Melchizedek as Angel

[Scholarly Tarot]

Melchizedek as Angel

Michael we know was a high priest, or at least a priestly figure. The Shephard of Hermas in the Similitudes describes him as “he who holds authority over peoples and governs them… gives them the law, into the hearts of the believers.(1) This is Yahweh’s role we see Michael having. The Ascension of Isaiah describes how Michael the chief of the holy angels opens the grave of Jesus on Easter Morning after his burial.(2)

Greek Baruch describes how he held the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, He opens the gate and brings oil to the people.(3) In the Life of Adam and Eve it is the Angel Michael who commands Satan to worship Adam because he was made in the image of God. Satan refuses and thus he and his followers were driven from heaven. It was this same angel who brought seed to Adam from Paradise and taught him how to till the ground.(4)

But the Great Angel is also Melchizedek.(5) Some early Church Fathers claimed this, such as Origen, though Jerome disagreed. Perhaps it was the silence of his parentage which gave rise to this legend. The Pentateuch does say he was a Priest after El Elyon in Jerusalem. This El Elyon was the Procreator of Heaven and Earth. We also understand that Melchizedek is of the Royal House. Ps. 110 depicts this. Both Genesis 14 and Ps. 110 depict Melchizedek thus. And Melchizedek was lumped with Michael as well. as my previous note showed, at least in medieval Judaic esoterica.

So it is a remarkably fascinating document coming from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the 11Q Melchizedek, that strings all kinds of materials together from the scriptures and legend which depicts Melchizedek with all the roles of Yahweh! He is the agent of the Judgement of God, in a Jubilee year no less. He made expiation for men. Melchizedek was the judge in the council of the gods. He wreaked vengeance on Belial and was the one heralded in Isaiah 52:7. He was the great Atoner on the Day of Atonement.(6)

There is much more to explore, which I will do so as I have time. For now what we come to grasp is the angel traditions in the late Judaism after Alexander the Great’s Kingdom was split up, the Hellenistic Age, the same era which produced the incredible Books of Enoch, which also identify Metatron not only with Enoch but with the Great Angel *usually reserved for Yahweh), and thus we see many men inhabiting the same role as Yahweh, Enoch even being called the “Lesser Yahweh.”


Endnotes
1. Carolyn Osiek, “The Shepherd of Hermas,” Fortress Press, 1999: 195.
2. M. A. Knibb, “Ascension and Martyrdom of Isaiah,” in James H. Charlesworth, “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, p. 160.
3. R. H. Charles, “The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament,” Vol. 2, Oxford, reprint, 1979: 540-541.
4. Discussed in Margaret Barker, “The Great Angel,” SPCK, John Knox Press, 1992: 88.
5. Barker, “Great Angel,” p. 88.
6. Barker, "Great Angel," p. 89.