Hebrews, James

By George H. Guthrie

Continuing a Gold Medallion Award-winning legacy, the completely revised Expositor's Bible Commentary puts world-class biblical scholarship in your hands.

A staple for students, teachers, and pastors worldwide, The Expositor's Bible Commentary (EBC) offers comprehensive yet succinct commentary from scholars committed to the authority of the Holy Scriptures. The EBC uses the New International Version of the Bible, but the contributors work from the original Hebrew and Greek languages and refer to other translations when useful.

Each section of the commentary includes:

• An introduction: background information, a short bibliography, and an outline
• An overview of Scripture to illuminate the big picture
• The complete NIV text
• Extensive commentary
• Notes on textual questions, key words, and concepts
• Reflections to give expanded thoughts on important issues

The series features 56 contributors, who:

• Believe in the divine inspiration, complete trustworthiness, and full authority of the Bible
• Have demonstrated proficiency in the biblical book that is their specialty
• Are committed to the church and the pastoral dimension of biblical interpretation
• Represent geographical and denominational diversity
• Use a balanced and respectful approach toward marked differences of opinion
• Write from an evangelical viewpoint

For insightful exposition, thoughtful discussion, and ease of use—look no further than The Expositor's Bible Commentary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Mar 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9780310532088

George H. Guthrie

George H. Guthrie (PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as Professor of New Testament at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of numerous articles and over a dozen books, including commentaries on Hebrews, James, 2 Corinthians, and A Short Guide to Reading the Bible Better.

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Hebrews, James

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary

Revised Edition

R. T. France and George H. Guthrie

Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, General Editors

ZONDERVAN

Hebrews, James

Hebrews—Copyright © 2006 by R. T. France

James—Copyright © 2006 by George H. Guthrie

Previously published in Hebrews-Revelation.

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ePub Edition: ISBN 978-0-310-53208-8

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The Library of Congress cataloged the printed edition as follows:

The expositor’s Bible commentary / [general editors], Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland.—Rev.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-310-26894-9 (hardcover)

1. Bible. N.T.—Commentaries. I. Longman, Tremper. II. Garland, David E.

BS2341.53.E96 2005

220.7—dc22 2005006281

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CONTENTS

Contributors

Preface

Abbreviations

Hebrews

Introduction

I. BETTER THAN THE PROPHETS (1:1–3)

II. BETTER THAN THE ANGELS (1:4–2:18)

A. The Greater Glory of the Son (1:4–14)

B. First Warning Passage (2:1–4)

C. Lower Than the Angels (2:5–9)

D. Able to Save (2:10–18)

III. BETTER THAN MOSES AND JOSHUA (3:1–4:13)

A. The Servant and the Son (3:1–6)

B. Today, if you hear his voice (3:7–4:13)

IV. BETTER THAN THE OT PRIESTHOOD (4:14–7:28)

A. A Great High Priest (4:14–16)

B. Qualifications for Priesthood (5:1–10)

C. Digression: Toward Mature Understanding (5:11–6:12)

D. God’s Unchangeable Oath (6:13–20)

E. The Priesthood of Melchizedek (7:1–10)

F. A Better Order of Priesthood (7:11–19)

G. Further Arguments for the Superiority of Jesus’ Priesthood (7:20–25)

H. Summary: The One True High Priest (7:26–28)

V. BETTER THAN THE OLD COVENANT AND ITS SACRIFICES (8:1–10:18)

A. A New Sanctuary (8:1–5)

B. A New Covenant (8:6–13)

C. The Worship of the Old Sanctuary (9:1–10)

D. The One Effective Sacrifice (9:11–14)

E. A New Covenant Requires a Death (9:15–22)

F. A Single Sacrifice, Once for All (9:23–28)

G. Christ’s Self-offering (10:1–10)

H. No More Sacrifice for Sin (10:11–18)

VI. A CALL TO FOLLOW JESUS IN FAITHFULNESS AND ENDURANCE (10:19–12:29)

A. Confidence to Enter the Sanctuary (10:19–25)

B. Fourth Warning Passage (10:26–31)

C. Faithfulness under Pressure (10:32–12:3)

1. Faithfulness Past and Future (10:32–36)

2. Living by Faith: Habakkuk 2:3–4 (10:37–39)

3. The Essence of Faith (11:1)

4. Examples of Faith: Creation to Abraham (11:2–12)

5. Summary of the Life of Faith: The Patriarchs (11:13–16)

6. Examples of Faith: Abraham to Jericho (11:17–31)

7. Examples of Faith: Summary of Later Periods (11:32–38)

8. The Privilege of the Christian (11:39–40)

9. The Supreme Example of Faith: Jesus (12:1–3)

D. A Christian View of Suffering (12:4–13)

E. Call to Holiness (12:14–17)

F. The Mountain of Fear and the Mountain of Joy (12:18–24)

G. Fifth Warning Passage (12:25–29)

VII. CONCLUDING EXHORTATIONS AND GREETINGS (13:1–25)

A. Living as the People of God (13:1–8)

B. Serving Jesus Outside the Camp (13:9–16)

C. Personal Appeal (13:17–19)

D. Closing Prayer (13:20–21)

E. More Personal Messages (13:22–25)

James

Introduction

I. THE OPENING OF THE LETTER (1:1)

II. DOUBLE INTRODUCTION: LIVING BY RIGHTEOUS WISDOM (1:2–27)

A. Introduction Part I: Handling Trials with Righteous Wisdom (1:2–11)

1. The Spiritual Benefit of Trials (1:2–4)

2. The Need for Righteous Wisdom (1:5–8)

3. Wise Attitudes for the Rich and Poor (1:9–11)

B. Overlapping Transition: Blessings for Those Who Persevere Under Trial (1:12)

C. Introduction Part II: The Perils of Self-Deception (1:13–27)

1. Temptation’s True Nature: Do Not Be Deceived (1:13–16)

2. God’s True Nature: He Gives the Word (1:17–19a)

3. Righteous Living through the Word (1:19b–21)

4. Do Not Be Deceived: Be Doers of the Word (the Law of Liberty) (1:22–25)

5. Transition: Self–Deception Regarding Speaking and Acting (1:26–27)

a. Do Not Be Deceived: The Importance of Right Speaking (1:26)

b. The Importance of Right Actions (1:27)

III. LIVING THE LAW OF LIBERTY (2:1–5:6)

A. Violating the Royal Law through Judging the Poor: Wrong Speaking and Acting in Community (2:1–11)

1. A Personal Exhortation: Don’t show favoritism to the rich! (2:1)

2. A Hypothetical Situation and Assessment (2:2–4)

3. An Appeal to Principle (2:5–6a)

4. An Appeal to Personal Experience (2:6b–7)

5. Two Courses of Action, Hypothetically Stated (2:8–11)

B. So Speak and So Act as One Being Judged by the Law of Liberty (2:12–13)

C. Wrong Actions toward the Poor (2:14–26)

JAMES AND PAUL

D. Wrong Speaking toward One Another in Principle (3:1–12)

E. Righteous vs. Worldly Wisdom (3:13–18)

F. Wrong Actions and Speaking toward One Another in Practice (4:1–5)

G. A Call to Humility and Repentance (4:6–10)

H. Do the Law, Do Not Judge It (4:11–12)

I. Twin Calls to the Arrogant Rich (4:13–5:6)

1. A Rebuke of Arrogant Presumption (4:13–17)

2. A Statement of Judgment on the Wicked Rich (5:1–6)

IV. CONCLUSION: ENDURING IN RIGHTEOUS LIVING IN COMMUNITY (5:7–20)

A. The Need for Patient Endurance (5:7–11)

B. The Need for Righteous Words in Community (5:12–20)

CONTRIBUTORS

Hebrews: R. T. France (Ph.D.) is an Anglican clergyman and New Testament scholar, now retired, whose appointments have included London Bible College and Wycliffe Hall.

James: George H. Guthrie (Ph.D., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is professor of Bible and chairman of the department of Christian studies at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.

General editor: Tremper Longman III (Ph.D., Yale University) is professor of biblical studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.

General editor: David E. Garland (Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate dean of academic affairs and William M. Hinson professor of Christian Scriptures at George W. Truett Seminary, Baylor University, in Waco, Texas.

