MELCHIADES, mel-cai'a-diz (MILTIADES): Pope 310-314. According to the Catalogus Liberianus he was made bishop in 311, but this contra dicts its own dates for his death and the length of his pontificate. The Liber pontificalis says that he was an African by birth. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Calixtus, and De Rossi thought he had discovered his grave to the right of the old burial-vault of the popes. In his time fall the edict of toleration by Galerius, the conquest of Rome by Constantine, and the edict of toleration by Constantine and Licinius. Constantine wrote to him from Gaul entrusting the decision in the Donatist question to him and other bishops (cf. Eusebius, Hist. eccl., X., v., in NPNF, 2 ser., i. p. 381), and he held a synod in consequence (Oct. 2, 313) in the palace of the Empress Fausta on the Lateran. Its proceedings and decision against Donatus and in favor of Caecilianus are reported by Optatus (De schismate Doruatistarum, I., xxii. sqq.).

(A. Harnack.)

Bibliography: L4ber po'ntifealbe, ed. Mommsen, m MGH, Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 46; Jaffé, Regesta, i. 28, ii. 732; DCB, iii. 917-919 (detailed); B. Platina, Limes of the Popes, i. 67, London, n.d.; Milman, Latin Christianity, i. 94; Bower, Popes, i. 41-45; KL, viii. 1523-25.

MELCHITES, mefchaita: The name given to the orthodox Christians in the Roman provinces which had been conquered by the Arabs. It distinguished them from the Monophysitea, and, being derived from melek, "king," connoted their fidelity to emperor and pope, on account of which they received harsher treatment from the Arabs than did the Monophysites.

MELCHIZEDEK, mel-kiz'e-dek: The king of Salem and priest of El-elyon who met Abraham when returning from his victory over the united kings of the Euphrates valley, brought him bread and wine, blessed him in the name of El-elyon, and received tithes from him. He is mentioned also in an obscure passage, Ps. ca. 4, and in Heb. v.-vii. The data given in these Biblical passages were developed in patristic and pseudepigraphical literature, but without the addition of any historical material. The representation in Gen. aiv. is noteworthy in that, while in general the Canaanit2a of the Old Testament are regarded as typically heathen, in this passage a Canaanite prince is represented as a worshiper and priest of the Creator of heaven and earth, who is the God of Abraham, while Abraham gives tithes to Melchizedek in recognition of these facts. The discrepancy between these two views is one of which the narrator is entirely unconscious. Historical elements involved are that a Canaanitie deity Elioun ho hypsistos (" Elyon the highest ") is mentioned by Philo of Bybloa (Eusebius, Preparatio evangelica, L, a. 11, Eng. transl. by E. H. Gifford, i. 36, Oxford, 1903), while the last element of the name Melchizedek is a Phenician god-name, Zift (W. Baudiasin, Sttcdien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, i. 15, Leipsic, 1876). This still leaves the monotheism of Melchizedek unexplained, since that of the nomadic Jethro is not parallel. An important datum in the narrative is that Melchizedek was king of Salem. Salem has been identified with a place of the same name eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis, and with the Salim of John iii. 23 and the Salem of Judith iv. 4. But these were places of minor importance, while in Ps. Lyavi. 2 Jerusalem is called Salem, in Josh. x. 1 an Adonizedek (a name formed like Melchizedek) is called king of Jersualem, and in the Amarna Tablets (q.v.) "Urusalim" appears as the common name about 1400 B.C. for the city which appears in the David narrative as Jebus. So probably here.

With reference to the historicity of the Melchizedek episode many scholars hold that verses 18-20 seem to be interpolated and that verse 21 continues the narrative in verse 17. The matter of the tithes is difficult to understand, whether regarded as taken from the booty or from Abraham's own property. Similarly, the last part of verse 22, after "Lord," is regarded as an interpolation. It is believed that the compiler used material from various sources, that he was not interested particularly in the historicity of the matter, since for him the importance lay in the significance of Melchizedek as the incarnation of an idea which finds expression in the giving of a tenth by the patriarch. Putting together the facts that the name "Salem" occurs in the late psalm Lyxvi., that Ps. ex. is Maccabean, that the name seems to have been "Urusalim" in the time of the Amarna Tablets, and that the Maccabees were called " priests of the most high God," the conclusion might be drawn that the representation of the text is a late creation to exalt the high priests of Jerusalem. On the other hand, such an idea of a Canaanitic personage is not natural for that period. The narrative is

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best explained as an early remainder of a story of the historical environment of which nothing is now known, and this largely because of the purely religious interest of the compiler.

(F. Buhl.)

Bibliography: H. E. Ryle, Early Narratives of Genesis, London, 1892; Rosch, in TSK, 1885, pp. 321 sqq.; A. H. Sayce, "Higher Criticism" and the Monuments, London, 1894 (to be used with caution); F. Hommel, Ancient Hebrew Traditions as Illustrated by the Monuments, ib. 1897; DB, iii. 335; EB, iii. 3014-16; JE, viii. 450; the commentaries on Genesis; the pertinent sections in works on the history of Israel, particularly Kittel's. The Expository Times, vols. vii.-viii., contains a series of pertinent articles by Sayce and Hommel.