Melchizedek - First high priest of the Supreme one .. the "Most High"

In Genesis 14 - we are told that Melchizedek is both King and High Priest of Salem - a Canaanite city.

"18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he [was] the priest of the most high God - "El Supreme"

"19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed [be] Abram of "El Supreme" , possessor of heaven and earth

"20 And blessed be "El Supreme" which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all
https://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/gen14.pdf

Who is this El Supreme fellow that both the Canaanite High Priest-King and Abraham are worshiping. ? - and what is going on here .. Why are the Canaanites worshiping the same God as Abraham ?

Where is Mitt when you need him ?!

 

Pretty sure after that hit I just took, I'm the most high...

 

Hebrews 7:If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

The Melchizedek Priesthood is taught in preceding chapters and who he was. Why is this "order" of the priesthood not called "the priesthood after the order of the Son of God?" Simply to not take the Lord's name in vain so much. Not to overuse the name of the Lord. Note, the "Order of Aaron" is also mentioned as the lesser priesthood or Levitical Priesthood. The Aaronic Priesthood. The lesser priesthood had its duties or ordinances to perform. The greater priesthood has a different duty with different laws to perform. In Christ's true church today, the Aaronic Priesthood holders perform outward ordinances like Baptism and administering the Sacraments of the Lord. The Melchizedek Priesthood holders perform the inner sacred ordinances such as giving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Temple ordinances as Jesus taught in the NT.

 

We are talking about Genesis - the time of Abraham round 2000 BC - We can get into what someone writing 2000 later thought about this Priest Later - but for now who was this fellow.

You ran to some other scripture - instead of answering the question - and the scripture you ran to does not answer the question.

Who is "El Supreme " and why are Canaanites worshiping the same God as Abraham ?

 

What other scripture is there to run to? Of course we have to bring in other information from the word of God.
Scriptural texts paint a somber scene of events occurring approximately 4,000 years ago in the land of Salem—a place full of abomination and iniquity. There was little room for faith among a people who “had all gone astray. Yet in that time of all manner of wickedness, an unusual child came forth. His destiny was to receive in time the same priesthood power manifested earlier by the prophet Enoch. Known to us as Melchizedek, the child grew and soon demonstrated great trust in the Lord. Relying upon God in events whose details are lost to us, the young boy escaped death by stopping the mouths of lions and quenching the violence of fire. Because of his righteousness, in time he was ordained after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch. Empowered with the same priesthood and covenants granted Enoch, Melchizedek changed his people and led them into righteousness. All of the prophets of his time none were greater than the prophet Melchizedek. Thus, we hunger to know: who was this Melchizedek who merited such praise and admiration? Enoch labored for many years before his people turned from their wickedness. Likewise, perhaps Melchizedek also persisted for a considerable period in his efforts to bring real peace to the people of Salem. In such a labor and after much struggle, finally his people’s hearts were changed and Melchizedek did establish peace in the land in his days. He was a prince of peace.

 

First off - these are "Towns" - walled cities - at least on of these cities was worshiping the same God as Abraham.

The question to you is .. what God are these people worshiping ? looking for a name - a name given in the scripture given you - "El Supreme"

Who is El Supreme ? This name is repeated 3 times -

 

I don't see anyone in chapter 14 of Genesis named El Supreme. It does mention the Most High God. That is who Melchizedek was worshipping. And, it was Melchizedek who changed the evil hearts into righteous hearts for a time. He taught them to worship Elohim, Jehovah and the Holy Spirit.

 

That is because you did not look at the chapter 14 of Genesis in the link provided - or at least not look at the literal translation from Hebrew - which is beside the English Translation.

The English Translation renders everything "Most High" - while in the actual text - only sometimes is God referred to as "Most High" - other times - different epithets are used.

In this particular case - El Supreme is what this God is Called -- but what's more - is that while El can sometimes mean "Lord" such as El Shaddai Lord of the Mountain - another epithet for Most High - the same actually .. or Elohim can mean God.

but a few times in the OT -- El is used as a proper name - referring to Enlil (EL) - God of Abraham - Most High - Creator - Father -
Psalm 82 being another.

It is no surprise that Malchizedek refers to Enlil as the "most high" - supreme one - Cheif among the Gods. - Nor Abraham who grew up in Ur - where El was head of the Divine Council .. the Divine Pantheon. .. and in fact every other city in the Near East knew "El" as the Big Cheese - cause that is what people believed in Abraham's day - Abraham included. Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, Canaanites - and so on.

Abraham's distinction was to worship only the High God - and not the Gods - but he still believed in the existence of other Gods - as did the Israelites throughout their history - just that they were only to worship one. This is known as monolateralism rather than strict Monotheism. That would not come for another 1500 years.

Now El had Many sons - referred to a number of times in the OT as "Sons of God" The Son's of Enki's brother El also got high ranking. YHWH was also a son of El - originally -- before eventually usurping the position of El in a process known as syncretism.

A different son "Marduk" also did this - usurped the position of El ..becoming Chief God of the Earth - El still revered however as the "Most High" in heaven.

The story of YHWH is told in Deut 32:18 and Psalm 82 - where YHWH defeats the other Sons of God to become most high on earth - Chief God on Earth ... like Marduk .. or Baal Hadad of the Canaanites .. YHWH's favorite battle partner.

 

Really good to know. I don't see many Jews grasp the concept of the "Most High God" as being the head of the divine council with other separate and distinct beings. Jews and Christians mostly don't like to think of God as a glorified personage with a body. And, they try to momotheism the 1st chapter of Genesis with the plurality of the "Let us go down" or "we will make man in our image." Marduk obviously Lucifer (Satan) wanted to usurp Jehovah (the Son) and calls himself the god of this world.

 

Judaism is monotheistic - has been for 2500 years. Prior to this however - the folks we know as the "Israelites" were not.

"Satan" and Marduk are different Son's of God - and Marduk Usurped Enlil - the Supreme one - not YHWH. YHWH is a Son of El - like Marduk.

Marduk (Assyria) and YHWH only battled once - and YHWH got it handed to him. YHWH gave a pretty good beat down to Baal Hadad a few times though.

Just going from the Bible here - what it actually says - and not the Pablum version .. that stripped much of the fun out - however - some still remains in the Modern Translation (MT) - from which our Bible was translated.

If you go to older Bibles - things get even more interesting and fun.

So regardless what you believe - or Jews today believe - The Israelites believed that when the "Sons of God" present themselves before the most high in Job... and Satan was among them .. that it was the "Sons of God" presenting themselves .. the Adversary or Tester being one of them- whom you and the NT refer to as Satan .. this Son of God also being the one who tests Jesus .. the Son of Man.

Like Marduk and YHWH - Jesus - over 300 years - also ends up usurping the position of the Most High - the Father

 

I'm not confused. In the grand council of heaven, we were all there, sons and daughters of Elohim, the Most High God. Elohim presented a plan for his spirit children, us. Jehovah agreed with the Father, Most High God. Jehovah championed the plan to us. Lucifer (Satan) thought that the plan was unfair and that billions would be left out when coming back after our earthly time. So, he devised a plan that would make all of us the same and equal without having to sin and by faith, repent to come back into the presence of our Father. But, in order to do this, we would all have to give up our free moral agency to choose good or evil. We would have no opportunity of liberty and personal freedom. The Father Elohim rejected Lucifer's plan. Lucifer rebelled and talked a third of the spirit children of heavenly Father to follow him. They were all thrusted down to the earth to deceive and torment us as we entered our physical earthly bodies. Yes, Satan tempted Job, Christ and many others. All of us for that matter.

 

I did not say you were confused ? - but you are not getting it. The "Sons of God " is not referring to humans - in any way shape or form - and obviously the Tester is not a human.

