Notes
1. Please note that when the author discusses words in the original biblical languages, this series uses the general rather than the scholarly method of transliteration.
1. William Barclay, The Letter to the Hebrews (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1957), ix.
1. William L. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1991), xlvii.
2. Revelation rivals Hebrews on the extent to which the Old Testament is used, but the material is packaged quite differently than in Hebrews, the author primarily alluding to Old Testament material in his statements and imagery. On the uses of the Old Testament in Hebrews see George H. Guthrie, “The Old Testament in Hebrews,” DLNT , 841–50; George B. Caird, “The Exegetical Method of the Epistle to the Hebrews,” CJT 5 (1959): 44–51; J. C. McCullough, “The Old Testament Quotations in Hebrews,” NTS 26 (1979–80): 363–79.
3. The author’s Old Testament text was the Greek translation commonly referred to as the Septuagint. In Palestine and the East, synagogues often used the Hebrew text with an oral translation in Aramaic, although Hellenistic synagogues of the area certainly used the Greek. Use of the Greek translation predominated in the synagogues of Diaspora Judaism. See F. F. Bruce, New Testament History (Garden City: Anchor Books, 1972), 144.
4. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, liv–lv.
5. The Jewish community in Rome had largely been established when, in 62 B.C., Pompey brought Jewish captives back to the city after taking Jerusalem. Many of these were subsequently freed and made Roman citizens. See James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1–8, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1988), xlv–xlvi.
6. Bruce, New Testament History, 137.
7. For a wide variety of reasons scholars have set forth Jerusalem, Samaria, Caesarea, Colosse, Cyprus, Alexandria, or even Spain. See Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 10–14.
8. On the edict of Claudius see Lane, Hebrews 1–8, lxiii–lxvi.
9. For a discussion of the interplay between exhortation and exposition in Hebrews see below, pp. 27–30.
10. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, lxvi.
11. Adolph von Harnack made the interesting suggestion that Priscilla may have penned Hebrews. However, referring to himself, the author uses a masculine singular pronoun at 11:32, which seems to rule out the possibility. The position has been taken up more recently by Ruth Hoppin, Priscilla: Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and Other Essays (New York: Exposition, 1969).
12. The question of Pauline authorship has been answered with a resounding “no” from virtually all modern scholars, regardless of theological orientation. In the first centuries of the Christian church the fathers were of mixed opinion on the matter. In the Eastern branch of the church, focused in Alexandria, several early thinkers associated Hebrews with the Pauline corpus, an opinion that dominated the East following the second century. Yet, even Clement of Alexandria (c. A.D. 150–215) and Origen (A.D. 185–215), leaders of the Alexandrian school, acknowledged that the style of this book differs sharply from Paul. In the West, focused in Rome, the church fathers felt the book did not originate with Paul. Several dynamics in the text mitigate strongly against seeing Paul as the author of Hebrews. Foreign to Paul’s literature are many of the images (e.g., the nautical pictures of a ship in 2:1 and an anchor in 6:19), theological motifs (especially the high priest theme), and vocabulary of Hebrews (169 terms found in Hebrews occur nowhere else in the New Testament). In addition, the author uses different formulae to introduce quotes from the Old Testament. Perhaps most telling, the author of Hebrews describes himself as one who received the gospel tradition from the original witnesses (2:3), a perspective uncharacteristic of Paul (cf. Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 15:8; Gal. 1:11–16).
For general overviews of the authorship question see Lane, Hebrews 1–8, xlix–li; Harold Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989), 1–6; Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 3–21; F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NICNT, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 14–20.
13. F. F. Bruce, New Testament History, 143–44. Here Bruce notes the general pattern of synagogue services in the New Testament era. The service started with the call to worship and the recitation of both the Shema, with associated benedictions, and the Decalogue. Prayers and benedictions followed, along with the reading of the Law and the Prophets. The service culminated with an exposition of Old Testament texts and concluded with a blessing.
14. For an example of this in Hebrews see below, pp. 149, 152, 159.
15. In a 1955 study Hartwig Thyen demonstrated numerous characteristics Hebrews shares with synagogue sermons of the same era. See Der Stil des jüdisch-hellenistischen Homilie (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1955). For a more accessible treatment see William L. Lane, “Hebrews: A Sermon in Search of a Setting,” SwJT 28 (1985): 13–18.
16. In Hebrews 13 the author refers to a specific message (the book he has just written), which calls for use of the definite article. The statement by the synagogue leaders mentioned in Acts 13 is indefinite since a specific message is not in view.
18. See especially Richard Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 158–85; E. Earle Ellis, Paul’s Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981). For examples of the uses of these techniques in Hebrews see below, pp. 67–68, 84–85.
19. Michael Grant and Rachel Kitzinger, eds., Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean Greece and Rome (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988), 2:1099–1100.
