Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: HAN-HEG
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:HEBREWS, See also:EPISTLE TO THE , one of the books of the New Testament. In the See also:oldest See also:MSS. it bears no other See also:title than " 1b Hebrews." This brief heading embraces all that on which See also:Christian tradition from the end of the and See also:century was unanimous; and it says no more than that the readers addressed were Christians of Jewish extraction. This would be no sufficient address for an epistolary See also:writing (xiii. 22) directed to a definite circle of readers, to whose See also:history repeated reference is made, and with whom the author had See also:personal relations (xiii. 19, 23). Probably, then, the See also:original and limited address, or rather salutation, was never copied when this See also:treatise in See also:letter See also:form, like the epistle to the See also:Romans, passed into the wider circulation which
its contents merited. In any See also:case the See also:Roman See also: See also:Africa. The Alexandrine tradition can be traced back as far as a teacher of Clement, presumably See also:Pantaenus (Euseb. Eccl. Hist. vi. 14), who sought to explain why Paul did not name himself as usual at the See also:head of the epistle. Clement himself, taking it for granted that an epistle to Hebrews must have beeen written in See also:Hebrew, supposes that See also:Luke translated it for the Greeks. See also:Origen implies that " the men of old " regarded it as Paul's, and that some churches at least in his own See also:day shared this opinion. But he feels that the See also:language is un-Pauline, though the " admirable " thoughts are not second to those of Paul's unquestioned writings. Thus he is led to the view that the ideas were orally set forth by Paul, but that the language and See also:composition were due to some one giving from memory a sort of See also:free See also:interpretation of his teacher's mind. According to some this See also:disciple was Clement of See also:Rome; others name Luke; but the truth, says Origen, is known to See also:God alone (Euseb. vi. 25, cf. iii. 38). Still from the See also:time of Origen the opinion that Paul wrote the epistle became prevalent in the See also:East. The earliest See also:African tradition, on theother See also:hand, preserved by Tertullianl (De pudicitia, c. 20), but certainly not invented by him, ascribed the epistle to See also:Barnabas. Yet it was perhaps, like those named by Origen, only an inference from the epistle itself, as if a " word of exhortation " (xiii. 22) by the Son of Exhortation (Acts iv. 36; see BARNABAS). On the whole, then, the earliest traditions in East and See also:West alike agree in effect, viz. that our epistle was not by Paul, but by one of his associates. This is also the twofold result reached by See also:modern scholarship with growing clearness. The vacillation of tradition and the dissimilarity of the epistle from those of Paul were brought out with See also:great force by See also:Erasmus. See also:Luther (who suggests See also:Apollos) and See also:Calvin (who thinks of Luke or Clement) followed with the decisive See also:argument that Paul, who See also:lays such stress on the fact that his See also:gospel was not taught him by See also:man (Gal. i.), could not have written Heb. ii. 3. Yet the See also:wave of reaction which soon overwhelmed the freer tendencies of the first reformers, brought back the old view until the revival of biblical See also:criticism more than a century ago. Since then the current of opinion has set irrevocably against any See also:feu-In of Pauline authorship. Its type of thought is quite unique. The Jewish See also:Law is viewed not as a See also:code of See also:ethics or " See also:works of righteousness," as by Paul, but as a See also:system of religious See also:rites (vii. II) shadowing forth the way of See also:access to God in See also:worship, of which the Gospel reveals the archetypal realities (ix. I, II, 15, 23 f., x. 1 if., 19 ff.). The Old and the New Covenants are related to one another as imperfect (earthly) and perfect (heavenly) forms of the same method of salvation, each with its own type of See also:sacrifice and priesthood. Thus the conception of See also:Christ as High See also:Priest emerges, for the first time, as a central point in the author's conception of See also:Christianity. The Old Testament is cited after the Alexandrian version more exclusively than by Paul, even where the Hebrew is divergent. Nor is this accidental. There is every See also:appearance that the author was a Hellenist who lacked knowledge of the Hebrew See also:text, and derived his metaphysic and his allegorical method from the Alexandrian rather than the Palestinian See also:schools. Yet the epistle has See also:manifest Pauline See also:affinities, and can hardly have originated beyond the Pauline circle, to which it is referred not only by the author's friendship with See also:Timothy (xiii. 23), but by many echoes of the Pauline See also:theology and even, it seems, of passages in Paul's epistles (see See also:Holtzmann, Einleitung in das N. T.. 1892, p. 298). These features See also:early suggested Paul as the author of a See also:book which stood in MSS. immediately after the epistles of that apostle, and contained nothing in its title to r Also in Codex Claromontanus, the Tractatus de libris (x.), Philastrius of See also:Brescia (c. A.D. 380), and a See also:prologue to the See also:Catholic Epistles (Revue benedictinc, See also:xxiii. 