2) Johovah is not the God of Abraham - not the God of Malchizedek - neither knew any God by that name.

You then go on about some made up plan of Jehovah- that has nothing to do with what the Israelites believed or OT scripture..

and no Satan did not tempt Job - he did however cause Job a whole lot of suffering - as per the bet between him and Daddy.

 

He's not described as a canaanite so that is your assumption. I have heard it said that Melchizedek is Jesus.

 

Speaking of Marduk, that sneaking god managed to survive as a positive hero in Judaism. He's Mordecai, uncle of Esther (the goddess Ishtar) in the Book of Esther. Haman is probably the Elamite god Humban, who was protector of the king (hence "viceroy").

The story of Melchizedek might be the work of a scribe who wished to emphasize the primacy of the priests of El: if even Abraham bowed to a such a priest, surely his descendants must do the same.

 

Satan is kind of a divine prosecutor in Judaism, but unlike the human variety, he's allowed to tempt people to make them turn against God. He's not an enemy of God though.

 

I have but, what do you think he was if not Canaanite - and why would that make a difference ? There were no "Israelite" towns at the time. Selem - which is thought to be "Jerusalem" was inhabited by Canaanites - 1800-2000 BC.

Perhaps Melchizi was Jesus as you suggest .. OK - the question is still the same .. what was the name of the Most High ? and who is worshiping this god as "The most high"

 

Not sure about Mordecai but who knows what symbolism - could be representing the subjugation of the two. Remember that Esther is during the time of Persia - which is a changing of the guard - different Gods - different religious ideas .. from that which had not changed in 3000 years.

Sumerians branch into Babylonians and Assyrians around 2100-2000 BC - but they still have the same religious beliefs - El has supplanted Anu (his Father) as Chief of deity on Earth around 2700-3000 . (prior to this you have just Inanna (Ishtar) - and we might call this monotheism) Then Ishtar and Anu - and so on..

The point here is that "Everyone" in the near east - around 2000-1800 - the time of Abraham - regards El as the Most high - who is then supplanted by some of the Son's of El and Enki/Ea

I encourage you to take a moment and go through the history of Babylon/Assyria at the time - noting the vast numer of city states that were fighting each other .. is is back and forth. All the kings are named after one of the sons of El/Ea .. or named after El.

So even When Marduk usurps El as Chief diety on earth .. El still remains the "Most High" - Creator - Father - in heaven - and we have the stories on how this happened ... Marduk battling the God of Chaos (which is represented by the Serpent btw) defeating and this is his prize. The Serpent in Genesis by the way is NOT Sataniel ... something I recently figured out.

So all of the Near east - while having different patron Gods - all have the same core religious beliefs. All have the same flood story - some variation of the same creation narrative - and all believe El is "The Most High" in either Heaven or on Earth - and no one - including Abraham and the Israelites - is "Monotheistic" .. either Polytheistic or Monolateralism - belief in many gods but worship only one.

So the Israelite religion by en large "IS" the Canaanite religion - Assyrian Religion - Babylonian Religion - Hittite Religion - and so on - and things have been this way for 1500 years by the time we get to Abraham -- and 2500 years by the time we get to Solomon - who is building temples to all kinds of Gods - including the Child Sacrifice God Milcolm - and most all Israelites at the time are worshiping God's other than YHWH - and even if they do revere YHWH - he has a consort - and they believe in other Gods ..

When you understand this .. the Bible makes a whole lot more sense. This rivalry between the Son's of God - is what is being described - and eventual Triumph of YHWH over these Son's of God - Psalm 82 - https://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/psa82.pdf.. written 1000 years after Abraham.

Abraham has never heard of YHWH - The Name of his God is EL - the Most high .. same as everyone else in the near east - in one form or another. Most folks at the time however are worshiping many Gods - where Abraham wants to worship only one ... the top Dog.





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So the Tribe of Judah - was basically 2000 goat herders - living in lands that no one wanted or cared much about at the time.

