Here's the answer to the priest unborn

Subject: Here's the answer to the priest unborn
From: Margo
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 10:19 AM

I know that I'm the one who asked about this in the first place, but I found what I believe to be the answer to the priest unborn.

I just happened to have my mormon friend over yesterday. She explained that Melkisitik (Melchezidek) was a priest after whom a whole order of priests was named. Any priest going into that priesthood was chosen before birth as the belief is that all things are pre-ordained.

God must have known I'd be a mudcatter!

Margarita

Subject: RE: Here's the answer to the priest unborn
From: lesblank
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 10:23 AM

This same fact is alluded to in the Ian and Sylvia song "Captain Woodstock's Courtship" on their Vanguard album Northern Journey.

Subject: RE: Here's the answer to the priest unborn
From: Felipa
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 11:49 AM

Les:the song you refer to is a version of the song "Capt. Wedderburn's Courtship" which started this enquiry at the I need help with vocabulary thread

Subject: RE: Here's the answer to the priest unborn
From: Murray on Salt Spring
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 08:57 PM

That ballad is (probably) the text in Helen Creighton's Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia:

O bring to me a silken gown,
A web that never went through,
And you must get me a priest unborn
To join us one and all,
Before I lay one night with you
At either stock or wall.

Oh, my mother's got a silken gown,
A web that never went through;
Melchisedec is a priest unborn,
He will join us one and all,
So shake you up that old straw bed,
You must lay next to the wall.
HC comments that "This may be a later refinement of the Caesarean birth of the Child variants." If so, it's rather ingenious, I suppose; but it's still a bit esoteric, to say the least...

Subject: RE: Here's the answer to the priest unborn
From: gargoyle
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 11:55 PM

There is no doubt, within my mind, that you have been "tilted a little off-base" by your "morman advice"....it is "right" and yet it is "wrong."

I would plead for Jerry's edification upon the topic...although, be it that it is "religous" and non-musical....

The priesthood aspect in respect to M.....IS CORRECT!!! .....the "predestination" to "priesthood" is a VERY pecular twisting of the scriptures and not applicable to the M.....references.

Subject: RE: Here's the answer to the priest unborn
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Feb 99 - 04:43 AM

Melchizedek, the ancient Canaanite priest-king of Salem (Jerusalem) is quite a minor character in the Hebrew Scriptures. His story is told directly in Chapter 14 of Genesis:

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said,

Blessed be Abram (Abraham) by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth;
And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

...which was a pretty big tip, even in those days.

Anyhow, that's the whole story of Melchizedek. It's a pretty short story, so it's best not to read too much into it.
This story is referred to in Psalm 110, where a new king is to be a priest-king, just as Melchizedek was.

The Lord has sworn, and will not change his mind,
You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.

The Oxford Annotated Bible says that all early Israelite kings had the privileges and dignity of priesthood. There is no scriptural evidence of this order being a formal organization like the Jesuits or a tribe like the Levites. It seems to be a more general term referring to that which is common to all priests.

Then you get lots of stuff about old Melchizedek in Hebrews in the New Testament, which is not a particularly easy book to understand. Generally, it's a statement of a theology of Christ (Christology), a comparison between Jesus and Melchizedek used to illustrate the meaning of Jesus. Chapter 7 is where the unborn priest reference is found, maybe just due to the fact that no mention is made of the birth, death, or genealogy of Melchizedek.

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him; and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

As you can see from the comments here and in the other thread, there are many ideas about Melchizedek that are floating around out there, beyond what's stated in Scripture, and there has been a bit of a mythology built up around him. I thought I ought to make use of my theology degree and give you at least a bit of a background on what's in the Scriptures about this guy. My main point is to caution you not to read too much into the whole thing - there ain't that much to read.
-Joe Offer-

I've quoted from the Revised Standard Version, which seems to be about the closest thing we have to a common Bible.

Subject: RE: Here's the answer to the priest unborn
From: Margo
Date: 06 Feb 99 - 12:55 PM

Thank you so much Joe! I do appreciate your showing me the references to Mel. Its funny, but I had come to the same conclusion as you - not to read too much into the whole thing. But your input certainly does make things more clear. If I have questions in the future regarding the religious side of things, I will look forward to your input.

Margarita

Subject: RE: Here's the answer to the priest unborn
From: gargoyle
Date: 06 Feb 99 - 11:25 PM

Thank you Joe for a precise erudite explanation

This is an AMAZING place.