To the Hebrews

George Wesley Buchanan

Doubleday, 1972 - 271 pages

The New Testament letter to the Hebrews carried much-needed encouragement and advice for Jewish converts to Christianity in the late first century. Composed in an exquisite style, Hebrews urged new Christians to hold fast to their new faith lest they lose their opportunity to witness the long-awaited fulfillment of God's covenant with Israel. The sage and persuasive Christian writer draws analogies between the heroes and drama of Jewish sacred Scriptures and first-century Christian experience. With the rich heritage of Jewish Christians in mind, he implores his readers not to lose faith during trials and tribulations. The unswerving faith of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and the prophets serves as an example for them not to forsake God's covenant and incur God's judgment. He praises Jesus as the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world, the means of a renewed relationship with God.

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Hebrews

Robert P. Gordon

Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008-02-29 - 215 pages

This commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews envisages the recipients of the letter as a community that has embraced the Christian message but is beginning to question its adequacy to meet their spiritual needs. They have given up the richness of Jewish ritual and cultic tradition for a way of life that lacks the venerable symbols and institutions they had previously valued. Gordon highlights the arguments and rhetorical strategies the author uses to counter this feeling of 'cultic deficit' as he draws attention to what they actually possess in consequence of their Christian commitment. The Letter to the Hebrews has particular contemporary relevance today because, in warning the community against 'going back', the author implies that Christianity has superseded their ancestral Jewish faith. That may seem a slight on the religion 'superseded', but Gordon points out that Judaism itself, as well as Christianity, represents a significant break with the religion of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Jewish-Christian dialogue would profit from being conducted in that light. For this Second Edition, the author has written an additional Introduction, and the pagination of this edition differs from that of the first.

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Hebrews

 

Ray C. Stedman

InterVarsity Press, 1992 - 168 pages

 

For people beginning to doubt the uniqueness and supremacy of Christ, the author of the book of Hebrews provided one of the longest, most profound arguments in the New Testament. Christians today will find their understanding stretched and their loyalty confirmed by this rich presentation of our great High Priest, the Son of God, whose sacrifice of himself took away our sins and gave us continual access to God.Written in a fresh, succinct style, this commentary from a leading evangelical pastor supplies helpful background information that paves the way for our seeing what the text means for us today as well as what it meant for its original hearers.Students, pastors, Bible teachers and everyone who wants to understand the message of Hebrews for the church will benefit from this excellent resource.

 

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Hebrews and Hermeneutics: The Epistle to the Hebrews as a New Testament Example of Biblical Interpretation

 

Graham Hughes

Cambridge University Press, 2004-12-23 - 232 pages

This book offers a thesis about the interests underlying the Epistle. Dr Hughes argues that the major concern of the author has been to achieve a theological understanding of the relationship between the now out-moded forms and institutions of Old Testament worship and those of the distinctively new (yet not unrelated) Christian faith in which he now finds himself.

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Hebrews and Perfection: An Examination of the Concept of Perfection in the Epistle to the Hebrews

 

David Peterson

Cambridge University Press, 2005-07-31 - 324 pages

The concept of perfection is central to the Epistle to the Hebrews but what is the precise meaning to be attached to the perfecting of Christ and the perfecting of Christians? Is teleioun to be understood in a cultic or ethical sense, or with reference to glorification; or is it employed in a formal sense so that the meaning has to be determined solely from the context? A thorough survey of the background literature suggests to Dr Peterson that it is only the context and, in particular, the object of the verb which can decide its sense on any specific occasion, and it is this method he pursues.

 

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Despising Shame: Honor Discourse and Community Maintenance in the Epistle to the Hebrews

 

David Arthur Desilva

Society of Biblical Literature, 2008-10-30 - 428 pages

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Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews

 

David M. Moffitt

Brill, 2011-07-31 - 340 pages

 

Scholars often explain Hebrews' relative silence regarding Jesus' resurrection by emphasizing the author's appeal to Yom Kippur's two key moments—the sacrificial slaughter and the high priest's presentation of blood in the holy of holies—in his distinctive portrayal of Jesus' death and heavenly exaltation. The writer's depiction of Jesus as the high priest whose blood effected ultimate atonement appears to be modeled upon these two moments. Such a typology discourages discrete reflection on Jesus' resurrection. Drawing on contemporary studies of Jewish sacrifice (which note that blood represents life, not death), parallels in Jewish apocalyptic literature, and fresh exegetical insights, this volume demonstrates that Jesus' embodied, resurrected life is crucial for the high-priestly Christology and sacrificial soteriology developed in Hebrews.

 

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Cosmology and Eschatology in Hebrews: The Settings of the Sacrifice

Kenneth Schenck

Cambridge University Press, 2007-12-20 - 220 pages

Scholars argue over where Hebrews fits in the first century world. Kenneth L. Schenck works towards resolving this question by approaching Hebrews' cosmology and eschatology from a text-orientated perspective. After observing that the key passages in the background debate mostly relate to the 'settings' of the story of salvation history evoked by Hebrews, Schenck attempts to delineate those settings by asking how the 'rhetorical world' of Hebrews engages that underlying narrative. Hebrews largely argues from an eschatology of two ages, which correspond to two covenants. The new age has come despite the continuance of some old age elements. The most characteristic elements of Hebrews' settings, however, are its spatial settings, where we find an underlying metaphysical dualism between the highest heaven, which is the domain of spirit, and the created realm, including the created heavens. This creation will be removed at the eschaton, leaving only the unshakeable heaven.

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