46 Salem is traditionally identified as the Jebusite stronghold of old Jerusalem. Accordingly, there has been much speculation about its king. Though some have identified him with the preincarnate Christ or with Noah’s son Shem, it is far more likely that Melchizedek was a Canaanite royal priest whom God used to renew the promise of the blessing to Abram, perhaps because Abram considered Melchizedek his spiritual superior. But Melchizedek remains an enigma. In a book filled with genealogical records he appears on the scene without a genealogy and then disappears from the narrative. In Psalm 110 the Lord declares that the Davidic king is a royal priest after the pattern of Melchizedek.
47 The parenthetical disjunctive clause significantly identifies Melchizedek as a priest as well as a king. It is his royal priestly status that makes Melchizedek a type of Christ: He was identified with Jerusalem, superior to the ancestor of Israel, and both a king and a priest. Unlike the normal Canaanites, this man served “God Most High” (אֵל עֶלְיוֹן, ’el ’elyon)—one sovereign God, who was the creator of all the universe. Abram had in him a spiritual brother.

In other versions

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High,

Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High.

And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High, brought Abram some bread and wine.

And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. (He was the priest of God Most High).

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

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