbolsing Wholeness and the Divine Marriage. On their most primal and physical levels, red symbolises menstrual blood while white signifies semen (female and male again), the two sacred bodily fluids of the early Gnostics and other Pagan Rites. This image of the Divine Union is contained within the iconography of the Last Supper and the Act of Communion both of which are clearly meant to echo the Rite of Initiation that Melchizedek carries out with Abraham.
But the mystery of Christ's connection with Melchizedek does not stop there, for the biggest exposition on Melchizedek does not occur in the Old Testament but in the New, in the anonymous, and highly unusual EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. Historically this Epistle has been attributed to Paul, but modern scholars are not so sure. Apart from the usual doubts about style, HEBREWS conveys such an unorthodox and usually passed over view of Christ, not as the Son of God so much as a member of an apparently eternal Order of Melchizedek that it feels very out of place in Paul's canon. And yet it is here, perhaps, that the esoteric Mystery of Melchizedek really comes to the fore. For according the author of the EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, Melchizedek was more than human:
"For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of Peace;
Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." HEBREWS 7:1-3
Here, at the heart of the New Testament, which is usually thought of as a celebration of the uniqueness of Christ, Melchizedek is being described as a superhuman figure, eternal, unbegotten, a High Priest of God outside Time and Space; a High Priest who initiated Abraham into the Mysteries of the Most High God, linked, therefore, to Moses, Aaron and by extension the whole Priest Caste of the Tribe of Levi, the Cohanim (linked but superior, by dint of his immortality).But this is not all, for according to the EPISTLE OF THE HEBREWS, Christ himself is the new High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek. Indeed he is the first to appear who is of the same nature as the original Melchizedek, eternal, unbegotten, immortal.:
"For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
And it is yet far more evident : for that after the similitude of Melchizedek there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of eternal life.
For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." HEBREWS 7:14-17
And further, Christ only becomes part of this Order at his baptism at the River Jordan at the hands of John. In other words, he does not achieve his Immortal status, or become Divine, until he encounters the Holy Spirit in the form of the Dove. This is not what one usually hears about Christ and brings the EPSITLE closer to the position of the Gnostics:
"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said of him [ie God], Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.
As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek." HEBREWS 5:5-6
This, then, is the strangeness of the EPISTLE OF THE HEBREWS and the origin of the whole issue of the Order of Melchisedek. The politics of it are one thing. It is clearly written as a refutation of Judaism and a championing of the new revelation of Christianity as a superior religion, but its view of Christ and the discussion of this mysterious Order of Melchizedek with its immortal High Priest of which he is a member is something else altogether. Moreover, it does not occur anywhere else in the Bible, even though the tone of the EPISTLE suggests that it is not an unfamiliar concept to the reader.
Herein lies Melchizedek's fascination and, presumably, the interest the Templars had in him as the individual presiding over a hidden Order which bore the deepest secrets of God. If the EPISTLE is written by Paul, perhaps this is part of the 'Hidden Wisdom' which he refers to in COLOSSIANS and CORINTHIANS which he asserts is behind the new dispensation which is Christianity? Alternatively, it could all be a metaphor, the author of HEBREWS simply wanting to identify Christ with a more ancient spirituality than that of Moses, thus linking Christianity back to Abraham. Whatever the case the mystery of Melchizedek is one of the most enduring riddles of the Bible...
