Melchizedek

[Benadam]

; and Terah could not bless. So Melchizedek took Shem’s place and did what Shem would have done: he blessed Abraham, and was called Shem.
(N.B.: The version of the Old Testament in use in the Armenian Church is based from the Septuagint according to Origen’s Hexapla)
I read that Melchisidek isn’t a name but a title. Righteous king I think. That it was similar to the Pope taking a new name as Pope. Catholic encyclopedia if I remember correctly.

 

[patrick457]

I read that Melchisidek isn’t a name but a title. Righteous king I think. That it was similar to the Pope taking a new name as Pope. Catholic encyclopedia if I remember correctly.

That’s certainly one way of interpreting his name.

The term malkî-ṣéḏeq can be taken as ‘righteous king/king of righteousness’ or ‘king of Zedek’; the former is the sense that Philo, Josephus, and the writer of Hebrews understood the name. Here, the î is taken as as being the old genitive ending usually called the hireq compaginis, which expresses a genitive relationship, yielding ‘king-of’ for malkî.

If we take the -î as a first person possessive pronoun, however, it would be rendered as ‘my king’: ‘my king is righteous(ness)’ or even ‘Zedek is my king’ (some believe that ṣéḏeq here is a reference to an attested Phoenician/Canaanite god named Suduk; in this idea, ‘zedek’ was apparently known and used as a divine name/title).

If we take this as a title, then it’s kinda like Abimelech (Ăḇîméleḵ): that name appears often in the Bible, but because in Hebrew the name means either ‘father of a king’ (again, a hireq compaginis) or ‘my father is king’ (first person possessive) or even ‘my father is Moloch’ (taking MLK to be either a reference to the god Moloch), it could simply be a title of sorts rather than an actual personal name.

 

[ryanoneil]

That’s certainly one way of interpreting his name.

The term malkî-ṣéḏeq can be taken as ‘righteous king/king of righteousness’ or ‘king of Zedek’; the former is the sense that Philo, Josephus, and the writer of Hebrews understood the name. Here, the î is taken as as being the old genitive ending usually called the hireq compaginis, which expresses a genitive relationship, yielding ‘king-of’ for malkî.

If we take the -î as a first person possessive pronoun, however, it would be rendered as ‘my king’: ‘my king is righteous(ness)’ or even ‘Zedek is my king’ (some believe that ṣéḏeq here is a reference to an attested Phoenician/Canaanite god named Suduk; in this idea, ‘zedek’ was apparently known and used as a divine name/title).

If we take this as a title, then it’s kinda like Abimelech (Ăḇîméleḵ): that name appears often in the Bible, but because in Hebrew the name means either ‘father of a king’ (again, a hireq compaginis) or ‘my father is king’ (first person possessive) or even ‘my father is Moloch’ (taking MLK to be either a reference to the god Moloch), it could simply be a title of sorts rather than an actual personal name.

That is interesting. The zedek part seems seems off though. Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High, not a lesser god.

Would it be a stretch to link “my king is righteousness” with this? He also said: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! (Gen 9:26)

This is the first time in Scripture that God is identified with any one human being. God is designated as “the God of Shem” - a sign of Shem’s great righteousness and stature before God.