MELCHIZEDEK

(Mel·chizʹe·dek) [king of righteousness].

King of ancient Salem and “priest of the Most High God,” Jehovah. (Gen. 14:18, 22) He is the first priest mentioned in the Scriptures; he occupied that position sometime prior to 1933 B.C.E. Being the king of Salem, which means “peace,” Melchizedek is identified by the apostle Paul as “King of Peace” and, on the basis of his name, as “King of Righteousness.” (Heb. 7:1, 2) Ancient Salem is understood to have been the nucleus of the later city of Jerusalem and its name was incorporated in that of Jerusalem, which is sometimes referred to as “Salem.”—Ps. 76:2.

After Abram (Abraham) defeated Chedorlaomer and his confederate kings, the patriarch came to the Low Plain of Shaveh or “the king’s Low Plain.” There Melchizedek “brought out bread and wine” and blessed Abraham, saying: “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Producer of heaven and earth; and blessed be the Most High God, who has delivered your oppressors into your hand!” At that Abraham gave the king-priest “a tenth of everything,” that is, of the “chief spoils” he had acquired in his successful warfare against the allied kings.—Gen. 14:17-20; Heb. 7:4.

CHRIST’S PRIESTHOOD TYPIFIED

In a notable Messianic prophecy the sworn oath of Jehovah to David’s “Lord” is: “You are a priest to time indefinite according to the manner of Melchizedek!” (Ps. 110:1, 4) This inspired psalm gave the Hebrews reason to regard the promised Messiah as the one in whom the office of priest and king would be combined. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews, generally understood to be the apostle Paul, removed any doubt about the identity of the one foretold, speaking of “Jesus, who has become a high priest according to the manner of Melchizedek forever.”—Heb. 6:20; 5:10.

Direct appointment

Jehovah evidently appointed Melchizedek to be a priest. In discussing Jesus’ status as the great High Priest, Paul showed that a man does not take the honor “of his own accord, but only when he is called by God, just as Aaron also was.” He also explained that “the Christ did not glorify himself by becoming a high priest, but was glorified by him who spoke with reference to him: ‘You are my son; I, today, I have become your father,’” and the apostle next applies the prophetic words of Psalm 110:4 to Jesus Christ.—Heb. 5:1, 4-6.

‘Received tithes from Levi’

Melchizedek’s priestly status was not linked with the priesthood of Israel and, as the Scriptures point out, it was higher than the Aaronic priesthood. One factor indicating this is the deference accorded to Melchizedek by Abraham, the forefather of the entire nation of Israel, including the priestly tribe of Levi. Abraham “Jehovah’s friend,” who became “the father of all those having faith” (Jas. 2:23; Rom. 4:11), gave a tenth or a “tithe” to this priest of the Most High God. Paul shows that the Levites collected tithes from their brothers, who also issued from the loins of Abraham. However, he points out that Melchizedek “who did not trace his genealogy from them took tithes from Abraham,” and “through Abraham even Levi who receives tithes has paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his forefather when Melchizedek met him.” Thus, though the Levitical priests received tithes from the people of Israel, they, as represented in their ancestor Abraham, paid tithes to Melchizedek. Furthermore, the superiority of Melchizedek’s priesthood is shown in that he blessed Abraham, Paul pointing out that “the less is blessed by the greater.” Such factors are among those making Melchizedek a suitable type of the great High Priest Jesus Christ.—Heb. 7:4-10.

No predecessors or successors

Paul clearly indicates that perfection was unattainable through the Levitical priesthood, thus necessitating the appearance of a priest “according to the manner of Melchizedek.” He points out that Christ sprang from Judah, a nonpriestly tribe, but, citing Jesus’ similarity to Melchizedek, shows that he became a priest “not according to the law of a commandment depending upon the flesh, but according to the power of an indestructible life.” Aaron and his sons became priests without an oath, but the priesthood conferred on Christ was ordained by an oath of Jehovah. Also, whereas the Levitical priests kept dying and needed to have successors, the resurrected Jesus Christ, “because of continuing alive forever has his priesthood without any successors,” and, therefore, is able “to save completely those who are approaching God through him, because he is always alive to plead for them.”—Heb. 7:11-25.

Paul isolated an outstanding fact respecting Melchizedek, in saying of him: “In being fatherless, motherless, without genealogy, having neither a beginning of days nor an end of life, but having been made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.” (Heb. 7:3) Like other humans, Melchizedek was born and he died. However, the names of his father and mother are not furnished, his ancestry and posterity are not disclosed, and the Scriptures contain no information about the beginning of his days or the end of his life. Thus, Melchizedek could fittingly foreshadow Jesus Christ, who has an unending priesthood. As Melchizedek had no recorded predecessor or successor in his priesthood, so too Christ was preceded by no high priest similar to himself, and the Bible shows that none will ever succeed him. Furthermore, although Jesus was born in the tribe of Judah and in the kingly line of David, his fleshly ancestry had no bearing on his priesthood, nor was it by virtue of human ancestry that the offices of both priest and king were combined in him. These things were as a result of Jehovah’s own oath to him.

A view that appears in the Targums of Jerusalem and of Jonathan and that has gained wide acceptance among the Jews and others is that Melchizedek was Noah’s son Shem. Shem was then alive and even outlived Abraham’s wife Sarah. Also, Noah specifically blessed Shem. (Gen. 9:26, 27) But this identification has not been confirmed. The fact remains that Melchizedek’s nationality, genealogy and offspring are left undisclosed in the Scriptures, and that with good reason, for he could thus typify Jesus Christ, who by Jehovah’s sworn oath “has become a high priest according to the manner of Melchizedek forever.”—Heb. 6:20.

MELEA

(Meʹle·a).

A maternal ancestor of Jesus Christ who lived not long after King David.—Luke 3:31.

MELECH

(Meʹlech) [king].

One of the sons of Micah and a descendant of King Saul of Israel, actually, the great-grandson of Saul’s son Jonathan.—1 Chron. 8:33-35; 9:39-41.

MEM

[מ; final, ם].

The thirteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also later used outside the Hebrew Scriptures, as a number to denote forty. It is one of the five Hebrew letters that have a different form when used as the final letter of a word. The name assigned to the letter means “water.”

Mem corresponds to our English “m,” which is derived from it through the Greek my. In the Hebrew, it appears as the initial letter in each of the eight verses in Psalm 119:97-104.

MEMORIAL

See LORD’S EVENING MEAL.

MEMORIAL TOMB

Concerning the Greek words used to refer to a burial place or tomb, A. T. Robertson in Word Pictures in the New Testament (1932, Vol. V, p. 87) states: “Taphos (grave) presents the notion of burial (thapto, to bury) as in Matt. 23:27, mnemeion (from mnaomai, mi·mnesko, to remind) is a memorial (sepulchre as a monument).” Related to mne·meiʹon is the word mneʹma, which appears to have a corresponding meaning, referring, also to “a memorial or record of a thing or a dead person, then a sepulchral monument, and hence a tomb.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Vol. II, by W. E. Vine, pp. 172, 173.

Such tomb might be an excavated grave in the ground or, as was often the case among the Hebrews, might be a natural cave or a rock-cut vault. (Compare Acts 7:16 and Genesis 23:19, 20.) As has been seen above, whereas the word taʹphos or “grave” gives emphasis to the idea of burial, the words mneʹma and mne·meiʹon lay stress on the thought of preserving the memory of the deceased person. These latter words, therefore, appear to carry a greater idea of permanence than taʹphos; they are related to the Latin word monimentum.

It seems evident that Jewish burial tombs were customarily built outside the cities, a major exception being those of the kings. The references to such tombs in the Christian Greek Scriptures would all appear to place them outside the cities, except the reference to David’s tomb at Acts 2:29. Being thus withdrawn and also being avoided by the Jews, due to the ceremonial uncleanness connected with them, the areas in which such tombs were located were at times the haunt of crazed or demonized persons.—Matt. 8:28; Mark 5:5.

NOT ORNATE

While serving as a remembrance of the deceased person, the Jewish memorial tombs in general do not appear to have been ornate or ostentatious. Some were so unpretentious and inconspicuous that men might walk upon them without being aware of it. (Luke 11:44) Although it was the custom of the pagan peoples around them to make their tombs as lavish as their circumstances allowed, the early Jewish tombs that have been found are notable for their simplicity. This was due mainly to their worship being based on the Hebrew Scriptures and which allowed no veneration of the dead nor fostered any ideas of a conscious existence after death in a spirit world, ideas such as those held by the Egyptians, Canaanites, Babylonians and others. Thus, while many critics make the claim that the worship of the nation of Israel was, from early times, “syncretistic,” that is, resulting from the union of conflicting beliefs and having developed by the addition of tenets and practices from earlier religions, the fundamental resistance to such religious corruption is evidenced once again in the plainness of these tombs. Apostasy, of course, did occur among the Israelites and would account for any deviations from the usual attitude toward the dead. Likewise, Jesus shows that in his day it was the practice of the scribes and Pharisees to decorate the memorial tombs of the prophets and others. (Matt. 23:29, 30) Under Greek and Roman influence, the tendency among the wealthy at this time was toward more pretentious tombs.

