Melchizedek, king of sodom, Cargill, Robert R. (associate Professor Of Classics And Religious Studies, Associate Professor Of Classics And Religious Studies, University Of Iowa)

Robert R. Cargill explores the Hebrew and Greek texts concerning Melchizedeks encounter with Abraham in Genesis as a basis to unravel the biblical mystery of this characters origins. The textual evidence that Cargill presents shows that Melchizedek was originally known as the king of Sodom and
that the later traditions about Sodom forced biblical scribes to invent a new location, Shalem, for Melchizedeks priesthood and reign. Cargill also identifies minor, strategic changes to the Hebrew Bible and the Samaritan Pentateuch that demonstrate an evolving, polemical, sectarian discourse
between Jews and Samaritans competing for the superiority of their respective temples and holy mountains. The resulting literary evidence was used as the ideological motivation for identifying Shalem with Jerusalem in the Second Temple Jewish tradition.

A brief study with far-reaching implications, Melchizedek, King of Sodom reopens discussion of not only this unusual character, but also the origins of both the priesthood of Christ and the role of early Israelite priest-kings.