"Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent: 'Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." — Hebrews 7
An ancient priesthood — the Solar Order of the Priest-King, Rex Sacerdos — whose lineage runs beneath all outer religions as a hidden stream of righteousness.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. - Hebrews 7: 1-3
The Archetype: Priest-King
Melchizedek appears once in Genesis, blessing Abraham — yet he is king of righteousness and priest of the Most High God, without genealogy, without beginning or end.
He is the archetype of the Divine King:
- Priest — mediator between heaven and earth
- King — sovereign ruler
- Without lineage — eternal, archetypal, unbound by time
Melchizedek — the timeless Priest-King of Salem (Jeru-Salem, the City of Peace) — is the archetype of the Divine Human, the one who embodies both Royalty and Priesthood, Matter and Spirit. He was an ancient Solar Priest-King, a prototype of Divine Humanity, and the Essenes saw themselves as direct continuators of his tradition.
Jesus was explicitly called "a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 7).
Names and Meanings
Melchizedek — מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק
- "King of Righteousness"
- "My King is Zedek" — Zedek being an ancient deity associated with Jupiter and justice, worshipped in pre-Israelite Jerusalem
- King of Salem = King of Peace
- Priest of El Elyon — God Most High
- First to offer bread and wine in sacred ritual
- First to bless Abraham and to receive his tithe
- The first individual given the title Kohen (priest) in the Hebrew Bible
- Mentioned in only three places in Scripture: Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and Hebrews 5–7
The name itself is composed of two elements — melek(h), "king," and ṣedeq, "righteousness" (or the proper name Zedek). With the archaic construct form malk-ī, it translates literally as "king of righteousness" — the reading confirmed by Hebrews 7:2.
Tzadik — צַדִּיק — the Righteous
Root: tzadi-dalet-qoph — צ.ד.ק
Tzedek — righteousness, justice, rightness, alignment. Not moralistic righteousness, but structural alignment. The thing that is tzadik is the thing in right relationship to everything around it. The plumb line. The level. The thing that stands true.
Tzedakah — charity; but literally, rightness restored to a situation. Giving not from pity but from the recognition that something is misaligned and must be corrected.
Tzadik — the righteous one, whose inner being is in perfect alignment with the divine order.
Melchi-tzedek — my king is righteousness. King of Salem. Priest of El Elyon. The archetype of the priest-king whose sovereignty is the divine order made manifest.
Tzadki-el — the righteousness of God. The divine alignment. The cosmic plumb line. The angel of Jupiter — of expansion, of right order in the realm of kings and governance.
The Genesis Account
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, 'Blessed be Abram to the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.' And he gave him tithe from all. — Genesis 14:18–20
Abraham, returning from his victory over the kings of the East, is met by this mysterious priest-king who brings forth bread and wine — the first eucharistic offering in Scripture — blesses him in the name of El Elyon, and receives a tenth of all the spoils.
The Order vs. the Levitical Priesthood
The Order of Melchizedek is distinct from the Levitical priesthood, which was established through Levi and his descendants. The Levites conducted sacrifices according to the laws of the old covenant; the Order of Melchizedek, by contrast, is a priesthood not bound by the laws of the old covenant — older, more universal, rooted in the eternal.
Melchizedek pre-dated the patriarch Levi by five generations, and Aaron by six (Abraham → Isaac → Jacob → Levi → Kehoth → Amram → Aaron). According to Leviticus Rabbah, God initially intended the priesthood to remain permanently with Melchizedek's patrilineal descendants. But when Melchizedek blessed Abraham before blessing God, the priesthood was transferred to Abraham's descendants — Isaac, then Jacob. Other Jewish commentators, such as Chaim ibn Attar, hold that this was no punishment: Melchizedek willingly gave the priesthood to Abraham upon recognizing his unique character and Godly virtue, since Abraham was rightfully deemed worthy of precedence for independently coming to recognize God in a pagan world.
Lineage & Transmission
The Order of Melchizedek is a line of transmission outside the Levitical priesthood — a hidden patriarchal succession of righteousness running from the dawn of creation to the coming of the Messiah.
Some traditions trace the Order from the very beginning:
- Begins with Adam
- Passes to Seth
- To Enosh
- To Methuselah
- To Noah — the eighth preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5)
- To Shem — known in some esoteric circles to be the very Melchizedek who blessed Abraham
The order of Melchizedek was Adam's until he died, then passed to his son Seth, and from Seth from father to son (or grandson) down the line. Noah inherited the title when Methuselah died — though Noah was Methuselah's grandson — because Methuselah outlived his son Lamech, so the order skipped over Lamech. Likewise, Enoch never inherited the order, because he was translated off the earth before his father Jared died.
2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah the eighth preacher of righteousness — the eighth man to hold the order. When Noah died, the title was inherited by his son Shem. In Genesis, the man who meets Abram returning from the defeat of the invading kings was Shem — the oldest living patriarch of the seed-promise line in Abram's day.
After Shem, the title continued to be inherited from generation to generation until it reached Yeshua of Nazareth through his earthly father Joseph. The men who held this title were the Old Testament saints who carried the seed promise of Genesis 3.
