Martin McNamara, «Melchizedek: Gen 14,17-20 in the Targums, in Rabbinic and Early Christian Literature», Vol. 81 (2000) 1-31

The essay is introduced by some words on the nature of the Aramaic translations of Gen 14 used in the study (the Tgs. Onq., Pal. Tgs. as in Tgs. Neof. I, Frg. Tgs., Ps.-J.). Tg. Neof. identifies the Valley of Shaveh (Gen 14,17) as the Valley of the Gardens (pardesaya). The value of Tg. Neof.’s evidence here is doubtful. Most Targums retain Melchizedek as a personal name (not so Tg. Ps.-J.). Salem of v. 18 is identified as Jerusalem. Melchizedek is identified as Shem, son of Noah, mainly because of the life-span assigned to Shem in Gen 11. The question of Melchizedek’s priesthood in early rabbinic tradition and in the Targums (Tg. Gen 14; Tg Ps. 110) is considered, as is also the use of Jewish targumic-type tradition on Melchizedek in such early Fathers as Jerome, Ephrem, and Theodore of Mopsuestia.

Jerusalem. This identification is also that of 1QapGen 22,13 ("Salem, that is Jerusalem"), and probably in what is to be regarded as an original part of the text, not from a later copyist. It is also found in Josephus (Ant. 7. 67; War 6. 438; Apion 1. 174).

        The identification of Salem as Jerusalem is also, naturally, that of rabbinic tradition. This rabbinic tradition seems to be faithfully reported by Jerome in his work Hebrew Questions on Genesis, completed between late 391 and early 393. He begins his comment on Gen 14,18-19 with the remark: "Because our little book is, in a word, a collection of Hebrew questions or traditions, let us therefore introduce what the Hebrews think about this. [...] by ‘king of Salem’ is meant the king of Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem"¹⁴. Writing some years later (in 397), in Letter 73 (on Melchizedek) Jerome will defend quite a different view, namely that Salem of Gen 14,18 was in Samaria. To this we shall presently turn.

        Some scholars would regard the identification of Salem as Jerusalem in the Qumran Genesis Apocryphon as an anti-Samaritan trait¹⁵, a point not proven.

        There was also an ancient city named Salem (or Salim), in Samaria, near Nablus. It is apparently mentioned in Judith 4,4 ("Samaria ... the valley of Salem", to( au)lw=na Salhm). It occurs in the LXX of Gen 33,18 (LXX: "and Jacob came to Salem [Salhm] a city of Secima"; HT: Mk#$ ry( Ml#$ bq(y )byw, generally rendered today as "and Jacob arrived safely at the town of Shechem") and in the LXX of Jer 48,5 (LXX: "and there came men from Sychem, and from Salem (Salhm), and from Samaria" = MT: 42,4: "men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria"). It also occurs in Jub 30,1 ("In the first year of the sixth week he [Jacob] went up to Salem, which is east of Shechem, in peace in the fourth month"), which is parallel to Gen 33,18. It is probably the site mentioned in John 3,23: John was baptizing at Aenon near Salim (Salei/m).

        A tradition attested to by Jerome (AD 398) and Aetheria (probably