PREFACE

Frank Gaebelein wrote the following in the preface to the original Expositor’s Bible Commentary (which first appeared in 1979): The title of this work defines its purpose. Written primarily by expositors for expositors, it aims to provide preachers, teachers, and students of the Bible with a new and comprehensive commentary on the books of the Old and New Testaments. Those volumes achieved that purpose admirably. The original EBC was exceptionally well received and had an enormous impact on the life of the church. It has served as the mainstay of countless pastors and students who could not afford an extensive library on each book of the Bible but who wanted solid guidance from scholars committed to the authority of the Holy Scriptures.

Gaebelein also wrote, A commentary that will continue to be useful through the years should handle contemporary trends in biblical studies in such a way as to avoid becoming outdated when critical fashions change. This revision continues the EBC’s exalted purpose and stands on the shoulders of the expositors of the first edition, but it seeks to maintain the usefulness of the commentary by interacting with new discoveries and academic discussions. While the primary goal of this commentary is to elucidate the text and not to provide a guide to the scholarly literature about the text, the commentators critically engage recent academic discussion and provide updated bibliographies so that pastors, teachers, and students can keep abreast of modern scholarship.

Some of the commentaries in the EBC have been revised by the original author or in conjunction with a younger colleague. In other cases, scholars have been commissioned to offer fresh commentaries because the original author had passed on or wanted to pass on the baton to the next generation of evangelical scholars. Today, with commentaries on a single book of the Old and New Testaments often extending into multiple volumes, the need for a comprehensive yet succinct commentary that guides one to the gist of the text’s meaning is even more pressing. The new EBC seeks to fill this need.

The theological stance of this commentary series remains unchanged: the authors are committed to the divine inspiration, complete trustworthiness, and full authority of the Bible. The commentators have demonstrated proficiency in the biblical book that is their specialty, as well as commitment to the church and the pastoral dimension of biblical interpretation. They also represent the geographical and confessional diversity that characterized the first contributors.

The commentaries adhere to the same chief principle of grammatico-historical interpretation that drove the first edition. In the foreword to the inaugural issue of the journal New Testament Studies in 1954, Matthew Black warned that the danger in the present is that theology, with its head too high in the clouds, may end by falling into the pit of an unhistorical and uncritical dogmatism. Into any new theological undertaking must be brought all that was best in the old ideal of sound learning, scrupulous attention to philology, text and history. The dangers that Black warned against over fifty years ago have not vanished. Indeed, new dangers arise in a secular, consumerist culture that finds it more acceptable to use God’s name in exclamations than in prayer and that encourages insipid theologies that hang in the wind and shift to tickle the ears and to meet the latest fancy. Only a solid biblical foundation can fend off these fads.

The Bible was not written for our information but for our transformation. It is not a quarry to find stones with which to batter others but to find the rock on which to build the church. It does not invite us simply to speak of God but to hear God and to confess that his Son, Jesus Christ, is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Php 2:10). It also calls us to obey his commandments (Mt 28:20). It is not a self-interpreting text, however. Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures requires sound learning and regard for history, language, and text. Exegetes must interpret not only the primary documents but all that has a bearing, direct or indirect, on the grammar and syntax, historical context, transmission, and translation of these writings.

The translation used in this commentary remains the New International Version (North American edition), but all of the commentators work from the original languages (Hebrew and Greek) and draw on other translations when deemed useful. The format is also very similar to the original EBC, while the design is extensively updated with a view to enhanced ease of use for the reader. Each commentary section begins with an introduction (printed in a single-column format) that provides the reader with the background necessary to understand the Bible book. Almost all introductions include a short bibliography and an outline. The Bible text is divided into primary units that are often explained in an Overview section that precedes commentary on specific verses. The complete text of the New International Version is provided for quick reference, and an extensive Commentary section (printed in a double-column format) follows the reproducing of the text. When the Hebrew or Greek text is cited in the commentary section, a phonetic system of transliteration and translation is used. The Notes section (printed in a single-column format) provides a specialized discussion of key words or concepts, as well as helpful resource information. The original languages and their transliterations will appear in this section. Finally, on occasion, expanded thoughts can be found in a Reflections section (printed in a double-column format) that follows the Notes section.

One additional feature is worth mentioning. Throughout this volume, wherever specific biblical words are discussed, the Goodrick-Kohlenberger (GK) numbers have been added. These numbers, which appear in the Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance and other reference tools, are based on the numbering system developed by Edward Goodrick and John Kohlenberger III and provide a system similar but superior to the Strong’s numbering system.

