Were Melchizedek and Shem the Same Person?

One of the questions that has been asked by students of the scriptures is whether Melchizedek was actually Shem, the son of Noah.  Shem was the second son of Noah and was born when Noah was 492 according to Moses 8:12.  That means Shem would have been 108 at the time of the flood when he entered the ark with his father.  From the Bible we learn that Shem lived about 502 years after the flood (Genesis 11:10-11).  Following the lineage and math of Genesis 11, adding the years for each successive birth, we learn that Abraham was a direct descendant of Shem and was born 301 years after the flood.  So Abraham and Shem lived at the same time (Abraham and Noah were also contemporaries since Noah died 350 years after the flood according to Genesis 9:28).  In fact, Abraham lived 175 years according to Genesis 25:7, which means that he died 476 years after the flood—so Abraham died before Shem, his seventh great grandfather!  Shem was alive the whole of Abraham’s life.  We later read that to Abraham “Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God” (Genesis 14:18).  So Abraham was a contemporary of Melchizedek (whose lineage is not described) and therefore we are certain that Melchizedek and Shem lived at the same time, thus allowing the possibility that they were the same person.

               There are a handful of reasons to believe that Melchizedek and Shem were the same person as outlined in an Ensign article many years ago.  For example, Joseph F. Smith declared that he saw “Shem, the great high priest” in the Spirit World among the patriarchal fathers while making no mention of Melchizedek (D&C 138:41).  That title of the “great high priest” is suspiciously similar to what the Lord said of Melchizedek.  He declared that we call the higher priesthood after Melchizedek “because Melchizedek was such a great high priest” (D&C 107:2).  Also, in the Times and Seasons (the Saints’ newspaper in Nauvoo), volume 5 page 746 published in December 1844, we read, “And with the superior knowledge of men like Noah, Shem, (who was Melchisedec) and Abraham, the father of the faithful, three contemporaries, holding the keys of the highest order of the priesthood” (see here on the ninth full paragraph in the first column of page 746; note that the above Ensign article incorrectly states that this was from the 6^th volume of the Times and Seasons).  It’s unclear to me who wrote this—surely it wasn’t Joseph Smith since he was dead—but the paper was published under the direction of John Taylor, one of the Twelve, and so the presence of this statement must have been acceptable to him.  It may be that this was something Joseph taught the Twelve and which they were repeating.  But, of course, we can’t claim that Melchizedek has to be Shem based only on this obscure reference in the Saints’ newspaper, but it does indicate at least that this was the belief. 

               The main reason for LDS students of the scriptures to not believe that Shem and Melchizedek were the same person is this verse from the Doctrine and Covenants: “Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah” (D&C 84:14).  If Shem were Melchizedek, then the reading at face value of this verse would suggest that there were some number of generations between Shem and Noah, which of course there weren’t since Shem was Noah’s son.  I believe you could also interpret the verse to mean that Melchizedek received the priesthood through Noah and the lineage of his fathers, i.e. the lineage from Adam down to Noah and not Melchizedek up to Noah, but it is not the most obvious interpretation when considered independently.  What should be noted, though, is that John Taylor would have presumably been aware of this verse and yet had no problem believing that Shem was Melchizedek.  We may never know for sure in this life, but one day we will get our answer to this and many other gospel questions: “in that day when the Lord shall come, he shall reveal all things” (D&C 101:32).