From Angels A to Z by James R. Lewis & Evelyn Oliver, forward by AndyLakey. Visible Ink Press 1996
MELCHISEDEK:
Melchisedek (the god Zedek is my king) is also known as Melchizedec, andMelch-Zadok. Dionysius the Areopagite (“Pseudo-Dionysius”) referred toMelchisedek as the hierarch most beloved of God, whereas pseudo-Tertullianmentions him as a celestial virtue of great grace whose function in heavenis like the one Christ has on earth.
King of righteousness, Melchisedek is also mentioned in the Old and NewTestaments, where he is the fabled preist-king of Salem (the ancient nameof Jerusalem) and the one to whom Abraham gave tithes. The meeting of Abrahamand Melchisedec is represented in a woodcut in the great Cologne Bible (1478-80),in Rubens’s painting titled the Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, and ina painting by the 15th-century Dutch artist Dierick Bouts.
Melchisedek is called an angel of the order of virtues in Epiphanius’s AdversusHeareses, whereas in Phoenician mythology, where he is called Sydik, he isregarded as the father of the seven elohim, or angels of the divine presence.Melchisedek is called Zorokothera in the Gnostic Book of the Great Logos.According to Hippolytus, Melchisedec was a power greater than Christ.
In occult lore {some experts teach that} Melchisedek represents the HolySpirit, whereas in the Book of Mormon, he is the prince of peace, his symbolbeing a chalice and a loaf of bread. In R.H. Charles’s edition of 2 Enoch,Melchisedek is mentioned as the supernatural offspring of Noah’s brotherNir. Nir was preserved in infancy by Michael and became, after the Flood,a great high priest, the “Word of God,” and king of Salem. In another referenceMelchisedek is also identified as Shem, one of Noah’s sons, as in MidrashTehillim, which also contains the legend of Melchisedec’s feeding the beastsin Noah’s ark.
Sources for above Melchisedek entry are:
Charles, R. H. The book of the Secrets of Enoch. Oxford: Clarendon, 1896Encyclopedia Judaica. New York. Macmillan, 1971 Margolies, Morris B. A Gatheringof Angels: Angels in Jewish Life and Literature. New York: Ballantine, 1994
Lilinah, a Levantine history expert, wrote the following to Dr. Katiaon 4-25 and 26 of 2001:
As far as Sydik goes, off the top of my head, the only clear Phoenician referenceI can think of is in Philo of Byblos’ Phoenician History.
The name Sydik is cognate with the Hebrew word “tzaddik,” which means a manwho is righteous, pious, and/or holy. It sometimes is translated as “saint”in a Jewish sense, not a Christian sense. There is also a feminine form ofthe word. [Katia inserts: which is tzaddeqet, also spelled tzaddeket, meaning”a righteous/pious woman” ]
Most of my studies in the Levant have been focused on pre-Greco-Roman times,but because of the dearth of written information, I do have to use Greekor Greco-Levantine sources, like “Concerning the Syrian Goddess,” which iswritten in Greek by a Levantine (not of Greek descent), and is about regionalreligious practices. I’ve got it on mywebsite.I haven’t looked much into later Antique stuff, but it looks like thingswere passed down, altered, and syncretized.
I suspect the Zedek, Sydyk, and Tzaddik, are linguistically related.
Below is what I could find in Philo about Sydyk.
Philo claimed he learned this from an old priest named Sanchuniathon.
This was doubted by scholars earlier in the 20th century, who saw the Greekinfluence, and there is a great deal. Then the tablets were discovered atUgarit in 1928, and it looks like there are definitely threads of the oldertraditions in “The Phoenician History”.
Unfortunately, the actual work has not come down to us. What exists has beenpieced together from a Christian text whose author was tearing the Paganstuff apart, the “Praeparatio evangelica” by the 4th century Christian Churchfather, Eusebius of Caesarea.
A great deal of “The Phoenician History”, which is written in Greek, is acreation story. A number of names of men are given, which are actually thenames of Ugaritic deities, and who have the characteristics of the Ugariticdeities, so it is possible, or even likely, that Sydyk was a deity, not ofUgarit, but of another Phoenician city, possibly Byblos.
Lilinah continues: The text I’m using is:
Philo of Byblos: The Phoenician History Introduction, Critical Text, Translation,Notes by Harold W. Attridge and Robert A. Oden, Jr. The Catholic BiblicalQuarterly Monograph Series 9. The Catholic Biblical Association of America,Washington DC: 1981. ISBN 0-915170-08-6
A lineage is being discussed, at some point in the lineage, as descendentsof Chousor, who is actually the Ugaritic craftsman and magician deityKothar-wa-Chasis, come two youths, Craftsman (Technitos) and Earthly Native(Geinos Autochthonon). These two invent baked clay and straw bricks and buildingroofed houses. From them came others, Field (Agros) and Hero of the Field(Agrou Heros).
[Attridge and Oden think that “field” may come from an earlier
Levantine writer translating from Phoenician into Greek, who misread Shadai(one of the names of the god El) as sadeh, which means field. They furthersuspect that “Hero of the Field” is a translation of an epithet of the godEl, which is “he who controls the meadow”.]
Back to our story: These two (Field and Hero of the Field) added courtyardsto dwellings as well as encircling walls and grottoes. From them came Trappersand Hunters, who are also called Rovers and Titans. From these came Amynosand Magos, who introduced villages and flocks of sheep.
[Attridge and Oden suspect that Amynos is Baal Hamon [Lord of Mt.Hamon] andBaal Hadad, as the Phoenician word “magon” means “souzerain”, which is prettymuch the same thing as “baal”, which means “master”.]
Back to our story: From these came Misor and Sydyk, that is, Agile and Just.They discovered how to use salt.
[Attridge and Oden think they may be Phoenician deities which correspondto the Akkadian deities Mesharu and Kittu, with names drawn from the WestSemitic roots “y-sh-r”, “upright, straight”, and “ts-d-q” “just, right”.Apparently the words y-sh-r and ts-d-q form a pair in in Phoenician and Ugaritictexts, “righteousness and justice”.]
From Misor came Taautos [that is, the Egyptian Thoth], who discovered whoto write. From Sydyk came the Dioscouri, or Kabeiri, or Korybantes, orSamothracians. These first invented the boat.
[Attridge and Oden: “Dioscouri: In Greek tradition the Dioscouri, Castorand Pollux, are originally distinct from the Kabeiri. They are, however,frequently portrayed as protectors of sailors in distress…”
[Attridge and Oden: “Kabeiri: On these Samothracian deities, cf.
Herodotus, 2.51, and Strabo, 10.3.14…] I know I don’t own Strabo, and I’mnot sure where my Herodotus is right now… perhaps you have access to copies.
Further on, Sydyk mates with one of the seven daughters of Kronos, and hasa son Aesclepios. He has aready had seven sons, the Kabeiri, and they andtheir brother Aesclepios, begins keeping written records.
[Aesclepios is the Levantine god Eshmun, who is also a god of healing]
Well, that’s it for Sydyk. But he is a father, and to some important deities.Don’t know if this clears anything up, or makes things more confusing…
—Lilinah