Melchizedek is one of those people in the Bible that is shrouded in mystery. His story is found very briefly in Genesis 14:18-20. The story starts out with a battle between a group of kings led by Chedorlaomer versus the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. When the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah flee, Lot is captured by Chedorlaomer. Abraham, the ever-protective uncle, was obviously unhappy with this turn of events, so he sends out 318 of his trained men to free Lot. Many people think that Abraham was just some nomad wandering the desert, but he goes out and defeats Chedorlaomer’s men, who had just defeated the Rephaim and the Emim (read about these races of giants here). So Abraham’s guys beat the guys that beat, not one but two races of giants. That is some nomad.
After Abraham defeats them and frees Lot, Abraham has a meeting with the King of Sodom and a mysterious King of Salem named Melchizedek. This is the only place in the Bible that Melchizedek shows up. He is referred to later in Psalm 110:4 and a few times in the book of Hebrews. Many questions arise when reading about him. Who is this King of Righteousness? Why did Abraham give him a tithe? Why don’t we know much about the first priest in the Bible? Did he really have no father or mother?
Melchizedek means “king of righteousness” or “my king is righteous”. Some have speculated that Melchizedek was a title rather than the name of a person. We do know that he was the king of Salem, which is more than likely modern day Jerusalem. He was also a priest of El Elyon or God Most High. Melchizedek is the first priest ever mentioned in the Bible, but he is not a Levitical priest like we see later in Jewish law because that hadn’t even been established yet. We don’t know who decided he was a priest but apparently Abraham recognized it since he gives him a tithe of ten percent. Mel(chizedek) goes on to give a theological interpretation of Abraham’s victory by saying God delivered the enemies into his hands. That’s it. No more is told to us about Mel and I really can’t offer you any more facts.
Some have theorized that Mel might have actually been Noah’s son Shem. This view is especially common with Jewish scholars. Even though Shem was Abraham’s 
great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, he outlived Abraham by 35 years, so the age thing isn’t a problem. The problem is that Chedorlaomer was probably a descendant of Shem, just like Abraham and it would seem weird for Shem to bless and celebrate Abraham for the killing of his descendants.
Others say that Mel was some sort of pre-incarnate Christ. Mel did offer bread and wine just like at the Lord’s Supper and the writer of Hebrews brings out many similarities between the two. Yet the writer of Hebrews distinguishes between the two men saying that Jesus is following in the priestly order of Melchizedek and not that he is Melchizedek.
To find out more (or perhaps confuse us further) about this king of righteousness we will turn to Hebrews 7. The writer of Hebrews drops a bomb by saying that Mel has no father or mother and no genealogy. Most people explain this away by saying that since his genealogy is not ever mentioned in Genesis, the writer is just speaking metaphorically. I think that is a most logical explanation, but leaves unexplained why, of all the characters without a listed genealogy, is Mel the only one seen as without father or mother? So there is another theory that looks at an ancient writing called the Tell el-Armana written circa 1400BC. There is mentioned in these letters about a King of Urusalim (Jerusalem?) named Abd-Khiba. Abd-Khiba is quoted as saying,
Neither my father nor my mother set me in this place: the mighty arm of the king established me in my father’s house.
Since Abd-Khiba sounds nothing like Melchizedek, the thought is that perhaps Jewish tradition saw them as the same person. Or if Melchizedek was just a title then maybe Abd-Khiba was his actual name.
That’s about all there is to know about Melchizedek. He is just a mysterious king and priest mentioned briefly, yet important enough that the writer of Hebrews dedicates a whole chapter to saying Jesus is a high priest following Mel’s order. Since you still don’t know who Mel really is, I would like to propose that maybe I am eternal Melchizedek. Please begin referring to me as “king of righteousness.”
References:
- Genesis 14
- Psalm 110:4
- Hebrews 7
- John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible
- Soniclight Notes on Hebrews and Genesis
- Bible Dictionary