Joseph was truly a son of Zadok after the Order of Melchizedek, a translated being who often appears as if out of nowhere…. — from the Anna books
Esoteric Origins
Beyond the biblical line, esoteric traditions trace the Order to even older sources:
- The Kaloo, survivors of Atlantis, are said to have helped establish its outer form within the Essene brotherhoods
- Others link the Order to Enoch, Thoth, and Hermes Trismegistus
- To the ancient star priesthoods
- To the Great White Brotherhood
These secret teachings are the hidden essence of the Sepher Yetzirah, which was taught to the patriarch Abraham by Melchizadek after he initiated Abraham into the heavenly transmission, the Qabalah. Melchizadek is that mysterious being, who is King of Peace and Priest of the Most High God — Melchizadek, who is "without father or mother, knowing neither death nor end of days." — Tower of Alchemy: An Advanced Guide to the Great Work
Yeshua and the Fulfillment of the Order
The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.' — Psalm 110:4
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, Yeshua is identified as the great High Priest — not of the line of Levi, but of the Order of Melchizedek. Because, like Melchizedek, Yeshua was not a descendant of Aaron, he could not qualify for the Jewish priesthood under the Law of Moses. Instead, he plays the role of king-priest once and for all, fulfilling the eternal lineage that Melchizedek prefigured.
The association of Melchizedek with the Messiah in fact pre-dates Christianity — it had already developed within Jewish messianism of the Second Temple period. The Gnostic Nag Hammadi texts, dating on or before the 4th century, contain a tractate (The Coming of the Son of God Melchizedek) in which Melchizedek is the Christ — living, preaching, dying, and rising; a priest-king who returns to dispense justice and bring peace, supported by God.
Melchizedek is referenced again throughout Hebrews — 5:6–10, 6:20, 7:1–21, and 8:1.
And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. — Hebrews 7:5–6
If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. — Hebrews 7:11–12
Melchizedek and Metatron
— from Power of the Magdalene
When we were researching our first book The Essenes, Children of the Light, Alariel revealed a good deal of information about the Melchizedeks and their relationship with the Essenes. Although we understood that the Order of Melchizedek is a service Order of advanced teachers operating in many parts of the galaxy, we still knew very little about the Head of the Order, so we framed a question to cover this: Joanna: Could you please tell us about the great Being who founded the Melchizedek Order? Alariel: To understand Melchizedek, it is first necessary to understand his relationship to Metatron. The work of these two great Beings interlocks and neither can be understood in isolation. There are two main aspects of the Universe: Light (which may also be perceived as energy) and Consciousness. Light creates all the levels of the Universe right down to the physical level. All that you can see (including other beings) are made of Light, crystallized or solidified down till it reaches the physical level. Consciousness creates the process through which beings of Light evolve spiritually, that evolution giving you the reason for your existence and the arc of your development. Both a rock and the greatest Archangel are made of Light, but the consciousness of the rock exists in potential, whereas the consciousness of the Archangel exists in unfoldment and realization. In vibrational terms, the consciousness of a rock is extremely slow, unorganized and crude, while the consciousness of a great Archangel is fast, structured and refined. Metatron oversees the energy, the Light aspect of the Universe, creating the Light and the Protocols and Language of Light, while Melchizedek oversees the spiritual education and development of consciousness of all material beings. The development of angelic beings is overseen by Metatron. So, in a way, Metatron provides the physical environment in which spiritual evolution occurs, while Melchizedek nourishes and sustains that evolution in the unfolding of consciousness. Their work is very different, but together they combine to provide a complete experience for many beings on many levels of development. And the net result of their combined work is to take life at a very slow and primitive stage and enable it to expand in awareness so that what emerges in time are Enlightened Beings. Joanna: Is the Melchizedek teaching limited to sacred geometry? Alariel: By no means. It is hard for human beings to grasp the absolute flexibility of the Melchizedek teaching process. When they first contact a civilization, they spend time getting to know what that culture is most interested in, and when they teach, they teach within that parameter of interest. Some examples from Earth history may serve to illustrate this process. They discovered that the Maya were fascinated by time, so they taught them about calendars. They discovered that the Druids were fascinated by the natural world, so they taught them the wisdom of trees and herbs and stars. They discovered that the Greeks were fascinated by line and form, so they taught them about sacred geometry. They discovered that the Jews were fascinated by the contrast of Light and darkness, so they taught them about the struggle between good and evil. They discovered that the Egyptians were fascinated by transformation, so they taught them about ascension. Amongst all the planets bearing sentient life throughout all the galaxies, they found many different peoples interested in many different things, and whatever that interest was, they talked about it. So they forced their views upon no one, but rather helped everyone to expand the seed of Light that lay dormant in their Consciousness. The Melchizedeks have a little phrase to explain this process. They say, "We always work with the current of the water and the grain of the wood." And that is eminently sensible, for to try to teach a people something that they find dull and boring is a thankless task that the Melchizedeks are much too intelligent to attempt! Joanna: What do you see as the main purpose of the Melchizedeks here on Earth? Alariel: Above all, the Melchizedeks are trying to help you achieve your potential as human beings, through helping you to refine your consciousness so that you can rise towards the highest reaches of human awareness. The Melchizedeks are fundamentally relinking all the beings they teach to the Source, by showing them how to access the Truth, the Divine Presence within. This process has the effect of reprogramming the consciousness and aligning that consciousness with the underlying Light-structure of the Universe. This automatically takes the individual away from a selfish and materialistic perception of things and reorients them towards more spiritual goals. The achieving of the goals that lie along your spiritual path will release great joy within you, and these experiences of joy may be seen as the gifts of the Spirit. That is why the Order of Melchizedek has been described as administering the gifts of the Spirit, although to be more exact, they administer the developmental process which enables the gifts of the Spirit to come into your lives.