Sunda y Bible-study: 2018/10/07 (St. Matthew s Episcopal Church, McMinnville) Hebrews: (Wk. 1) - 1:1-4; 2:5-12 How much of the Bible have you read? All of it? Have you read it all the way through, cover to cover? Or, do you find yourself turning to the same, familiar sections over and over again? [Discussion.] Starting now, as prescribed by the [Revised Common] Lectionary, we re going to spend the next seven Sundays looking closely at Hebrews, the fifty-eighth book in the Bible, and one of the very last in the New Testament. Indeed, reflecting on its remote position almost among the appendices of the Bible, near to the maps, indexes and other curiosities that publishers like to add to their product, which is supposed to enhance our experience of the Scriptures, but that, likely, we never actually turn to examine one scholar wanders if this might suggest to readers a (negative) value judgment. [For t]he reader of the New Testament moves through the Gospels, Acts, and Paul s writings as a traveler on a well-lighted street... However, once past Paul, the traveler finds the road uncertain, the houses dimly lit, and no familiar landmarks. [And t]he temptation is to stop and turn back 1 And I will add that Hebrews did have a rather rocky road to get into the [C]anon,2 which explains why we find it settled into place [only] at the very end of the Pauline collection of writings], on its margins, as it were. 3 And the reason for this is that, [t]he historical circumstances of the Epistle to the Hebrews are notoriously difficult to determine. 4 And, in particular, a deep Craddock, Fred B. (1998), The Letter to the Hebrews: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections', in Keck, Leander E.; Craddock, Fred B.; Rowland, Christopher C. & Johnson, Luke Timothy (Eds.), New Interpreter's Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes: Volume 12 - Hebrews - Revelation, Nashville, T. N.: Abingdon Press, pp. 1-173, 4. 2 Witherington, Ben, III (2007), Letters and Homilies for Jewish Christians: A SocioRhetorical Commentary on Hebrews, James and Jude, Downers Grove, I. L.: IVP Academic, 19. 3 Laansma, Jon C. (2017), The Letter to the Hebrews: A Commentary for Preaching, Teaching, and Bible Study, Eugene, O. R.: Cascade Books, 12. 4 Croy, N. Clayton (1998), Endurance in Suffering: Hebrews 12:1-13 in Its Rhetorical, Religious, and Philosophical Context, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 162. 1 1
mystery surrounds the name of the author. 5 [Ask for a volunteer to read the passage.] Notice, then, that, as I warned you, the person whose voice we hear in this text did not introduce themselves as was the ( untimely [1 Cor. 15:8]) Apostle s habit and the common practice of his day : 6 Whereas modern letters end with the author s signature, ancient letters begin with it. 7 And this was of the utmost importance! It established a sense of intimacy a rapport, a solidarity between the person responsible for a composition and the person receiving it: 8 it draws [a circle] around the conversation, which is essential for contextualizing that is, properly understanding its contents. 9 Thus, 1 Thessalonians [chp.] 1, for example, begins, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. [v.1] But we find none of this in Hebrews, our author just launches straight in, saying: Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God s glory and the exact imprint of God s very being, etcetera, etcetera. Now, this opening paragraph has been called the most sonorous piece of Greek in the whole New Testament. 10 And, hearing it in its original language, you would be immediately struck by its pleasant and abundant alliteration, beautiful rhythm and rhyme. 11 So, who wrote it?! Who had such skill? 5 Hoppin, Ruth (2009), Priscilla's Letter: Finding the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Fort Bragg, C. A.: Lost Coast Press, 1. 6 Weima, Jeffrey A. D. (2016), Paul the Ancient Letter Writer: An Introduction to Epistolary Analysis, Grand Rapids, M. I.: Baker Academic, 12. 7 Ibid. 8 Wall, Robert W. (1993), Colossians & Philemon (The I. V. P. New Testament Commentary Series), Downers Grove, I. L.: InterVarsity Press, 193. 9 Ibid. 10 Barclay, William (1957), The Letter to the Hebrews, Revised Edition, Louisville, K. Y.: Westminster / John Knox Press, 11. 11 Ibid. See also: Williamson, Ronald (1970), Philo and the Epistle to the Hebrews, Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 73. 2
Well, despite the elegance of the Greek, 12 which seems almost certainly to be that of a highly educated native-speaker, 13 [t]he author of the Epistle [sic.] was a Jew. This, as far as I know, has never been doubted. 14 for whoever it was they were, as we shall come to see, thoroughly versed in the Old Testament. 15 And if this is all true, the list of potential candidates grows exceedingly short indeed: Firstly, despite the letter s traditional attribution and as I ve implied already, Hebrews was not written by Saint Paul, whose writing has been called too vulgar that is to say, as being typical of the non-literary class. 16 Additionally, some of Paul s favorite expressions are [entirely] lacking in Hebrews, phrases like in Christ; 17 as are [t]he characteristic Pauline antitheses faith and works or flesh and spirit. 18 Furthermore and this seems to me to clinch the argument in chapter two, verse 3, (which has, sadly, been omitted this morning), the author, speaking of the great Good news of salvation that Jesus has made [a] purification for [our] sins,[1:3b, 2:3a] writes: It was declared at first through the LORD, and it was attested to us [later] by those who [had] heard [H]im [directly]. Which suggests, unequivocally, that they the author of Hebrews weren t themselves an eyewitness to Christ unlike Paul who had a personal experience of Him on the road to Damascus [Acts 9:1-21] and that, therefore, we are dealing with second or third generation Christian. 