The editors wish to thank all of the contributors for their hard work and commitment to this project. We also deeply appreciate the labor and skill of the staff at Zondervan. It is a joy to work with them—in particular Jack Kuhatschek, Stan Gundry, Katya Covrett, and Dirk Buursma. In addition, we acknowledge with thanks the work of Connie Gundry Tappy as copy editor.

We all fervently desire that these commentaries will result not only in a deeper intellectual grasp of the Word of God but also in hearts that more profoundly love and obey the God who reveals himself to us in its pages.

David E. Garland, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of Christian Scriptures, George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University

Tremper Longman III, Robert H. Gundry professor of biblical studies, Westmont College

ABBREVIATIONS

Bible Texts, Versions, Etc.

Old Testament, New Testament, Apocrypha

Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Texts

Other Ancient Texts

Journals, Periodicals, Reference Works, Series

General

HEBREWS

R. T. FRANCE

Introduction

1. What Sort of Writing?

2. Author, Destination, and Date

3. Basic Theme and Structure

4. Hebrews as a Biblical Expositor

5. Use of the Old Testament

6. Theology

7. Bibliography

8. Outline

1. WHAT SORT OF WRITING?

Hebrews has traditionally been classified as a letter and is placed among the epistles of the NT,¹ yet its opening lacks all the normal marks of a NT letter²—the identification of author and recipients, the formal greeting, and prayer or thanksgiving. (In this it is paralleled in the NT only by 1 John.) Its sonorous opening sentence reminds us rather of the prologue of the gospel of John and suggests a philosophical or theological treatise. Yet its final chapter resembles the conclusions of Paul’s letters, including not only exhortations and a request for prayer for the author and his ministry but also personal greetings and travel plans and a mention of Timothy, Paul’s frequent companion. The contrast with the opening of the letter is so great that it has even been suggested that ch. 13 as a whole is a later addition intended to ensure the acceptance of Hebrews into the canon by turning it into a recognizable epistle.³

But this is not a dispassionate academic treatise. It is a pastoral exhortation, interspersed with earnest appeals to the recipients to stand firm in their faith. Its academic arguments are deployed not for merely intellectual interest but as the essential basis for the author’s appeal. He writes as a pastor closely aware of the specific situation of his readers, of their doubts and uncertainties, and of the issues that move them, and he writes looking for an existential response, not merely for intellectual assent. If his argument seems sometimes obscurely theological, caught up in matters of Jewish tradition and biblical exegesis that leave many modern readers cold, it is because he knows it is precisely in the understanding of these issues that his readers’ problems begin, and as a good pastor he is scratching where they are itching. For all its academic content and sophisticated exegetical argument, this is essentially a word of exhortation (13:22).

Despite its rhetorical opening, therefore, Hebrews does seem to be rightly classified as a letter, in the sense of a written communication to a specific group of people for a specific purpose, rather than a pamphlet for general circulation. The author himself clearly so intends it when he uses the verb epistellō (to send a letter, GK 2182) to describe the form in which his word of exhortation has come to them (13:22). But it is certainly not like an ordinary business letter, ancient or modern. The other time the phrase word of exhortation occurs in the NT it denotes a synagogue sermon (Ac 13:15). Many have thus described Hebrews rather as a homily or sermon.⁴ But perhaps the difference between a pastoral letter and a sermon was not so great in the ancient world as it might seem to us, since probably at least 80 percent of the average Christian congregation would be unable to read,⁵ so that their access to Hebrews would not be by reading it quietly to themselves but by hearing it read in the congregation. (Cf. Ac 15:31, where a written communication read out in the churches is again described as a paraklēsis, exhortation, GK 4155.) Its combination of rhetorical sophistication and urgent pastoral appeal is well designed for this purpose. We should note especially the author’s careful use of language about speaking (rather than writing) in such a way as to suggest he is actually present with them delivering the sermon (2:5; 5:11; 6:9; 8:1; 9:5; 11:32).

