order of Melchizedek.” While it is not clear precisely what this means, it certainly shows that the Judean kings did not entirely repudiate their Canaanite heritage. Melchizedek, king and priest of El Elyon, was an ancestor of whom one could be proud. Jerusalem, of course, was later regarded as the place that the Lord had chosen. In the books of Kings, and sometimes in the Prophets, great scorn is poured on the rival sanctuary of Bethel, which was one of two state temples erected by King Jeroboam