Jeffrey M. Bradshaw: Abram Meets Melchizedek, with Joseph Smith at the Reader’s Side

Описание: Abram Meets Melchizedek, with Joseph Smith at the Reader’s Side
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

Presented at the 2025 Abraham and His Family Conference
Saturday, May 3 and Saturday, May 10, 2025
Sponsored by The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Religious Education, Scripture Central, and FAIR

Though the title of this presentation is simple enough, the Genesis chapters that relate this story are full of enigmas. It has been claimed that “no chapter in the Bible has been more widely studied than Genesis 14”—and, going further, that the episode where Melchizedek and Abram meet is “the most complex within this chapter.” “This is a chapter rife with unique literary devices, including explanatory glosses, plays on words, etymological significance of names, and even a possible use of gematria.” My purpose is to provide a Latter-day Saint perspective on this episode in the life of Abraham, in particular showing how Joseph Smith’s teachings, translations, and revelations bear on some of the most head-scratching puzzles of this pericope. While one skeptic has characterized Joseph Smith’s revelatory teachings about the Melchizedek priesthood with a sort of condescending charity, calling them simply a “misguided” case of “zeal without knowledge”—I will attempt to demonstrate that there is a plausible basis for many of these teachings in scripture and elsewhere in ancient Jewish and Christian tradition.

Go to https://https://interpreterfoundation.org/con... for additional information and the full Conference program.