The real action was in Israel - "Northern Kingdom" estimated around 40,000. So when Assyria took over 700 BC .. the northern Kingdom disappeared for the most part - leaving the Goat herders. The religious traditions of the North were gone .. as were the "Lost Tribes"

Then the Babylonians come - and take out the south -- wiping out the last vestige of the Israelites. 50 years later the Persians come - most of the people who knew of the Temple are dead. Some of these Jews come back together - and Judaism is formed over the next few hundred years.

This is a completely different religion from the Israelites - and so we do not want to conflate the two. It is during this time that the idea of Satan develops - and there is a belief in other nefarious spirits .. detailed in apocryphia such as Enoch .. 300 BC.

So the "Satan" in Job .. is a much different fellow than the Satan in Judaism.

 

So, I'm supposed to just ignore the words of Job and what happened. No, this was a great temptation Satan put on Job. Yes, it was his friends that did the actual tempting but Satan put it in motion.

 

The only thing Job was tempted to do was to blame God for his misfortune - which he did - and I suppose this qualifies .. but barely.
Jesus was tempted - all he had to do was bow down to the Son of God - and the world was his - Jesus was not tortured like Job. - almost goaded into blaming God like Job was.

The trial of Jesus was a cake walk by comparison .. so even if we say "Job was tempted" - as you seem won't to maintain - it is a different situation than Jesus - on many levels. Job wasn't a God .. and the negative vs positive temptation. Torture and coercion vs a Candy Bar

Just for the record - while on the topic of "Temptation" Eve was also tempted - in the same way as Jesus - not in the way Job was.
and what is interesting to note -is that the Serpent in the Garden - was a different divinity than our good friend Sataniel in Job - begging the curious question .. Which one was it that tempted Jesus ?

 

God is the most high, the living God. Abraham treated the situation as if he was in the presence of God. Jesus/God can be what they want when they want, can pop in the scene and out at will. Its actually very interesting incident that seems oddly out of place and surreal.

 

Only in fairly tales - made up after the fact - was Jesus present .. but it matters not to the Question I am after. We can assume that this King of a Canaanite city - Priest King actually - which was common - King being both religious leader and "King" - sometimes deified after death - sometimes while still alive .. .. -

The thing is - that all the people in that city - are worshiping Enlil - as Chief Deity on earth - the Father - Creator - and this Melchizedek - Jesus according to you - gives blessings in the name of Enlil - 3 different times.

So - good we know the name of the Father and God of Abraham El, Enlil, Ellil, Elyon - "El Supreme" - head of the divine council.

"Is ra el - One who struggles with the Most High .. a good name - but rather common at the time for nations and epiphets for kings - most of which who named themselves after El or one of the various Son's of God - El/Ea most often .. but sometimes after Innana or a female goddess

The Abraham was not the only one - nor his offspring worshiping El as the Most High - Everyone in the Near East believed this. The difference was that they worshiped many other Gods ..but there were those that worshiped only one God - other than the "Israelites" - but all Regarded El as the Most high.

And as for the Israelites - those who came after Abraham - who was monolateralism - belief in many - but worshiping only one .. they were polygamous for the most part .. spending very little time worshiping YHWH - Son of El - and far more time worshiping his other Sons - and those of other Gods. .. all vying to usurp Enlil ..

 

You are really saying a lot of assumptions. Its pretty simple. Jesus pays a visit. Just like God paid a visit to Abraham just before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Its that simple..

There are many gods. Drugs, self worship, idols made of clay or gold, ideologies, money, pleasure. Many things people can worship then and now. But God is a living God and a jealous one. No gods before him.

You can stay with the Bible and get the answers without diluting it with assumptions and far off narratives.

 

I did not make any assumptions - you are the one making up things and adding them to the story - things that are not in the story - not me.

Then you go on about drugs and gold - anything to avoid what the test both says and implies. That Enlil was the God of Abraham but also many other peoples.

That is what the text says - Regardless of your made up stories about King Melchizedek