The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE SLAVONIC ENOCH 115
Methuselah, on the point of death, gives over to the priesthood the second
son of Lamech, called Nir (pp. 34, 15-37, 7> chapter XXII). This name
certainly means 'luminary'; our author doubtless drew on the name of the wife
of Noah, Ncjpia, meaning 'Fire of God' (as he could learn from Epiphanius,
Haer. xxvi. i. 3). Nir the priest, as an exemplary hierarch, 'had not slept'
with his wife Sophonim since the day of his election; from the womb of this
barren wife will come, after her death, the child Melchisedek, born with the
seal of the priesthood on his chest and with an angelic appearance. After
forty days he will be carried off to paradise by the archistrategus Michael
to save him from the flood.
If the author of the Slavonic Enoch makes Melchisedek the nephew of
Noah, this is purely because of his scruples about ecclesiastical discipline.
Essentially, however, he is referring to the Jewish tradition which identified
Melchisedek with Shem, the son of Noah; this name might have been given
to Shem at the time of his election to the priesthood.^ Epiphanius {Haer.
Iv. 6. i) and Jerome {Quaest. in Gen. xiv. 18) echo this, although they attribute
the belief to the Samaritans. Melchisedek is one of the four Messiahs
according to Sukka 526, an angel according to Origen and Didymus. The
Melchisedekians, still in full strength in the sixth century and known also
in the Middle Ages, venerated their hero as the Holy Spirit, as the Son
of God greater than the Christ, who assists the angels whilst the Christ
assists men.2
For Christian and Muslim authors Melchisedek was a descendant of Noah:
his son, son of Arphaxad, son of Qainan, son of Paleg.^ According to the
'Cave of Treasures', chapters 22-3, Melchisedek, grandson of Arphaxad,
carries with Shem the body of Adam to the 'centre of the earth', to the future
Golgotha, where he is to remain as guardian and priest-monk until the time
of Abraham. According to the account of pseudo-Athanasius, the most widespread
in the Middle Ages, Melchisedek, grandson of Salaad (equivalent
to Sala, grandson of Arphaxad?), lived as a vegetarian hermit on Mount
Tabor; this tallies with the Jewish legend which placed the academy of Shem
on the same mountain.^ At Tabor the cave of Melchisedek was shown to
" Cf. Ginzberg, The Legends, i, p. 233 and v, Kirchenvdter, 1900, pp. 103-5; I- Friedlaender,
pp. 225-6. Chadhirlegende und der Alexanderroman, 1913,
2 Cf. G. Bardy, RB xxxv (1926), 497 ff., and pp. 258-64.
xxxvi (1927), 25 ff.; C. Wuttke, Melchisedech * Texts of the ps.-Athanasius: in Greek, PG
(Beihefte zu ZNTW 5), 1927; Milik, xxiii 28, 525-30, and A. Vasiliev, Anecdota Graeco-
(1972), 95-144. Byzantina, 1893, pp. 206-14; cf. F. Halkin,
3 Cf. L. Ginzberg, Die Haggada bei den Bibliotheca Hagiographia Graeca^, iii, pp. 48-9,