82 ff.). It is defended in a mono-graph by H. H. B. Ayles (See also:Cambridge, 1899).distinguish it from the preceding books with like headings, " To the Romans," " To the See also:Corinthians," and the like. A similar history attaches to the so-called Second Epistle of Clement (see CLEMENTINE LITERATURE). Everything turns, then, on See also:internal criticism of the epistle, working on the distinctive features already noticed, together with such personal allusions as it affords. As to its first readers, with whom the author stood in See also:close relations (xiii. 19, 23, cf. vi. Io, X. 32-34), it used generally to be agreed that they were " Hebrews " or Christians of Jewish See also:birth. But, for a See also:generation or so, it has been denied that this can be inferred simply from the fact that the epistle approaches all Christian truth through Old Testament forms. This, it is said, was the See also:common method of See also:proof, since the Jewish scriptures were the Word of God to all Christians alike. Still it remains true that the exclusive use of the argument from Mosaism, as itself implying the Gospel of Jesus the Christ as final cause (r Xos), does favour the view that the readers were of Jewish origin. Further there is no allusion to the See also:incorporation of " strangers and foreigners " (Eph. ii. 19) with the See also:people of God. Yet the readers are not to be sought in See also:Jerusalem (see e.g. ii. 3), nor anywhere in See also:Judaea proper. The whole Hellenistic culture of the epistle (let alone its language), and the personal references in it, notably that to Timothy in xiii. 23, are against any such view: while the doubly emphatic " all " in xiii. 24 suggests that those addressed were but See also:part of a community composed of both See also:Jews and Gentiles. Caesarea, indeed, as a See also:city of mixed See also:population and lying just outside Judaea proper—a See also:place, moreover, where Timothy might have become known during Paul's two years' detention there—would satisfy many conditions of the problem. Yet these very conditions are no more than might exist among intensely Jewish members of the See also:Dispersion, like "the Jews of See also:Asia" (cf. See also:Sir W.M. See also:Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches, 155 f.), whose zeal for the See also:Temple and the See also:Mosaic See also:ritual customs led to Paul's See also:arrest in Jerusalem (Acts xix. 27 f., cf. 20 f.), in keeping both with his former experiences at their hands and with his forebodings resulting therefrom (xx. 19, 22-24). Our "Hebrews" had obviously high regard for the ordinances of Temple worship. But this was the case with the dispersed Jews generally, who kept in See also:touch with the Temple, and its intercessory worship for all See also:Israel, in every possible way; in token of this they sent with great care their See also:annual contribution to its services, the Temple See also:tribute. This See also:bond was doubtless preserved by Christian Hellenists, and must have tended to continue their reliance on the Temple services for the forgiveness of their recurring " sins of See also:ignorance " —subsequent to the great initial Messianic forgiveness coming with faith in Jesus. Accordingly many of them, while placing their See also:hope for the future upon See also:Messiah and His eagerly expected return in See also:power, might seek assurance of See also:present forgiveness of daily offences and cleansing of See also:conscience in the old mediatorial system. In particular the annual Day of See also:Atonement would be relied on, and that in proportion as the expected Parousia tarried, and the first See also:enthusiasm of a faith that was largely eschatological died away, while ever-present temptation pressed the harder as disappointment and perplexity increased. Such was the See also:general situation of the readers of this epistle, men who rested partly on the Gospel and partly on Judaism. For lack of a true theory as to the relation between the two, they were now drifting away (ii. I) from effective faith in the Gospel, as being mainly future in its application, while Judaism was a very present, See also:concrete, and impressive system of religious See also:aids—to which also their sacred scriptures gave constant See also:witness: The points at which it chiefly touched them may be inferred from the author's See also:counter-argument, with its emphasis in the spiritual ineffectiveness of the whole Temple-system, its high-priesthood and its supreme sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. With passionate earnestness he sets over against these his constructive theory as to the efficacy, the heavenly yet unseen reality, of the definitive " See also:purification of sins " (i. 3) and perfected access to