New Testament

BCM 103 Dr. Dave Mathewson Gordon College/Denver Seminary

General Epistles

 General Epistles: addressed to a wide audience (Hebrews-Jude)—over a broad geographical areas  General epistles=Catholic epistles (universally addressed)  Prison epistles: Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon  Hebrews doesn’t tell us its audience

Hebrews

 To the “Hebrews”  Who wrote Hebrews?

 Origin – God only knows.

 Knowledge of OT needed to understand it so audience was mostly Jewish [Christian Jews or others?]  Jesus our High Priest! (see Psalm 110)— king is also a priest; Melchizedek

 Readers are Jewish  F.F. Bruce: readers Jewish Christians who never heard Jesus themselves, they had endured persecution but not yet been called to die for their faith. Their Christian development had been stopped and they had slipped back. Reluctant to severe their ties with Judaism. Writer warns them about falling back.

Main Message of Hebrews

 They have everything to loose if they turn back and everything to gain if they fully embrace Christ but everything

What type of book is Hebrews?

 13:22 – Hebrews is a word of exhortation. It’s a sermon/homily sent off as a letter

Who were the readers?

 Who were the readers?

 Readers had come out of Jewish background, heard gospel and responded beginning to meet with newly found Church  They were now experiencing struggles with that shift—ostracized/persecution for leaving Judaism and converting to new found religion  They have left a religion that had appealed to the tangible senses [sacrifices, feasts] to worship a Jesus they had never seen [heavenly temple]

Who were the readers?

 Author warning them not to go back to Judaism (they are Jews in transition)  Author thinks they had not yet embraced Christ fully, need the extra push of this message

Structure of Hebrews

 Structural Flips back and forth—exposition and exhortation (cf. Paul’s indicative/ imperative)  Exposition: Jesus is superior to something in the OT (cf. angels, Moses, rest, tabernacle/temple, sacrifices)  Exhortation: reads press on and accept Christ  Hebrews 1:1 God’s final revelation in Christ

Three-fold division of Hebrews

 Hebrews 1-4:16: Jesus as God’s true and final revelation of God—so they better listen to him  Hebrews 4:11-10:25- Jesus as our superior high priest  Hebrews 10:19-13:25: Our partnership with Jesus  Things form conclusion to one section is intro. to the next section [Hinge]

The Old Covenant in Hebrews

 What is wrong with the Old Covenant?

 Not: inferior, outdated, bad  Could not bring about perfection  Fulfilled in Christ (temporary)

The ‘Historical’ Argument

Priest

Exod-Lev Psalm 110 [Melchizedek]

Rest

Joshua Psalm 95

Covenant

Exodus Jeremiah 31

Hebrews

 Melchizedek: priest / king   Tabernacle referred to rather than the temple  Was the temple destroyed, so book late?

 The author is comparing his readers to those people who trekked through the wilderness Why does the author do that?