Hebrews: Another Reading (Pt. 1)

This alternative reading of the Book of Hebrews comes about largely through a determined attempt (easier said than done) to read the work independently of the voice of Paul.  Just as say Romans or Ephesians requires us to read it for what it is without drawing in assumptions from the Gospels, so Hebrews demands that we temporarily set the great apostle to one side as we take it up.  Hebrews deserves to be read apart from Paul just as much as Paul deserves to be read apart from Hebrews.  They can and should be brought into conversation, but only after each author has been allowed to say what they want to say. 

I am fully aware that the following reading will be a little uncomfortable for some readers who, like me, wanted Hebrews and the author of Romans and the Corinthian letters to agree on everything.  But the plain fact is that there are times when they don’t.  I am thinking especially about the issue of eternal security and the fact that Hebrews’ warning passages when isolated from presumption do not teach it.  What then does one do?  All of the proffered attempts to make these strategic warnings witness against themselves and conform to Pauline doctrine fail once the plain fact of the author’s skill and purpose are seen.  This book is perhaps the most carefully constructed text in the New Testament, and the writer is at pains to say what he means – especially in the paraeneses, which are deliberately led up to. 

Our Experiment

So let us conduct an experiment.  Let us see what the book yields when read exclusively and then see where it best fits.  I believe that the result is enlightening, even if all the questions cannot be answered.

The basic premise is that the book of Hebrews (and, as we shall see, the book of James also) does double-duty; it speaks to the Church in the present dispensation and particularly to the Jews in the Tribulation.  I shall make some concluding observations at the close of our investigation.

Getting Controversial: Hebrews as a Tribulation Letter (Pt. 1) [1]

Obviously, the old covenant/new covenant motif in Hebrews stands out.  But to get there the author mounts a series of discussions which presents the relief against which the New covenant in Christ is better seen. 

          The first thing the reader is presented with is the greatness of Jesus Himself.  Jesus is given a dazzling array of attributes in the opening section.  First, Jesus is the revelation of God above what came before (Heb. 1:2a).  This is not to say that the author teaches that what Jesus says in the Gospels is more authoritative and inspired than what God said in the OT.  Not at all.  His point is more specific.  The incarnate Jesus is the greatest revelation of God.  This understanding of Jesus as God’s “speaking” par excellence elevates Him and His words as God’s representative or sent one.  And since the hearing of the word of God is such a crucial component of the book[2] this will play into Jesus’ role as the Mediator of the New covenant later on in the argument. 

          Then there is the expression that God the Father has appointed (tithemi) Jesus the “heir of all things” (Heb. 1:2b) which statement sets up a specific eschatological anticipation; and that anticipation is covenant-guided as will be seen.  The author also says Jesus upholds “all things by the word of His power,” which recalls what Paul said in Colossians 1:16 about everything being made “through Him and for Him.[3]”   Not only is this echoed in Hebrews 1:2, but it is expanded upon in the verses that follow.  The crucified and risen Christ must surely reign upon this earth, and His word, His torah will go out to the ends of the earth and will be the final word in His kingdom.  The writer continues,

who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. – Hebrews 1:3.

          Jesus is the exact image (charakter) of God and shares His glory.  Jesus had said “ He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:6).  Now risen and glorified, His word upholds His creation from the right hand of God’s throne.  But not before “He had by Himself purged our sins.” (Heb. 1:3).  Thus, we are only three verses in and already the main lineaments of the Creation Project has been set out.  This world has been created through and for the Son and is presently upheld by His word.  He Himself is the Word[4], who has sacrificed Himself in our stead and He will one day return to reign over what is rightly His. 

          Hebrews 1:5-14 demonstrate the superiority of the Son to the angels, but verse 6 catches our attention because of its covenantal associations:

But to the Son He says:

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom…”

The OT source is Psalm 45:6 and the writer continues it into the next verse.  But clearly the mention of the “throne,” “the scepter,” and “Your kingdom” in connection with “righteousness” is covenantally loaded.  Genesis 49:10 is the root of the Psalmist’s thinking here.  Therefore, the covenant with Abraham, which was in the mind of Jacob in Genesis 49 is behind the “scepter” imagery.  But the inclusion of these three elements; throne, scepter, and kingdom point us to the Davidic covenant, and the sphere of righteousness which surrounds them points to the New covenant.  This again shows that the New covenant is the means of fulfilment for the other unilateral covenants of God. 

          This introduction then gives way to the first of the warning passages in Hebrews.  While Hebrews 2:1-4 is not the most perturbing of the warnings it serves to highlight the author’s concern for faithful diligence.  I will reproduce only verses 1 through 3:

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.  For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him…  – Hebrews 2:1-3.

          The author exhorts his hearers/readers to take special heed of “the things we have heard” – an enigmatic turn of phrase as it appears in the book.  These “things” (cf. Heb. 5:12-6:2) must pertain to salvation (“so great a salvation”) and the apostolic witness (Heb. 2:3).  If, as seems reasonable, this is written to an assembly, then the exhortation is understandable, just as Paul’s warning in Ephesians 5:5 for example.  The peraenesis is quite stern: “How shall we escape…?”  Every preacher worth his salt has preached this passage, but the warning is clear enough.  Moreover, the build-up in Hebrews 1 is leading to this exhortation.  This is to say that the thesis prepares us for the warning.  The author is not taking for granted that his readers are all safely within the fold. This is a common thread in Hebrews. 

          Hebrews 2:5-10 relates Christ to Psalm 8.  Psalm 8 itself refers to mankind in general as made in the image of God and handed dominion over the earth by the Creator.  Since Jesus is presented as a representative man in Hebrews 1:3; 2:9-11, 14-15, the palm is applied to Him, and this leads naturally into Christ’s role as the High Priest (Heb. 2:17), which he will expand on later.

[1] Those of you who get nervous about such “novelties” as the title speaks about are reminded that I offer it as a suggested reading of Hebrews after much consideration.  It is though, I admit, hard to get one’s mind around initially.  Please feel free to skip these posts if you think I have temporarily lost the plot.    

[2] See, for example P. T. O’Brien, “God as the Speaking God,” in Understanding the Times: New Testament Studies in the 21^st Century, edited by Andreas J. Kostenberger and Robert W. Yarbrough, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011, 197.

[3] Hebrews also includes a reference to Jesus as “the Firstborn” (Heb. 1:6. Cf. Col. 1:15).    

[4] Some writers have tried to show a “Logos” theology in Hebrews.  For example, Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks.