In other words, the rites of Judaism were but shadows of things to come. Hebrews tells us that Christ Jesus is better than anything mere religion has to offer. All the pomp and circumstance of religion pales in comparison to the person, work, and ministry of Christ Jesus.
It is the superiority of our Lord Jesus, then, that remains the theme of this eloquently written letter. Connections: Perhaps nowhere in the New Testament does the Old Testament come into focus more than in the Book of Hebrews, which has as its foundation the Levitical priesthood.
The writer to the Hebrews constantly compares the inadequacies of the Old Testament sacrificial system to the perfection and completion in Christ. The author's strong Jewish heritage is evident in his knowledge of the Old Testament.
In fact, he quoted the Old Testament at least 31 times in his 13 chapters. It would also appear that the author had a strong Hellenistic upbringing. In the past, interpreters pointed to the author's use of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, as evidence that he was a Hellenistic Jew. In the second half of the last century, however, research into the Dead Sea Scrolls has revealed that quotations initially assumed to be directly from the Septuagint, could have come from non-traditional Hebrew texts.
For this reason, we can't be certain that the author of Hebrews used the Septuagint. But despite this discovery, we can still be confident that the author of Hebrews was Hellenistic. His sophisticated Greek offers strong evidence of a Hellenistic upbringing. And his vocabulary and style give evidence of a mastery of the language that even surpasses the writings of Luke.
Passionate Intellectual. Not only was the author of Hebrews a Hellenistic Jew, but we can also add to our profile that he was a passionate intellectual. Interpreters widely acknowledge that the author of Hebrews was an intellectual. The theological arguments in Hebrews are more complex than many of those found in the rest of the New Testament. In fact, the author himself noted the priority of sophisticated theological reflection in passages like Hebrews where he indicated that to distinguish good from evil, followers of Christ must become doctrinally mature.
From the contents of the letter of Hebrews, there are a number of things we can say about the author. One is that he was brilliant. He knew the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, backward and forward. He knew how to link texts in ways that were very persuasive to traditional Jewish audiences. Probably he was a Hellenistic Jewish author, probably writing to a Hellenistic Jewish audience. When I say "Hellenistic Jewish," I mean Greek-speaking and probably in the diaspora, but very committed to their Jewish traditions and very knowledgeable in Scripture.
Craig S. Even though the author of Hebrews should be considered an intellectual, he was not a cold, detached academic. He was deeply passionate about the Christian faith. His devotion and passion for his fellow Christians is evident in his writing. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.
You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions Hebrews Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God Hebrews It's difficult to read these and similar passages without realizing that this author was hardly an impersonal scholar. He was passionate about his audience and Christ. If we miss this passion, we miss one of the book's most prominent features.
What we also learn about the author is that he was really concerned about the people he was preaching to and writing for. He was concerned about their spiritual apathy, and so he comes back again and again to the danger of becoming weak or tired, or even apostasized.
And so, he was certainly a superb theologian and interpreter of Scripture, but at the same time he was a person who knew his audience very well, evidently personally very well. He really cared about them and was marshaling everything that he could in terms of theology, interpretation of Scripture and application to help them in their spiritual pilgrimage. Eckhard Schnabel]. So far in our discussion of the background of the book of Hebrews we've focused on the book's authorship.
Now we should turn to our second issue: Hebrews' original audience. The book of Hebrews doesn't clearly identify its audience by name, city or region. Still, in general terms, we can be confident that the author wrote to a specific audience with whom he was personally familiar. In , the author assured his audience of his intent to visit them again. He spoke of Timothy, whom he called "our brother," and he also mentioned a group of people from Italy that his audience apparently knew.
We'll look at five important factors about this original audience that we should consider as we study the book of Hebrews. Jewish First, there's reason to think that at least a good portion of the original audience was Jewish. Hebrews makes this clear:. In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways Hebrews Here, the author referred to how God had revealed himself to Israel in the Old Testament.
But notice how he called Old Testament Israelites "our forefathers" — the ancestors of the author and his audience. It's no wonder, that from as early as the time of Tertullian, who lived from about A. Second, it's also likely that the audience was in large part Hellenistic. The content of Hebrews indicates that the audience was familiar with theological teachings that were more common among Jews living outside of Palestine than among more traditional Jewish circles within Palestine.
A number of interpreters have tried to determine where the audience may have lived outside of Palestine. The fact that the first epistle of Clement of Rome referred to the book as early as A. Hebrews has been used to support this point of view because it mentions "those from Italy. Third, the original audience of Hebrews was immature. Listen to the way the author described them in Hebrews Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again Hebrews Notice that the audience had been believers long enough for the author to say "by this time you ought to be teachers.
But as the author noted, they needed to be taught "the elementary truths of God's word all over again. Interestingly enough, even though the audience was theologically immature, the book of Hebrews contains some of the most advanced, sophisticated theological teachings in the entire New Testament.
How do these features of the book fit with the immaturity of the audience? The best way to make sense of this situation is to keep in mind that early Christians adopted a common practice used in first century synagogues.