20. Ceslas Spicq, L’Épître aux Hébreux, SB (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1977), 56.
21. David A. Black, “Hebrews 1:1–4: A Study in Discourse Analysis,” WTJ 49 (1987): 181–92.
22. See especially L. D. Hurst, The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Background of Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990), 12.
23. L. D. Hurst has demonstrated the book’s theological points of contact with Paul’s writings, 1 Peter, and the so-called “Stephen tradition” of Acts 7 (ibid., 87–130). This is hardly surprising, given the interaction between Christian communities of the time. The author himself tells us that he draws on the Christian teaching handed down by the first witnesses of the Lord’s life and ministry (Heb. 2:3).
24. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 1–2.
25. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6.25.14.
26. For a detailed look at the history of the discussion and a proposed solution, see George H. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews: A Text-Linguistic Analysis, NovTSup (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994).
27. P. E. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), ix–x.
28. For example, Hughes (ibid.) labels the first unit of the book “Christ Superior to the Prophets” (1:1–3). However, that this is the main import of the passage is questionable. Certainly 1:4–2:18 presents the Son in relation to the angels, depicting his superiority to them in 1:4–14. Yet, in 2:10–18 the author stresses the positional subordination of the Son, that is, that he became “lower than the angels” to suffer for humanity. The material of 3:1–4:13 Hughes designates “Christ Superior to Moses,” but a close look at that section reveals that comparison to Moses is accomplished in 3:1–6. The rest of the section covers the negative example of those who fell in the desert (3:7–19), a transition (4:1–2), and the promise of rest for the people of God (4:3–11). Thus, building an outline of Hebrews around the “better than” theme, although highlighting an important aspect of the discourse, must be judged too simplistic.
29. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 121–27.
30. For a complete outline of Hebrews, see pp. 39–40, below.
31. See G. H. Guthrie, “New Testament Exegesis and the Catholic Epistles,” in Handbook for New Testament Exegesis, ed. Stanley Porter (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998), 591–606.
32. The same can be said for the letters of the New Testament. Documents in the ancient world were very expensive and few people owned personal copies.
33. See D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984); Grant R. Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1991), 65–75.
34. The illustration that follows is based on a composite of situations I have encountered in my ministry. The names have been changed to protect the privacy of those described.
2. This clause is made of the main subject, “God” (theos), in v. 1 and the main verb, “he has spoken” (elalesen), in v. 2. The word translated “spoke” in the NIV ’s v. 1 is actually a participle dependent on the main verb.
3. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 10. Early Christian doctrine corresponded to Jewish thought of the day in understanding the history of God’s working as divided into two successive ages. Christian thought, however, understood the final age, that of the “last days,” to have been ushered in with the coming of Jesus.
4. Harold Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989), 37.
5. Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 93–94.
6. Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985), 372.
7. E.g., Ex. 16:7; 33:18; Isa. 40:5.
8. Donald Hagner, Hebrews, New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1990), 23.
9. Leon Morris, “Hebrews,” EBC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981), 12:14.
10. B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays (London: MacMillan and Co., 1889), 12.
11. Ibid., 13–14.
12. E.g., the ashes of the red heifer (Num. 19:9; cf. Heb. 9:13); a variety of sacrifices, such as the whole burnt offering and the sin offering (Heb. 10:5–11). It seems from 10:11 that the daily sacrifices were also in view.
13. Walter Grundmann, “δεξιός,” in TDNT, 2:38.
14. This psalm is quoted or alluded to twenty-two times in the New Testament. See W. R. G. Loader, “Christ at the Right Hand: Psalm 110:1 in the New Testament,” NTS 24 (1978): 199–217; David M. Hay, Glory at the Right Hand: Psalm 110 in Early Christianity, SBLMS (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1980). For a discussion of the treatment of this psalm in Hebrews, see George H. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews: A Text-Linguistic Analysis, NovTSup 73 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), 123–24.
15. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 46.
16. Otto Michel, Der Brief an die Hebräer, KEKNT (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1966), 102.
17. See Héring, L’Épître aux Hébreux, 24; Michel, Der Brief an die Hebräer, 106.
18. Richard Longenecker, The Christology of Early Jewish Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 41–46 (see Acts 3:16; 4:7, 10; 16:18; 19:13–17; Eph. 1:21; Phil. 2:9).
19. For example, Jewish sermons were often introduced by referring to the text to be expounded. On this aspect of Jewish homiletics see Peder Borgen, Bread From Heaven: An Exegetical Study of the Concept of Manna in the Gospel of John and the Writings of Philo, NovTSup (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965), 59–98; E. Earle Ellis, “Isaiah in the New Testament,” SwJT 34 (1991): 31–32. For the form of speeches in the rhetorical schools see Duane F. Watson, Invention, Arrangement, and Style: Rhetorical Criticism of Jude and 2 Peter, SBLDS (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988), 21; Donald L. Clark, Rhetoric in Greco-Roman Education (Morningside Heights, N.Y.: Columbia Univ. Press, 1957), 112–13; D. A. Russell and M. Winterbottom, eds., Ancient Literary Criticism: The Principal Texts in New Translations (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972), 170.
20. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 123.
22. See 1:3, 10; 3:1; 4:14; 6:4; 7:26; 8:1, 5; 9:23–24; 11:12, 16; 12:22–26.
23. See 1:2, 4, 14; 6:12, 17; 9:15; 11:7–8; 12:17.
24. See 1:4; 3:3; 6:9; 7:7, 19, 22; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34; 11:16, 35, 40; 12:24.
25. Found twenty-five times throughout the sermon.
26. See 1:4, 5, 6, 7, 13; 2:2, 5, 7, 9, 16; 12:22; 13:2.
28. The hymnic character of Heb. 1:2–3 has been called into question by D. W. B. Robinson, “The Literary Structure of Hebrews 1:1–4,” AJBA 2 (1972): 178–86, who does so on the basis of the balanced structure of ideas in Heb. 1:1–4; J. Frankowski, “Early Christian Hymns Recorded in the New Testament: A Reconsideration of the Question in Light of Heb 1,3,” BZ 27 (1983): 183–94. Yet, parts of Heb. 1:2–3 (scholars disagree on the exact beginning and ending of the “fragment”) as a hymn fragment have been supported by several scholars on the bases of form and content. See, for example, Ralph P. Martin, Carmen Christi: Philippians ii.5–11 in Recent Interpretation and in the Setting of Early Christian Worship (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1967), 18–19; Jack T. Sanders, The New Testament Christological Hymns: Their Historical Religious Background (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1971), 92–94.
29. The pattern of God’s Son leaving heaven, coming to earth to suffer and die for humanity, and then being exalted back to heaven finds expression at various places in the New Testament; of special interest is Phil. 2:5–11. See Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 78–81; Martin Hengel, The Son of God (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 87.
30. Adapted from Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 95.
31. F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 45.
33. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 123.
34. See A. W. Wainwright, “The Confession ‘Jesus is God’ in the New Testament,” SJT 10 (1959): 286–87; M. J. Harris, “The Translation and Significance of θεός in Hebrews 1:8–9,” TynBul 36 (1985): 129–62.
35. Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 334.
36. Ibid., 333.
37. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 121–24.
38. Dorothy L. Sayers, The Whimsical Christian: Eighteen Essays by Dorothy L. Sayers (New York: Macmillan, 1978), 11, 23.
39. Betty J. Eadie, Embraced by the Light (Placerville, Calif.: Gold Leaf, 1992). For a critique of such near-death experiences, see William M. Arnor, Heaven Can’t Wait: A Survey of Alleged Trips to the Other Side (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996).
40. Karl Barth, “Theology,” in God in Action (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936), 39–57.
41. Of preaching Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones states, “Any true definition of preaching must say that man is there to deliver the message of God, a message from God to those people. If you prefer the language of Paul, he is ‘an ambassador for Christ.’ That is what he is, he is a commissioned person, and he is standing there as the mouthpiece of God and of Christ to address these people.” See his Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972), 53.
42. John Stott, Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 15.
43. Karl Barth, The Word of God and the Word of Man (New York: Peter Smith, 1958), 123–24.
44. See C. S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study (New York: MacMillan, 1947), 15–22; M. H. MacDonald, “Naturalism,” EDT , 750–51.
45. John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy (New York: Henry Holt, 1929), 47–49.
46. J. Richard Middleton and Brian J. Walsh, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1995), 32–33.
47. Ibid., 61.
48. See Ben Witherington III, The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1995); Scot McKnight, “Who Is Jesus: An Introduction to Jesus Studies,” 51–72 in Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus, ed. Michael J. Wilkins and J. P. Moreland (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995); Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus: The Mistaken Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996).
49. In addition to the works in the previous footnote, see D. A. Carson, “Five Gospels, No Christ,” Christianity Today (April 25, 1994), 30–33; Craig Blomberg, “Where Do We Start Studying Jesus,” 17–50 in Jesus Under Fire.
50. As quoted in “Reflections,” Christianity Today (May 20, 1996), 54.
51. Alister McGrath, Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1995), 13.
1. E. Earle Ellis, Paul’s Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 49–50; Markus Barth, “The Old Testament in Hebrews,” in Issues in New Testament Interpretation, ed. W. Klassen and G. F. Snyder (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), 64.
2. This quotation also bears resemblance to the Septuagint form of Deut. 32:43. See Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 56–58.
3. In 4Q Florilegium, 2 Sam. 7:14 is given explicit messianic application. See Longenecker, The Christology of Early Jewish Christianity, 95.
4. See such focal pericopes as those regarding Jesus’ birth, his time in the temple at age twelve, his baptism, and his temptation in the desert (Mark 1:9–11; Luke 1:32; 2:41–50; 3:21–22; 4:1–13).
5. Hughes, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 56–57.
6. Ibid., 54–55; and especially Delitzsch, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 64–65.
7. Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, trans. James D. Ernest, 3 vols. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1994), 3:210.
8. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 58; Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 26–27.
9. Mike Martin, “Angel,” Holman Bible Dictionary, ed. Trent C. Butler (Nashville, Tenn: Holman, 1991), 51–52.
10. Most scholars take the use of ho theos in 1:8 as vocative. See R. E. Brown, Jesus, God and Man (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1967), 25; esp. Murray Harris, Jesus As God: The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 205–27.
11. For a discussion of this psalm see above, p. 49.
12. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 15, 76–89. This device is used throughout Hebrews.
13. T. W. Manson, “The Problem of the Epistle to the Hebrews,” BJRL 32 (1949–1950): 1–17.
14. Y. Yadin, “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Epistle to the Hebrews,” ScrHier4 (1958): 36–55.
15. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews,103.
16. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 17.
17. See esp. G. B. Caird, “The Exegetical Method of the Epistle to the Hebrews,” CJT 5 (1959): 44–51.
19. Klyne Snodgrass, “The Use of the Old Testament in the New,” in New Testament Criticism and Interpretation, ed. David Alan Black and David S. Dockery (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 418.
20. A good place to start is Millard Erickson’s Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985), used in many seminaries as an introductory systematic theology.
21. Alister E. McGrath, ed. The Christian Theology Reader (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1995), 140. For a fuller treatment of Arianism and the answer given in the church councils, see Millard J. Erickson, The Word Became Flesh (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991), 47–58.
22. Hughes, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 54.
24. See Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 54.
26. De Trinitate, 9.1.1–9.5.8.
27. See especially Erickson, Christian Theology, 339–40.
28. For a secular sociological analysis, see Robert Nisbet, Twilight of Authority (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979).
29. For example, James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy, which to date has sold five million copies.
30. David S. Dockery, Christian Scripture: An Evangelical Perspective on Inspiration, Authority and Interpretation (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995), 1.
31. See, for example, the recent volume by Duane Garrett, Angels and the New Spirituality (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995).
32. One might think of Paul’s sermon at Mars Hill, where he used that culture’s general belief in “the unknown god” as a starting point for a sermon on the one, true God (Acts 17:22–31). The author’s argument in 1:5–14 will eventually reach the question of the “rejection of salvation” in 2:1–4. Therefore, although the passage addresses Christians, an evangelistic application is not inappropriate.
33. See Hugh Ross, Creation and Time: A Biblical and Scientific Perspective on the Creation-Date Controversy (Colorado Springs, Col.: NavPress, 1994); Howard J. Van Till et al., Science Held Hostage: What’s Wrong With Creation Science and Evolutionism (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1988). Both volumes present scathing evaluations of the Creation Science Movement.
34. Ross, Creation and Time, 126–27, 132.
35. Associated Press, “U.S. Scientists Find a ‘Holy Grail’: Ripples at Edge of the Universe,” London International Herald Tribune (April 24, 1992), 1.
36. Thomas H. Maugh, “Relics of ‘Big Bang’ Seen for the First Time,” Los Angeles Times (April 24, 1992), A1, A30.
37. As quoted in Ross, Creation and Time, 128.
38. Cf. Paul’s sermon at Mars Hill in Acts 17:22–31, where he moves from a general understanding of God as creator to humanity’s accountability to God.
1. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 36–37; as in Aristotle, De partibus animalium, 3.3. In the Greek text of Prov. 3:21 the word is used of not letting right teachings slip away from one’s attention. Notice, however, that in Heb. 2:1 it is the person who is drifting.
2. Ibid.; see also Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 64.
3. Also referred to as a fortiori or 
(qal wahomer).
4. The “if” at the beginning of verse 2 initiates the front end of a “real case” conditional clause. This type of clause assumes the reality of what is being stated and could almost be translated with “since” (BDF, 187).
5. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 37. See Acts 7:38; Gal. 3:19.
6. Antiquities, 15.36.
7. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:87–89.
8. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 68.
9. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:280.
10. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 67.
12. Dockery, Christian Scripture, 21.
14. See below, p. 225. We could do a broader context study of the warning passages in Hebrews at this point, but I have chosen to delay that study until we get to 6:4–8, which is perhaps the most-discussed apostasy passage in the book and the passage I consider to be at the structural center of the book’s exhortation material.
16. Cf. Luke 1:1–4; Acts 2:22–36; 26:24–29; 1 Cor. 15:1–8.
17. Middleton and Walsh, Truth is Stranger Than It Used to Be, 109–10.
18. Phyllis McGinley, The Province of the Heart (New York: Viking, 1959), 35–36.
19. Stanley J. Grenz, A Primer on Postmodernism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), ch. 1.
20. Charles Colson, Who Speaks for God: Confronting the World With Real Christianity (Westchester, Ill.: Crossway, 1985), 20.