God's inmost presence, secured for Christians as such by Jesus the Son of God (x. 9-22), and traces their moral feebleness and slackened zeal to want of progressive insight into the essential nature of the Gospel as a " new See also:covenant," moving on a totally different See also:plane of religious reality from the now antiquated covenant given by See also:Moses (viii. 13). The following See also:plan of the epistle may help to make apparent the writer's theory of Christianity as distinct from Judaism, which is related to it as " See also:shadow " to reality: Thesis: The finality of the form of See also:religion mediated in God's Son, i. 1-4. i. The supreme excellence of the Son's See also:Person (i. 5-iii. 6), as compared with (a) angels, (b) Moses. See also:Practical exhortation, iii. 7-iv. 13, leading up to: ii. The corresponding efficacy of the Son's High-priesthood (iv. 14-ix.). (1) The Son has the qualifications of all priesthood, especially sympathy. Exhortation, raising the reader's thought to the height of the topic reached (v. I1--vi. 20). (2) The Son as See also:absolute high priest, in an See also:order transcending the Aaronic (vii.) and relative to a See also:Tabernacle of See also:ministry and a Covenant higher than the Mosaic in point of reality and finality (viii., ix.). (3) His Sacrifice, then, is definitive in its effects (rersXelwe€), and supersedes all others (x. 1-18). iii. See also:Appropriation of the benefits of the Son's high-priesthood, by steadfast faith, the See also:paramount See also:duty (x. 19-xii.). More personal See also:epilogue (xiii.). As lack of insight See also:lay at the See also:root of their troubles, it was not enough simply to enjoin the moral fidelity to conviction which is three parts of faith to the writer, who has but little sense of the mystical See also:side of faith, so marked in Paul. There was need of a positive theory based on real insight, in order to inspire faith for more strenuous conflict with the influences tending to produce the See also:apostasy from Christ, and so from " the living God," which already threatened some of them (iii. 12). Such " apostasy " was not a formal abjuring of Jesus as Messiah, but the subtler See also:lapse involved in ceasing to rely on relation to Him for daily moral and religious needs, summed up in purity of conscience and See also:peace before God (x. 19-23, xiii. 20 f.). This " falling aside " (vi. 5, cf. xii. 12 f.), rather than conscious " turning back," is what is implied in the repeated exhortations which show the intensely practical spirit of the whole argument. These exhortations are directed chiefly against the dullness of spirit which hinders progressive moral insight into the See also:genius of the New Covenant (v. II-vi. 8), and which, in its See also:blindness to the full See also:work of Jesus, amounts to counting His See also:blood as devoid of divine efficacy to consecrate the See also:life (x. 26, 29), and so to a personal " crucifying anew " of the Son of God (vi. 6). The antidote to such " profane " See also:negligence (ii. 1, 3, 12 f., 15-17) is an earnestness animated by a fully-assured hope, and sustained by a " faith " marked by patient waiting (µaKpo0uµia) for the See also:inheritance guaranteed by divine promise (x. 11 f.). The outward expression of such a spirit is " bold See also:confession," a glorying in that Hope, and mutual encouragement therein (iii. 6, 12 f.); while the sign of its decay is neglect to assemble together for mutual stimulus, as if it were not See also:worth the odium and opposition from See also:fellow Jews called forth by a marked Christian confession (x. 23-25, xii. 3)—a very different estimate of the new bond from that shown by readiness in days gone by to suffer for it (x. 32 ff.). Their See also:special danger, then, the See also:sin which deceived(iii. 13) the more easily that it represented the See also:line of least resistance (perhaps the best See also:paraphrase of einrepivraros dµapria in xii. 1), was the exact opposite of " faith " as the author uses it, especially in the See also:chapter devoted to its See also:illustration by Old Testament examples. His readers needed most the moral heroism of fidelity to the Unseen, which made men "despise shame " due to aught that sinners in their unbelief might do to them (xii. 2-I1, xiii. 5 f.)—and of which Jesus Himself was at once the example and the See also:inspiration. To quicken this by awakening deeper insight into the real See also:objects of " faith," as these See also:bore on their actual life, he develops his high argument on the lines already indicated. Their situation was so dangerous just because it combined inward debility and outward pressure, both tending to the same result, viz. practical disuse of the distinctively Christian means of See also:grace, as compared with those recognized by Judaism, andsuch conformity to the latter as would make the reproach of the See also:Cross to cease (xiii. 13, cf. xi. 26). This might, indeed, relieve the See also:external See also:strain of the contest (aycov xii. I), which had become well-nigh intolerable to them. But the practical surrender of what was distinctive in their new faith meant a