The Letter to the Hebrews

1
The Letter to the Hebrews

• Introduction
• Winter 2014 FXCC

2
Book, Letter, ?

• We will find that this letter is more a sermon
  than letter
• No introduction
• No personal notes
• Does end much like a letter
• Exhortation to stay the course

3
Book, Letter, ?

• Hebrews presumes a knowledge of the Old Testament
• Particularly Tabernacle ritual
• Many references to the OT
• In fact it has 83 OT references/quotes
• Remember the OT was the Bible of the 1st century
  church!

4
Old Testament in the New

• Romans has 84 OT references
• I Corinthians has 26
• Galatians has 14
• Ephesians has 12
• Biblical scholar Craig Evans has produced a 31
  page list of OT references found in the NT!

5
Old Testament in the New

• Why so many OT references in Hebrews??
• We will at this more of this later
• Mainly shows that Jesus is Gods FINAL and BEST
  revelation
• PERIOD

6
Canonicity

• Hebrews appears in most of the earliest lists of
  canonical books
• The earliest of the church fathers quote it as
  scripture and/or are aware of it
• Clement of Rome (1st century)
• Shepherd of Hermes (1st/2nd century)
• Not sure when it gained its title
• But at least by end of 2nd century

7
Canonicity

• It shows up in P46 (the oldest MSS of Pauls
  epistles, late 2nd century)
• Origen had no doubts about its canonicity, even
  if he did not know who wrote it
• Eusebius lists it as one of the acknowledged
  books of the canon
• Syriac church fathers affirm its canonicity

8
Canonicity

• Clement of Rome quotes it, not clear if he
  considers it canonical
• Justin Martyr seems to have known of it
  (allusions to its language)
• Gaius of Rome did not consider it canonical
• Irenaeus (Smyrna and Gaul) and Hippolytus Rome)
  did not consider it canonical
• Not listed in Muratorian Canon

9
Canonicity

• Tertullian seems to have considered it canonical
• In general the Reformation leaders accepted it as
  canonical, just not Pauline

10
Author

• Maybe you noticed that Hebrews does not identify
  its author
• What other Bible books also make no mention of
  their author?
• Was often included among Pauls epistles
• Canonicity was never doubted

11
Author

• The eastern church favored the theory of Pauline
  authorship
• The western church resisted that at least until
  the late 4th century
• Tertullian (160-225 AD, western church, Carthage)
  favored Barnabas as the author

12
Author

• Those not supporting Pauline authorship
• Irenaeus (Gaul, 130-202 AD)
• Hippolytus (Rome, 170-235 AD)
• Gaius of Rome (early 3rd century)
• Eusebius (Caesarea, Palestine, early 4th century,
  records that western church did not accept it as
  Pauline)
• Ambrosiaster (Rome, late 4th century)

13
Author

• Western opinion changed by
• Jerome (Rome, Palestine, 347-420 AD) author of
  the Latin Vulgate
• Augustine of Hippo (N Africa (Algeria), 354-430
  AD) author of City of God and Confessions

14
Author

• Generally accepted as Pauline from 4th/5th
  century until the Reformation (Luther, 1517 AD)
• Most early collections of Pauls writings
  included 14 letters vice 13
• Not everyone was convinced, but the trend
  prevailed

15
Author

• Other suggested authors
• Clement of Rome (1st century bishop)
• Luke (translated Pauls Hebrew language letter to
  Greek)
• Apollos (1st century Christian from Acts)
• Barnabas
• Priscilla or Priscilla and Aquila

16
Author

• General consensus today is that the style and
  vocabulary of Hebrews is not Pauline
• Also 213 seem to say that the author got his
  knowledge of Christ from others
• Paul declared that he had a personal encounter
  with Christ

17
Author

• Basically Origen (Alexandria and Tyre, 184-253
  AD) said it best
• but who wrote the epistle God only knows.

18
Audience (Who, Why Where)

• The audience is also not identified in the book
• We do have some clues
• The book clearly assumes a strong familiarity on
  the part of the readers with the OT Levitical
  priesthood and worship
• While this could be Gentile Christians, it is
  most probably Jewish Christians

19
Audience (Who, Why Where)

• The recipients seem ready to give up on Christ
  and go back to what they knew before, i.e. the
  Old Covenant of Moses
• The author lays out arguments for why Christ was
  and remains superior to the Mosaic Law
• Encourages the recipients to stay the course,
  remain faithful and claim their reward

20
Audience (Who, Why Where)

• The book repeatedly affirms the superiority of
  Christ to the OT Levitical system
• Order of Melchizedek superior to the Levitical
• Change covenant required
• The book seems to assume the readers had not seen
  (or heard) the living Jesus
• Thus they probably did not live in Judea or
  Galilee, but were Hellenistic Jews

21
Audience (Who, Why Where)

• Where did these Jewish Christians live?
• Again we do not know
• Theories range from Judea to Spain
• The temple is never mentioned, so Judea and
  Galilee are not likely
• We have evidence to support knowledge of the book
  in Rome in the 1st century
• But Rome and the west were slow in fully adopting
  it as canonical

22
Audience (Who, Why Where)

• 1324 could mean it was written to Rome, but it
  could just as easily mean it was written from
  Rome
• So bottom line we just dont know where the
  original recipients lived

23
Date

• There are no explicit clues in the book that help
  here, but the lack of certain references help
• So far we have struck out
• Author
• Recipients (who, where)
• What about when?

24
Date

• The early awareness of the letter and quoting
  from it, place it in the 1st century
• 23 would indicate that the recipients had heard
  the gospel from those who were first generation
  Christians
• 1323 mention of Timothy is assumed to be Pauls
  companion

25
Date

• 124 not yet resisted unto blood could
• Mean prior to Neros persecution of 64 AD, if
  written to Rome
• Seems to eliminate Jerusalem, etc
• Mean prior to Domitians (81-96 AD) persecutions
• There is NO mention of the destruction of
  Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD
• Such an event would support the authors point

26
Date

• So all in all the best guess for the date is
  prior to 70 AD and probably prior to 64 too

27
Overview aka Outline

• Jan 5 this Introduction
• Jan 12 Chapter 1
• Jan 19 Chapter 1
• Jan 26 Chapter 2
• Feb 2 Chapter 3
• Feb 9 Chapter 4
• Feb 16 Chapter 5

28
Overview aka Outline

• Feb 23 Chapter 6
• Mar 2 Chapter 7
• Mar 9 Chapter 8
• Mar 16 Chapter 9
• Mar 23 Chapter 10
• Mar 30 Chapter 11
• Apr 6 Chapter 12

29
Overview aka Outline

• Apr 13 Chapter 13
• Apr 20 No Class
• Apr 27 Conclusion

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References

• F.F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, The New
  International Commentary on the New Testament,
  Eerdmans, 1967
• Edward Fudge, Our Man in Heaven An Exposition
  of the Epistle to the Hebrews,, Baker, 1974
• Available on-line for free
• http//www.edwardfudge.com/written/omihtext.html

31
References

• Edward Fudge, Hebrews Ancient Encouragement for
  Believers Today, Leafwood Publishers, 2009
• John Mark Hicks, Hebrews, Word Doc
• http//johnmarkhicks.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/
  10/2009/03/hebrews-edited.doc

32
References

• Bobby Valentines Stoned-Campbell Disciple blog
  
• http//stonedcampbelldisciple.com/2013/08/20/paul-
  and-the-unquestioned-authority-of-the-old-testamen
  t/