On Melchizedek

1Paul expressed Melchizedek as without mother and without father. No one could deny that Melchizedek, the greatest of priests, did not spring up from the earth. He did not grow from an oak or from a rock, nor was he taken from the ground and molded as clay, formed and shaped by hands as Adam was.

And a little further on: What then might someone say? Melchizedek is reported to us as without mother. Yet if he is like God and the Word and in every way resembles him, bearing his image and preserving his character, he is not without mother or without father. For Christ has a mother, Mary, and a royal lineage from David, and from the root of Jesse the flower of the whole fragrance to us springs up, and his lineage according to the flesh is traced in a genealogy. But Melchizedek's line is seen to be without genealogy.

So someone might say that Melchizedek is without genealogy because he is not from the seed of Abraham and was never traced in a genealogy by Moses, but is a Canaanite by descent and comes from that accursed sowing. He was shown righteous by his own deeds, not descended from righteous ancestors or from any righteous sowing.

It was not lawful, then, to trace a genealogy and lead back to the line of Canaan the man who inclined toward the height of righteousness. Nor was it at all fitting to join the one who had taken hold of the height of righteousness to the line that had taken hold of the height of unrighteousness. Therefore Scripture says he is without father and without mother, because it does not consider his ancestors worthy of the virtue of the righteous and self-controlled man.

2That Melchizedek is shown to be Canaanite by descent can be inferred from the very regions he ruled and reigned over, and from the places he lived near. He was a neighbor of Sodom, and he was closer still to Abraham, who was living by the oak of Mamre (Genesis 18:1). And I think he was also king of Salem—that is, of this much-talked-of Jerusalem.

So if Melchizedek clearly resembles the Son of God, he will not be without father or without mother or without genealogy. Instead, the things of the flesh will be traced in a genealogy according to the nature of the flesh, and the other part will be seen as without genealogy, just as is certainly the case also with Christ. For Christ is traced in a genealogy according to the body, but according to the highest order he has his descent indescribable, as we have previously explained.

From Chrysostom on this same passage: Many who did not understand what was said about Melchizedek have said that he was greater than Christ, and they established for themselves a heresy; they are also called Melchizedekians. So, contending and wanting to show that Melchizedek is greater than Christ, they bring forward to us as witness the Scripture that says, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 109:4 (Psalm 110:4 in Hebrew numbering)). For how, they say, would he not be greater, the one according to whose image and order Christ serves as priest? But others, having gone astray, say that he is the Holy Spirit.

3But we say that he was a human being with feelings like ours, not greater than Christ—nor even greater than John the Baptist—and certainly not the Holy Spirit. As for the claim that he is greater than Christ, let those who say this tell us: what region do they say he belongs to? Is it heavenly? Is it earthly or under the earth? If it is heavenly or some other region, let them hear that to him every knee will bend, and so on (Philippians 2:10). If every knee bends, then the one who worships would be less than the Christ who is worshipped. But the wretched people do not even know the next line: “being made like the Son of God”—just as we also came into being according to the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26).

But perhaps one of the hearers asks and says: What then does it mean that he is called without father, without mother, and without genealogy? To him we will answer that the Jews have said he was born of a prostitute, and for that reason Scripture did not trace his genealogy. To them we will answer: You have spoken wrongly. For we find others who were born of a prostitute and yet had their genealogy traced—immediately Solomon, born of Uriah’s wife, and then Abimelech, the son of Gideon. Why then is his genealogy not traced? Because he was a type of Christ and bore his image. For this reason Scripture omitted his father and mother, so that in him, as in an image, we might behold as in a mirror the Christ who is truly without father, without mother, and without genealogy.