Study Notes

William Lane - Word Biblical Commentary

“Hebrews is a delight for the person who enjoys puzzles. Its form is unusual, its setting in life is uncertain, and its argument is unfamiliar. It invites engagement in the task of defining the undefined.”

xlvii

The synthesis supported by the commentary is that Hebrews is a sermon rooted in actual life. It is addressed to a local gathering of men and women who discovered that they could be penetrated by adverse circumstances over which they exercised no control.

It throbs with an awareness of the privilege and the cost of discipleship.

It is a sensitive pastoral response to the sagging faith of older and tired individuals who were in danger of relinquishing their Christian commitment. It seeks to strengthen them in the face of a new crises so that they may stand firm in their faith. It warns them of the judgement of GOd they would incur if they were to waver in their commitment. Exhortations to covenant fidelity and perseverance are grounded in a fresh understanding of the significance of Jesus and His sacrifice. As high priestly Son of God in solidarity with the human family, he is the supreme exemplar of faithfulness to God and endurance, whose sacrificial death secured for his people unlimited access to God and the assurance of the help that arrives at the right time.”

xlix

Hebrews was composed by a creative theologian who was well trained in the exposition of the Greek Scriptures...... He was surely a Hellenistic Jewish Christian.

liv

Their source of authority is the Bible in an older Greek version, especially where its textual tradition distinguished from the Hebrew text. They have an easy familiarity with the stories of the Bible, to which the writer can refer without elaboration (12:17).

The Son - “The opening lines of Hebrews, where the writer established the categories of divine wisdom. Within a conceptual frame established by allusions to the royal son of Ps. 2 (1:2b). and to the royal Priest of Ps 110 (1:3c), the Son’s role in creation, revelation, and redemption is recited in creedal fashion..... The categories of divine Wisdom were apparently current and meaningful for the audiences.

The Angels - Heb. 2:2 the writer alludes to the angels as the heavenly mediators of the old revelation. There is no indication in Exodus 19 and 20 that angels were present at the giving of the law.. In Deut. 33:2, however, in a passage celebrating the theophany at Sinai, Moses declares that God came with “myriads of holy ones,” and the LXX adds, “angels were with him at his right hand” (Ps. 68:17). Sometime prior to the first century, the conviction spread especially among Hellenistic Jews, that angels had played a mediatorial role in the transmission of the law

Acts 7:38 “38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.”

Acts 7:53 “53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.””

Galatians 3:19 “19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.”

The positive role assigned to angels in Heb. 2:2 together with the appeal to the normative character of the Mosaic law in Heb. 2:2; 9:13; 10:28; and 12:25 tend to suggest that the intended audience continued to maintain intellectual and emotional ties with the Hellenistic-Jewish community.

Moses - It is difficult to exaggerate the significance of Moses in Hellenistic Judaism and the veneration with which he was regarded. If reference is restricted to Jewish-Hellenistic texts, it is necessary only to recall a passage from The Exodus by Ezekiel the Tragedian. Moses is shown in a dream that God will install him on a heavenly throne and invest him with a crown and a scepter as the symbols of his unique authority.

Although Moses is designated a priest only once in the OT (Ps 99:6), his Levitical family background (Exod. 2:1-10) and his ministry of the word of God and privileged vision of God (Exod. 33:12-34:5; Num. 12:7-8), as well as his service at the altar (Exod. 24:4-8), associate him with distinctly priestly functions. Philo does not hesitate to describe Moses as a high priest. In the Hellenistic-Jewish tradition, Moses is the supreme exemplar of perfection in the sense of immediacy and access to God. If such views were the common property of men and women who had been nourished withing the Hellenistic-Jewish community, this explains why Moses and Jesus are yoked and compared throughout the argument developed in Heb. 3:1-6; 8:3-5; 12:18-29; 13:20.

The cumulative weight of the evidence points to men and women who participated in a small house fellowship, loosely related to other house churches in an urban setting, whose theological vocabulary and conceptions were informed by the rich legacy of Hellenistic Judaism.

lvi

Throughout Hebrews the writer expresses apprehension that the community may falter in its response to the spoken word of God. Significantly, his pastoral concern extends to the individual members of the audience (Heb. 3:12; 3:13; 4:1; 4:11; 6:11; 12:15)

Jordan’s Thoughts

How often do you falter?

How much have you drifted?

Will you be a believer in 5 years? 10 Years?

There is a difference between an active believer who is pursuing the Lord and someone who cheers from the stands on Sundays. Are you moving towards God or are you drifting?

c-ci - This is a great summary of the book of Hebrews

“The purpose of Hebrews is to strengthen, encourage, and exhort the tired and weary members of a house church to respond with courage and vitality to the prospect of renewed suffering in view of the gifts and resources God has lavished upon them. The writer’s intention is to address the sagging faith of men and women within the group and to remind them of their responsibility to live actively in response to God’s absolute claim upon their lives through the gospel. He urges his listeners to hold loyally to their confession of Jesus Christ as the sole mediator of salvation in a time of crisis and warns them of the judgement of God they would incur if they should renounce their Christian commitment.”

