Melchizedek, the Great Priest-King

Melchizedek, the Great Priest-King
Hebrews 7.1-10

‘I was telephoned by a Christian magazine a few months ago. They were running a feature on various writers and they wanted to know, among many other questions, which books I regarded as the most important in my thinking and my work.

As often when I’m asked unexpected questions, my mind went blank for a minute. Then I looked around my study. I realized at once that the most important books to me, day by day and week by week, were not the great novels, plays and poems, much as I love them. Nor – to the surprise, I think, of the feature writer – were they the works of the great theologians and biblical scholars, much though I am indebted to many of them. No: the books that I treasure most, that I would be sorriest to be parted from, the ones that are always within reach, are the big reference books: a classical dictionary, a dictionary of the Christian church, a dictionary of biography, various atlases, encyclopedias of philosophy, archaeology, art, history and so on. And, of course, various dictionaries of biblical themes, people and topics; and, along with all of that, dictionaries of the ancient languages, particularly Hebrew and Greek. I love the thought that within arm’s reach is a whole world of learning, or at least the gateway to it, pointing me to other books both ancient and modern...

Taken from Hebrews for Everyone – by Tom Wright