21. Adversus haereses, 2.2.1–2.4.1, as quoted in McGrath, The Christian Theology Reader, 43–44.
22. De praescriptione haereticorum, 20.4–21.4; 32.1, in McGrath, The Christian Theology Reader, 46.
1. E.g., Robert Jewett, Letter to Pilgrims: A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (New York: Pilgrim, 1981), 41–42; Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 143–44.
2. Although some have insisted on interpreting the author’s use of Psalm 8 here as referring to humanity in general, the author clearly interprets the passage Christologically. See Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 70–72; Hagner, Hebrews, 44–47; Hughes, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 84. For other places in the New Testament where the psalm is used Christologically, see Matt. 21:16; 1 Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:22.
3. On the subjection of earthly nations to the angels, see Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 71.
4. Remember that each point in the author’s exposition on Christ builds on the one before it. In this sense the author, following the intervening exhortations that separate expositional blocks, makes a transition from the end of the previous expositional unit. See discussion of the book’s structure above (pp. 27–30) and my discussion of “distant hookwords” in The Structure of Hebrews, 96–100. To get the effect of how smoothly the author resumes his discussion of 1:5–14 with 2:5, read the former passage and then immediately read 2:5–9.
5. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 424–26; R. Bergmeier, “ὑποτάσσω,” EDNT , 3:408.
6. On the use of the rabbinic technique “verbal analogy” see above, p. 67; 1 Cor. 15:25–27 also juxtaposes these two messianic psalms.
7. On the use of “intermediary transitions” see Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 105–11.
8. See Hagner, Hebrews, 45–46; Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 76.
9. See especially Andrew T. Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet: Studies in the Role of the Heavenly Dimension in Paul’s Thought with Special Reference to His Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991).
10. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 72–73.
11. William Barclay, The Letter to the Hebrews: Revised Edition, The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976), 24–25. Barclay presents the following as the main points of the passage: (1) The Son shows us the ideal of what humanity should be; (2) he shows us the actual state of humanity; (3) he shows us how the actual can be changed into the ideal through Christ.
12. See Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1994), 228–33.
13. F. F. Bruce, “Eschatology,” EDT , 365.
14. See esp. Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988).
15. Kim A. Lawton, “The Suffering Church,” Christianity Today 40 (July 15, 1996): 54–61, 64.
16. Larry Crabb, Finding God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 18.
17. Yancey, Disappointment with God, 206.
1. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 55.
2. See Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 159–60.
3.Rom. 8:17; 1 Cor. 15:43; Phil. 3:21; Col. 1:27. On eschatological glory in Jewish literature, see Dan. 12:3; 1 Enoch 39:4–6; 45:3; 2 Enoch 22:8–18; 4 Ezra 7:91, 98.
4. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 85–86.
5. See the discussion in Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 164–65.
6. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 107.
7. E.g., Wisdom of Solomon 2:23–24. See the discussion in Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 61.
9. In the Old Testament, Greek mythology, and Jewish apocalyptic literature, the “divine deliverer” theme was expressed. See Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 61–62.
10. On the author’s use of “distant hookwords” to effect transitions, see Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 96–100.
11. Ibid., 97–99.
12. For a discussion on Jesus’ high priesthood and temptation, see below, p. 174.
13. E.g., at 3:1: Albert Vanhoye, “Literarische Struktur und theologische Botschaft des Hebräerbriefs (1. Teil),” SNTU 4 (1979): 119–47; at 4:14: Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 114; at 5:1: George W. Buchanan, To the Hebrews, AB (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972), xxxi; and at 7:1: James Swetnam, “Form and Content in Hebrews 7–13,” Bib 55 (1974): 333–48.
14. McGrath, Christian Theology, 135–36, 205–7.
15. Erickson, The Word Became Flesh, 44–46.
16. Letter to the Trallians, 9–10 in Sources Chrétiennes, 2d ed., ed. P. Th. Camelot (Paris: Cerf, 1951), 10:118–20.
17. Erickson, The Word Became Flesh, 58–61.
18. See Lane, Hebrews: A Call to Commitment, 52.
19. Max Lucado, God Came Near: Chronicles of the Christ (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah, 1987), 26.
20. “God with Us,” The Jesus of the Poets, An Anthology, ed. Leonard R. Gribble (New York: Richard R. Smith, 1930), 94.
21. John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy (New York: Henry Holt, 1929), 47–49.
22. “The Romanesque Renaissance,” in Cahiers du Sud (Marseilles, 1941; repr. in Selected Essays, ed. by Richard Rees, 1962).
23. As told in Robert E. Neale, The Art of Dying (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 22–23.
24. Ibid., 34.
25. Susan Sontag, Illness As Metaphor (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978), ch. 7.
26. See Acts 2:26; 23:6; 26:7; Rom. 5:2; 8:25; 1 Cor. 15:19; Gal. 5:5; Col. 1:5; 1 Thess. 4:13; Titus 1:2.
2. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:478–80.
3. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 107.
4. On the important role of 4:14–16 and 10:19–25 in the structure of Hebrews see above, pp. 28–29.
5. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 194.
