"Now consider how great this man was to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. And indeed those who are the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from the brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. HERE MORTAL MEN RECEIVE TITHES BUT THERE HE RECEIVES THEM, OF WHOM IT IS WITNESSED HE LIVES. Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him." (Heb. 7:4-10)

The quote immediately above is very important. DEAD PRIESTS CANNOT RECEIVE TITHES. Money is not needed in God's Heaven. It was common knowledge at the time that Qumran, the Essene settlement on the banks of the Dead Sea where Jesus and John the Baptist grew up, was called by many names, one of which was Heaven, because the Essenes practiced the mystical philosophy of "so above, so below". Ergo, Paul contradicts his earlier teachings here in very flowerly language, but the message is plain: Jesus was still alive and receiving his portion according to Jewish law. Oops! If Jesus became the Melchizedek, then he is not dead. Paul also states very plainly that Jesus became the Melchizedek AFTER the crucifixion, the next one down in authority from the leader of the priesthood at Qumran, otherwise known as the Father. This is why Jesus said that no one could get to the Father except through him. He was talking about HUMAN INTERCESSION, not divine.

A very human and gifted man held the position of Father during this timeframe. He is called Simon the Magician by the Church. However, it was at this religious leader's right hand that Jesus now sat, after surviving the crucifixion. The position of Melchizedek lay vacant after Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist, died. It is an inherited, dynastic position, just as the Davidic kingship is. John inherited the position of Melchizedek from his father, Zacharias, but John died an only child, celibate and therefore without children, and so it was passed onto Jesus, his nearest surviving relative of seniority and merit.

King David of the Old Testament did not become a Melchizedek, that much is certain from Peter's narrative in Acts: "For David did not ascend in the heavens," so being a priest-king was not commonplace. Even though Jesus was the David, he apparently had to prove that he was worthy of becoming a priest-king. It is therefore possible that part of what Paul said about Jesus' uniqueness is true. Jesus may very well have been the first king of the tribe of Judah to become a Melchizedek as well, but as history shows, he was certainly not the last.

Paul continued in Epistle to the Hebrews as follows:

"Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar." (Heb. 7:11-13)

Paul was being his usual fanatical, hypocritical, and at times, ignorant self in the above captioned Scripture. He is gravely mistaken when he writes as though the Melchizedek priesthood started with Jesus. The Melchizedek priesthood is ancient and it actually supercedes the Levitical priesthood. Not only that, but those of the Melchizedek priesthood did not follow the same law as the Levitical priesthood, and it was because of that, that they received the New Covenant from God during the Intertestamental Period, from which Jesus taught. This is why he said that our righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. An answer lies in Enoch. Enoch was the sixth patriarch in the Messianic bloodline from Adam, and his document was created in the 2nd century BC. He predicted that the Messianic dynastics (kingly and priestly) would be restored, and dictated exactly how the priesthood should be constructed, with its different levels of authority. To me, this confirms what I have long suspected to be true: the meeting between the Melchizedek, or Michael-Zadok, and Abram was no accident, nor was it exceptional, and that Abram's tithing was not his own idea, but expected.

The Real Melchizedek, Part Four
Home
E-Mail Me!