An anomaly is something irregular, out of the ordinary, sometimes easily missed. Good writers often weave information into their stories that seem random, but later on down the line end up very significant. The casual reader will often completely miss the clues that the author is giving you a piece of the puzzle. On the other hand, the seasoned reader lives for these nuggets. They learn to pay close attention to details or events that seem to have no place or are extra fluff to the story at hand. They turn this seemingly random information over and over in their heads formalizing hypothesis's and theories. Later when the author draws from this random information to pull the story together, they are not surprised and are often most satisfied that they "knew it all along".
The Bible is full of these kinds of anomalies, but none seem as big as the person who shows up in the book of Genesis chapter 14, Melchizedek. Let me set the scene. There is a war between an alliance of five kings versus four kings. The winner of this war raids the kingdoms of the loser and takes not only all the treasure but all the young men, women, and children as well. Among these captives is Abram's nephew Lot. Abram gets news of this, takes a little over 300 men, tracts down these kings, beats them soundly, and saves all the captives as well as reclaims the stolen treasure. Then he heads back to return everything and everyone to their home.
It is here that the anomaly occurs. Along the way it says that the King of Salem and High Priest of the God Most High comes to Abram and this swarm of people and gives them bread and wine. He then pronounces a blessing over Abram. In return Abram gives this king a tenth of all the treasure, and then goes on his merry way. This is all the history we know of Melchizedek. The first major anomaly is the fact that this guy is the priest of the God Most High. The idea of a priest won't even be developed until Moses comes on the scene about 500 years after Abram. At that time there will be two different posts that are held by two different people, one is king the other is priest. There is no category for someone who is both king and priest. The second anomaly is that Abram gives this guy a tenth of all he has. Again, if we fast forward 500 years to the time of Joshua (who leads Israel right after Moses) we find that God divides the promised land (the one promised to Abram) between 11 families (or tribes). The 12th family doesn't get any land, but are made the priests of all the other families. For their livelihood the other 11 tribes give theses priests a tenth of all they have. It is obvious that Melchizedek is a significant figure in history but we really don't know why. An anomaly worth storing in the back of the mind as this story unfolds.
About 1000 years after this brief history of Melchizedek, David, a "man after God's own heart," and king of Israel writes about the "Anointed One" in a Psalm. He says that the "Anointed One" (a.k.a. the expected hero) who is coming will be "a priest forever,in the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4). The idea is that Melchizedek is a historical figure whose story had no beginning or end, and that the hero will be like this in that he will be a priest that will serve as priest forever. So we find out a few facts about this hero. First, he will be a priest. This makes sense since the job of a priest is to offer sacrifices to God for the forgiveness of sin. Remember, that is the main reason why we need a hero. The second thing we learn is that there is an eternal aspect to this hero which also makes sense since death was a result of sin and if sin is taken care of once and for all, then there would be no death.
What we have to consider here is the tension that this picture of the hero we have painted so far. On one hand, he is a regular guy like everyone else (remember God said he would come from the seed of the woman). On the other hand, there is this aspect to him where he is an effective mediator for the sins of all mankind that results in an eternal aspect. Already this hero seems like he has to be super human.
If you are interested, one of the authors of the New Testament develops the idea of how Jesus fulfills David's prophecy of the "Anointed One" being in the pristly order of Melchizedek in Hebrews chapters 5-7.
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