… ¹⁰ being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek is one of the most enigmatic individuals in Scripture, surrounded by a cloud of mystery and intrigue. He appears for a brief moment in Genesis 14:17-20, also appears in Psalm 110 and then finally re-emerges here in Hebrews 5, connected with Jesus, the Son of God. The writer to the Hebrews mentions him in a way indicating that his readers are not yet mature enough to appreciate the connection. So, after this brief mention, we find an excursus (where the writer digresses for a chapter and a half to discuss “elementary” things). In other words, some basics need to be reviewed before going on to more advanced teaching.

So who is this Melchizedek? He was a king-priest living during the time of Abraham. The situation involved Abraham’s nephew Lot who had been living in Sodom with his family. During Abraham’s early days of settling in the land, a war arose among ancient kings, and Lot with his family were captured and taken away. Abraham mustered his men and defeated those who had captured Lot. On his return, Abraham was met by the King of Salem (this is the first mention of the city of Jerusalem in the Bible, of which “Salem” is a short form). This king’s name was Melchizedek. These three verses don’t seem to advance the story of Abraham at all, and in fact, it doesn’t even seem that Melchizedek was one of the warring kings. So what is the point?

The clues are important here. First, Melchizedek’s name means, “King of Righteousness.” Second, he brought bread and wine to Abraham, presumably as a reward for his success in battle. He is identified by the writer of Genesis as “priest of God Most High.” The text doesn’t say he was a priest of Yahweh; that could only be said of the Levitical priesthood, for Yahweh was the name by which God was known to the Jews. To others He was “God Most High” (see e.g. Numbers 24:3-9, 16, Daniel 4:2, 34).

Third, prior to this incident in Abraham’s life, the big theme is God blessing Abraham (Gen 12:1-3). There is no record of Abraham being blessed by anyone else than Melchizedek. Fourth, Abraham gave him a tenth (lit. a tithe) of all the spoils of war. Later in Hebrews this is highlighted as important.

We mention these things here only to give background. We’ll come back, as the author of Hebrews does, to this theme in a chapter and a half. Suffice it to say Jesus belonged to a different order of priesthood than the Levitical one.