Hebrews Part 1
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1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Intro
Intro
Title, audience and Purpose:
Title, audience and Purpose:
Several of the most ancient Greek manuscripts title this book as “To The Hebrews”. This title, as well as internal evidence throughout the book, strongly indicates that the letter was written to Greek-Speaking Hebrew Christians living outside of Israel.
Some have suggested that this letter was not just a letter, but also a sermon. It is written to persuade the hearers that the new covenant is better than the old covenant. This implies that the original intended audience may have been contemplating returning to Judaism. We will see evidence of this throughout the letter, especially in chapter 6 where the writer strongly warns against “falling away”.
So, the Title is “To the Hebrews”.
The Original Audience is most likely Jewish Christians, but those living outside of Israel. It is taken for granted that the audience has both a full understanding of Jewish tradition, Christian Tradition, and is also very familiar with Greek language and thought. This is primarily how scholars surmised that the audience was both Jewish and Christian, and living outside of Israel.
Authorship
Authorship
The author of Hebrews is not named inside this letter, or any other place in the Bible. However, he was certainly known by the original audience. This is indicated by the final salutations at the end of chapter 13.
18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.
19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
So, to be restored to you, implies that the writer was once with them. As we will see shortly, the reason for his need to be restored is because he is in prison chained up.
22 I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.
Here we see the reason we might call this a sermon, and not a letter. He is appealing to them with “exhortation”. That means the writer is preaching to them… And of course, they must know who this preacher is if they have any chance of actually obeying his exhortations.
23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon.
So, this writer was in prison with Timothy, and Timothy has been released from prison, and Timothy is identified as a mutual brother of both the writer and the readers.
24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings.
Here, we find out where the author is spending his jail sentence at. He is in Italy. This of course is most likely Rome.
Based on these facts, we can establish for certain that the writer knew the readers, and the readers knew the writer.
The earliest tradition handed down from Christian to Christian was that Paul was the author of this letter.
Arguments for Pauline Authorship
Arguments for Pauline Authorship
The author was in prison in Italy, and So was Paul.
The author was closely associated with Timothy, and so was Paul.
The author was very well versed in Jewish tradition, and so was Paul.
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
6 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”
3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.
This testimony of Paul indicates that he is:
Well versed in the Old Testament Law.
And, being born in Tarsus, well acquainted with Greek thought.
The writer of Hebrews had to have both.
So, if it was not Paul, it was someone just like Paul.
4th reason: Another internal evidence is that the writer was either Paul, or a scribe directed by Paul, is the similarities with familiar concepts that Paul wrote about in other letters. I won’t go into all of these now, but we will make mention of them in this seriers as we get to them. The first one is here in chapter 1:1-3. Which we are about to discuss today in our first lesson. Let’s just quickly compare it to another letter written by Paul.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
It is almost like the author either plagiarized Paul, was taught by Paul, or was Paul himself.
Again, this is just one of many examples of almost word for word teachings from Hebrews with other writing from Paul.
5th Reason: There is one more piece of evidence, that I have not read about in any commentary, or heard anyone else mention, and while I’m confident that I’m not the only one who has seen this, I’m unaware of anyone that has.
That is, this literary device, known as subtle foreshadowing that the writer does in this letter.
I’ll only briefly touch on it here, but we will get more into this when we get to chapter 11 where the writer also elaborates this concept.
Here in chapter 1 verse 3…
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The writer speaks about how the Son is the exact imprint of God’s nature.
The word, translated as “nature” here is reused in only one other place in this letter.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Here, the word “assurance” is the the same word translated as “nature” in chapter 1.3.
I believe the KJV got this word correct in chapter 11.
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
“Substance” is the right word in my opinion.
And the subtle foreshadowing that we will see
is that the writer is making an analogy between the Son being the exact imprint of God’s substance
and our Faith being the exact imprint of our hope.
In other words, the Son puts flesh on God.
and our Faith puts flesh on our hope.
God is the Unseen thing, and the Son is the “Image of the invisible God”.
And our hope is the “unseen thing”, and our Faith is the “substance” of it. Which means, you can see faith in action. Which is what chapter 11 is all about, and I’ve got to be careful not to get ahead, because we have 10 chapters to cover before we get to that topic
But this subtle foreshadowing, is in my opinion, genius.
