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The question naturally arises why the figure of Melchizedek is imported into the context of an eschatological jubilee. Unlike other ancient Near Eastern freedom proclamations, after all, the jubilee did not require an individual potentate to enact it. It was intended to operate impersonally and automatically. Yet, like Isa 61:1–2, 11QMelch assigns an eschatological individual a major role in the actualization of the jubilee, identifying him as Melchizedek.

There are two reasons why Melchizedek may have become associated with the jubilee of the end of days. First, Melchizedek was a suitable high priest to actualize an event as significant as the final jubilee. As noted above, the jubilee is intimately associated with the Day of Atonement. Since the high priest had major role in the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, one can see how he could be associated with the jubilee as well. It was argued above that the jubilee can be interpreted as the socio-economic expression of the Day of Atonement. If the sacramental acts of the High Priest were seen as effecting the purification of the people on the Day of Atonement, they might also be seen as effecting that liberation of the people which was subsequently “proclaimed” (קרא) in the jubilee.

It seems fitting, then, that such a momentous event as the eschatological jubilee should have a high priest of exulted standing in order to actualize it. Melchizedek’s priestly status is attested in the two Scriptural passages concerning him (Gen 14, Ps 110). That he was a high priest is affirmed by some ancient traditions, and would seem to correspond to the exalted status he seems to enjoy under certain readings of Gen 14 and Ps 110. If Ps 110 is read in entirety as a second-person address to Melchizedek, than Melchizedek emerges as a priest of almost-divine character, and thus an excellent candidate for executor of the jubilee of the end times.

A second connection between Melchizedek and the jubilee has been elucidated by James VanderKam on the basis of the narrative of Gen 14:

For the purpose of elucidating 11QMelch, it is interesting that the Melchizedek-king of Sodom pericope [Gen 14] revolves about the subject of returning people and property to their proper owners. These are, of course, the heart of what the sabbatical and jubilee legislation is all about, and Melchizedek figures in the middle of this story. Also, some terms and ideas that play a role in the cave 11 text come from Genesis 14, e. g., the word captive and the notion of returning or restoring.

Thus, upon further examination, there is more basis for the association between Melchizedek and the eschatological jubilee than might appear to be the case initially.

The three tasks assigned to Melchizedek’s agency bear further scrutiny: they are (1) to “make them return to them,” (2) to proclaim liberty to them, and (3) to “free them from the debt of all their iniquities” (line 6). The first task picks up the theme of returning that figures so prominently in Lev 25. The second task is the proclamation of liberty central to the jubilee (Lev 25:10) and texts inspired by it (Isa 61:1, but also Jer 34:15). The third task, really a corollary or explication of the second, is to effect a release of the debt of iniquities. This is a spiritualizing of the sense of the jubilee. Originally, it has been argued, the jubilee was a socio-economic manifestation of a spiritual event, namely, the purification of sins on the Day of Atonement. Ironically, the author of 11QMelchizedek is here re-spiritualizing an institution that arose, one might say, as a materialization or concretization of a spiritual reality. The jubilee is being reabsorbed into the Day of Atonement, because the two events now bear essentially the same significance. This pre-Christian spiritualization of the institution will have implications for the use of jubilee imagery in the New Testament, particularly Luke 4:16–21.

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