6. Mary Rose D’Angelo, Moses in the Letter to the Hebrews, SBLDS (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars, 1979), 91–131.
7. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 73.
8. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:288.
11. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:280.
12. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 684.
13. I use the term inaugurated of salvation to mean that salvation begins when a person confesses Christ but will be consummated upon Christ’s return (Heb. 9:28). Salvation involves a continuity of past, present, and future (Rom. 8:29–30; 1 Thess. 5:9; 2 Thess. 2:13–14). God’s Spirit has been given as a down payment (Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5), and he will complete the work he has started in us (Phil. 1:6). See Judith M. Gundry Volf, Paul and Perseverance: Staying in and Falling Away (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1990), 9–47. I use the term inaugurated differently than Scot McKnight in his article “The Warning Passages of Hebrews: A Formal Analysis and Theological Conclusions,” TrinJ 13 (1992): 57–58. McKnight holds that one can have true salvation and then lose it. My position is that true salvation has a continuity from conversion to glorification.
14. New York Times (July 16, 1995).
15. Elisabeth Elliot, The Mark of a Man (Old Tappan, N.J.: Revell, 1981), 128.
16. Sayers, The Whimsical Christian, 207.
17. See Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths: Living With Biblical Tensions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
18. In the current “lordship theology” debate, this has been a concern, for example, with those holding the so-called “lordship salvation” view as they have countered those holding the “free grace” view. For an overview and assessment of the discussion see Millard J. Erickson, “Lordship Theology: The Current Controversy,” SwJT 33 (Spring 1991): 5–15.
19. Calvin Miller, “No Hurry,” in Couples’ NIV Devotional Bible, ed. staff of Marriage Partnership Magazine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 935.
20. Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (Chicago: Moody, 1984), 13–14.
21. As quoted in God’s Treasury of Virtues: An Inspirational Collection of Stories, Quotes, Hymns, Scriptures and Poems (Tulsa, Okla.: Honor Books, 1995), 299.
22. Philip Yancey, Church: Why Bother? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 27–31.
23. For this episode from the life of Houdini, see Charles R. Swindoll, Come Before Winter and Share My Hope (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah, 1985), 283.
1. For discussion of “intermediary transitions” see above, p. 98.
2. On the author’s uses of verbal analogy see above, p. 67.
3. Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 3:429.
4. Hughes, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 158.
5. See O. Hofius, Katapausis: Die Vorstellung vom endzeitlichen Ruheort im Hebräerbrief (Tübingen: Mohr, 1970); G. Theissen, Untersuchungen zum Hebräerbrief (Gütersloh: Mohn, 1969); Lane, Hebrews 1–8. See especially the overview of various positions in Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 127–28.
6. Hurst, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 71.
7. This view is also supported by Dale F. Leschert, Hermeneutical Foundations of Hebrews: A Study in the Validity of the Epistle’s Interpretation of Some Core Citations from the Psalms (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1995), 168–70, who concludes that for both the writer of Psalm 95 and the author of Hebrews “rest is a personal experience that may be entered into in the present, but the writer of Hebrews adds an eschatological dimension which is not found in the psalm, unless it is there seminally.”
8. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 128.
9. Hagner points out that since the Greek names for Joshua and Jesus are both Iesous, the hearers would have been struck with the contrast between the “Jesus” of the Old Testament, who did not give rest, and the Jesus of the New Testament, who brings real rest to the people of God. See Hagner, Hebrews, 71.
10. For the possible theological interpretations here see below, pp. 154–55, 164–65.
11. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 101–2.
12. The parallel to “gone through the heavens” in 4:14 is found in 10:19–20 and clearly refers to Jesus’ passing into the heavenly Most Holy Place.
13. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:276–78.
14. Cf. Heb. 2:1–4.
15. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 133.
16. Ibid.
17. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 103.
18. See Grant R. Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1991), 5–6.
19. See G. B. Caird, “The Exegetical Method of the Epistle to the Hebrews,” CJT 5 (1959): 44–51.
21. Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period, 28.
22. Augustine, Book II. Of Replies to Questions of Januarius, in The Confession and Letters of St. Augustine, With a Sketch of His Life and Work, vol. 1 in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 310.
23. See J. D. Douglas, “Fear,” in New Bible Dictionary, 2d ed., ed. J. D. Douglas (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1982), 373–74.
24. The past twenty-five years have witnessed a so-called “new perspective” in Paul, which suggests that the Jews of Paul’s day were wholly “grace oriented” rather than “works oriented.” For an overview of the discussion and a cogent and balanced argument for the Reformation interpretation of Paul’s doctrine of grace, see Frank Thielman, Paul and the Law: A Contextual Approach (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1994).
25. Recently some scholars have been more open to associating Hebrews with a Pauline circle of influence. See J. C. McCullough, “Hebrews in Recent Scholarship,” IBS 16 (April 1994): 67; Hurst, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 123–24.
