I gotta question for you.
Have you ever heard of a place called the “Land of 10,000 Smokes?”
I’m guessing no, right?
Alright, lemme ask you this.
Ever heard of a place called the “City of Angels?”
Los Angeles, instantly pops into your mind, right?
Well, it turns out that a long time ago, the city we know today as Los Angeles used to be called the “Land of 10,000 Smokes?”
How about if I say “Sin City.”
Most folks would instantly know I’m talking about Las Vegas or Vegas.
How about I ask you if you know a city called Jebus?
I’m guessing you have no idea what I’m talking about.
Well, take a look at this verse from the book of Judges.
“But, unwilling to stay another night,
the man left and went toward Jebus
(that is, Jerusalem),
with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine.”
-Judges 19:10
Hmm…interesting.
In addition to being called Yerushalayim, we see the holy city also went by the name Jebus.
Before that, it went by the name of Shalem, which is where Abraham met some mysterious dude named Melchizedek.
And by the way, the name, Melchizedek is NOT a name.
It’s a title!
Just like the word Christ is not a name, but also a title.
It comes from the Greek word Christos, which means Messiah.
Melchizedek means “The king of righteousness.”
Ancient Hebrew tradition affirms Melchizedek was none other than a very old Shem, one of Noah’s original sons!
Shem is a normal name, just like Abraham or Joshua was a formal name.
It may seem farfetched that Abraham really met Shem.
But when the genealogical records are examined, we find Shem was indeed alive during Abraham’s time.
While I can’t be dogmatic on this point, there’s more and more evidence pointing to Shem being the king and priest of the God Most High.
It seems like he lived in the city of Shalem, had the title Melchizedek, and that he’s the one Abraham met in Shalem—what the Akkadians called Yerushalayim.
So what takeaway can we extract from all of this?
Simply to be aware that many of the names we’re familiar with in our English Bibles aren’t anywhere near what they originally were in the Biblical era.
Jesus was NOT called “Jesus.”
He was called Yeshua.
Paul was NOT called “Paul.”
He was called Rabbi Shaul.
Peter was NOT called “Peter.”
He was called Kephas.
And Jerusalem went by the names of Shalem, Jebus, and Yerushalayim.
Over and out.
Leave a Reply