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Melchizedek: a Model for the Union of Kingship and Priesthood in the Hebrew Bible, 11Qmelchizedek, and the Epistle to the Hebrews

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Melchizedek: a Model for the Union of Kingship and Priesthood in the Hebrew Bible, 11Qmelchizedek, and the Epistle to the Hebrews MELCHIZEDEK: A MODEL FOR THE UNION OF KINGSHIP AND PRIESTHOOD IN THE HEBREW BIBLE, 11QMELCHIZEDEK, AND THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS Israel Knohl The Hebrew University of Jerusalem A. Melchizedek in the Hebrew Bible The titleMessiah and the verbs connected with it appear in different contexts within different parts of the Hebrew Bible. In the Torah, in is applied to the High Priest, who משיח the book of Leviticus, the term is anointed with the holy oil. So we read in the law of the sin offering in Lev 4:3: אם הכהן המשיח יחטא לאשמת העם If the priest, the anointed one, do sin, bringing guilt on the people . .1 The anointed one spoken of in Leviticus, the High Priest, is only a cultic leader. He has no political role. The priestly writings of the Pentateuch reject any combination of political and priestly roles. Thus, in the story of the rebellion of Korah, the 250 tribal chieftains who claimed priestly prerogatives were destroyed by fire: “And fire went forth from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense” (Num 16:35). This story appears to reflect the objection of the priesthood2 to the tendency of the Israelite kings to claim the right of performing cultic acts. The best example of such a clash between the priests and the king 1 See further Lev 6:15; 16:32; 21:10. 2 In my view, this story stems from the “Holiness School”; see I. Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 73–85. I believe that the tradition in Num 27:12–23 stems from the same school. The reference to inquiry through the Urim and Thummim in a time of war cannot be regarded as a priestly political role. This custom is mentioned in various places in the Bible (see Knohl, Sanctuary, 164 n. 157), but the priest plays only an instrumental role in it. 256 israel knohl is the story told about King Uzziah in Chronicles, a text which itself reflects the priestly point of view:3 When he was strong, he grew so arrogant he acted corruptly: he trespassed against his God by entering the Temple of the Lord to offer incense on the incense altar. The priest Azariah, with eighty other brave priests of the Lord, followed him in and, confronting King Uzziah, said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to the Lord, but for the Aaronite priests, who have been consecrated, to offer incense. Get out of the Sanctuary, for you have trespassed, there will be no glory for you from the Lord God.” Uzziah, holding the censer and ready to burn incense, got angry; but as he got angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in front of the priests in the House of the Lord beside the incense altar. When the chief priest Azariah and all the other priests looked at him, his forehead was leprous, so they rushed him out of there; he, too, made haste to get out for the Lord had struck him with a plague. (2 Chr 26:16–20) The High Priest bore on his forehead a frontlet of pure gold, which was engraved with the inscription “Holy to the Lord” (Exod 28:36–38). Uzziah wanted to act as a High Priest but God struck him and his forehead became leprous. Instead of a symbol of holiness, his forehead was marked with a symbol of impurity!4 According to the Torah, and reflected in this passage from Chronicles, the only legitimate example of the combination of priesthood and kingship in the same person is to be found outside the people of Israel: Melchizedek, the Canaanite king of Shalem/Jerusalem, was at the same time a priest of God Most High (Gen 14:18).5 In other parts of the Bible, the title Messiah is fundamentally con- nected, not with the High Priest, but rather with the king. In the his- torical books we find this title given to the current king of Israel, who 3 The Book of Chronicles usually follows the views of the priestly sources of the Pentateuch with regard to cultic issues; see E. L. Curtis and A. A. Madsen, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles (ICC 11; New York: Scribner, 1910), 502. 4 See Lev 13:45. On the story of Uzziah see E. Greenstein, “An Inner-Biblical Midrash of the Nadav and Avihu Episode,” Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies. Division A: The Bible and Its World (ed. D. Assaf; Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1994), 71–78 (Hebrew). 5 For the evidence that Canaanite kings could also be priests, see J. Day, “The Canaanite Inheritance of the Israelite Monarchy,” in King and Messiah in Israel and the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar (ed. J. Day; JSOTSup 270; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 74–75..
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