6.1.4 Gen. 14: Abraham saves Lot

The excellent cohesion within the clan becomes even clearer and provides the positive background for what is later to be reported in the fathers’ stories. The meticulous accuracy of the historical assignment with the names of the various kings involved in the war is particularly striking.

Melchizedek, chief priest and king of Jerusalem, who brings bread and wine (!) to Abraham in a symbolic act, has lasting significance for us. The designation אל עֶלְיוֹן (el eljon) was probably the honorary name of a pre-Jewish deity worshiped in Jerusalem. He was then probably absorbed by the faith in Yahweh and taken into the Jerusalem Yahweh-King tradition, which not least in the glorious encountered royal psalms. 

In Psalm 110.4 Melchizedek is already mentioned in Christianity in Hebr. 5-7 indicated messianically as a type of Christ.