Aside from the tomb of John the Baptist (Mark 6:29), the principal tombs considered in the Greek Scriptures are those of Lazarus and of Jesus. Lazarus’ tomb was typically Jewish, being a cave with a stone lying against the opening, which opening may have been relatively small, as has been true of similar tombs found in Palestine. The context would indicate it was outside the village.—John 11:30-34, 38-44.

JESUS’ TOMB

The tomb used for Jesus’ burial was a new one belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, and was not a cave but had been carved in a rock of a garden not far from the site of Jesus’ impalement. The tomb had a door requiring a big stone to close it and this stone apparently was of the circular type sometimes used. (Matt. 27:57-60; Mark 16:3, 4; John 19:41, 42) Like other tombs found, it seems to have had within a benchlike shelf or shelves cut into the walls on which bodies could be placed.—Compare Mark 16:5.

Claims are made for two principal sites as being the original location of Jesus’ tomb. One is the traditional site over which the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been erected. The other site is that known as the Garden Tomb, which is cut out of a huge stone protruding from the side of a hill and is outside even the present city walls. Inside it gives evidence of being a “new” tomb, since, of the several places for bodies, only one seems to have been completed. No definite proof exists, however, that either of these places authentically represents the memorial tomb in which Jesus was laid.

‘TOMBS OPENED’ AT JESUS’ DEATH

The text at Matthew 27:52, 53 concerning the “memorial tombs [that] were opened” as the result of an earthquake occurring at the time of Jesus’ death has caused considerable discussion, some holding that a resurrection occurred. However, a comparison with the texts concerning the resurrection makes clear that these verses do not describe a resurrection but merely a throwing of bodies out of their tombs, similar to incidents that have taken place in recent times, as in Ecuador in 1949, and again in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1962, when two hundred corpses in the cemetery were thrown out of their tombs by a violent earth tremor.—El Tiempo, Bogotá, Colombia, July 31, 1962.

The translation by Johannes Greber (1937) of these verses reads as follows: “Tombs were laid open, and many bodies of those buried were tossed upright. In this posture they projected from the graves and were seen by many who passed by the place on their way back to the city.”

REMEMBRANCE BY GOD

In view of the thought of remembrance underlying the word mne·meiʹon, Jesus’ use of this word (rather than taʹphos) at John 5:28 with regard to the resurrection of “all those in the memorial tombs” seems particularly appropriate and contrasts sharply with the thought of complete repudiation and effacement from all memory represented by Gehenna. (Matt. 10:28; 23:33; Mark 9:43) The importance attached to burial by the Hebrews (see BURIAL, BURIAL PLACES) is indicative of their concern that they be remembered, primarily by Jehovah God in whom they had faith as “the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.” (Heb. 11:1, 2, 6) Inscriptions of the tombs of Israelite origin are very rare and, when found, usually consist of only the name. The outstanding kings of Judah left no magnificent monuments with their praises and exploits engraved thereon, as did the kings of other nations. Thus it seems evident that the concern of faithful men of ancient times was that their name be in the “book of remembrance” described at Malachi 3:16 and not be as the “name of the wicked ones [which] will rot.”—Prov. 10:7; compare Ecclesiastes 7:1; see NAME.

The basic idea of remembrance involved in the original Greek words for “tomb” or “memorial tomb” also gives added meaning to the plea of the thief impaled alongside Jesus to “remember me when you get into your kingdom.”—Luke 23:42.

MEMPHIS

(Memʹphis).

One of the capitals of ancient Egypt, identified with the ruins near Mit Rahiney, about fourteen miles (22.5 kilometers) S of Cairo, on the W side of the Nile River. Memphis was for long the most important city in “Lower Egypt” (that is, the Delta region and a small section to the S thereof).

At Hosea 9:6 the city is called Moph in the Hebrew text (rendered “Memphis” in most English translations). Elsewhere it is referred to by the Hebrew Noph. (Isa. 19:13; Jer. 2:16; 44:1; 46:14, 19; Ezek. 30:13, 16) This Hebrew name is believed to come from Egyptian Mn-nfr (the vowels not being written), the name