26. The Christian Century 114 (January 1–8, 1997): 12–16.
27. Lee Strobel, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary: How to Reach Friends and Family Who Avoid God and the Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 118.
28. Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1994), 384–85.
29. Charles Colson, Loving God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983), 126.
30. Donald W. McCullough, The Trivialization of God: The Dangerous Illusion of a Manageable Deity (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995), 13.
31. Gordon MacDonald, Forging a Real-World Faith (Nashville: Oliver Nelson, 1989), 119.
32. P. J. Spener, Pia Desideria, ed. and trans. T. G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1964), 87–88.
33. For a helpful approach to Scripture memory see Lavonne Masters, Memorize and Meditate (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991). On meditation see Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 13–29.
1. On the parallel relationship of 4:14–16 to 10:19–25 see above, pp. 28–29.
2. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 102–4. For the place of this passage in this book see above, p. 28.
3. See Chris Church, “High Priest,” in Holman Bible Dictionary, ed. Trent C. Butler (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 645–48.
4. P. von Osten-Saken, “κρατέω,” ENDT, 2:314–15.
5. In Hebrews krateo and its synonym, katecho, are variously used to encourage holding to hope (6:18; 10:23), confidence (3:6, 14; 4:16), and the confession of faith (here and at 10:23). See Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 267.
6. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 140.
7. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:320.
8. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 115.
9. Ibid.
10. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 111–12.
11. Bernard Ramm, An Evangelical Christology: Ecumenic and Historic (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1985), 80.
12. See Erickson, Christian Theology, 720.
13. On the structural relationship between 2:17–18 and 4:14–16 see above, p. 111.
14. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 74.
15. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, pt. 1.
16. Shirley MacLaine, Washington Post interview, 1977.
17. Mary Bosanquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), 277–78.
18. Ibid., 263.
19. Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk (New York: HarperPerennial, 1992), 139–41.
1. See the discussion of Hebrews’ structure above, pp. 27–31.
2. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 120; Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 119.
3. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 120–21.
4. See the discussion of the word rendered “radiance” above, pp. 47–48.
5. See the discussion of “verbal analogy” above, p. 67.
6. See Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 145–47.
8. See the discussion by Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 148–49.
9. E.g., Hugh Montefiore, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (New York: Harper, 1964), 97–98; Kistemaker, Hebrews, 136; Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 127; Moffat, 65–67; Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 182–86, who states, “The occasion intended is beyond doubt that of Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.”
10. See Hagner, Hebrews, 81.
11. E.g., August Strobel, “Die Psalmengrundlage der Gethsemane-Parallele Hbr. 5,7ff.,” ZNW 45 (1954): 252–66. Strobel suggests Psalm 116 forms the basis for Hebrews 5:7–8. That psalm states in part, “I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.… The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.… You, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.” Psalm 22, a psalm the early church understood as referring to the Gethsemane experience, offers another viable backdrop, placing great emphasis on the “cry” of the righteous sufferer.
12. I am indebted to my friend J. Scott Duvall for this designation.
13. Hagner, Hebrews, 82.
14. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:446–50.
16. The following is based roughly on Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 111.
17. On the use of this rabbinic technique in Hebrews see above, pp. 25, 67.
19. See Buchanan, To the Hebrews, 130.
20. See Heb. 4:15; also John 7:18; 8:46; 14:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 1:19; 2:22; 3:18; 1 John 3:5, 7.
21. C. S. Lewis, “God in the Dock,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 244.
22. Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 47.
23. Andrew Murray, as quoted in Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, 47.
24. H. A. Hodges, as quoted in Lorenzo Scupoli, Unseen Warfare (London: Faber and Faber, 1952), 31–32.
25. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, 56.
1. See an explanation of the structure of 5:1–7:28 above, pp. 185–86.
2. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 158.
3. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 135.
4. See the discussion in Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 137–38.
5. See Polycarp’s Letter to the Philippians 8:1–9:1.
6. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 138.
7. John A. L. Lee, “Hebrews 5:14 and ἙΞΙΣ: A History of Misunderstanding,” NovT 39 (1997): 151–76.
8. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 138.
9. Thyen, Der Stil des jüdisch-hellenistischen Homilie, 17.
10. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 194.
11. Hagner, Hebrews, 87.
12. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 138–39; Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 140.
13. Cf. 1 Cor. 16:7; James 4:15.
14. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 317.
16. Chrysostom, “ὉΜΙΛΙΑ 1Βʼ,” in J.-P. Mingne, ed., Patrologia Graeca (Paris, 1862), 63:423.
17. E.g., Heb. 3:1–6 and 3:7–19.
18. The phrase was not part of the version used by the Eastern church. See McGrath, The Christian Theology Reader, 7–8.
19. Bill Hybels, Honest to God: Becoming an Authentic Christian (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 53.
20. One professor told me in 1985 that a publisher wanted anything with “discipleship” in the title, suggesting it was the hot topic of the decade.
