The fifteenth episode of the third season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (November 27, 2019). You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes

This episode is based on the story of the meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek as told in Genesis 14 and the story of the taking of the city of Jerusalem by David in 2 Samuel 5:6-12. The genealogy of Zadok referred to is in 1 Chronicles 6:1-13 (Click the references to read the original texts). Any direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Jerusalem and Salem

This episode seeks to grapple with a few mysteries that surround the history of the city of Jerusalem.

Like many important ancient cities, Jerusalem was likely first built on the top of a steep hill, the mountain that is today known as Mount Zion. This was done in order to provide defenses against attackers in a very dangerous world. One other benefit that Jerusalem enjoyed was access to a nearby spring, known as the Gihon, which made it much easier to defend against a siege. With these advantages, Jerusalem seems to have been established as an important city from early times. But it was not originally an Israelite city. According to the biblical narratives, it was the most important city in Jebusite territories, one of the Canaanite peoples that the Israelites were instructed to wipe out when they entered into the promised Land. But, clearly, the Jebusites were not wiped out and Jerusalem remained a Jebusite city until the time of David who decided to conquer it and make it his capital.

It has long been assumed that the Salem that is referred to in Genesis 14 is a reference to an early name or a Jebusite name for the city. This seems to be confirmed by Psalm 76:1-2.

El Elyon

Meeting of Abraham and Melchizadek by Dieric Bouts the Elder, 1464–1467

The history of the name El Elyon, usually translated as God Most High, is very interesting. The name is very rarely used in the Old Testament. It is found, most prominently on the lips of Melchizedek, in the story of Genesis 14. Apart from that, it is only used a few times in the Psalms; most scholars assume that the Psalms are ancient liturgies of the temple in Jerusalem. Various names and titles are applied to Yahweh, the God of Israel, throughout the biblical text and most translators and interpreters simply take this name as another example of such a title. But I find some compelling reasons to treat this title, at least in its origins, as the name of a rival god, a God specifically associated with Jerusalem.

It is significant, in the Genesis story, that Melchizedek chooses to bless Abram, a devotee of Yahweh, in the name of this God. This is the response that is reported by Abram in the Masoretic Hebrew text:

But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to Yahweh El Elyon, maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal–thong or anything that is yours…

Except, there is some reason to doubt that Abram invoked the name of Yahweh in the original text. The name is not to be found in ancient Samaritan versions of the text, nor is it to be found in the ancient Greek Septuagint translation. To me, it seems more reasonable that the name of Yahweh could have been added to the later Masoretic text by pious transcribers who assumed that it might just have been left out, than that the name was left out by the Samaritans or the Greek translators.

Abram’s use of the name, El Elyon, whether or not he also invoked the name of Yahweh, indicates a willingness to acknowledge the local god of the place, which would have been seen as only the polite and respectful thing to do.

Monotheism and the Bible

By the time the Old Testament, as we know it, was completed, it communicated rather forcefully that there was only one true God and that all other gods were simply powerless idols or demons.

But a consistent monotheistic belief is not what you will find at every stage of biblical development. There are many texts in the Bible, particularly the older texts, that acknowledge the existence and reality of other gods. We see this even in the famous Ten Commandments. When God commands that the people of Israel “shall have no other gods before me,” the clear message is that there are other gods; it is just that Yahweh does not want those other gods to be more important than himself. There are many other passages that operate under the same assumption. See, for example, my episode on the Divine Council: Sceptre.

Yes, there are also passages that insist on a strict monotheism, but there’s no way we can say that the Bible speaks in one voice on this matter. Many of the characters of the Bible, and the early listeners of the stories, lived in a very polytheistic world. And, in a very polytheistic world, it was often taken for granted that you had to, at the very least, show a certain respect for the gods who were worshiped in certain places by engaging in the local rituals. In this story, I would argue that that is what Abram is doing.

Yahweh moves to Jerusalem

James J. Tissot, ‘David Dances before the Ark’ (1896-1902)

In many ways, the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in the city of Jerusalem may be the may be the most momentous event in the history of Old Testament faith. Up until that point in time, Yahweh had clearly been a very transient God. He had no temple, only a movable tent. The focus of his worship was on an ark made of gold that was clearly designed to be transported from place to place. Within a generation of David taking the city of Jerusalem, that had all changed.

I believe that it is very reasonable to assume that, in some way, the urban religion of the Jebusites influenced the nomadic religion of the Israelites as the two peoples learned to live side by side. There is no way of knowing, of course, what particular Jebusite rituals might have become a mainstay of Israelite religion from that point on. I have chosen the priest Zadok and his story as a means to speculate on how it all might have gone down.

According to 2 Samuel 24:18-25, the temple of Solomon was originally built over a great flat stone (a threshing floor) that belonged to a Jebusite king (at least 2 Samuel 24:23 literally refers to him as a king) named Araunah. This is presumably the same rock that, to this very day the centrepiece of the great Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. I have speculated that perhaps this rock was originally a sacred place for the ancient Jebusites and that this was one of the key reasons why the temple was located there. I have, of course, no evidence to support such a conjecture.

Zadok and Melchizedek

The 110th psalm, a Psalm that focuses on the role and destiny of the king, includes this enigmatic phrase:

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Psalm 110:4

There are varying interpretations of this verse, but the prevailing interpretation has generally been that it was an indication that, in some ways, the line of the kings of Judah were the inheritors of both the priestly and kingly functions of the Melchizedek who appears in the Book of Genesis. This interpretation becomes particularly important in the New Testament when the author of the book of Hebrews applies this verse to Jesus and his unique role, both priestly and kingly, in reconciling God and humanity in Hebrew 7:17.

I have chosen to interpret the verse from the Psalms a little bit differently. I see it as an indication that there may have been a rival dynasty of priests to counter the Aaronic line whose founding is described in the Pentateuch. I see Zadok as the founder of this line of priests in post-Davidic Jerusalem. (Note that the name Melchizedek likely literally means “my king is Zadok.”) Over time, yes, the kings who ruled in David’s house may have sought to claim this inheritance as their own, but I speculate that it may have started somewhat differently in the minds of the priests who presided in the sanctuary at Jerusalem.

The Bible and Syncretism

At various times in Christian history, syncretism has been painted as a grave danger. Syncretism is what happens when two or more religious traditions meet and adopt elements from each other. The reality is that syncretism is something that has happened again and again throughout history. Popular Christian festivals, like Easter, Halloween and Christmas, all carry within them very strong elements of older Pagan European practices. But there are few today who would argue that we should therefore take the eggs out of Easter or the Christmas trees out of Christmas.

But the European encounter with indigenous spirituality in North America was quite different. Many elements of indigenous culture and spirituality, such as the burning of fragrant herbs and the beating of drums, were labelled as demonic and strictly forbidden, one of many issues that deeply wounded indigenous communities and whose effect still linger to this day. As a modern day white Canadian, descendant of European settlers, I can only wish that, when European settlers came here, they had been as willing to accommodate to the spirituality of the people they found living here as David was when he arrived in Jerusalem.

MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE

“AhDah” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

“Perspectives” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/