12-13-2020, 01:23 AM
Yet, we may ask, where are the references to a priesthood? The main role of a priest is to offer sacrifice and perform rites in an established church, and if Tolkien was wary of introducing ceremonies into a fantasy novel that could be misconstrued by readers to be something resembling a pagan or an occult rite, how could the priesthood of the Catholic Church possibly be represented? As mentioned, it would have to be in very general allegorical or mystic terms without portraying an actual ceremony, and Tolkien may have accomplished this by having the almost inexplicable arrival of his Istari resemble the ‘mysterious’ appearance of the High Priest Melchisedech to Abram yet to be called Abraham in the Old Testament. After Abram goes into battle in a woodland vale and victoriously frees his brother Lot who was held captive by warring kings, Melchisedech the king of Salem ‘appears’ with an offering of bread and wine to the Lord, and blesses Abram:
Of paramount importance is the observation that Melchisedech was a priest ordained by God long before the Hebrew nation and the Levitical rites were instituted, and according to the prophet King David, Melchisedech was of an ‘eternal order’ and therefore much greater than the Levitical one, a prophetic type of the Eternal Kingdom and Everlasting Priesthood of the Messiah that came to fruition through Christ and his Church:
“But Melchisedech the king of Salem, bringing forth bread
and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God, blessed him
and said: Blessed be Abram by the most high God, who created
heaven and earth. And blessed be the most high God, by whose
protection the enemies are in thy hands.” (Gen. 14: 18-20)
Of paramount importance is the observation that Melchisedech was a priest ordained by God long before the Hebrew nation and the Levitical rites were instituted, and according to the prophet King David, Melchisedech was of an ‘eternal order’ and therefore much greater than the Levitical one, a prophetic type of the Eternal Kingdom and Everlasting Priesthood of the Messiah that came to fruition through Christ and his Church:
“The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand:
Until I make thy enemies thy footstool.
The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of
Sion: rule thou in the midst of thy enemies.
With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in
the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star I begot thee.
The Lord hath sworn: and he will not repent:
Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.
The Lord at thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of his wrath.
He shall judge among nations, he shall fills ruins:
he shall crush the heads in the land of many.
He shall drink of the torrent in the way:
therefore shall he lift up the head.” (Psalm 109)
St. Paul explains King David’s verses, declaring that Melchisedech’s mysterious appearance without any parentage recorded in the sacred texts displays the difference between the finite and imperfect Levitical rite of the Old Testament that could not redeem mankind and the Eternal and everlasting priesthood of Christ in the New Testament:
“For this Melchisedech was king of Salem, priest of the
most high God, (...) who first indeed by interpretation is king of
justice: and then also king of Salem: that is, king of peace: Without
father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God,
continueth a priest forever.” (Heb. 7:1-3)