But if Hebrews functions as a written sermon, we should not think of a stock homily retrieved from the author’s filing system for this occasion; it is far too carefully customized to the specific problems of this particular Christian group for that. Rather, we are listening here to an experienced preacher who, whether in oral or written form, knows how to develop an argument relevant to the circumstances of a particular congregation and to apply it for their response. It may be that some of the arguments deployed in this letter would have formed part of his regular preaching ministry, but if so, they have been carefully adapted to this specific context.

I shall argue below (section 4) that the content of this letter is not that of a single sermon but of a whole series of expository studies and appeals, each developing a different scriptural theme and each adding its own new angle to the overall thrust of the letter. The author’s method seems, then, to be one naturally employed by an experienced preacher to whom the exposition of OT texts is second nature, in order to present a powerful scriptural argument to a congregation in spiritual danger. Had he been personally present (as he would have preferred, 13:19, 23), he would no doubt have preached it. As it is, he speaks on paper in very much the same way in which he would have made his case orally and relies on the local reader to do justice to both his rhetorical skill and his pastoral concern.

2. AUTHOR, DESTINATION, AND DATE

We do not know who wrote Hebrews, or to whom, or when. In view of the considerable scholarly discussion on these issues, it is good to state this clearly at the outset. What follows is merely a summary of some of the considerations that have guided scholarly speculation, as well as an indication of my own (equally speculative) thoughts on the subject.

We have noted above the inclusion of Hebrews along with Paul’s letters in the earliest surviving manuscript (ca. AD 200), and it came to be so regarded in later Christian thought, though never universally.⁶ But many ancient writers had other ideas. Hebrews is not included in the Muratorian Canon (a list of NT books accepted for reading in the Roman church ca. AD 180), which carefully lists the thirteen letters of Paul but makes no mention of Hebrews. Photius (Bibl. 121) records that Irenaeus (second century) and Hippolytus (early third century) denied its Pauline authorship. At the beginning of the third century, Tertullian (Pud. 20) states, and apparently feels no need to argue the point, that it was written by Barnabas. Origen (early third century) observed that its style was clearly not that of Paul and suggested it might have been written by an unknown follower of Paul (As to who wrote the epistle, God knows the truth); he mentions that others have attributed it to Clement of Rome or to Luke (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.25.11–14). Clement of Alexandria, also recognizing the difference in style, suggested it might have been written by Paul in Hebrew and translated by Luke into Greek (cf. Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.14.2–4). Eusebius (early fourth century) himself includes Hebrews as one of the fourteen letters of Paul but recognizes that others have followed the lead of the church of Rome in rejecting it as not by Paul (Hist. eccl. 3.3.4–5; 6.20.3).

The eventual inclusion of Hebrews among Paul’s letters in the Western church (largely under the influence of Jerome and Augustine) was due not to literary conviction concerning its authorship (for few readers, especially of the letter in Greek, can fail to recognize this is not how Paul wrote) but to the need to find a suitable place in the canonical list for a book that had by then become widely accepted but did not name its author. Doubts about its authorship continued to be expressed, and its position in the received canon following Paul’s shorter letters and preceding the other general epistles testifies to this continued uncertainty.⁷ Speculation concerning its authorship continued in the Reformation period, the most important new suggestion being Luther’s declaring that the author was Apollos, which remains perhaps the most widely favored view today.

From the letter itself we may glean that the author was (or wished to be seen as) male,⁸ Jewish, very well schooled in the OT and in the sort of Jewish philosophical thinking that was dominant especially in Alexandria,⁹ and an eloquent writer of sophisticated classical Greek,¹⁰ and that he was associated with Timothy (13:23). All of these characteristics seem to fit well with Apollos, the learned Jew from Alexandria with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures (Ac 18:24), who vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah (18:28 TNIV). Apollos’s eloquent advocacy of the claims of Christ in Ephesus and Corinth made him a serious rival to Paul himself in the leadership of the Corinthian church (1Co 1:12; 3:4–6, 22; 4:6) and may well explain Paul’s sensitivity concerning wisdom, philosophy, and eloquence in the early chapters of 1 Corinthians. H. W. Montefiore,¹¹ following the commentary of C. Spicq, has assembled a strong argument that Hebrews was written by Apollos from Ephesus to the church in Corinth about AD 52–54, before Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. Montefiore offers a detailed and attractive reconstruction of the possible course of events involving Apollos, Paul, and the Corinthian church, drawing on the contents of Hebrews and 1 Corinthians. He may well be right, but his reconstruction, like the attribution to Apollos, remains speculative. There is no reason in principle why the author of this letter should be anyone whose name happens to be known to us from elsewhere. There must surely have been other well-schooled, eloquent Jewish pastors/theologians among the Christian congregations around the Mediterranean in the period around and following Paul’s ministry—men (and women—remember Priscilla) not unlike Apollos. One of them wrote Hebrews, but we must settle for not knowing which.

