Epistle to the Hebrews

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The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbr. Heb for citations) is a very consciously "literary" document in the New Testament. The purity of its Greek was noted by Clement of Alexandria, according to Eusebius (Historia Eccl., VI, xiv), and Origen asserted that every competent judge must recognize a great difference between this epistle and Paul's (Eusebius, VI, xxv).

The letter has carried its traditional title since Tertullian described it as Barnabae titulus ad Hebraeos in De Pudicitia chapter 20 ("Barnabas's Letter to the Hebrews".)

This letter consists of two strands: an expositional or doctrinal strand (1:1–14; 2:5–18; 5:1–14; 6:13–9:28; 13:18–25), and a hortatory or ethical strand which punctuates the exposition parenthetically at key points as warnings to the readers (2:1–4; 3:1–4:16; 6:1–12; 10:1–13:17).

Hebrews does not fit the form of a traditional Hellenistic epistle, lacking a proper closing and prescript. Modern scholars generally believe this book was originally a sermon or homily, although possibly modified after it was delivered to include the travel plans, greeetings and closing (13:20-25).[1]

Hebrews contains many references to the Old Testament—specifically to its Septuagint text—and references to all but two of the canonical letters of Paul. It has been regarded as a treatise supplementary to the Romans and Galatians, and as a kind of commentary on the book of Leviticus and Temple worship in general.

Contents

[edit] Authorship

Main article: Authorship of the Pauline Epistles

The letter itself is anonymous, leading to various proposed candidates for authorship since the earliest times. The earliest and perhaps best known candidate is the self-proclaimed Apostle Paul himself. However, even in antiquity doubts were raised about this theory of authorship. Paul's letters generally contain an introduction stating authorship, noticeably absent in Hebrews. Also, while many of the letter's ideas are Pauline, the writing style is substantially different from that of Paul's epistles, a characteristic first noticed by Clement. In particular, Hebrews claims to have been written by a person who received the Christian message from others (see Heb 2:3–4). But Paul in his letter to the Galatians forcefully defends his claim that he received his gospel directly from Jesus' spirit. This, however, does not rule out that Paul is indeed the author of Hebrews because the verse, when read in context, could have a very different interpretation than the one presented. The verse has the ring of meaning that Jesus spoke about how to attain to salvation, was heard by the disciples, and then preached to others. Paul never heard Jesus speak when Christ was on earth so the verse could apply to him in this light. Again, this is just another interpretation.

Origen is the first recorded authority to have attributed the letter's form (but not necessarily its thoughts) to someone other than Paul. Since then, many candidates have been proposed, two of the leading ones being Paul's companion Barnabas, first suggested by Tertullian (see above), and Apollos, first suggested much later by Martin Luther. Apollos (also Apollonius) was Alexandrian (Acts 18:24), "a learned man" (Acts 18:24), popular in Corinth (1 Cor 1:12), and adept at using the scriptures and arguing for Christianity while "refuting the Jews" (Acts 18:27–28). Barnabas, who is attributed with other noncanonical works (such as Epistle of Barnabas), was close to Paul in his ministry, and exhibited skill with midrash of Hebrew Scripture; the other works attributed to him bolster the case for his authorship of Hebrews with similar style, voice, and skill. Other candidates for the authorship of Hebrews include Paul's other companion Silas; Pope Clement I, the traditional author of the First Epistle of Clement; Luke; or some unknown Alexandrian Christian. In more recent times, some scholars have advanced a case for the authorship of Hebrews belonging to Priscilla. Modern scholarship has reached no strong consensus. The letter has, however, always been accepted as part of the New Testament canon[citation needed].

