Introduction to Hebrews

Many people are discouraged by Hebrews

• Why do you think that is?
• Full of O.T. characters like Melchizedek who you have hardly heard of
• Complex language
• discouraging warnings
• all kinds of stuff about the temple and sacrificial system

• But
  • Contains many of our most encouraging and helpful texts of Scripture (as we will see)
  • Has the best presentation anywhere of the New Covenant
  • Teaches us some things about Jesus that are not taught with the same clarity anywhere else
  • The core message packs a very powerful punch

“Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews”

• The title is 100’s of years after it was written
• As we shall see, it’s not written by Paul, it’s not an Epistle and it’s not to the Hebrews!

Authorship

• Ultimately unknown
• not stated in letter
• early on in History, some stated it was Paul—probably because they believed an apostle had to have written it for it to be in Scripture (but Mark, Luke...)
• Cannot be Paul or Scripture would contradict itself
  • Heb 2:3 compared with Gal 1:11-12
• The big question is Why it is anonymous
  • author would have got into trouble were it known (unlikely—not afraid of persecution 12:4)
  • Christians sometimes write books anonymously because they don’t want the glory for themselves
• So what do we know about the author?
  • Amazingly talented writer (written at the level of the most polished Greek literature)
  • Hangs out with Paul’s group (Timothy: Heb 13:22,23)
  • Some ideas are very similar to Paul’s but there are some new insights
  • Knows the O.T. Scriptures very well
• Suggestions of people we know were Paul’s friends
  • Barnabas
  • Silas
  • Apollos
  • Mark
  • Luke
  • Can’t be Timothy!
  • Can’t be one of the 12
• Reasons for suggesting Apollos:
  • Acts 18:24 “Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.”
    • he was noted for his eloquence and this book is very eloquent!
    • he was from Alexandria—the home of this style of polished Greek
    • he was “mighty in the Scriptures” i.e. the Old Testament
    • Acts 18:28 “he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.”
  • 1 Cor 1:12 —there seems to be an Apollos fan club
    • 1 Cor 3:4-6 —this is a problem in the church
  • So this gives a motive for making it anonymous
  • But Paul put his name to his letters, why not Apollos?
    • you have to with a letter, but this was not a letter (as we shall see)
    • It is a work of art, a piece of literature, a demonstration of extraordinary literary skill
• We can’t be sure, but Apollos is as good a guess as anyone

Date

• It must have been before 70AD when the temple was destroyed or he could hardly have failed to mention that!
• We cannot be more precise

Place

• 13:24 is totally ambiguous—those originally “from” Italy, living elsewhere, or the greeting could be “from Italy”.

Recipients

• Must be Greek-speaking because of the complexity of the language (High-Greek)
• The term “Hebrews” was reserved for Jews still living in Palestine, who wouldn’t have Greek as a first language
• Some suggest it could be Jewish converts who were tempted to return to Judaism
• But there is actually no reason to restrict it to Jews
  • The Gentiles were just as likely to be interested in the Scriptures
  • They were even more likely to want to know how the O.T. related to themselves
  • This is one of the main purposes of the book
• So it could have been to any church in Greek speaking world (most of the Roman Empire)

Form

• Not an Epistle (letter)
  • No opening section (from / to / grace / prayer of thanksgiving)
  • 3 verses on the end show that it was written to be sent
  • Paul’s epistles are full of “I write to you...”
  • Whereas this is full of expressions such as 11:32 “what more shall I say? For time will fail me...”
  • Frequent references to running out of time
  • 5:11 “say... hearing”
• Most people suggest it was a sermon that was later written down
  • two problems
  • very long for a sermon
  • very complex
  • many of the intricate literary features would be lost in a sermon
• My theory (this is just an example of what might have happened!)
  • The church in Corinth wanted to run a conference, so they contacted Apollos, who was in Rome at the time.
    • They had been really blessed by his understanding of how the O.T. related to us today.
    • They asked him to give three messages on this theme at the conference.
  • It was a great success and lots of people wanted the tapes or the DVD...
    • So they asked Apollos if he would write the messages out for them.
    • He agreed on condition it was anonymous, because of all the trouble with factions at Corinth.
  • When he did so, he did quite a bit of work polishing it and organizing the content.
  • He then sent them a copy with a note attached to the end (13:22-24).
• We will look at the structure shortly
• Some Christians react to the idea that something can be Scripture and art at the same time
  • Some of the Psalms are intricate Hebrew poetry
  • Other books as well, such as Song of Solomon
  • unfortunately I can’t show you the beauty of the Greek, since you would have to be fairly advanced Greek students to really appreciate it.
  • My Greek tutor once made me translate some of it...

