Hebrews: Introduction

Introduction

Hebrews a very important book of the New Testament in a number of ways: it explicitly forms our theology on several unique topics, the biggest being that Jesus is our High Priest. It discusses the dual-nature of Christ, making it clear that Jesus is both 100% God and 100% human. Hebrews as a whole is a book that warns against falling away from the faith more than any other book (except maybe Revelation). According to Thomas Long, the Author of Hebrews when

“faced with the pastoral problem of spiritual weariness, is bold enough, maybe even brash enough, to think that Christology and preaching are the answers. The Preacher does not appeal to improved group dynamics, conflict management techniques, reorganization of the mission structures, or snappy worship services. Rather, he preaches—preaches to the congregation in complex theological terms about the nature and meaning of Jesus Christ.”

Author of Hebrews

To put it plainly, the author of Hebrews is unknown. From the earliest days of Christianity, their identity was lost and/or unknown. Many popular theories have abounded for nearly 2000 years. Historically the church has attributed the letter to Paul, but this has been very hit and miss. Most believe that it was written by an acquaintance of Paul (at the end of the letter they mention Timothy). Here is a short list of proposed authors: Paul, Luke, Barnabas, Apollos (my personal favorite), Priscilla (and Aquila), Mary (the mother of Jesus), Clement (See 1 Clement).

It’s likely the author was a man due to a single word found in 11:32 with a masculine form (although if a woman had written it, she likely would’ve done this anyway to hide her identity). He was as second generation believer, extremely intelligent and educated (Hebrews has some of the best Greek in and outside of the Bible). Likely Jewish based purely on his knowledge and use of the OT.

Audience

Who was the author of Hebrews writing to? It was certainly a church of Jewish-Christians who were probably facing persecution and seriously reconsidering their faith in Christ. They were probably from Rome. In 49 AD all Jews (and so also Christians) were exiled from Rome by the emperor. They were probably Hellenistic Jews - or Jews who had embraced Greek culture (it’s language and such.) This is known because the author of Hebrews quotes the Septuagint (Greek version) of the OT, rather than the original Hebrew.

In the face of persecution or other factors, these believers were likely considering abandoning their faith in Christ and returning to the Old Covenant. They evidently were getting spiritually lazy, disobedient to Christ, and some had even stopped showing up to church altogether. Gerald Griffin makes the argument that they were beginning to ‘miss’ the more physical attributes of the Jewish religion - a physical temple, a physical High Priest, physical sacrifices, physical incense (rising up to the Lord). And so the author of Hebrews will dedicate a lot of time to arguing why the ‘invisible things’ or greater than the ‘visible’.

Date

Hebrews had to be written by 95 AD. That’s because Clement wrote a letter (1 Clement, we still have it) in 96 AD where he quotes the book of Hebrews quite bit. In fact, some believe that if Paul wrote Hebrews (in Hebrew), Clement translated it into the Greek version that we now have.

However, it’s more than likely that the book was written before 72 AD, because that’s when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. Why is that important? As we’ll see, the author uses the imagery of the tabernacle (pre-Temple), and how it was only temporary and therefore pointed to the heavenly realities. Had the Temple already been destroyed by the time of writing, this would have been an even more vivid illustration on how temporary the Old Covenant was. There was also a very serious persecution that broke out in 65 AD - and it seems this letter was probably written before that even.

Structure

Hebrews is seen as a letter by most people, and that’s because in one sense it is. It ends like a letter at least. But the reality is, it’s more of a sermon.

It doesn’t start like a letter, with a standard greeting, instead it comes right out of the gate preaching a message on the superiority of Christ.

Because it’s a sermon it has a unique flow that is at times hard to follow. The author likes to make an argument, provide application, return to the argument (or start a new one).

The other reason it’s hard to follow at times is because the author is using a lot of OT passages and imagery. Do you know the Old Testament? If not, you’ll probably have a hard time understanding this book!

The author quotes or alludes to the Old Testament over 100 times! The only other NT book to do that more is Revelation.

Hebrews 1:1-4: The Superiority of the Son

These first four verses are both beautiful and incredible. In the Greek language it’s actually one (long) sentence. The author of Hebrews starts out his sermon as he should: glorifying Christ.

The first big argument that the author is going to make is that Jesus is superior to both angels and Moses. This is a big deal!