I don’t see any other author do this, not quite like Paul did. John comes close in John chapter 1, but it isn’t an analogy. John does more of a summary, and then fleshing that summary out.
Paul, however, hides the real things he is getting at by giving you an analogy, that you didn’t even know was an analogy until you make the connection 11 chapters later.
Pure genius.
Paul did this in his other letters too. One the most prominent is in Romans.
3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh
4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
Here Paul uses this subtle foreshadowing right at the start of his letter to the Romans.
He compares how Jesus is both Son of David by flesh
and Son of God, by the Spirit at his resurrection.
Then in Rom chapter 7, we see our own struggle with our flesh.
and then in Chapter 8 we find that we become Sons of God because of the Spirit of God resurrecting us.
This kind of writing required another level of thinking,
and we know that Paul did have great wisdom that is hard to understand according to Peter.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
So, Is the Writer Paul?
So, Is the Writer Paul?
The only real argument against Pauline authorship is that his name isn’t in it. However, this can also be a case for Pauline authorship. It is quite possible he didn’t write his name at the start so that they would hear the message before they figured out that it was coming from him. Since Paul was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and had persecuted many Jewish Christians, he might have good reason to remain anonymous.
2 other arguments against Paul being the writer of Hebrews are:
He uses less rhetorical questions, and more A Fortiori.
Let me break this down for you.
Normally Paul heavily uses rhetorical questions to make his arguments plain. We used a good example of this Sunday Night:
Rom 6.1
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
However, in the book of Hebrews, the writer leans heavily on a form of argumentation call A Fortiori.
A fortiori (pronounced "ah for-tee-OR-ee" ) is a Latin term meaning "from the stronger [reason]" or "with stronger reason."
It refers to a type of logical argument where, if one proposition is true, then a second proposition, which is considered even more certain or compelling, must also be true. The argument moves from a lesser or weaker case to a greater or stronger one, implying that if the first holds, the second holds "all the more."
Here’s a simple example:
"If it's illegal to drive 20 mph over the speed limit, then, it's surely illegal to drive 50 mph over the speed limit." (If the lesser transgression is illegal, the greater one surely is).
People who argue that Paul didn’t write Hebrews because of the argumentation style, are simply arguing from silence. Paul was objectively familiar with many different rhetorical devices, and could have used some more or less than others whenever he chose.
The strongest argument agains Paul is from chapter 2 verse 3.
3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,
This verse implies that the writer did not hear the Gospel first hand. However, Paul maintained that he did hear it firsthand on the road to Damascus.
11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.
12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
However, the interpretation of Heb 2.3 is questionable.
3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,
Notice it does not say who it was declared to by the Lord.
It could be that it was declared at first to Paul by the Lord,
and then later verified by others who heard directly to the Lord.
It does not say it was heard by others and then declared to us secondhand.
It says that it was declared by the Lord
and then attested or verified by others.
To me, this does not mean that the writer heard the Gospel secondhand. It means that the writer heard it from the Lord, and then others verified it later on.
Which is exactly what Paul said happened in Galatians.
Date
Date
Internal evidence indicates the writing was prior to AD 70.
So, Paul was likely still alive.
Temple sacrifices are described in present tense form in this letter, indicating that the temple was still standing.
The Temple was destroyed in AD 70.
So, this letter very likely came before 70.
Theme:
Theme:
The primary theme of Hebrews is the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant.
Within that theme are many subcategories related to each thing the NT replaced from the OT such as:
rest
priesthood
tabernacle
and sacrifice
In plain terms, the real theme is that the past has given way to better things.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
Recall the real theme of Hebrews
From past to future
Things are going from good to better.
So, long ago, or “in the past”
God spok BY the prophets.
That was the old way that God communicated to mankind.
The OT prophets are what is being referred to here.
Not any NT saint who is using the gift of prophecy
This is talking about “long ago”.
The Jews held a view that time was divided into to halves.
The first half was our world now
and the second half was our word under the messiah.
And the dividing point was the coming of the messiah.
So, the writer of Hebrews is keying in on that concept here.
He is talking about the first half time
the first age
The age before the Messiah.
During that age, God spoke BY his prophets to our fathers… or our ancestors.
Then comes the transition to the new age.