We learn from passages like Luke , Acts , and 1 Timothy that leaders of synagogues and Christian churches supervised the reading and explanation of Scriptures to their congregations.
So, the author of Hebrews wrote some of the most theologically sophisticated New Testament writings because he expected church leaders to teach his book to their congregants. Now, in Hebrews , the writer of Hebrews reprimanded his audience for being "slow to learn. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.
They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you Hebrews Fourth, the original audience of Hebrews was persecuted.
There were two well-known times of persecution for Christians during the first century A. And around A. As we read through the book of Hebrews, it becomes evident that the original audience had already faced persecution in the past, some of them were suffering in the present, and the author's expectation was that more of them would suffer, perhaps even more severely, in the future.
In , the author drew attention to the suffering that at least some in the audience had experienced in the past:. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering… So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded Hebrews Here we see that the author praised his audience for their strength when they were persecuted in "those earlier days after [they] had [first] received the light.
This word choice suggests that the audience was facing public or official persecution of some sort, and they were tempted to lose their boldness. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering Hebrews We can see from this verse that the author exhorted his audience to "remember those in prison as if [they] were their fellow prisoners. In addition to persecution in the past and in the present, the author of Hebrews acknowledged in that his audience was facing the threat of more persecution in the future.
Listen to this exhortation:. Consider Christ who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood Hebrews As this passage indicates, the author expected more persecutions to come against his audience, and he was deeply concerned with this feature of their experience.
The original audience of Hebrews faced a number of issues… as the author mentions in chapter 10, they had faced various forms of suffering; some of them had lost property, some of them had been imprisoned, they'd been subjected to public ridicule of some sort. And he still is urging the readers at this point, as he writes, to be willing to bear the reproach of Christ to face exclusion from the camp, which he's describing in Old Testament terms but probably means to be excluded from the synagogue, and if they were to go to Jerusalem, to be excluded from the temple, which I believe was still standing as he wrote.
So there are those forms of persecution they were facing. He says in chapter 12 that their sufferings had not escalated to the point of shedding blood, and yet he seems to be aware of their need to be assured that they have been set free from the fear of death, as he says in chapter 2, by the victory of Jesus Christ. So, it may be that even a more intense, violent persecution is on the horizon. Dennis E. Fifth, as the audience of Hebrews faced persecution, at least some of them were near apostasy.
Rather than simply being discouraged or weakened by sufferings, they were in danger of turning away from Christ entirely. For instance, in Hebrews we read this warning:. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God Hebrews We need to be clear here that the author of Hebrews was not concerned about peccadillos or small sins.
He warned his audience severely because for those who utterly turn away from Christ, "no sacrifice for sins is left. And for this reason, they can only have "a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire" reserved for "the enemies of God. As we'll explain in our next lesson, this and similar passages don't imply that true believers can lose their salvation. Rather, this verse refers to those who profess faith and experience many of its blessings, but without regeneration and justification.
In all events, it's evident that some in the original audience of Hebrews were sorely tempted to leave the faith. Now that we've investigated the background of Hebrews by considering the book's authorship and the original audience, we should turn to our third issue: the date when the book of Hebrews was written.
Although the exact date for Hebrews remains uncertain, the earliest and latest dates for this book can be established rather firmly. We'll look first at the earliest possible date for the book, or terminus a quo , and then at the latest possible date, or terminus ad quem. Both of these dates can be determined with some degree of confidence using scriptural and historical evidence. On the one side, Hebrews helps confirm the earliest possible date for the book.
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Hebrews NLV fal. We, however, are citizens of heaven. We look forward to the Lord Jesus Christ coming from heaven as our Savior. First, in the earliest manuscript editions of the New Testament books, Hebrews is included after Romans among the books written by the apostle Paul. This was taken as evidence that Paul had written it, and some Eastern churches accepted Hebrews as canonical earlier than in the West.
Second, both Clement of Alexandria c. Clement of Alexandria suggests that Paul wrote the book originally in Hebrew and that Luke translated it into Greek, though the Greek of Hebrews bears no resemblance to translation Greek e.
The nuanced position on the authorship question by the Alexandrian fathers was obscured by later church tradition that mistook Pauline association for Pauline authorship. The enormously influential King James Bible took its cue from this tradition. For in him all things were created. And being found in appearance as a human being,. Moreover, both Paul and the author of Hebrews thought of Abraham as the spiritual father of Christians in similar ways.
In spite of all this evidence for Pauline authorship, few New Testament scholars today believe Paul wrote it. Even centuries earlier in the fourth century, the church of Rome did not believe Paul wrote Hebrews, possibly retaining a latent memory of the actual author Eusebius, Hist. In other words, the rejection of Pauline authorship of Hebrews is a long-standing position in the church. The internal evidence presented by the book of Hebrews itself indicates an author other than Paul.
It seems unlikely that Paul here in would refer to himself as simply someone who received the gospel from those who had heard the Lord.
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