[Hemidakota]

Originally Posted by Drac

John Taylor taught that he was Shem. Bruce R. McConkie that he was a descendant of Noah, not his son.

I lean towards agreeing with my friend Brucie McConkie, as D&C 84:14 supports: Which Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah;
If Noah were his father I don't think it would say, "who received it through the lineage of his fathers", it would just say, who received it from his father, Noah.

The idea of him being Shem is likely from the book of Jasher, 16:11-12 which says:

And Adonizedek king of Jerusalem, the same was Shem, went out with his men to meet Abram and his people, with bread and wine, and they remained together in the valley of Melech.

And Adonizedek blessed Abram, and Abram gave him a tenth from all that he had brought from the spoil of his enemies, for Adonizedek was a priest before God.

Shem = The Great High Priest....that is the key to whom Shem was. "

Shalem is the name of the city that was taken due to the rightenous of its people. Andrew Skinner stated;

"From the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) and other historical documents we know only a little about Jerusalem before the fourteenth century before Christ—the approximate time of Israelite penetration into the land. Some scholars claim that the earliest occurrence of a city called Salim may be in commercial documents from Ebla in Syria about 2400 B.C. The name Rushalimum or Urusalimum occurs in Egyptian Execration Texts (incantations against Egypt's enemies) between 1900 and 1800 B.C. Half a millennium later the El Amarna Letters (diplomatic correspondence between local city-states and the ruling power in Egypt at the time, Amenhotep IV or Akhenaton) mention the land of Jerusalem as a non-Israelite entity and, in fact, name the king, Abdi-Heba. Six of the El Amarna Letters were sent by Abdi-Heba from his city called Urusalim. Another half-millennium later the city is attested in an inscription from Sennacherib as Ursalimmu or Uruslimmu. A Nabataean inscription shows the Aramaic form Ursalem; a Mandaic document preserves the form Urashalem; a Syriac, Urishlem; and an Arabic, Ursalimu. For two thousand years, then, the texts, whether in Egyptian, Akkadian, or West Semitic languages, consistently present Jerusalem under the name meaning "City of Shalem," or "City of Peace or Perfection." The city was known by the various linguistic adaptations of the name Jerusalem long before the Israelite incursion and settlement of the land. Jerusalem: The Eternal City, by Andrew C. Skinner, D. Kelly Ogden, David B. Galbraith

However, I do not agree with Elder McConkie, but favor President Taylor assessment. Even the prophet when editing the Old Testament declared the confusion of the earlier writers whom who it was. "Revelations of the Restoration", by Craig J. Ostler, Joseph Fielding McConkie

Regards as to the city being called Shalem and who was annointed its king, this same great high priest and its people sought for the city of Enoch and found it not.

Abraham already knew this man previously as he sought the same when he asked for the priesthood and paid tithing. How can this be? Remember, when Abraham fled from Nimrod and his father who was a prince under Nimrod, he fled to the house of Noah and those who dwelt in the same vicinity. Shem was one of them. If Noah died, whom to the authority is given? Shem...

JST Genesis 14:30-32 Nowhere in holy writ do we find a more graphic description of the power of God as possessed by those who have been called and chosen to stand in his stead than in these verses. Mighty men of God in ancient days have caused mountains to flee and rivers of water to turn out of their course; they have called a land to come up out of the sea and caused armies to flee (Moses 7:13-14); they have divided the earth into various continents (Genesis 10:25) and parted the waters (Moses 1:25); they have sealed the heavens that there would be no rain and opened them again (James 5:17-18). Such was the faith and power known to them. As Nephi said, "If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done" (1 Nephi 17:50). Further, we have been promised that "this same Priesthood, which was in the beginning, shall be in the end of the world also" (Moses 6:7).

JST Genesis 14:33 Melchizedek is a classic type for Christ, that is, his life was a prophetic foreshadowing of that of the Savior's. He was both priest and king. He taught repentance and ruled in righteousness. He brought peace to a once wicked people who were then caught up into heaven, and as Alma tells us he served under his father (Alma 13:18).

JST Genesis 14:34 Here we are told that Melchizedek's people sought for the city of Enoch and were taken into heaven. The inhabitants of Enoch's city were translated beings. It would be hard to understand this text as saying anything other than that Melchizedek translated the inhabitants of his city as Enoch had translated those of his city. The one went up from the place of the New Jerusalem; the other, from the place of the Jerusalem of old. Knowing that Enoch's city will return during the millennial day to join the New Jerusalem, we are left to wonder if Melchizedek and his people might in like manner return to join the inhabitants of the Jerusalem of old.