And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine. This victory conferred a public benefit on that part of the country; and Abram, on his return, was treated with high respect and consideration, particularly by the King of Sodom and Melchizsedek, who seems to have been one of the few native princes, if not the only one, who knew and worshipped "the Most High God," whom Abram served. Melchizedek was probably an official title, as Adoni-zedek (Joshua 10:3). Salem, or Shalom, signifies peace. It is so interpreted by the apostle in its application to Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:2), who was king of peace, the effect of his righteous government; and in accordance with this, Dr. Wolff, with reference to Abd-er-Rahman (servant of the merciful God), in the kingdom of Khida, says that he has two royal titles-the one, Shahe-Adaalat, 'king of righteousness,' and the other, when a peace-maker with his warlike neighbours, Shahe Soolkh, 'king of peace.' On the ground of apostolic authority and modern oriental precedent, we might explain "Salem" in this passage as part of a title, not as a place. Since the word, however, is commonly regarded as bearing a topographical reference, it is necessary to consider it in that point of view.
Salem is a name given to Jerusalem (Psalms 76:2), and it has been generally considered to bear the same application in this passage. But that might be only an abbreviation, admissible in a poetical book, and therefore not decisive of the geographical question: for the conditions of the narrative, it is alleged, require that Salem should be in a more northern locality. And accordingly the Salem [or Saleim] (John 3:23) beyond Jordan has been fixed upon by many writers ever since the days of Jerome, who says (Epist. 73), Salem is not, as Josephus and our Christian writers after him believe it to be, Jerusalem; but a town near Scythopolis, which is still called Salem, and where the palace of Melchizedek is shown. The preponderance of opinion, however, is in favour of Jerusalem. "Brought forth bread and wine." He came for the performance of a sacred duty, that of offering a public and formal tribute of thanksgiving, to acknowledge the divine goodness in the rescue of the people, and the patriotic services of Abram on the occasion. This religious offering was accompanied by a eucharistic rite, which seems to have been an established ordinance of the patriarchal church before the Mosaic dispensation (cf. Exodus 18:12). Joseph Wolff informs us ('Researches and Missionary Labours') that this patriarchal usage still obtains in the East. 'I have seen,' says he, 'in Toorkestan, and around Cashmeer, Dervishes, who are generally visited by the conquering parties, and to whom the conquering chief gives a portion of the spoil he has taken from the enemy, and the Dervish, if a Mussulman, sets before his victorious guest bread and sherbet, a kind of lemonade; but if the Dervish is a Hindu, he brings wine instead of sherbet. It should also be observed that Dervishes in Persia, Turkistan, and the valley of Cashmeer, are called Shah (king). In such a manner as this the meeting between Melchizedek and Abram took place.'
And he was the priest of the most high God. The Hebrew text not having the article here, the clause should stand a "priest of the most high God." This title does not imply that he was a functionary in a material temple, whose official duty consisted in the offering of animal sacrifices, or the performance of ceremonial services. The discharge of these offices was not, in patriarchal times, confined to a consecrated class; because the heads of houses rendered them for their families; and in this respect Melchizedek may have acted as the patriarchs. But his priesthood was at the same time of a moral and spiritual nature: it consisted in serving God by the dispensation of justice and the practice of benevolence among his fellow-men, as well as by the presentation of praise and sacrifices to God; and it seems to be on this account also-his pre-eminent zeal and readiness in the performance of these services-that he is called a "priest of the most high God." He was a type of Christ, our eternal priest (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6; Hebrews 5:10; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:17; Hebrews 7:21); because though he who was a mere man could not be "a priest forever," yet he had what may be viewed as an image of eternity, in the absence of any historical record of his pedigree, of his birth and death. He was assuredly born, and did no less certainly die than other men; but neither of these are recorded concerning him (Hebrews 7:3-6). We have no more to do with, or learn from him, nor are we concerned in him, but only as he is described in Scripture; and there is no mention in the sacred record of the beginning of his days or of the end of his life. He was both king and priest, This union of the offices was special to patriarchal times; and although vestiges of the primitive practice are traceable in the subsequent history of pagan nations, where they were combined in some cases by the constitution of the country, in others by specific appointment, there was no instance in the Mosaic church, or until the character of the typical Melchizedek was fulfilled in Christ, who united in his own person the two-fold character of king and priest.
The most high God. [The word used by Melchizedek and Abram (Genesis 14:22), as well as in the narrative by the historian, is not 'Elohiym (H430) but `Elyown (H5945), an archaic term; it was used, as appears from Sanchoniathon, by the Phoenicians. The Septuagint translates it by: ho Theos hupsistos, 'This Greek expression,' says Auberlen, 'is a Hebraism, and is not to be understood as a superlative'.] It means 'God in the high place,' i:e., in heaven (cf. Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:14, with Nehemiah 11:4; Daniel 11:28; Daniel 11:45). Melchizedek was not an idolater, nor a Pantheist addicted to nature-worship in any form, but a believer in a living personal God-a Monotheist in an age when mankind were becoming rapidly polytheistic. It is observable, however, that although Melchizedek defines the character of God as the "possessor of heaven and earth," and so he and Abram worshipped the same Divine Being, he does not speak of him as the covenant God, the deity special to Old Testament revelation; and hence, Abram, while adopting the language of Melchizedek, prefixes х Yahweh (H3068)] Lord, to it. The meeting of these two venerable characters was a real "communion of saints." They first joined in a solemn sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and then kept alive their feeling of joy and gratitude in a sacred feast.