Cultural context

• life in those days for Christians—DeSilva p.12-16
  • 13:12,13
• temptation to go back
  • Abraham
  • Israelites in the wilderness
• 10:35-39

Structure

• What is our primary purpose in reading this book?
  • Not just to get some “precious thoughts”
  • our first responsibility is to understand it
  • then we listen to what God is saying to us through it
    • involve mind, spirit, emotions, will
  • then we respond to it
    • involve mind, spirit, emotions, will
• we wouldn’t be allowed to go to the middle of John Arnott’s sermon & take a few words out of context
• we are going to look at the whole structure of the book
  • this is not intellectualism, it is faithfulness and submissiveness
  • If God has chosen to play the music in a certain style, we have to attune ourselves to it
• History of attempts to find a structure
  • Tradition view divides it into teaching start-10:18 and application 10:19-end
    • Only reason is that this is how Paul’s epistles are usually structured
    • It is generally recognized that this fits very badly
  • A second view is the “Patchwork”
    • In effect gives up on any structure
  • In the last 100 years, there has been a lot of success in identifying literary features in the book which help us determine the structure.
    • many of my ideas come from papers by scholars: Albert Vanhoye, David Alan Black, David J. MacLeod & Amar Djaballah

1. Overall structure
   • handout of structure
   • My suggestion is that originally there were three messages, of three points each
     • Each one could stand alone as a sermon
   • At the start of the 2nd and 3rd, he summarizes the previous one and outlines what is to come
     • This is a good practice when you are speaking
   • There is also a warning application in between each message and a longer application at the end
   • The writer (who is also the speaker (13:22) has shaped the material very cleverly and in almost perfect symmetry
   • shown in handout
2. At the conclusion of most of the parts, he announces the next section
   • This is a good practice when you are speaking
   • shown in handout
3. “Inclusio”
   • This is the term scholars use for words or phrases that are like matching bookends and the start and end of a passage
   • They “include” the passage
   • They are helpful in marking out the sections
   • shown in handout
4. repeated similar theme words
   • Today preachers often have alliteration Example of alliteration
   • or similarly sounding themes: Thrilled, Filled & Spilled
   • Hebrews uses collections of synonyms—words of the same family
     • e.g. merciful, compassionate, helper, sympathizes
   • shown in handout—3a

Introduction: 1:1-4

• Exactly 72 words in the Greek. All one sentence of beauty and balance.
  • 31 words concerning how God has spoken to us
    • 5 words describing Christ “The heir of all things”
    • 5 words describing Christ “through whom he created the world”
  • 31 words concerning Christ’s beauty, work and power
• The contrast between how God spoke long ago and how he has now spoken
  • In both cases there were prophets and others inspired to write Scriptures, so what is the difference?
  • Clarity: God himself walked this earth and so we have a vastly superior understanding of what he is like
  • Intimacy: A “son”-type of revelation means he opened his heart to us. He came to us in a much more personal way than even to Abraham or Moses, who spoke with God face to face.
  • Directly: We do not need a human priest or prophet but hear God’s voice directly through the Spirit, sent by Jesus to manifest his presence to our hearts in an intimate way (Rom 8)
• This explains the apparent severity of some of the statements—
  • When God has opened his heart to us, it is much, much more serious to reject him
  • Read 2:1-4
  • Read 12:25-29
  • The purpose is not to scare us into performance but to stir us up to the wonder of the gift
• Spend some time responding by praising God for this incredible and amazing intimacy as he opens his heart to us.