Sermon Tone Analysis

Andrew Hodge                                                                                                       20th July 2007

 

 

New Testament Survey NTES 111

 

 

Seminar 16

 

 

The Epistle to the Hebrews

 

 

/Hebrews/

Irving L. Jensen /Jensen//’s Survey of the New Testament /1981, Moody Press, Chicago Ch 19

/Libronix DLS/

Guthrie, Donald  /New Testament Introduction  /Apollos, Leicester, England 4th Ed  1990 Ch 17

John MacArthur, /Hebrews/,  (Chicago: Moody Press, 1996, c1983)

 

 

/Evaluate the question of authorship, readers and purpose of the Epistle:/

            The purpose of writing from Jensen’s introduction is: “It interprets Old Testament history, explaining the fulfilment of its prophecy and revealing the ultimate purpose of all its institutions of worship”; “A grand portrait of Christ with the Old Testament as a background” (p 406).

Macarthur summarises: “In the book of Hebrews the Holy Spirit is not contrasting two kinds of Christianity.

He is not contrasting immature Christians and mature ones.

He is contrasting Judaism and Christianity, the unsaved Jew in Judaism and the redeemed Jew in Christianity.

He is contrasting the substance and the shadow, the pattern and the reality, the visible and the invisible, the facsimile and the real thing, the type and the anti-type, the picture and the actual.”[1]

In terms of date, Jensen (p 409) places this before 70 AD in that the Temple in Jerusalem is still in use according to Hebrews 8:4-5 and 10:11 (where the verbs are in the present tense), although I do not agree with him that 12:27 might refer to imminent Temple destruction (based on the context of cataclysmic judgment I believe this refers to the end of the millennium with the formation of the new heavens and the new earth).

One of the main points of this Book is that Jewish institutions have been superseded by a more perfect system; therefore if the Temple had already been destroyed, this relevant fact would have been mentioned.

Jensen (ibid) further mentions: “That the epistle was written as late as AD 65 is supported by the observation that the readers were a second generation of Christians (Hebrews 2:1-4 cf 5:12), whose leaders probably had passed away (13:7).”

Chart 1 (Jensen p 20) leaves Hebrews undated but places it after Paul’s Pastoral Epistles which were written about 67 AD.

It therefore seems not unreasonable that Hebrews was written between 67 AD and before Temple destruction in 70 AD.

Guthrie concludes: “In view of all the data available, it would seem reasonable to regard this epistle as having been sent either just before the fall of Jerusalem, if Jerusalem was the destination, or just before the Neronic persecutions if it was sent to Rome.”[2]

Which perhaps is also not unreasonable.

Authorship (ie the individual who penned the Letter by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) is unknown.

Origen (Jensen p 407): “Who wrote the epistle in truth God alone knows”.

Some suggestions are:

#.

Paul.

This assumption is based on language and thought pattern similarities between Hebrews and Paul’s epistles; the centrality of Christ as in other Pauline epistles (this must be a very weak argument as all of the scripture is fundamentally Christ centred); Paul’s association with Timothy (Hebrews 13:23.

I see nothing in this verse which suggests that Timothy wrote Hebrews; rather the reverse); the “Pauline salutation” ie “Grace be with you all” (Hebrews 13:25.

Again not a particularly strong argument).

#.

A co-worker of Paul.

Said to account for the passages that are Pauline and those that are non-Pauline.

Apollos?

Luke?

Barnabas?

Apparently for those who fall into this camp, Apollos is most favoured because he was an Alexandrian Jew (Acts 18:24.

Significance?);

worked closely with Paul toward the end of Paul’s ministry (Titus 3:13.

As did a number of others eg Timothy and Titus.

Why aren’t they included in this guessing section?); was well grounded in the OT scriptures, and was an enthusiastic teacher-preacher (Acts 18:24-26).

#.

Others.

Aquila, Priscilla, Silas, Epaphras, Jude, Philip the Deacon and Clement of Rome (see Guthrie pp 668-82).

For those OT and NT letters which have clearly defined writers, and for those which do not, the inspired writing of the Holy Spirit is far more relevant than being certain who the human writer was.

Where the writer is known, that is important for context and interpretation.

Where the writer is not known, there is no confusion about Who authored it.

In a sense this makes the hermeneutic of Hebrews easier.

Guthrie’s introductory contribution is: “This epistle raises several problems, for not only is it anonymous, but its destination and purpose are both obscure.

The importance of careful examination of all these problems, even if no dogmatic conclusions can be reached, cannot be exaggerated since they affect both the approach to the epistle as a whole and the understanding of the argument.

Moreover, its modern relevance clearly depends on a right appreciation of its original setting.”[3]

As above, I cannot agree with this view.

Guthrie’s approach is one of rationalistic liberalism which robs him of the simplicity of accepting the text as God-inspired.

