Melchizedek

Estimated Range of Dating: 150-255 A.D.

Text

• English Translation by Søren Giversen and Birger A. Pearson

Resources

• Melchizedek as a Divine Mediator

Books

• James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins 1990), pp. 438-444.

Information on Melchizedek

Birger A. Pearson writes (The Nag Hammadi Library in English, p. 439):

Our tractate thus presents a number of challenging features of special interest to the historian of religions; it is indeed a mélange of traditions of Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic stamp. Its presentation of the figure of Melchizedek is a case in point: he is not only the ancient "priest of God Most High" known to us from the Bible, but he also returns as an eschatological "high-priest" and "holy warrior." Such Jewish apocalyptic material as the Melchizedek fragments form Qumran (11QMelch) and 2 (Slavonic) Enoch shed considerable light on these features.

Pearson writes: "The tractate Melchizedek was written originally in Greek, probably in Egypt. A third-century date is likely, though it could be earlier (or later)."

Some Contemporary Texts

• Authoritative Teaching (150-300 A.D.)
• Coptic Apocalypse of Paul (150-300 A.D.)
• Prayer of the Apostle Paul (150-300 A.D.)
• Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (150-300 A.D.)
• Melchizedek (150-300 A.D.)
• Preaching of Paul (150-350 A.D.)
• Epistle to the Laodiceans (150-350 A.D.)
• Questions of Mary (150-350 A.D.)
• Allogenes, the Stranger (150-350 A.D.)