Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Karl, where in the text do you get the concept of Melchizedek's deity being 
the 'universal God'?


GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia



From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com<mailto:kwrandolph AT gmail.com>>
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:56:08 -0700
To: George Athas <george.athas AT moore.edu.au<mailto:george.athas AT moore.edu.au>>
Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 14:18-22

George:

On Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 7:42 PM, George Athas 
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au<mailto:George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>> wrote:
Don appears to be reading Gen 14 against a henotheistic background in which 
cities and/or countries were associated with the worship of a particular 
deity.

Agreed.

But he is taking it out of the context of Genesis where Melchizedek’s El 
Elion is the universal God, not limited to a particular city and/or country. 
Thus he is not the same deity that the Canaanites worshipped.

Are there any surviving Canaanite or west Semitic documents from Abraham’s 
time or earlier that indicate the deities that the Canaanites worshipped, or 
are the only documents that survive date from centuries later when a local El 
Elion was a dim and corrupted memory of the universal God taught by 
Melchizedek?

…

GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au<http://moore.edu.au>)
Sydney, Australia

Karl W. Randolph.