Nor (contra Montefiore) can we know to whom he was writing. The traditional title To the Hebrews¹² is probably based on the nature of the letter itself and reflects the fact that its recipients must have been people who were firmly grounded in the OT and who identified themselves with the history and ideology of its people. There is wide (but not universal) agreement that the letter was written to Jewish Christians, or at least to Christians who, as former Jewish proselytes, had a deep knowledge of the OT.¹³ But To the Hebrews might easily be taken to suggest a sort of encyclical to Jewish Christians everywhere, and that is certainly not the case. The target audience is a specific local group who are well known to the writer and with whose particular circumstances he is familiar. There is no reason to suppose them to be a large group; a sort of house church composed of converts from Judaism (and possibly former proselytes or God fearers) would fit the nature of the letter well. There were Jewish communities all over the Mediterranean world, and such a group of Jewish Christians would probably be found in many of the cities of the eastern Roman Empire.

It is widely suggested that this particular group was in Rome and was perhaps part of the wider church made up of Jewish and Gentile members to which Paul wrote Romans. (Note that several house churches in Rome are mentioned in Ro 16:3–15.) The evidence for this suggestion is admittedly slender, the most significant pointer being the greetings sent by the writer from those from Italy (13:24), perhaps members of the group who have traveled away from home and are with the writer at the time. Another even less firm pointer is the comment that you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (12:4), which could suggest they were associated with others who had already faced martyrdom; if so, Rome is the only place we know in which Christians specifically were persecuted to death during the first century (under Nero in AD 64–65)—and it is possible that Jewish Christians in Rome were spared such persecution because their Jewish identity brought them within the Roman provisions for a licensed religion, a protection Gentile Christians could not claim.¹⁴ But all of this remains speculative. The fact that Clement of Rome knew the letter at the end of the first century (esp. 1 Clem. 36:2–5) does not prove it was sent to Rome, though it would fit with that view. A group of Jewish Christians in Rome is an entirely plausible destination for the letter, but we cannot (and need not) be sure.¹⁵

As with most NT books, there is nothing in the letter that positively fixes the date of writing. The most significant argument is one from silence. The author’s argument focuses on the theme of a new approach to God that replaces the old system of priesthood and its sacrifices. To such an argument the destruction of the temple in AD 70 would have provided an almost irresistible confirmation that the old system is finished, yet it is never mentioned. The most obvious explanation of this remarkable silence (comparable to Sherlock Holmes’s dog that did not bark) is that the letter was written before AD 70. In particular, it would be very strange for a writer after AD 70 to say hypothetically of the animal sacrifices of the old covenant, Would they not have stopped being offered? (10:2), rather than pointing out that they had in fact already been stopped. This argument is perhaps weakened by the fact (which we shall discuss later) that the author of Hebrews never refers to the Jerusalem temple as such but rather to its wilderness predecessor, the tabernacle; but since he consistently describes its ritual in the present tense (another remarkable trait if the sacrificial system had now been brought to an end; see comments at 13:9–16), it seems likely he understands the present temple ritual as the successor to that of the tabernacle. All in all, a date before AD 70 seems more probable¹⁶ and would accord with the possible context of the Neronian persecution mentioned above. Beyond that, we can only speculate.

3. BASIC THEME AND STRUCTURE

The Jewish Christians to whom this letter was sent were in the author’s view in serious spiritual danger. He fears they may drift away by ignoring such a great salvation (2:1, 3), that they may harden their hearts and so fall short of the rest promised to the people of God (3:7–4:11), that by falling away they may crucify the Son of God all over again (6:4–6) and trample the Son of God under foot (10:29), that by refusing the one who speaks from heaven they will not escape judgment (12:25–26). This striking sequence of warning passages, combined with the repeated exhortations to them to persevere and not shrink back, to hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first, to enter in with confidence, to make every effort and to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess suggests their continued allegiance to Christ was in doubt, and the author was seriously worried they might give up their Christian profession altogether.