‘Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke’ as we read the OT we can see how true this is. God spoke to the patriarchs in Genesis in a multitude of ways, and also the Israelite people heard from God in different ways as well - especially through the prophets.

God’s revelation wasn’t all at once either. The people would go years, decades, and even centuries without hearing from God!

‘but in these last days’ - we’ve discussed this before, but the advent of Christ initiated the ‘last days’. We’ve been living in them for 2000 years.

‘he has spoken to us by his Son’ - everything God spoke through the prophets was great and important, but this final message, the Gospel, he has spoken to us through His most important messenger: his own Son.

Jesus gives a parable about this, how a king had workers farm his land, but when he sent different messengers (prophets) they were all mistreated. Finally he sent his Son, ‘supposing they would listen to him’, but instead they killed the Son!

This parable is a good basis for the entire book of Hebrews: if you will not listen to the Son, what hope do you have?

So who is this Son? Who is Jesus?

He has been appointed heir of all things, and is through whom also he created the world.

As heir of all things, Jesus is not a temporary prophet, He is the owner of everything.

The word for ‘world’ here literally means ‘the ages’. The prophets appeared at certain points in time, but the Son created all time - he knows the beginning and the end. He is the beginning and the end.

This echoes what John tells us in his Gospel: Jesus was there with God in the beginning, and He created the world. When God spoke, Jesus was the Word by which it was accomplished.

‘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.’

The word radiance means something that radiates (as in heat from a source) or reflection (like a mirror). Jesus radiates and reflects God, because He is God! In the OT when the Glory of God was seen, it was said to ‘radiate’. It was awesome, but also terrifying. In Jesus was see the radiance of God directly.

‘exact imprint’ is the Greek word ‘Karacter’ (notice we get the Character). It was a stamp that imprinted the image of the emperor on coins. Jesus is the exact Character of God. He has the ‘distinguishing features’ of deity.

Both of these words are only found here in the New Testament. But more than that, they never show up in any Greek text outside of the Bible either. It’s quite possible that the author of Hebrews was literally inventing words to describe Jesus!

‘he upholds the universe’ - this is present tense. Even as the author is writing, his audience was reading, and 2000 years later we are reading, Christ is upholding the universe by his power, right now!

Paul says something similar in Colossians 1:17 “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

‘After making purification for sins’ - the author now tells us ‘what’ Jesus did in addition to ‘who’ Jesus is. Just as Jesus is superior to the prophets in every way, so too is he superior in what he did: he offered purification for sins. Gerald Griffin says, “Would you rather have a messenger who can tell you about being right with God or one who, after he tells you, can simply make it possible?”

This statement is also going to set up the later argument about Jesus being the ultimate High Priest by the author.

‘he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high’ - this is again placing emphasis on who Jesus is. Was any other prophet ever invited to sit in the presence of God, let alone at His right hand? No! Even Moses, ‘the prophet’s prophet’, was not allowed to glimpse the face of God. Yet Jesus sits at the right hand of God.

His posture is important too. Someone only sits when the job is done. And Christ’s work is completed.

I would also argue this shows the importance of the doctrine of the Ascension. When Christ ascended into heaven, he took his place on the throne of the universe. He is above all things, right now. As King, with the Father and the Spirit, he reigns overall.

Christ does not need to stand (though in some cases he does, especially of praise like with Stephen the martyr). He sits, because his work is complete, and from this position He ‘upholds the universe’ and controls and makes plans for it.

‘having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.’ - At first the connection to angels may seem a little strange. But the word ‘angel’ literally means ‘messenger’, and so this verse will connect back to the comparison with the prophets (‘one who speaks for someone else’) and the next portion which directly compares Jesus to the angels.

The ‘superior name’ that the author is referring to here is the title of ‘Son’. At the end of chapter 1, the author will make it clear that angels are just ‘ministering spirits’. And so, it’s clear that having the title of ‘Son’ is much more valuable than that of ‘servant’ - no matter how great the servant is!

Conclusion

In just one short paragraph (one whole sentence in the original language!), the author of Hebrews has crammed in a lot of Christology - teaching us who Jesus is (the Christ), and therefore also God. When warning believers, even to this day, not to fall away from the faith, is there any better reminder than: Jesus Christ is God, why would you follow any other? If they were willing to listen to the prophets of old, why wouldn’t they listen to the Son, the God of all? Why wouldn’t we? There is nothing in this world worth listening to or following more than Jesus, because He is superior to everyone, and everything.