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. And a traveller to those cities/countries had to respect in some way
the deity of that city/country. Don's right that there is NOT every
expectation that Melchizedek worshiped the same God as Abram. It's possible,
but we should not expect it to be the case, especially given what we know
about El Elyon as a Canaanite deity.
GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia