In apostolic literature the word 'meekness' {TpaiTTis, also found in the form irpatynji or Trpq.&rris, and vpavwaBeia, only in 1 Ti 6" and Ign. ad Trail, viii. 1) is of frequent occurrence. St. Paul uses it eight times and the Apostolic Fathers about a dozen. In 1 Co 4^' it is linked with ' love,' and indicates the forgiving spirit which has abandoned stern measures ; in 2 Co 10^ with ^Trtei/ceio, and is used of Christ in a memorable phrase ; in Gal 5^ it is one of the fruits of the Spirit and in 6' is applied to the kindly treatment of an offender ; in Eph 4^ the context suggests the gentleness of patience (cf. Col 3'^ 2 Ti 2», and Tit 3% In Ja 1-' it refers to the attitude of humble receptivity, and in 3'^ is a quality of Christian 'wisdom.' In 1 P 3'° it is united with <p6^os as a safeguard against the calumny with which the opponents of Christi- anity pursued the believer.
In 1 Clem. xxi. 7 and xxx. 8 we find it allied with iin.(iK€ia (cf. Diog. vii. 4), and in Ixi. 2 with eiprii'-q ; in Ep. Barn. XX. 2 it stands side by side with inro/j.ovrj (cf. Did. V. 2). In Ign. ad Trail, iii. 2 it is described as ' the power of the bishop,' and later on, in iv. 2, as the weapon which is to destroy the ruler of this world (cf. ad Polyc. ii. 1 and vi. 2). Hernias (Mand. v. ii. 6) links it with yiaxrxia. (cf. 1 P 3^ and 1 Clem. xiii. 4, where the corresponding adjectives are used, the former being defined by Bengel as inansuetus, ' one who does not cause dis- turbance,' the latter as tranquillus, ' one who bears calmly the disturbances of others') and (ii. XU. iii. 1) with Tr/fl-ris.
Thus, it would appear that the ideas of patience under injury, the forgiving spirit, peaceableness of disposition and life, and gentleness toward the erring enter into the use of the word in apostolic and sub-apostolic literature.
R. Martin Pope.
MELCHIZEDEK. — The original meaning was probably ' My king is Zedek ' ; but the name is in- terpreted ideally in He 7°, where it is t,^ken to mean ' king of righteousness,' and at the same time, because of Melchizedek's rule over Salem ( = 'peace'), 'king of peace.' Thus the personal and
the official titles point to the actual character ol the man. The typical hero, hrst righteous and therefore self-governed and blessed with the tian- quillizing consciousness of the presence of God, ajipears to the writer as an anticipation of Him in whom alone righteousness and peace are completely realized both in His own person and life and in His gifts to men. Thereupon the writer proceeds to develop the comparison in the interest of his con- ception of tlio supreme and permanent priesthood of .Jesus Christ.
1. The original source of the story is Gn H'"'-"', of which the literary history is still uncertain. It is not an integral part of any of the principal docu- ments, though the chapter as a whole has a few affinities with P. At present the only safe con- clusion is that it comes from an independent source, of which the special characteristics cannot yet be determined. Nor is there any real evidence of a lack of historicity. The combination of kingly and priestly offices in one person, who was invested with a sacred character as a descendant of a deity, was a not unusual feature of government in the primitive ages (see J. G. Frazer, Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship, 1905, p. 29 ff.), and may well have prevailed among the Canaanite tribes. Yet the writer of Hebrews need not be re- garded as a witness to the historicity of the narra- tive, or as concerning himself with such a question. He treats Melchizedek ideally rather than histori- cally, and interprets the picture preserved in Genesis without committing himself to any opinion as to its literal or biographical accuracy. His object is not to confirm nor to question the narra- tive, but to work out a conception of priesthood which he found in the priestly archives of his nation ; and in so doing he makes at least as much use of the silences of Scripture as of the assertions. Accordingly, B. F. Westcott (Hebrews, 1889, p. 199 f. ) takes him as pronouncing no judgment on the historical problems, but as eliciting the typical and abiding value of the story.
2. Immediate source of the exposition. — The writer need not be conceived as going back through Ps 110'' to the original tradition in Gn 14 and work- ing upon it independently ; for there is sufficient reason to believe that the narrative had for a couple of centuries engaged the attention of some of the religious leaders of the people, and in the interpretation an interesting development may be traced. 'God Most High' (He 7') is a phrase of frequent occurrence in the Apocrypha (for the passages see E. Hatch and H. A. Kedpath, Con- cordance to the LXX, 1892 ti'.), especially in Ecclesi- asticus ; and the title ' priest of the Most High God ' was revived by the Maccaba?an princes, whilst John Hyrcanus (137-105 B.C.) combined in himself the triple functions of prophet, priest, and king (see Josephus, Ant. xin. x. 7, BJ I. ii. 8; and R. H. Charles, Book of Jubilees, 1902, p. Ixxxviii, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, 1908, p. liff., with references there cited). Evi- dently the Melchizedek tradition was considered as pointing to the Maccaha;an leaders (cf. J. Skinner, Genesis, 1910, on 14-"), in whose period Ps 110 may have undergone its final liturgical revision. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a Palestinian book ; but Philo is a witness for the prevalence of a similar interest in the ancient story in Egypt. He argues in favour of an identifica- tion of Melchizedek with the Logos, whose priest- hood, however, is viewed as a symbol of the action of reason in bringing righteousness and peace to men (Mangey, i. 103, 533, ii. 34). The thought in Hebrews is clearly an advance, parallel in part to that between the Philonic and the .Johannine Logos, but confronting the reader with a religion instead of a philosophy, and with a supreme per-