The plan of the homily is appropriate to this intensely practical purpose. In moving language there is set forth the finality of God’s revelation in his Son, whose transcendent dignity is superior both to the angels, who are ministering spirits (Heb. 1:1-14), and to Moses, whose status was that of a servant in the household of faith (Heb. 3:1-6). Within this setting the writer warns his hearers against indifference to the gospel message they have heard (Heb. 2:1-4). or blatant unbelief (Heb. 3:7-4:13). The unique priesthood of Jesus is introduced in Heb. 2:17-3:1 and Heb. 4:14-5:10. It is treated at length in Heb. 7:1-10:18. Three contrasts that demonstrate the superior dignity of Jesus as priest and sacrifice are developed.

The temporal, ephemeral character of the Aaronic priesthood is overshadowed by the eternal ministry of the priest like Melchizedek (Heb. 5:1-10; 7:1-28).

The priestly ministry in the tabernacle under the old covenant is superseded by the priestly ministry of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary establishing the new covenant (Heb. 8:1-9:28).

The inadequacy of the sacrifices under the law is contrasted with the efficacy and finality of Christ’s sacrifice (Heb. 10:1-18)

The development of the thesis concerning Jesus’ priesthood and unique sacrifice lends substance to the parenetic warnings concerning immaturity and the apostasy, which can be avoided only by faith, endurance, and hope (Heb. 5:11-6:20; 10:19-39). The group is exhorted to steadfast endurance. They are to exercise Eschatological faith, which appropriates the future and acts in the present in the light of the certainty of the future (Heb. 11:1-12:3 ). The writer parades before his audience the heros and heroines of the past, whose faith was attested by God (Heb. 11:1-40), and then appeals to the supreme example of faith, Jesus himself (Heb. 12:1-3), as an incentive to responsible conduct. In the theological and pastoral climax to the sermon (Heb. 12:14-29), The writer again warns the congregation of the their peril if they should refuse God’s gracious word. A concluding exhortation calls them to demonstrate a lifestyle that reflects the worship of God and unqualified identification with the confessing community (Heb. 13:1-25).

cxxiv - Relationship to the Old Testament

Conclusion. The survey of the manner in which the writer of the Hebrews makes use of the OT text indicates that he stands in the mainstream of Judaism and early Jewish Christianity. The determining factor for the distinctiveness of his interpretation of Scripture is not the methodology he employed in appropriating the OT text but his Christian theology of the interrelationships among history, eschatology, and revelation. His approach to the text is certainly colored by his convictions concerning Jesus. But the principles by which he was guided in his approach to the OT text and the forms of exposition he adopts were those with which he had become familiar from a life enriched by synagogue preaching. It may be assumed that his audience was thoroughly familiar with the approaches to the text of the OT that are characteristic of this homily from their own exposure to the liturgy and preaching in synagogues throughout the Diaspora.

Hebrews demonstrates that the OT remains a valid and significant witness to God’s redemptive word and deed. Christians must grasp this witness in the light of God’s decisive act of speaking through the Son Heb. 1:1-2a). The words of the OT are quoted not for their significance in the past but rather for their significance in the present. All of Scripture remains a revelation of God’s unalterable plan of salvation for the human family. Its relevance to the members of the house church in crisis is driven home forcefully by the writer’s appropriation of the OT text.

CXXVII - The Central Theme of Hebrews

The central theme of Hebrews is the importance of listening to the voice of God in Scripture and in the act of Christian preaching. The opening lines of the homily focus attention upon the God who speaks. The characterization of God as the one who intervened in Israel’s history through the spoken word serves to introduce the characterization of the Son as the on through whom God has spoken the ultimate word (Heb. 1:1-2a). That theme is sustained with variations throughout the Homily (Heb. 2:1-4; 3:7b-4:13; 5:11; 10:23; 10:35-39; 11:11). It is recapitulated in a climactic warning, “Be careful that you do not disregard the one who is speaking” (Heb. 12:25a). The redemptive accomplishment and transcendent dignity of the Son through whom God has spoken the final word demonstrates that it will be catastophic to ignore the word of salvation delivered through the son (Heb. 2:1-4).

The act of reflecting on Scripture and of interpreting Scripture presupposes certain shared assumptions about how the voice of God is recovered. It presupposes that Scripture announces the promise of things to come.

Jordan’s Thought

Do we think of scripture simply as history? How do we weigh the value of the OT or of the NT?

Or do we tend to think of both the OT and NT as an announcement of promises to come in the future?

CXXVII - The Treatment of Moses in Hebrews

CXXIX - The writer’s Use of Comparison

CXXX - The New Priesthood

CXXXI - The New Covenant

CXXXIII - New Sacrifice

CXXXV - Concluding Summary

CXL - Jesus as the Humiliated and Exalted Son

CXLIII - Concluding Observations