Richard Belcher explores the Old Testament to define the basic functions of prophets, priests, and kings through an analysis of key texts. He then explains how these offices are fulfilled in Christ, understood in the context of his humiliation and exultation. A nuanced view of Christ's work through these offices points us to how the church, its leaders, and individual believers also fulfill these roles. Includes study questions.

The biblical figure Melchizedek appears just twice in the Hebrew Bible, and once more in the Christian New Testament. Cited as both the king of Shalem-understood by most scholars to be Jerusalem-and as an eternal priest without ancestry, Melchizedek's appearances become textual justification for tithing to the Levitical priests in Jerusalem and for the priesthood of Jesus Christ himself. But what if the text was manipulated? Robert R. Cargill explores the Hebrew and Greek texts concerning Melchizedek's encounter with Abraham in Genesis as a basis to unravel the biblical mystery of this character's origins. The textual evidence that Cargill presents shows that Melchizedek was originally known as the king of Sodom and that the later traditions about Sodom forced biblical scribes to invent a new location, Shalem, for Melchizedek's priesthood and reign. Cargill also identifies minor, strategic changes to the Hebrew Bible and the Samaritan Pentateuch that demonstrate an evolving, polemical, sectarian discourse between Jews and Samaritans competing for the superiority of their respective temples and holy mountains. The resulting literary evidence was used as the ideological motivation for identifying Shalem with Jerusalem in the Second Temple Jewish tradition. A brief study with far-reaching implications, Melchizedek, King of Sodom reopens discussion of not only this unusual character, but also the origins of both the priesthood of Christ and the role of early Israelite priest-kings.

Lisbeth S. Fried’s insightful study investigates the impact of Achaemenid rule on the political power of local priesthoods during the 6th–4th centuries B.C.E. Scholars typically assume that, as long as tribute was sent to Susa, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, subject peoples remained autonomous. Fried’s work challenges this assumption. She examines the inscriptions, coins, temple archives, and literary texts from Babylon, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Judah and concludes that there was no local autonomy. The only people with power in the Empire were Persians and their appointees. This was true for Judah as well. The High Priest had no real power; there was no theocracy. The wars that periodically engulfed the Levant in the fourth century temporarily pulled the ruling governors and satraps away from Judah, and during these times, the Judean priesthood may have capitalized on the brief absence of Persian officials to mint coins, but they achieved their longed-for independence only much later, under the Maccabees. Liz added this explanatory note in an e-mail to the Biblical Studies e-mail list on December 2, 2005: “There’s a confusion in reader’s minds about my methodology, which I’d like to set straight if I may. “The book is a rewrite of my dissertation. My dissertation was entitled The Rise to Power of the Judean Priesthood: The Impact of the Achaemenid Empire. I assumed at the outset that because the Achaemenid Empire was non-directive, and cared only that tribute would be sent regularly, the priesthood was able to fill the resulting power vacuum and achieve secular power. My goal was to chronicle the process. In addition I thought to look at Eisenstadt’s model which predicted the opposite result—that local elites, like priests, could not rise to power in an imperial system. Since there was no real data from Judah, I looked at temple-palace relations in Babylon, Egypt, and Asia Minor as well as Judah. “It was only during my research that I came to the conclusion that local priesthoods did not achieve secular power anywhere in the Achaemenid Empire and certainly not in Judah. In fact their power diminished during those 200 years. I also concluded, not that Eisenstadt was correct, but only that my data were insufficient to reject his model. However, my data were sufficient to reject the model of an Achaemenid Empire that was non-directive as well as the model of Persian authorization of local norms (Frei and Koch).”

He’s as lethal as he is beautiful, desired and feared by all. She’s big, bloodthirsty, and obliterates her enemies. Never should they have met. But they did... With the Serpent God’s ultimatum hanging over them, Honryn and Verdria know they are running out of time. The Festival of the Vine is only four months away. And on that night the deity will claim Honryn as his mortal vessel and Verdria as his consort—a fate they both want to avoid. Yet one of the Serpent God’s new ‘gifts’ to Verdria allows her to wield soul mage magic, and she discovers she can now create long-distance portal spells like Honryn. This proves groundbreaking because Honryn has been building a secret settlement—a city situated between dragon territory and Verdria’s own homeland—and with Verdria’s help Honryn can now supply his secret new settlement twice as fast, thus guaranteeing he can evacuate all his people to the new settlement before he becomes the host for a hostile god. But there is just one problem with his plan. Honryn isn’t planning to go with them. He’s going to stay behind and become the new Priest-King and the mortal vessel for the Serpent God. Because if Honryn doesn’t stay behind, and he flees with his family back to the mountains, his uncle will send the might of the empire to crush Verdria’s homeland and ‘rescue’ Honryn. As far as Verdria is concerned, she only has two choices—find a way to free Honryn from the Serpent God or stay by his side and become his consort. Because there’s no way she’s abandoning him.

The noted Catholic psychologist Dr. G.C. Dilsaver writes that the time has come for Catholic families to re-discover true patriarchy--time for Catholic men to accept and fulfill their role as leader and head of their families. The role of Christian manhood, as ordained by God and confirmed by Catholic teaching, is symbolized by three staffs: the Scepter of authority and self-discipline, the Crosier of spiritual headship, and the Cross of redemptive suffering. Dr. Dilsaver promotes a new and untainted patriarchy in which the husband's ultimate authority is rooted in Christ's example of humility and self-sacrificing love. Three Marks of Manhood can help Christian families realize their identity to the fullest--empowering them to resist the encroachment of secular culture. Read it and learn how to build a strong and lasting marriage, raise children to become faithful men and women of God, and foster an authentic Catholic culture in your home. Dr. Dilsaver, with his development of the first fully integrated Christian psychology, Imago Dei Psychotherapy, is truly the father of Christian Psychology; with the publication of Three Marks of Manhood he may also be the father of a new Christian patriarchy.

Ar, defeated, shamed, and systematically looted, is occupied by Cosian forces. Perhaps Marlenus of Ar alone, the great ubar, could remind the men of their Home Stone and its meaning. But it is thought that he perished in the Voltai. Young women from Earth brought to Gor are commonly taken to the markets to be branded, collared, and sold as the delicious, lovely livestock they are. Such is the case of a young woman whom we shall call Janice, for that was her Gorean slave name. In the prison pits of piratical Treve there exists a chained prisoner who believes himself to be of the Gorean peasantry. The nature and even the existence of this prisoner, strangely enough, is a closely guarded secret. In order to better keep this secret, it is decided that his servant and warder had best not be a native Gorean. Rediscover this brilliantly imagined world where men are masters and women live to serve their every desire. Witness of Gor is the 26th book in the Gorean Saga, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Though many studies have probed the significance of the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam 7:1-17) within the biblical canon, few have endeavoured to explore its significance within the narrative of Samuel. This thesis argues that by weaving references to God's promises made to David (collectively known as the Davidic Covenant) throughout his narrative, that author of Samuel reveals God's will to strip away all human pretension by bringing His promises to fulfillment through the lowly David, whose acension to kingship and endurance therein is owing all to God. In this way, the author fulfills his purpose to demonstrate God's sovereign working in history to establish His kingdom on earth through His chosen priest-king, a descendant of David, in fulfillment of the promises He made beforehand. Engaging in a literary close-reading of the text of Samuel, the author shows how the narrative of Samuel is shaped towards this end.