Last Updated on Saturday, 12 September 2009 21:59 Written by Greg Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:33

This is another paper from my first semester of grad. school.  It is unique because it was written for the infamous Intro. to Grad. Studies class, which is designed to convince students they are neither scholars nor good writers and need to spend the rest of the program improving.  There are students who have graduated with all A's except in this class.

The paper itself is a strange endeavor, because it must be precisely 6 pages (12 is a modest term paper for the program), heavy on footnotes in order to convey thoroughness in research, and actaully say something.  The topics are also limited, as they must be interesting (to the professor) and have a significant amount of prior scholarship but not be too big a topic to overview in six pages.  The whole thing is a precarious balancing act, and an exercise in restraint if, like me, the student finds six pages about right for an introcution to the paper.

Anyway, I went with Melchizedek, the king of all things arcane and esoteric in biblical studies.  As you might guess, there are no answers offered in six pages (or in a thousand as far as this guy is concerned), but you might find some of the interpretive suggestions interesting. 

Melchizedek