In the Hebrew Bible, Melchizedek was the king of Salem and priest of El Elyon (often translated as "God Most High"). He is mentioned in Genesis 14:18–20, where he brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram (Abraham), following the Battle of the Vale of Siddim and Abram's subsequent rescue of the captives and plunder taken in the battle, and in Psalm 110:4.
In Christianity, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ is identified as "High priest forever in the order of Melchizedek", and so Jesus assumes the role of High Priest once and for all. Chazalic literature – specifically Targum Jonathan, Targum Yerushalmi, and the Babylonian Talmud – presents his name (מלכי־צדק) as a nickname for Shem.
Joseph Blenkinsopp has suggested that the story of Melchizedek is an informal insertion into the Genesis narration, possibly inserted in order to give validity to the priesthood and titles connected with the Second Temple. It has also been conjectured that the suffix "-zedek" may have been or become a reference to a Canaanite deity worshipped in Jebusite Jerusalem.
In the majority of Masoretic Hebrew texts the name is written as two words, Malki-ṣedeq מלכי־צדק, rendered in one word in both the Septuagint (Μελχισεδέκ) and Vulgate (Melchisedech). The Authorised King James Version of 1611 renders the name "Melchizedek" when translating from the Hebrew, and "Melchisedec" in the New Testament.
The name is composed from the two elements: melek(h), 'king', and ṣedeq, which means either 'righteousness' or the proper name Zedek. With the addition of the hiriq compaginis (-ī) indicating the archaic construct form, malk-ī means 'king of', so that the name literally translates to 'king of righteousness' or 'my king is Zedek', indicating that he worshipped Zedek, a Canaanite deity worshipped in pre-Israelite Jerusalem. The latter, however, is often dismissed since Hebrews 7:2 gives the translation of the name Melchizedek as "king of righteousness", although Robert R. Cargill has recently argued in favour of that etymology. Mainstream scholarly understanding of these names ("My King is Righteousness" and "My Lord is Righteousness" respectively) is that they refer to the concept of righteousness and not to a god.
The name is formed in parallel with Adoni-ṣedeq אדני־צדק, a king of Jerusalem mentioned in Joshua 10:1–3, where the element malik ('king') is replaced by adon ('lord'). Parallel theophoric names, with Sedeq replaced by Yahu, are those of Malchijah and Adonijah, both biblical characters placed in the time of David.
The narrative of Genesis 14 is part of the larger story telling how Abram returns from defeating king Chedorlaomer and meets with Bera the king of Sodom, at which point:
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine: and he was [is] the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, 'Blessed be Abram to the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand'. And he gave him tithe from all.
Some textual critics classify the narration as not being derived from any of the usual pentateuchal sources. It has been speculated that verses 18–20 (in which Melchizedek appears) are an informal insertion into the narration, as they interrupt the account of the meeting of Abraham with the king of Sodom. There is no consensus on when or why the story might have been added. It may have been inserted in order to give validity to the priesthood and tithes connected with the Second Temple. It also may have been inserted to give validity to the superiority of the Zadokite priests over the Levite priests.
Lebanese Protestant scholar Kamal Salibi (1929–2011) observes that Hebrew: ֹמַעֲשֵׂר, romanized: m'sr, which literally does mean 'tenth', might more loosely be used to mean 'portion', and Hebrew: מִכֹּל, romanized: m-kl, or 'from all', might refer just to food in the giver's possession, so that the whole verse might mean "He gave him a portion of food".
Genesis 14:18 introduces Melchizedek, a "Priest of the Most High God" (El Elyon), a term which is re-used in Genesis 14:19–20 and Genesis 14:22. The term "Most High" is used another twenty times to refer to the God of Israel in the Psalms. Giorgio Levi Della Vida (1944) suspects that this is a late development, and Joseph Fitzmyer (1962) connects Genesis 14 with the mention of a god called "Most High," who may appear according to one of three possible translations of a 750 BC inscription found at Al-Safirah in Syria. Remi Lack (1962) considers that the Genesis verses were taken over by Jewish redactor(s), for whom El was already identified with YHWH, El-Elyon became an epithet for the God of Israel.
Due to an ambiguity in the Hebrew text, it is unclear who gave tithe to whom: Abram to Melchizedek, or Melchizedek to Abram: the verse in question states simply, "And [he] gave him tithe from all" (v-yiten-lo ma'aser mekol, ויתן לו מעשר מכל). Most translations of this verse preserve the ambiguity, "he gave to him", but some modern translations make explicit the mainstream interpretation of Abram being the giver and Melchizedek the recipient.Hebrews 7:9-10 explicitly states that Levi paid tithes through Abraham to Melchizedek.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Book of Jubilees, Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and Rashi all read Abram as the giver of the tithe to Melchizedek. The Rogatchover Gaon, also understanding Abram to be the tithe giver, comments that the presented tithe was not a standard tithe (Maaser Rishon) as described in the Torah (given on an annual basis), but was a one-time "tribute offering" (trumat ha-mekhes, תרומת המכס), such as Moses gave to God in Numbers 31:41.
Expressing a kabbalistic point of view, the Zohar commentary to Genesis 14 cites Rabbi Yitzchak as saying that it was God who gave a tithe to Abram in the form of removing the Hebrew letter He from his own throne of glory and presenting it to the soul of Abram for his benefit.
Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843–1926) interprets the phrase "And he gave him tithe from all" as a verbal continuation of Melchizedek's speech, i.e., Melchizedek exclaimed that God had chosen to gift Abram a tenth of God's possession of the entire human race (consisting of seventy nations as described in Genesis) in the form of the seven nations of the land of Canaan, including the cities of Sodom that Abram succeeded in saving. Rabbi Meir Simcha argues that continued speech of this sort was a common form of prophetic expression.
The only other Hebrew Bible mention of Melchizedek is in Psalm 110:4. The many translations that follow the Septuagint, such as the Vulgate, KJV 1611, and JPS 1917, translate it as:
The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent: 'Thou art a priest for ever
after the manner of Melchizedek.'