Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/217

XXV.] "Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, blessed Abraham and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hands. And Abraham gave him tithes of all." Michael Glycas says: "Melchizedek, though he is said in the sacred Scriptures to have been without father and mother, yet sprung from Sidos, son of Ægyptos, who built Sidon. When he had built a city on Mount Sion, named Salem, he reigned there thirteen years, and died a just man and a virgin." And Cedrenus: "Melchizedek was the son of King Sidos, son of Ægyptos, but he was said to be without father and mother and of uncertain generation, because he was not of Jewish extraction, and because his parents were bad and not reckoned among the righteous."

Joseph Ben-Gorion writes: "O Jerusalem! once the city of the great King, by what name shall I designate thee? Anciently thou wast called Jebus, after thy founder; then thou didst acquire the name of Zedek, and from thence did thy king Jehoram take his title Melchi-zedek (or Melech-zedek, Lord of Zedek), for he was a just king, and he reigned in thee justly. And thou didst obtain the name of Justice, and in thee justice dwelt, and the star that did illumine thee; thou wast called Zedek, and in the same king's reign, to thee was given the title Salem, as it is written in the Law: and Melchizedek was king of Salem, so called because thus the measure of the iniquity of the people was accomplished. But Abraham, our father, of pious memory, chose thee, to labour in thee and to acquire in thee a possession, and in thee to lay a root of good works, and because the majesty of God dwelt in thee, when Abraham, our father, flourished."

S. Epiphanius, however, says: "Although no names of the parents of Melchizedek are given, yet some assert that his father was called Heraclas, and his mother Astaroth, or Asteria." The "Catena Arabica" on Genesis says: "Melchizedek was the son of Heraclis, the son of Peleg, the son of