INTRODUCTION

It is surprising that the figure of Melchizedek in Hebrews received little notice in the earlier writings of the fathers of the church, but the evidence of the written records tends to indicate that Christian interest in Melchizedek began to develop seriously only towards the end of the second century A.D. and the beginning of the third century A.D. By way of contrast, interest in Melchizedek among the Rabbis is already to be noted in the early part of the second century A.D. This chapter is devoted to the development of the tradition about Melchizedek in the early church and among the Rabbis within the first five centuries of our era. The Gnostic sources are too extensive to be dealt with in this chapter and I have therefore given over a separate chapter to their discussion (see Chapter 5). Since we are dealing with literary documents later than Hebrews, we shall have to be especially conscious of its influence on the sources described in these next two chapters. I shall leave for the last chapter consideration of the meaning of the figure of Melchizedek in Hebrews.

THE EARLY CHURCH

Epiphanius of Salamis, writing in the last quarter of the fourth century A.D., suggests that there may indeed have been a wide latitude allowed for speculation about Melchizedek as a divine or angelic being in the early church. Usually we are informed of this speculation only as it arose within heretical movements and was countered by the church fathers.