Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood Quotes

“The consensus was that Melchizedek was Shem, the oldest son of Noah. Their reasoning was this: If you look at the lifespans of the ancient patriarchs, Shem lives into the time of Abraham (Gen 11:10–11). And so, if Shem was still alive in Abraham’s day, he must have exercised a greater priesthood than Abraham’s, since he is Abraham’s forefather. Thus the Targums—the ancient translations of Scripture into the common language (Aramaic) of the Jews of Jesus’ day—regularly identify Melchizedek as Shem.”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood

“Adam needed to consent to the potential sacrifice of his own life, his own body, in the act of opposing the serpent for the sake of his bride. Had he done so, God would have assisted him. But instead Adam was negligently passive, even cowardly.”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood

“Is it also intimidation? A serpent was a threatening creature. The Hebrew word here, nahash, can refer to a smaller creature like a snake or worm, but it can also be used for a large dragon. For example, in the Book of Job, nahash is used to describe Rahab, a primordial serpent creature of great evil (Job 26:12–13). In Egyptian mythology, the great Sun God Amon-Re struggled with Apep the chief demon and chaos-monster (a kind of Egyptian Satan figure), who was embodied as a giant snake. So Genesis 3 may be communicating that this serpent is something much more intimidating”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood

“we are homo liturgicus: we are worshiping man, and this spiritual dimension is the greatest gulf that separates us from the rest of creation. But “separate” is not the best word. God is really calling Adam to take the glory of the inanimate creation and the glory of the irrational animals into ourselves, and on behalf of the stones that cannot speak and the birds and the fish and animals that cannot speak, to offer praise to God on behalf of the whole universe. That is our true role as human beings.”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood