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.
Where the Old Covenant required continual sacrifices and a once-a-year atonement for sin offered by a human priest, the New Covenant provides a once-for-all sacrifice through Christ Hebrews and direct access to the throne of God for all who are in Him.
The writer of Hebrews gives ample encouragement to believers, but there are five solemn warnings we must heed. There is the danger of neglect Hebrews , the danger of unbelief Hebrews — , the danger of spiritual immaturity Hebrews — , the danger of failing to endure Hebrews , and the inherent danger of refusing God Hebrews Authors such as Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, and even Clement have been considered as possibilities.
The unknown authorship of this book should not shake our confidence in its authority. Hebrews makes important theological contributions to the biblical Canon, it has been drawn upon as sacred Scripture since the late first century, and Christians have for two millennia consistently upheld the divine inspiration and, therefore, the canonicity of the book of Hebrews. The strongly Jewish character of the letter to the Hebrews helps to narrow down its date of composition, most likely AD 64— Significantly, the book makes no reference to the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem in AD 70, and the author wrote as if the sacrificial system were still in existence Hebrews —2, With its myriad references to Hebrew customs and the Old Testament, the book was likely sent to a Jewish Christian community, possibly in Rome.
Hebrews clearly lays out the present priestly ministry of Christ in the life of the believer. Jesus is both the divine Son of God and completely human, and in His priestly role He clears the way for human beings to approach the Father in heaven through prayer Hebrews — The priesthood of Jesus is superior to the Old Testament priesthood of Aaron, because only through Jesus do we receive eternal salvation —9.
Furthermore, Jesus became the permanent and perfect High Priest, going beyond all other priests by offering Himself as a sinless sacrifice on behalf of the sins of human beings —26; Throughout its pages, Hebrews makes clear that Jesus Christ exceeds all other people, pursuits, objects, or hopes to which human beings offer allegiance.
Hebrews pictures Jesus as better than the angels, as bringing better lives to humanity through salvation, as offering a better hope than the Mosaic Law could promise, as a better sacrifice for our sins than a bull or a goat, and as providing a better inheritance in heaven for those who place their faith in Him Hebrews ; ; ; ; 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.
In this verse the author wrote:. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you Hebrews Here we see that "Timothy [had] been released" recently from prison. We don't hear of Timothy's imprisonment anywhere else in the New Testament. In fact, in the book of 2 Timothy, Paul's last letter written shortly before his death, Timothy was free to travel and bring Paul supplies.
Yet, this verse tells us that by the time Hebrews was written Timothy had been imprisoned and released. For this reason, the book of Hebrews must have been written after Paul's death, which took place sometime around A. On the other side, the latest likely date for the book would be around A.
In addition, many commentators have observed that, in passages like Hebrews , the author used the present tense to describe the sacrificial duties of the high priest. This is important because in the rest of his book the author consistently used the Greek past tense when referring to past events.
So, it's likely that these priestly activities were still going on when Hebrews was written. Also, in the author encouraged his audience not to turn back to the "obsolete" sacrificial practices established by God's covenant with Moses. He explained that in light of the new covenant, these practices would "soon disappear. So, these evidences suggest a date for Hebrews sometime after Paul's death around A.
In our lesson on the background and purpose of Hebrews, we've looked at several features of the background of the book of Hebrews. Now, we're in a position to address the overarching purpose of the book. Why was Hebrews written? It's fair to say that any book as long and complex as the book of Hebrews is written with many different purposes in mind. But for this lesson, we're primarily interested in summarizing the overarching purpose of the book. Each part of this book has its own emphases, and we'll explore these emphases in our next lesson.
At this point, we want to see how the book as a whole was designed to impact the concepts, behaviors and emotions of the original audience. Interpreters have summarized the overarching purpose of the book of Hebrews in a variety of ways. But for this study, we'll describe the original purpose of Hebrews in this way:. The author of Hebrews wrote to exhort his audience to reject local Jewish teachings and to remain faithful to Jesus.
This description of the author's purpose helps orient us to the main ideas found in the book of Hebrews. As we've just suggested, the author of Hebrews wrote to exhort his audience.