theoretic surrender of the value once placed on that See also:element,when it was See also:matter of a living religious experience far in advance of what Judaism had given them (vi. 4 if., x. 26-29). This twofold infidelity, in thought and See also:deed, God, the " living " God of prqgress from the " shadow " to the substance, would require at their hands (x. 30 f., xii. 22-29). For it meant turning away from an See also:appeal that had been known as "heavenly," for some-thing inferior and earthly (xii. 25); from a See also:call sanctioned by the incomparable authority of Him in whom it had reached men, a greater than Moses and all See also:media of the Old Covenant, even the Son of God. Thus the See also: Hence the moral of his whole argument as to the two covenants, though 'it is formulated only incidentally amid final detailed counsels (xiii. 13 f.) is to leave Judaism, and adopt a frankly Christian See also:standing, on the same footing with their non-Jewish brethren in the See also:local church. For this the time was now ripe; and in it lay the true path of safety—eternal safety as before God, whatever man might say or do (xiii. 5 f.). The obscure See also:section, xiii. 9 f., is to be taken as "only a symptom of the general retrogression of religious See also:energy " (Pincher), and not as bearing directly on the See also:main danger of these " Hebrews." The " foods " in question probably refer neither to temple sacrifices nor to the Levitical See also:laws of clean and unclean foods, nor yet to ascetic scruples (as in Rom. xiv., See also:Col. ii. 20 ff.), but rather to some form of the See also:idea, found also among the See also:Essenes, that See also:food might so be partaken of as to have the value of a sacrifice (see See also:verse 15 foll.) and thus ensure divine favour. Over against this view, which might well grow up among the Jews of the Dispersion as a sort of substitute for the possibility of offering sacrifices in the Temple—but which would be a lame addition to the Christianity of their own former leaders (xiii. 7 f.)—the author first points his readers to its refutation from experience, and then to the fact that the Christian's " See also:altar " or sacrifice (i.e. the supreme sin-offering) is of the See also:kind which the Law itself forbids to be associated with " eating." If Christians with to offer any special sacrifice to God, let it be that of grateful praise or deeds of beneficence (15 f.). In trying further to define the readers addressed in the epistle, one must See also:note the stress laid on suffering as part of the divinely appointed discipline of sonship (ii. 10, v. 8, xii. 7 f.), and the way in which the See also:analogy in this respect between Jesus, as Messianic Son, and those See also:united to Him by faith, is set in See also:relief. He is not only the inspiring example for heroic faith in the See also:face of opposition due to unbelievers (xii. 3 ff.), but also the mediator qualified by his very experience of suffering to sympathize with His tried followers, and so to afford them moral aid (ii. 17 f.. v. 8 f., cf. iv. r5). This means that suffering for Christianity, at least in respect of possessions (xiii. 5 f., cf. x. 34) and social standing, was imminent for those addressed: and it seems as if they were mostly men of See also:wealth and position (xiii. 1-6, vi. 10 f., x. 34), who would feel this sort of trial acutely (cf. Jas. i. ro). Such men would also possess a See also:superior See also:mental culture (cf. v. r1 f.), capable of appreciating the form of an epistle " far too learned for the See also:average Christian " (Jiilicher), yet for which its author apologizes to them as inadequate (xiii. 22). It was now See also:long since they themselves had suffered seriously for their faith (x. 32 f.); but others had recently been harassed even to the point of imprisonment (xiii. 3); and the writer's very impatience to See also:hurry to their side implies that the crisis was both sudden and urgent. The finished form of the epistle's argument is sometimes urged to prove that it was not originally an epistle at all, written more or less on the See also:spur of the moment, but a See also:literary composition, See also:half treatise and half See also:homily, to which its author—as an ,afterthought—gave the See also:suggestion of being a Pauline epistle by adding the personal matter in ch. xiii. (so W. See also:Wrede, Das literarische Ratsel See also:des Hebriierbriefs, 1906, pp. 70-73). The latter part of this theory fails to explain why the Pauline origin was not made more obvious, e.g. in an opening address. But even the first part of it overlooks the See also:probability that our author was here only fusing into a fresh form materials often used before in his oral ministry of Christian instruction. Many attempts have been made to identify the See also:home of the Hellenistic Christians addressed in this epistle. For Alexandria little can be urged See also:save a certain strain of " Alexandrine " See also:idealism and allegorism, mingling with the more Palestinian See also:realism which marks the references to Christ's sufferings, as well as the See also:eschatology, and recalling many a passage