[edit] Audience

Hebrews was written to a specific audience facing very specific circumstances. We can discern various facts about the recipients of Hebrews through a careful mirror reading of the letter:

  • The readers were conversant in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, as the author's usage shows.
  • The contrast in 13:14 and the types of sins listed in chapter 13 suggest they lived in a city.
  • They had once faced persecution (10:32–34), but not to the point of shedding blood (12:4). It is possible that 12:1–3 and 13:12–13 imply that they would soon face renewed opposition.
  • Some had stopped assembling together (10:25), and those who remained struggled with apathy and indifference and ran the risk of abandoning their Christian faith (see the warning sections).
  • Specifically, they were Jewish Christians who ran the risk of reverting to a Judaism that rejected Christ. The author warned them that if they reject the sacrifice of Christ's death on the cross, there remains no other sacrifice to which they can turn. The animal sacrifices of first-century Judaism (see Second Temple) would not be able to help them (10:26). They must follow Christ "outside the camp" (that is, outside Judaism).
  • In 13:24 the author says that those from Italy greet the readers. This could mean that the author is writing from Italy or that the author is writing to recipients in Italy, and that Italians present with the author are greeting those back home.

However, the preceding description of the audience as Jewish Christians is not unanimously received. While this interpretation has been held from as early as the end of the second century to the present (hence its title, "The Epistle to the Hebrews"), Liberal American theologian Edgar Goodspeed was not of this view; he wrote, "But the writer's Judaism is not actual and objective, but literary and academic, manifestly gained from the reading of the Septuagint Greek version of the Jewish scriptures, and his polished Greek style would be a strange vehicle for a message to Aramaic-speaking Jews or Christians of Jewish blood."

Hebrews is often erroneously named as one of the general or catholic epistles. But since it was written to a specific group of Jewish-Christians, it is not technically a general epistle.

[edit] Date

Although the author is unknown, Hebrews has been dated to shortly after the Pauline epistles were collected and began to circulate, c. 95. This date is dependent on a traditional date for I Clement of 96. Harold W. Attridge claims only a general dating is possible and places the letter as being written between 60 and 100.

Some, such as John A.T. Robinson, place the entire New Testament at a much earlier date. Robinson argues, for example, that there is no textual evidence that the New Testament authors had knowledge of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70. The use of tabernacle terminology in Hebrews has been used to date the epistle before the destruction of the temple, the idea being that knowing about the destruction of both Jerusalem and the temple would have influenced the development of his overall argument to include such evidence.

[edit] Purpose for writing

Most scholars today believe the document was written to prevent apostasy. (Apostasy is the abandonment of a political or religious belief.) Some have interpreted apostasy to mean a number of different things, such as a group of Christians in one sect leaving for another more conservative sect, one in which the author disapproves. Some have seen apostasy as a move from the Christian assembly to pagan ritual. In light of a probably Jewish-Christian audience, it is most likely that apostasy in this sense was in regard to Jewish-Christians leaving the Christian assembly to return to the synagogue. Therefore the author writes, "Let us hold fast to our confession" (Heb 4:14).

Another possible reason for writing Hebrews was to demonstrate a new interpretation of the true end and meaning of Mosaic law and assert its symbolical and transient character. He declares that the Levitical priesthood was a foreshadowing of the mission of Jesus, and that the legal sacrifices prefigured the Crucifixion. Therefore the gospel was designed not to modify the law of Moses, but to supersede and abolish it. This was written partly to counter the Ebionites, Jewish Christians who continued Jewish practices while accepting Christ. The emphatic text of the epistle reiterates the view of Pauline Christianity that the new covenant has superseded the old.

The Bible's Epistle to the Hebrews affirms special creation. It affirms that God by His Son, Jesus Christ, made the worlds. " God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son...by whom also he made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:1-2). The epistle also states that the worlds themselves do not provide the evidence of how God formed them. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Hebrews 11:3).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Online translations of the Epistle to the Hebrews:

Related articles:

[edit] References

  • Attridge, Harold W. Hebrews. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1989.
  • Hagen, Kenneth. Hebrews Commenting from Erasmus to Beze. Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1981.
  • Heen, Erik M. and Krey, Philip D.W., eds. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Hebrews. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2005.
  • Hughes, P.E. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977.
Preceded by
Philemon		 Books of the Bible Succeeded by
James
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