It will be seen that by this early writer “to the Hebrews” Jesus was not thought of in connection with David, but bore Solomon’s preëminent title, King of Peace, and that conferred on him by the Queen of Sheba, King of Justice. In the “Wisdom of Solomon” the Prince of the Golden Age, historically associated with idolatrous shrines, had been rehabilitated, even apotheosized; he was now a sort of rival of Jesus in divine sonship. The writer of our Epistle therefore artistically, not to say artfully, utilizes a composite word made into a proper name under which Solomon’s combined royalty and priesthood, his peace and justice, had been detached from his personality and personified. The new exaltation of Solomon personally was thus ignored, while his essential glories, his wisdom, and his reclaimed virtues, were woven into the celestial mantle of mysterious Melchizedek, and through him passed to the shoulders of the risen Christ.
[1] It is doubtful whether this can be regarded as historical. The “clear beforehand” (πρόδηλον) renders it more probable that it is a reference to Ps. lxxviii. 67, 68. “He refused the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah,” etc.
[2] The King of Sodom came out to Abram at the same time, but no proper name is assigned him.
[3] The “Salem” of Gen. xiv. 18, and the “Shalem” of Gen. xxiii. 18, are evidently competitive. Also Jacob’s naming his altar “El-Elohe-Israel” seems an answer to Abraham’s “El-Elyôn,” as if saying that the latter was not the God of Israel. It is even possible that the name “Luz” (Gen. xxviii. 19) changed to Beth-El, after Jacob’s vision of the Ladder and setting up the pillar there, is meant to correspond with the “oaks of Mamre” (Gen. xiv. 13), where Abram dwelt when he was met by the priest of El Elyôn. For Abram had also built an altar at some place called Beth-El (Gen. xiii. 3) where he called on the name of the Lord and received a promise that his seed should be “as the dust of the earth,” which is verbatim the promise made to Jacob at his Beth-El (Gen. xxviii. 14). Now Abram next moves his tent to the “oak of Mamre” in Hebron (Gen. xiii. 18), and the Hebrew word for oak is Elah, or Eylon. The unusual name for the deity of both Abram and Melchizedek, El-Elyon, was probably selected because of its resemblance to the sacred oak or Elah of that place, and Jacob’s El-Elohe-Israel was no doubt meant to invest his deity with the same sanctity. Now “Luz” also means a tree,—almond-tree,—and was also a name of the Assyrian goddess Ishtar. The oak was associated also with Jacob, who buried beneath it the idols of his household (Gen. xxxv. 1–9) immediately before setting up his altar at Luz (the almond).
[4] It may be said in passing, that the legend in Gen. xiv., as was first pointed out in Calmet, bears some resemblance to the Hindu myth of Soma, a lunar being, who discovered the juice of the sacred Soma plant (Asclepias acida), called “the king of plants.” Soma was the most sacred sacrifice to the gods, as a juice; it had the intoxicating effect of wine; and the lunar being, Soma, was believed to be still alive, though invisible, and is the chief of the sacerdotal tribe to this day. In the Vishnu Purana, Soma is called “the monarch of Brahmans.” He was the Hindu Bacchus, and is regarded as the guardian of healing plants and constellations. Melchizedek, offering wine to, and as priest of God Most High receiving tribute from, the “High Father” (Abram), thus bears some resemblance to Soma, the sacerdotal moon-god; and those who care to study the matter further may be reminded that in Babylonian mythology Malkit seems to be a “Queen of Heaven” (moon), and is connected by Goldziher (Heb. Myth.) with Milka (Abram’s sister-in-law), whom he supposes to have the same meaning. It is remarkable, by the way, that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in telling the story of Abram and Melchizedek minutely and critically, omits the offering of bread and wine. This is not only an indication that the Epistle was written as already said, before Paul’s institution of the eucharist (1 Cor. x., xi.), but suggests that the writer may have suspected the offerings as pagan. The Soma juice was sacred also in Persia, and is the Hôm of the Avesta. Ewald says of the story in Gen. xiv., “The whole narrative looks like a fragment torn from a more general history of Western Asia, merely on account of the mention of Abraham contained in it.” (Hist. of Israel, p. 308. London, 1867.) And finally it may be noted that among the kings Abram smote, just before meeting Melchizedek, was Chedorlaomer, King of Elam. Elam is south of Assyria and east of Persia proper; if he fought Abram near Jerusalem, Chedorlaomer was about one thousand miles from his kingdom, Elam. Probably it was not he but a name and legend of his kingdom that drifted into Jewish folklore.
Chapter XV.
The Pauline Dehumanization of Jesus.
The Queen of Sheba certainly deserved her exaltation as the Hebrew Athena, and the homage paid to her by Jesus, for journeying so far simply to hear the wisdom of Solomon. In Jewish and Christian folklore are many miraculous tales about the Queen’s visit, but in the Biblical records, in the books of “Kings” and “Chronicles,” the only miracle is the entire absence of anything marvellous, magical, or even occult. The Queen was impressed by Solomon’s science, wisdom, the edifices he had built, the civilization he had brought about; they exchanged gifts, and she departed. It is a strangely rational history to find in any ancient annals.