Melchizedek is the first tractate from Codex IX of the

Nag Hammadi Library The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the " Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyr ...

. It is a Gnostic work that features the Biblical figure

Melchizedek In the Bible, Melchizedek (, hbo, , malkī-ṣeḏeq, "king of righteousness" or "my king is righteousness"), also transliterated Melchisedech or Malki Tzedek, was the king of Salem and priest of (often translated as "most high God"). He is f ...

. The text is fragmentary and highly damaged. The original text was 750 lines; of these, only 19 are complete, and 467 are fragmentary. The remaining 264 lines have been lost from the damage to the text. Like much of Nag Hammadi, the text was likely used by Gnostic Christians in Roman Egypt. It makes reference to Seth, suggesting it may have been used in

Sethianism The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE, along with Valentinianism and Basilideanism. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd century CE as a fusion of two distinct Hellenistic ...

, a school of Gnosticism. The date it was written is unknown; all that can be said is that it was created during the period of

early Christianity Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewis ...

, presumably at some point during the 3rd century.

Content

The main character and purported author is

, who was the king of Salem and priest of ''

El Elyon Elyon ( he, ''ʿElyōn'') is an epithet of the God of the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible. ' is usually rendered in English as "God Most High", and similarly in the Septuagint as ("God the highest"). The term also has mundane uses, such as " ...

'' (the "most high God") in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

; whether this was as a precursor or earlier equivalent, or as exactly the same entity, is disputed by scholars. Melchizedek, as Jesus, lives, preaches, dies, and experiences the resurrection over the

Aeons The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timel ...

, a Gnostic concept where different emanations of God appear at different stages of history. Melchizedek himself records a revelation given to him by the

aeon The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...

Gamaliel Gamaliel the Elder (; also spelled Gamliel; he, רַבַּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הַזָּקֵן ''Rabban Gamlīʾēl hazZāqēn''; grc-koi, Γαμαλιὴλ ὁ Πρεσβύτερος ''Gamaliēl ho Presbýteros''), or Rabban Gamaliel I, ...

, as well as a liturgical rite performed by Melchizedek. The text also includes some anti- docetic passages that advocate for a

Christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Christ", is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Differ ...

wherein the

Incarnation of Jesus In Christian theology, the incarnation is the belief that the pre-existent divine person of Jesus Christ, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and the eternally begotten ''Logos'' (Koine Greek for "word"), took upon human nature and ...

was a flesh-and-blood human who was born, ate and drank, suffered, and died. This is unusual for Gnostic writings; most Gnostics seemed to endorse docetic views that Jesus did not truly suffer, as he was a divine being separate from the mortal realm. Several possibilities exist to explain the difference. Orthodox writers who wrote about heresies, including

Hippolytus of Rome Hippolytus of Rome (, ; c. 170 – c. 235 AD) was one of the most important second-third century Christian theologians, whose provenance, identity and corpus remain elusive to scholars and historians. Suggested communities include Rome, Palestin ...

and

Epiphanius of Salamis Epiphanius of Salamis ( grc-gre, Ἐπιφάνιος; c. 310–320 – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He g ...

, discuss a group called the Melchizedekians that subordinated Christ to Melchizedek and believed Jesus to be born a mortal man who suffered, in comparison to their more exalted view of Melchizedek. It is thus possible that the text was used by this group of Melchizedekians. Another possibility is that the text was written comparatively late in the time period, when Gnosticism was on the wane and was being influenced by the views that would eventually become orthodoxy. In this case, the text would stand as an example of a work of a writer influenced by both classic Gnosticism as well as orthodoxy, and had merged views from both..

References

{{The Nag Hammadi Codices Gnostic apocrypha 3rd-century works Sethian texts Nag Hammadi library