19 Thus, today, [t]he discussion about whether [it was] Paul [who] wrote the Epistle [sic.] or not seems by and large to have come to a halt. 20 And yet, there are many echoes echoes of earlier Pauline letters in Hebrews (particularly of Galatians, 1 Corinthians and Romans), 21 which have led many to conjecture that it must have been written by someone very close to him a 12 Witherington (2007), 19. 13 Guthrie, Donald (1983), Hebrews (Tyndale New Testament Commentary), Nottingham, U. K.; Downers Grove, I. L.: InterVarsity Press, 25. 14 Alford, Henry (1859), The Greek Testament with a Critically Revised Text; A Digest of Various Readings; Marginal References to Verbal and Idiomatic Usage; Prolegomena; and a Critical and Exegetical Commentary: Volume IV The Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Catholic Epistles of St. James and St. Peter, London: Rivingtons, 50-51. 15 Guthrie (1983), 25. 16 See: Thrall, Margaret E. (1962), Greek Particles in the New Testament: Linguistic and Exegetical Studies: Volume 3, Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 8-9. 17 Zenos, Andrew C. (1911), The Epistle to the Hebrews, in Fellows, Samuel (Ed.), The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopædia and Scriptural Dictionary, Volume 2, Chicago, I. L.: The Howard-Severance Co., pp. 777-782, 780. 18 Marsh, F. S. (1916), in Hastings, James; Selbie, John A. & Lambert, John C. (Eds.), Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, Volume I: Aaron Lystria, New York, N. Y.: Charles Scribner s Sons; Edinburgh, U. K.: T. & T. Clark, pp. 534-542, 540. 19 McCullough, J. C. (April 1994), Hebrews in Recent Scholarship, Irish Biblical Studies, Volume 16, No. 2, pp. 66-86, 69. 20 Ibid., 66. 21 Witherington (2007), 11. (My emphasis.) 3
dear friend, perhaps; a missionary companion someone much accustomed to hearing the Great Evangelist preach and teach. 22 Somebody an admirer who possessed [d]efinite reminiscences of the man, 23 and sought to channel him from beyond the grave. And in this they were successful, for the theologies of the two are in fundamental agreement. 24 One such possibility is Barnabas. In Acts, he is part of the team sent out with Paul from the church at Antioch to proselytize to the Gentiles. And he was at once a Hellenist and a Levite. 25 Perfect! However, why did he not claim his work? Another suggestion is that it may be the work of the physician, Luke, who often (also) accompanied Paul on his travels although the manner in which it may belong to him is disputed: There are those who make the case that Hebrews likely represents a Pauline speech, probably originally delivered in a Diaspora synagogue, which Luke [merely] documented in some way and [then] later published [and] circulated 26 Another expert, on the other hand, David Allen, argues that Luke came up with it independently of Paul after his death, in fact. And in the way of evidence observes that two-thirds of the vocabulary of Hebrews (67.6%) occurs in Luke-Acts[, which] represents a significant level of recurrence and strongly links [the three books]. 27 He was not the first to propose this: William Alexander in 1892 noticed too that there were very numerous [r]esemblances in style, expression, and construction between Hebrews and Luke s (other) contributions to the Bible. 28 And, in particular, all possess a good share of his peculiar, distinctive medical detail. 29 But again I ask: Why doesn t he claim it? 22 Alford (1859), 51. 23 Marsh (1916), 541. 24 Ibid. 25 Bartlett, Vernon (November 1903), The Epistle to Hebrews as the Work of Barnabas, The Expositor, Volume 8, No. 5, pp. 381-396, 381. (My emphasis.) 26 Pitts, Andrew W. and Walker, Joshua F. (2013), The Authorship of Hebrews: A Further Development in the Luke-Paul Relationship, Porter, Stanley E. & Land, Christopher D. (Eds.), Paul and His Social Relations, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 143-183, 144. 27 Allen, David L. (2010), Lukan Authorship of Hebrews, Nashville, T. N.: B. & H. Academic, 87. 28 Alexander, William (1892), Leading Ideas of the Gospels, London: MacMillan & Co., 301. 29 Ibid., 312. 4
Another theory, which tickles my fancy, is that the author was not a man at all(!), but another famous companion, Priscilla. 30 If so, Hebrews would be extremely special, for there is, at most, only one other Biblical document (possibly) by a woman, and that s Song of Songs. 31 And though many would brusquely reject such a left-field thought out-of-hand, it is a theory with the power to explain the perplexing anonymity of this letter: Consider, as far as we can tell, she spent as much time as either Barnabas or Luke with Paul and so was as uniquely qualified to write authoritatively on a subject close to his heart, and yet her gender [posed] an obstacle for the acceptance of her message by [newly converted but still] tradition-bound [Jewish Christians]. 32 Consequently, to avoid controversy, her name was deliberately suppressed, which makes a lot more sense than a [sudden] case of collective memory loss. 33 But the next question that arises, I think, is: Why did she risk causing a divisive scandal? What topic could be so important? And one worthy of such intrigue emerges from the beginning to explain how God s whole redemptive work for man is put into [only] two great dispensations called covenants. [7:22; 8:1ff] 34 And in so doing, to demonstrate the desirability the superiority [ref. 1:4; 7:7] of the latter over the former, for everyone.[v.9] (But we ll have to postpone that discussion until another time.) 30 See: Hoppin (2009). 31 LaCocque, Andre and Ricoeur, Paul (1998), Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies, David Pellauer (Trans.), Chicago, I. L.: The University of Chicago Press, 243. 32 Bilezikian, Gilbert (2017), Priscilla as the Author of Hebrews, Priscilla Papers, Volume 31, No. 4, pp. 37-38, 37. Available at https://www.cbeinternational.org/resources/article/priscilla-papers/beyond-sex-rolespriscilla-author-hebrews (accessed October 2, 2018). 33 Ibid. 34 Cowles, Henry (1878), The Epistle to the Hebrews: With Notes, Critical, Explanatory and Practical, New York, N. Y.: 177. 5