in See also:Philo. But Alexandrinism was a mode of thought diffused throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, and the divergences from Philo's spirit are as notable as the affinities (cf. See also:Milligan, ut infra, 203 ff.). For Rome there is more to be said, in view of the references to Timothy and to " them of See also:Italy " (xiii. 23 f.); and the theory has found many supporters. It usually contemplates a special Jewish-Christian See also:house-church (so Zahn), like those which Paul salutes at the end of Romans, e.g. that See also:meeting in the house of Prisca and See also:Aquila (xvi. 5); and See also:Harnack has gone so far as to suggest that they, and especially Prisca, actually wrote our epistle. There is, however, really little that points to Rome in particular, and a See also:good See also:deal that points away from it. The words in xii. 4, " Not yet unto blood ha'e ye resisted," would See also:ill suit Rome after the Neronian "See also:bath of blood" in A.D. 64 (as is usually held), save at a date too See also:late to suit the reference to Timothy. Nor does early currency in Rome prove that the epistle was written to Rome, any more than do the words " they of Italy salute you." This clause must in fact be read in the See also:light of the reference to Timothy, which suggests that he had been in See also:prison in Rome and was about to return, possibly in the writer's See also:company, to the region which was apparently the headquarters of both. Now this in Timothy's case, as far as we can trace his steps, was See also:Ephesus; and it is natural to ask whether it will not suit all the conditions of the problem. It suits those of the readers,' as analysed above; and it has the merit of suggesting to us as author the very person of all those described in the New Testament who seems most capable of the task, Apollos. the learned Alexandrian (Acts xviii. 24 ff.), connected with Ephesus and with Paul and his circle (cf. 1 See also:Cor. xvi. 12), yet having his own distinctive manner of presenting the Gospel (1 Cor. iv. 6). That Apollos visited Italy at any See also:rate once during Paul's imprisonment in Rome is a reasonable inference from See also:Titus iii. 13 (see PAUL); and if so, it is quite natural that he should be there again about the time of Paul's martyrdom. With that event it is again natural to connect Timothy's imprisonment, his See also:release from which our author records in closing; while the See also:news of Jewish success in Paul's case would enhance any tendency among Asian Jewish Christiana to shirk " boldness " of confession (x. 23, 35, 38 f.), in fear of ' i.e. a house-church of upper-class Jewish Christians, not fully in touch with the attitude even of their own past and present " leaders " (xiii. 7, 17), as distinct from the local church generally (xiii. 2.0. The Gospel had reached them, as also the writer himself (cf. Acts xviii. 25), through certain hearers of the See also:Lord (ii. 3), not necessarily apostles.further aggression from their compatriots. On the See also:chronology adopted in the See also:article PAUL, this would yield as probable date for the epistle A.D. 61-62. The place of writing would be some spot in Italy (" they of Italy salute you ") outside Rome, probably a See also:port of embarkation for Asia, such as See also:Brundisium.
Be this as it may, the epistle is of great See also:historical importance, as reflecting a crisis inevitable in the development of the Jewish-Christian consciousness,when a definite choice between the old and the new form of Israel's religion had to be made, both for internal and external reasons. It seems to follow directly on the situation implied by the appeal of See also: 7-11). It may well be the immediate antecedent of that revealed in r See also:Peter, an epistle which perhaps shows traces of its See also:influence (e.g. in i. 2, " sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," cf. Heb. ix. 13 f., x. 22, xii. 24). It is also of high See also:interest theologically, as exhibiting, along with affinities to several types of New Testament teaching (see See also:STEPHEN), a type all its own, and one which has had much influence on later Christian thought (cf. Milligan, ut infra, ch. ix.). Indeed, it shares with Romans the right to be styled " the first treatise of Christian theology." Literature.—The older literature may be seen in the great work of F. See also:Bleek, Der Brief an See also:die Hebraer (1828-184o), still a valuable storehouse of material, while Bleek's later views are to be found in a See also:posthumous work (See also:Elberfeld, 1868) ; also in See also:Franz See also:Delitzsch's Commentary (See also:Edinburgh, 1868). The more See also:recent literature is given in G. Milligan, The Theology of the Epistle of the Hebrews (1899), a useful See also:summary of all bearing on the epistle, and in the large New Testament Introductions and Biblical Theologies. See also See also:Hastings's See also:Diet. of the See also:Bible, the Encycl. Biblica and T. Zahn's article in Hauck's Realencyklopadie. (J. V. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] HEBREW RELIGION (1) |
[next] HEBRIDES, THE, or WESTERN ISLES |