If he had a “primitive faith” he would have much less difficulty with his exegesis and “scholarship”.

Guthrie returns almost to reality when he states: “Nevertheless its canonicity was never called in question, and this led to its general acceptance in the West.”[4]

And “Of greater importance is the situation which the epistle was intended to answer.”[5]

With two strokes this does away with his insistence on attempting to explain who penned it, where and when.

The readership has to be derived from the Epistle itself (Jensen p 407): “They were from a single congregation of Hebrew Christians, living in the Roman world (eg Hebrews 2:3, 5:11-12, 6:9-10 cf 13:23-24).”

Jerusalem, Alexandria, Caesarea, Antioch in Syria and Rome are suggested but all have problems.

Guthrie argues that internal evidence for a particular community demonstrates that it has a history, it had a definite connection with the writer, it was a section of a larger community, and it was intended for a Jewish Christian congregation (see pp 682-6).

He also presents unconvincing evidence that the Letter was intended for Gentiles in a mixed Jewish~/Gentile congregation (pp 686-8).

Hebrews 13:24 strongly implies that the Letter was written /in /Italy, but this has been countered by claiming that this represented a group of Italian Christians elsewhere sending their greetings back to Rome via this letter.

It seems it is possible to get around anything when no specific information is available either way.

Jensen (p 408) makes the point that it is more important to know where the readers were spiritually than geographically.

These folk were “in a backslidden condition, in danger of apostasising from Christ and returning to Judaism”.

It seems that that generation of Christians in the Church were about to buckle under persecution which had previously been successfully resisted (Hebrews 1:32-34).

If this Church was indeed in Rome this might have been the persecution under Nero when he burnt the city (64 AD), but this is pure speculation.

Jensen divides in two his section on Purposes for writing (p 408-9):

#.

Teaching.

The best way of counteracting the false is to faithfully proclaim the true.

a).

A Revelation  Hebrews 1:1-4: “God…….has……..spoken” in both OT and NT and Hebrews expounds the relationship between them, as well as revealing the Living Word, Jesus the Christ.

b).

A Person  “Hebrews is the most comprehensive New Testament Book  portraying Christ as Son of God and Son of Man.

“Consider Jesus” is a key phrase in the epistle” (Hebrews 3:1 Jensen p 409).

c).

A Work  Christ’s sacrifice on earth is once-for-all, although His work continues in heaven as Priest and King.

#.

Warning and exhortation.

The warnings concern the just consequences that God imposes for sinning against Him, and the exhortations are for appropriating the power, privileges and maturity that goes with being God’s children.

Exhortations are scattered throughout eg 4:1, 11, 14, 16, the main passage starting at 10:19.

Jensen lists five main warning sections:

* Take heed (2:1-4)

* Do not miss the ‘rest’ (3:7-4:13)

* Beware sloth and apostasy (5:11-6:20)

* Beware wilful sinning (10:26-31)

* Beware disobeying Christ (12:25-29)

 

Guthrie’s list for ‘Purposes’ (see pp 688-96) is:

·         To warn Jewish Christians against apostasy to Judaism

·         To challenge restricted Jewish Christians to embrace world mission

·         To announce the absolute character of Christianity to mainly Gentile Christians

·         To counteract an early type of heresy

This list of itself betrays Guthrie’s lack of focus on the superiority of Christ and the Godly character of the Book, a focus more on the thinking and practice of religion rather than relationship.

Jensen observes (p 414) that “the main Person of Hebrews is Jesus…..We behold Him in His Deity, His sacrificial work, His Priestly office, and His Kingly glory”.

Guthrie surmises that: “There is almost as much difference of opinion about the writer’s aims as about his own identity and that of his readers.

This problem is nevertheless of greater importance, since it affects the interpretation of the epistle.”[6]

If Guthrie or his colleagues actually know that they cannot grasp what the Epistle is being written about then they should not demean themselves or their own readers by attempting to explain it.

On the other hand, Jensen does not claim to know everything about Hebrews, but he approaches the Word in a Godly manner which makes his opinion worth listening to.

/Examine the destination, date of writing, the background and literary form of the Epistle:/

/            /For destination and date see above.

Jensen (p 409): “(Hebrews) is the Spirit’s commentary on the Pentateuch, especially the book of Leviticus”.

There are 86 direct references in Hebrews to the OT, with direct or indirect reference to at least 100 OT passages.

Hebrews explains that the OT sacrifices and priestly ministrations are types pointing forward to Christ - /the /great sacrifice for sin, the /true /Priest, the /one /Mediator between God and man; and “should lift the drifting believer from spiritual lethargy to vital Christian maturity….the

antidote for backsliding is a growing personal knowledge of Jesus” (Jensen p 418).