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Last days implies the second age in Jewish thought
Not the end times like we often think of in western Christian culture.
We’re not just talking about the very last days of Revelation.
Paul is talking about the second age.
The age after the Messiah comes.
He has spoken…
The he here is still referring to God the Father from verse 1.
He is the only one speaking.
When he spoke to us BY the Prophets
it was not the Prophets who gave us a word from themselves
It was a word from God.
The prophets were just the mechanism by with God chose to communicate to us.
In verse two though, we find that things have changed.
We are moving from good to better.
Speaking BY the prophets was good
but speaking by His Son is better.
Now, let me point out something that can be missed in English.
The Greek text does not say “by His Son”.
It just says “By Son”.
The word “his” is added in English because “By Son” doesn’t make sense to us.
But, the writer knew what he was doing.
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
“His Son” is in this verse.
And in the Greek text, we see the word for “his”.
autos
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Here in Heb 1.2, we do not see “autos” in the Greek.
it is added in English.
What can we make of this?
“by His Son” implies that the Son is being used as a mouthpiece in the same way the prophets were.
But we are moving from good to better, remember.
And so, Speaking “by Son”, as it is writting in the Greek
Implies that God was not merely borrowing the Son’s mouth
God WAS the Son’s mouth.
In fact, the word “by” here is a Greek word that is often translated as “in” not “by”.
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Next we have a paradox.
God has appointed the Son to be the heir of all things
And yet, God has also created all things through the Son.
How is it that the Son can be both the recipient of all things
and the medium through with all things are created?
The only solution to these types of paradoxes in the Bible
Is to realize that God is not bound my time.
God can love us before we are created.
He can have a plan of redemption before we even sin.
That’s how the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
It wasn’t true that Jesus died on the cross before the world was formed
It is just that God is not limited by time like we are.
In his mind, the cross can happen before he creates the world.
Likewise God can create the world through the Son
Even before the Son is born to Mary in Bethlehem.
This means that the same man that lived among men
Was the same one that created men.
God with us, means Jesus is the Creator in the Flesh.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature
This verse here is one of my favorite verses. I’ve only got half of it up for now.
We just touched on it earlier, but we will go a little deeper here.
Donald Guthrie said this about verse 1-4:
Hebrews: An Introduction and Commentary a. God’s Revelation through the Son (1:1–4)
The essence of the Christian revelation is that God is best seen in his Son. The human analogy is of course imperfect, because no human father is completely reflected in his son. But Jesus Christ perfectly shows all that is knowable about the Father
Guthrie, Donald. Hebrews: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 15 of Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983.
Guthrie also said that we can know 3 things about the Son from this verse.
The Son reflects the glory of God.
When you see the Son, you are seeing the glory of God.
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature
The word “radiance” here can mean either reflection or brightness.
Some think this means that the Son is like the rays of the sunlight while the Father is the actual Sun. S-U-N
However, the word’s true meaning, and the accompanying analogy of the “stamp” implies that “reflection” is a better translation.
When you see Jesus, you are seeing the Father.
Like John 14.9 says.
It is God’s Glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
It is not another glory, or an extension or ray of God’s glory, but it is the very Glory of God himself that you see when you see Jesus.
Which is why the second half of that clause says the Son is the exact imprint of God the Father’s nature.
2. The second thing we know for sure about the Son from this verse is that he bears the very stamp of God’s nature.
This word translated as “exact imprint” is only found in the Bible one time… right here.
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature,
3 The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence,
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,
What does this mean?
The Exact imprint of his nature?
The Greek word used here for exact imprint is (charaktēr) and it is the word for a die or an engraving. It is relating the Son to the Father in the same way a stamp on a wax seal will bear the same image as the engraving on the seal.
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
In other words…
15 He is the image of the invisible God…
If you want to see God the Father, look at Jesus.
And in the face of Jesus, you will see the Glory of God the Father.
The 3rd thing we learn about the son from this verse:
He upholds the universe by the his word of power.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power…
This means that God is not sitting back letting everything in the universe tick like a clock on its own.
God is actively involved with the World He created.
His word is still holding the universe in place.
The very same word that created it all to start with.
And this is where we must stop.
I know we only made it through 2.5 verses today
I promise we will try to get further next week.
If you have time read ahead through the rest of chapter 1 before next Tuesday.
