Paul reveals not all shall sleep or die
Paul reveals not all shall sleep or die [∞]
When Paul reveals a mystery, he teaches doctrine discerned from the mystery. He has Old Testament sources for his teaching. Can you think of people in the OT who did not die? When we think literally, Enoch comes to mind. [1]
If we form a doctrine on one verse, we violate the rules for interpretation. [2] We turn to the mystery, to see if Paul's source is there.
Paul chides the Hebrews for being children and eating or learning the most simple things. As he starts to teach the 'meat' of the gospel, he dives into the mystery concerning Melchisadek. [3]
He uses the absence of the record of the birth of Melchizedek as a symbol of Christ being the Unbegotten Only Son. He uses the absence of his death as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ as the eternal Word. When you understand symbols, you need not try to presume that Melchizadek was a pre-incarnate Christ. This would violate the same rule for interpretation mentioned earlier.
This is one source in the riddle that not all die. With the absence of a death record in scripture being the mechanism by which the riddle teaches that not all would die, we can now see many for whom there is no death record.
