Note 4 — Chapter XIV · Solomon Melchizedek.

It may be said in passing, that the legend in Gen. xiv., as was first pointed out in Calmet, bears some resemblance to the Hindu myth of Soma, a lunar being, who discovered the juice of the sacred Soma plant (Asclepias acida), called “the king of plants.” Soma was the most sacred sacrifice to the gods, as a juice; it had the intoxicating effect of wine; and the lunar being, Soma, was believed to be still alive, though invisible, and is the chief of the sacerdotal tribe to this day. In the Vishnu Purana, Soma is called “the monarch of Brahmans.” He was the Hindu Bacchus, and is regarded as the guardian of healing plants and constellations. Melchizedek, offering wine to, and as priest of God Most High receiving tribute from, the “High Father” (Abram), thus bears some resemblance to Soma, the sacerdotal moon-god; and those who care to study the matter further may be reminded that in Babylonian mythology Malkit seems to be a “Queen of Heaven” (moon), and is connected by Goldziher (Heb. Myth.) with Milka (Abram’s sister-in-law), whom he supposes to have the same meaning. It is remarkable, by the way, that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in telling the story of Abram and Melchizedek minutely and critically, omits the offering of bread and wine. This is not only an indication that the Epistle was written as already said, before Paul’s institution of the eucharist (1 Cor. x., xi.), but suggests that the writer may have suspected the offerings as pagan. The Soma juice was sacred also in Persia, and is the Hôm of the Avesta. Ewald says of the story in Gen. xiv., “The whole narrative looks like a fragment torn from a more general history of Western Asia, merely on account of the mention of Abraham contained in it.” (Hist. of Israel, p. 308. London, 1867.) And finally it may be noted that among the kings Abram smote, just before meeting Melchizedek, was Chedorlaomer, King of Elam. Elam is south of Assyria and east of Persia proper; if he fought Abram near Jerusalem, Chedorlaomer was about one thousand miles from his kingdom, Elam. Probably it was not he but a name and legend of his kingdom that drifted into Jewish folklore.