Isaiah 61:2, Who Is Melchizedek?

Posted on Sunday, October 23, 2011 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

[T]o proclaim the year of Melchizedek’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.

//You won’t find this verse in your Bible. Not in these words, anyway. This rendition comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls, where the name Melchizedek replaces “the LORD” in Isaiah 61:2.

The few verses we have about Melchizedek reveal little more than a mystery. He pops up in the Old Testament and disappears just as quickly. The book of Hebrews describes him as “without father, mother, or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God” (Hebrew 7:3). The Dead Sea Scrolls have shed some light on Jewish thinking regarding the mysterious figure of Melchizedek. Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, this verse in Hebrews made little sense. Who is Melchizedek, anyway?

But in the “Melchizedek Scroll” from Cave 11, Psalm 7 has Melchizedek ruling from on high, not God. In Psalm 82, it is not God who presides over the great assembly, it is Melchizedek. Finally, today’s verse where Isaiah mentions “the year of the Lord’s favor,” the Dead Sea Scroll reads “the year of Melchizedek’s favor.” Each time, Melchizedek is equated with God himself.

There you go.