One reason for his concern was the suffering and persecution they had already faced and were likely to face again; this is the focus of much of his exhortation in 10:32–12:13, where he tries to help them see their suffering within the overall purpose of God and so not lose heart. But the bulk of his argument is on a different and more theological level, comparing and contrasting the key elements of OT religion with the new and better covenant they have entered into through faith in Jesus. It is this single-minded argument, deploying all the author’s considerable scriptural erudition and rhetorical skill, which convinces most interpreters that the main threat to the continued Christian commitment of the recipients of the letter was not the persecutions they were facing but a more fundamental uncertainty as to whether their decision to follow Jesus had been a mistake.

It is hard for Gentile Christians to appreciate the force of this dilemma that faced many Jewish Christians in the first century (and in a different context still faces many Jewish Christians today). The initial excitement of discovering that Jesus was the Messiah in whom all God’s dealings with his people since the days of Abraham had now found their fulfillment was soon challenged by continuing contact with fellow Jews who saw Jesus very differently. For them, Jesus had been a deceiver, and those who followed him had abandoned their ancestral heritage; they were traitors to the values and hopes of Israel, shamefully cutting themselves off from the community of God’s covenant people through the ages. Subjected to such suspicion and hostility, Jewish Christians might well look over their shoulders and wonder whether they had taken the right step, and the more so when following Jesus seemed only to have brought greater suffering. The roots of one’s cultural and religious inheritance are strong, and it must have been painful for these first Jewish Christians to find themselves isolated from their own people and at the same time involved in a new Christian community in which Gentiles, from whom they had hitherto been taught to keep themselves separate, were not only included as equals but also were increasingly calling the shots. In following Jesus, moreover, they had been taught to abandon the religious traditions of their ancestors, with their focus on the sacrificial cult, and consequently they may have begun to be aware of what R. P. Gordon suggestively describes as cultic deprivation.¹⁷ These were some of the factors that contributed to the constant temptation to deemphasize, conceal, neglect, abandon, and thus in a crisis reject and deny the distinctively Christian dimension of their faith¹⁸ that the writer of this letter discerned in his readers’ situation.

So the writer’s argument from the opening salvo to the middle of ch. 10 consists of a series of comparative studies in each of which the glories of the OT religion are shown now to be succeeded by something better through the ultimate fulfillment that has come through the Son. The prophets, angels, Moses and Joshua, the OT priesthood, the covenant and the sanctuary through which it operated, together with the complex sacrificial system that had hitherto been the key to entering the presence of God—all these have now been superseded in the coming of Jesus, the Son, higher than the angels, superior to Moses and Joshua, our true and only high priest, the mediator of a new covenant and officiant in a new and heavenly sanctuary, and himself the one perfect sacrifice that forever renders all other sacrifices obsolete. As this panorama of fulfillment unfolds, with its listing of all that was the legitimate cause of Jewish pride in their religion and status as the people of God, the key word better (kreittōn/kreissōn, GK 3202/3201) is heard again and again (1:4; 6:9; 7:7, 19, 22; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34; 11:16, 35, 40; 12:24). The writer’s perspective is summed up in 8:6–13 as he shows how the coming of a new covenant has rendered the old one obsolete. Surely there can be no going back to the old when the new is in every way better. So the argument is summed up in 10:19–12:29 with an impassioned call to enter into their new heritage and to hold on in faith, whatever the cost, knowing that God has promised better things to those who run with perseverance the race in which Jesus has already gone before them.

The outline that follows this introduction attempts to set out the stages of this argument and appeal. In that outline I have picked out in bold type the sequence of warning passages that run through the letter, and in italics the expositions of key passages of Scripture around which much of the argument is focused. I shall say more about these expositions in the next section. As I see it, neither the warning passages nor the expositions in themselves form the structural backbone of the letter, though each in their own way (and especially the expositions) carry thes argument powerfully forward. No formal outline such as this can do justice to a living and moving text in which doctrinal argument is interwoven with pastoral exhortation and in which digressions, asides, and