The Letter to the Hebrews. Jon C. Laansma
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah
TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by G. Kittel and G. Friedrich. Translated by G. W. Bromiley. 10 vols. Grand Rapids, 1964–1976.
Tg. Neof. Targum Neofiti
Tg. Ps.-J. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
1–2 Thess 1–2 Thessalonians
1–2 Tim 1–2 Timothy
TLevi Testament of Levi
Tob Tobit
t. Sanh. Tosefta Sanhedrin
UBS United Bible Societies
v./vv. verse/verses
Virt. De virtutibus (Philo)
WBC Word Bible Commentary
Wis Wisdom of Solomon
WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
YHWH Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord
Zech Zechariah
Introduction
An Invitation to the Text
Imagine the Scriptures as a great river, the Mississippi, if you will, but any great river will do. Already as the Mississippi flows past St. Louis it is a wide expanse, and all the more so as it is joined by the Ohio downstream. The more northernly expanses are like the law and the prophets of Israel, deep and broad, moving inexorably down the bed. Imagine, then, that when it has reached its greatest volume all of its waters are forced at once through a gorge of only a few meters in width. This is Hebrews. Even on its surface one can see Hebrews’ character as an exposition of the OT Scriptures that spans the Pentateuch, the historical writings, the psalms, the wisdom literature, and the prophets. When we dive into its substance, all the more do we appreciate that this sermon’s dependence on the Scriptures is owing to a comprehensive retelling of Israel’s history from the viewpoint of its conclusion in the new covenant brought to effect in Jesus the Son. The preacher is a master of allusion. Not for nothing does he pause mid-sermon to chide his listeners—“you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.” He does this not in order to stop and review but in order to stir them to remember what they should already know so as to grasp the teaching so necessary for the moment. If we think that Hebrews’ reading of Pss 8, 95, and 110, or Prov 3, for example, can be understood by examining each citation in detail our attempt will end in puzzles and the whole will seem only a badly assembled mosaic. We will have to “think together” the stories of Israel, the Son, and our new covenant situation if we are to sense their harmony. Consider, then, that when Hebrews chides in this way, holding our feet to the fire with respect to deep biblical literacy, it is addressing the whole church—not merely a special group of scribes and lawyers, that is, biblical scholars—and it is arguing that our lives depend on paying attention to the story. God has been telling a story and he expects that we are not lazy listeners but interested and attentive ones. This is so because this story is our story and the story of the entire world whether or not we pay attention. We are inside this story and everything hangs on whether we embrace its script or resist it. And to those who have more is given. For those who do not treat this like some conceptual problem but who instead take up their place in its story by faith and inhabit its world the meat of this gospel’s teaching becomes strengthening food.
Some passages in this book are among the most memorable of Scripture. Some speak almost immediately to believers of all times and places with transparent images, fear-inspiring warnings, and strong encouragement. Yet other passages leave us flat or confused, wondering if we have comprehended even what we thought we understood. Its teaching on Christ confronts us as directly with his full divinity as any NT writing, but just as uncompromisingly (almost uncomfortably) with his full humanity, as at once eternal and historical. Its teaching on the covenants seems to set gospel and law against each other but just as clearly views them in total continuity. Its gospel is recognizably that of Paul, John, Peter, and Luke but we question at times whether it has broken ranks by an attempt to conceptualize the gospel in terms of Greek philosophy or by pressing its warnings too far. Its imagery of blood and sacrifice seems worlds removed from our own scientific age. Maybe it really is the gospel to and for the Hebrews, not for the Gentiles, after all. But, no, it is the gospel for all peoples.
Hebrews requires us to view earth from the vantage point of heaven—not unlike Revelation. So completely is this true that we know nothing definite at all of the identity of writer and original readers. This is a pastor who believes that if we are not heavenly minded we can be of no earthly good. The preacher will therefore as a matter of urgency resist the temptation to translate the gospel into a form applicable to the lives of his readers and instead translate their lives into the heavenly drama of the Son. All history proceeds from heaven to earth so that when we see salvation’s accomplishment there we know what is true, what must be true, and what will be true on earth. This is also a pastor who believes that the history of God’s covenants is the history of the world. The viewpoint of many interpreters notwithstanding, this teacher has not applied a pre-conceived cosmology to the Scriptures as a way of understanding priesthoods and sacrifices. That understanding has it backwards. Rather, from the history of God’s covenants he understands the history of creation. Already in the OT the temple is the center of the world. For Hebrews, as goes the tabernacle so goes the world. This is a teacher who believes that salvation is of the Jews; that the God who speaks as the Father of the Son is the same God who created heaven and earth, delivered his promise to Abraham, and established his covenant through Moses. This teacher has long since come to grips with the implications of this truth for the understanding of divine speech, the person and work of the Son, and the great salvation worked. He now bends all these resources to the urgent need of his brothers and sisters to persevere to the obtaining of what was promised Abraham.1
In ways that probably have yet to be fathomed Hebrews has formed the confession and the life of the church and catalyzed her reading of the other prophetic and apostolic writings, even where its influence was unacknowledged or even felt.2 Who can read any other part of the canon forgetting that Christ is our high priest and offering? Who does not feel the potency of its language of shadows and copies as a way of holding together the continuities and discontinuities of the covenants? Its imagery of pilgrimage, its promise of a resting place, its examples of faith, its vision of divine discipline—these and others of its teachings acquaint us with the salvation to which with greater understanding we then go on to hear Paul, Peter, John, and the others witness. Consider its logic: Without the pouring out of blood there is no forgiveness; it is impossible for the blood of animals to remove sin; the blood of Jesus, through the eternal Spirit, cleanses us; God did not desire sacrifices, though he commanded that they be offered; through the offering of the body of Jesus we have been made holy.
Alec Motyer reportedly characterized how Israelites under Moses would have summarized their experience: “We were in a foreign land, in bondage, under the sentence of death. But our mediator—the one who stands between us and God—came to us with the promise of deliverance. We trusted in the promises of God, took shelter under the blood of the lamb, and he led us out. Now we are on the way to the Promised Land. We are not there yet, of course, but we have the law to guide us, and through blood sacrifice we also have his presence in our midst. So he will stay with us until we get to our true country, our everlasting home.”3 It is hardly credible to think that the vision of Hebrews has not instructed such a reading as this, even if that reading purports to represent a pre-Christian viewpoint.
In part because Hebrews uttered more directly what was assumed by the other NT authors and their heirs and in part because its message has since worked itself so fully into the church’s reading of all of Scripture, a theological understanding of the whole of the canon is impossible to imagine without this brief word of exhortation.4
Approaching