From Eliyahu
Consider this:
Month 7 is now over, and
I would like to start this newsletter by saying thanks to our Tsiyon members
and friends who enjoyed that special month with us. Thanks also for your
uplifting messages of appreciation for what we've done here, and what we
have shared with you about it during month 7. Your prayers and support have
helped to keep us going through the years, and we are grateful!
Our final message was
entitled Melchizedek Mysteries Revealed. This message includes some
rather amazing information relative to Melchizedek, named in just three
books of the Bible, and named only twice in all of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Amazingly, the ancient temple of Melchizedek was recently unearth in the
City of David archeological site, providing new information to help us
understand the mystery of Melchizedek better than ever before. A number of
you let us know you appreciated the significance of our presentation, which
was great to hear. However, as we would expect, all of this also brings up a
question that needs to be answered. (Gen 14:18, Psalm 110:4, See also
Hebrews 5, 6, 7)
One brother put the main
question this way:
"Identifying Melchizedek as Shem certainly
makes sense and would resolve the mystery, but Shem did have a father, a
mother and a genealogy which Hebrews 7::3 says Melchizedek did NOT have.
I've always thought it was a pre-incarnate materialization of Christ ?"
This brother raises an excellent question, in
view of Hebrews 7:3 as we find it in the King James Version Bible:
"For this Melchisedec, 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 [G540], without mother[G282], without descent [G35], 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 KJV
"Without father, without mother, without
descent" [as translated] certainly means Melchizedek was an eternal being.
Some other Bibles echo this KJV translation. Yet, that does not fit the
pattern of a mortal man at all. What is going on here? When I come across a
verse like this that doesn't seem to fit with the larger teaching of
Scripture I think it is time to look more closely at how the verse is
translated. Unfortunately, Bible translators are not perfect and sometimes
misunderstand a given verse, so don't get it translated exactly right. That
is definitely the case here.
According to Strong's Greek Dictionary,
we have these definitions:
Without father - G540 - ap-at'-ore - Lit.:
of unrecorded paternity
without mother - G282 - am-ay'-tore -
Lit.: of unknown maternity
without descent - G35 -
ag-en-eh-al-og'-ay-tos - Lit.: unregistered birth
Unrecorded paternity does not mean the
same thing as "without father". "Of unknown maternity" does not mean
the same thing as "without mother". Neither does "of unregistered
birth" mean the same as "without descent".
What we should readily see from the literal
Greek is that the author of Hebrews is not trying to say that
Melchizedek is literally an eternal being. Indeed, if Melchizedek literally
"abideth a priest continually" then why wasn't he found ministering there
when his temple was recently unearthed? Obviously, Hebrews does not mean to
say that Melchizedek is still literally serving as a priest. If Melchizedek
himself would forever be filling that priestly role, he would be leaving no
room for Messiah to fill it. This logical problem is why some teach that
Melchizedek himself is the same person as the Messiah. Yet, Hebrews says
Melchizedek is "made like unto the Son of God." To be "like" someone
never identifies a person as being the same person that one is "like."
Instead it means there is a comparison between the two.
In short, Hebrews is using the unrecorded
status of Melchizedek as an allegory picturing the eternal priesthood of
Yeshua. It is a literary illustration of the larger spiritual truth
regarding Yeshua. There is nothing about this that prevents us from using
further information to identify the actual Melchizedek in order to better
understand his significance. That is what we have done in our presentation
of
Melchizedek Mysteries Revealed.