Listen to the way the author himself characterized his book in Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation Hebrews Notice here that the writer "urge[d]" his audience to receive his book as a "word of exhortation.
The terminology of exhortation implies "to summon to the speaker's side" or "to call for someone to take the speaker's point of view. Interestingly, the phrase "word of exhortation" also appears in Acts where the men of the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch invited Paul and his companions to give "a message of encouragement" after the reading of Scripture.
It's quite possible that the expression "word" — or message — "of exhortation" was a first-century technical designation for what we call a sermon today. Well, the author identifies his work as a word of exhortation — this is in — and what this means is that Hebrews is an exhortation; it's like a sermon. And so the use of rhetoric is basically a tool for persuading the audience to be faithful in their commitment to Jesus as the Son of God and as their Lord and Savior. So, the rhetoric in the letter of Hebrews, or the homily of Hebrews, allows the author to elaborate on themes, to exegete Jewish Scriptures — that is, interpret Jewish Scriptures in a way that is meaningful — and then present it in a very forceful way so that the audience understand clearly what the author wants him to do, wants them to do.
He wants them to adhere to the salvation that Christ has offered to them, that God has offered in Christ. Fredrick Long]. Every epistle or letter in the New Testament contains exhortations to its audience. But the book of Hebrews stands apart from other New Testament epistles due to the intensity of its exhortations.
To explore the author's purpose, let's look more closely at the intensity of the exhortations that are so prominent in the book. And then, we'll examine the goal of these exhortations, how the author hoped his audience would respond. Let's look first at the intensity of the author's exhortations to his audience.
To look further at what we mean by the intensity of the author's exhortations, we'll look at two issues: first, the frequency of exhortations in the book, and second, the author's rhetorical style associated with his exhortations.
Let's begin by examining the frequency of exhortations. The frequency of the author's exhortations helps us understand the urgency of his message. These exhortations are implicit at times, but at least 30 times they appear explicitly.
On many occasions, the author used what Greek grammarians call the "hortatory subjunctive. For instance, in , 16 we read two such exhortations:. Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess… Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence Hebrews , The author also exhorted his audience by using imperatives, which we often translate as direct orders. For example, in we read this series of exhortations:. Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet … Make every effort to live in peace with all men … be holy … See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up … See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau Hebrews One of the reasons it's important to keep in mind how often the author directly exhorted his audience is that the book's complex theological reflections often obscure the author's purpose for writing.
He didn't simply want to inform his audience of theological doctrines. He informed them doctrinally in order to persuade them to adopt different attitudes and actions. This is what he meant when he called his book a "word of exhortation.
We've seen how the intensity of the author's exhortations is reflected in the frequency with which he exhorted his audience.
Now, let's consider how the author's rhetorical style also reveals his desire to exhort his audience. The book of Hebrews has often been characterized as highly rhetorical. By this we mean that it employs many literary devices that were associated with persuasive oratory or urgent debate in the first century.
Many of these rhetorical devices appear now and then in other New Testament books, but we find them far more often in Hebrews. Hebrews is probably the best example in the New Testament of an author who has strong literary and rhetorical skills, and those rhetorical skills really help to accomplish the author's purpose. He's trying to demonstrate the superiority of Christ and the new covenant over the old covenant, and he does so in part with a very convincing strong literary argument.
And he uses lots of different structural features to accomplish that… So, beautifully structured, using rhetoric to draw his readers in, and then to convince them of the argument that he's making. Mark L. One rhetorical device, called synkrisis in Greek, is a detailed comparison between two or more things designed to convince audiences to affirm the speaker's point of view. For example, synkrisis appears in the book of Hebrews in There, the author argued that Jesus was a royal priest like Melchizedek, a priest and king mentioned in the book of Genesis.
But rather than simply asserting his belief, the author of Hebrews gave his audience a compelling, eight-point comparison between Melchizedek and Christ: their parentage, genealogy, birth, death, office, actions, status and achievements. These detailed comparisons were designed to settle all doubts about the claim that Jesus is the great, royal High Priest. Another rhetorical device in the book of Hebrews is known as exempla.
Exempla are lists of illustrations or examples that follow one after the other to build a persuasive argument for a particular point of view. This oratorical technique appears in the familiar list of the faithful in Hebrews
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