21. For example, Gordon S. Wakefield, ed., The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983); John Garvey, Modern Spirituality: An Anthology (Springfield, Ill.: Templegate, 1985); Cheslyn Jones et al., eds., The Study of Spirituality (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986).
22. Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline, vii.
23. P. Nepper-Christensen, “μαθητής; μαθητεύω,” in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 2:374.
24. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 124.
25. Sayers, The Whimsical Christian, 29.
26. Mark Shaw, Doing Theology with Huck and Jim: Parables for Understanding Doctrine (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1993), 9–10.
1. E.g., Hebrews 1:1–4.
2. F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, trans. and rev. by Robert W. Funk (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1961), 249.
3. On words being moved forward in a Greek sentence for emphasis, see ibid., 248.
4. See John 1:9; 1 Cor. 4:5; Eph. 1:18; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:10. Some commentators have pointed to a second-century use of the word to refer to baptism, but Lane and Attridge are correct to point rather to illumination that comes through the preaching of the gospel as the meaning here. See Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 141; Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 169.
5. E.g., Westcott, who states, “the enjoyment as here described … is only partial and inchoative. To feast, to live upon the fullness of the divine blessing belongs to another order” (see Westcott, Epistle to the Hebrews, 148).
6. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 209; Delitzsch, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 284.
7. E.g., Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 170; Hughes, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 209.
8. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:480–81; Wisdom 16:3; 1 Cor. 9:10; Sirach 51:28.
9. Note the correspondence with “faith in God” in 6:1.
10. Ellingworth, Epistle to the Hebrews, 322.
11. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 142.
12. In my opinion Bruce, Hagner, and others rule out this possibility too quickly without providing sufficient reasons for doing so. The interpretation that the impossibility of repentance relates to the apostates’ rejection of Christ, the only source of true forgiveness, leaves open the possibility that a turning back to Christ would effect repentance. In any case, the switch to the present-tense form for these participles, although possibly a stylistic device (i.e., to add variety to the style of writing), might suggest that the current state of apostasy could be abandoned in favor of true Christian repentance. See Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 149; Hagner, Hebrews, 95.
13. On the uses of this type of imagery in the Old Testament, rabbinic literature, classic literature, and the Gospels see Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrew, 172; Delitzsch, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 1:294–95.
14. See J. A. Thompson, Handbook of Life in Bible Times (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1986), 125.
15. The NIV translation at this point with “in danger of being cursed” is unfortunate. What is in view is that the land is on its way to destruction. See Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 173.
16. Used in this way the word is popular in the LXX and Philo. See Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:75–76.
17. The common Greek idiom echo + an object means “pertaining to.” See Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 174.
19. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 172.
20. For uses elsewhere in Scripture, see Isa. 5:1–6; 28:23–29; Ezek. 19:10–14; Matt. 3:10; 7:19; John 15:6.
21. Contra Scot McKnight, who states, “The image of being cursed by, with its close association with fire, can only adequately be explained as an allusion to Gehenna or hell, an allusion to God’s punishment and retributive justice.” See Scot McKnight, “The Warning Passages of Hebrews: A Formal Analysis and Theological Conclusions,” TrinJ 13 NS (1992): 35.
22. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 146–47.
23. For an overview of these different positions and the arguments that attend them, see McKnight, “The Warning Passages of Hebrews,” 23–25; Robert H. Gundry, Survey of the New Testament, 3d ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 428–29; J. K. Solari, “The Problem of Metanoia in the Epistle to the Hebrews” (Ph.D. diss.; Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1970), 1–7; I. H. Marshall, Kept by the Power of God: A Study of Perseverance and Falling Away (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1969), 140–47; J. C. McCullough, “The Impossibility of a Second Repentance in Hebrews,” Biblical Theology 20 (1974): 1–7; T. K. Oberholtzer, “The Thorn-Infested Ground in Hebrews 6:4–12,” BibSac 145 (1988): 319–27; R. Nicole, “Some Comments on Hebrews 6:4–6 and the Doctrine of Perseverance of God With the Saints,” in Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation, ed. G. F. Hawthorne (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 355–64; V. Verbrugge, “Towards a New Interpretation of Hebrews 6:4–6,” CJT 15 (1980): 61–73.
25. V. Verbrugge, “Towards a New Interpretation of Hebrews 6:4–6,” 61–73. The link between 6:4–6 and 6:7–8 is the Greek word gar (“for”) at the beginning of verse 7 (omitted in NIV ).
26. See his article “The Warning Passages of Hebrews: A Formal Analysis and Theological Conclusions.” See also I. H. Marshall, Kept by the Power of God: A Study of Perseverance and Falling Away, 140–47.
27. Although I disagree with him concerning the exact nature of inaugurated eschatology. See above p. 136.
29. McKnight, “The Warning Passages of Hebrews,” 58.
30. On the rest as both a present reality and future promise for believers see above, pp. 151–52, 161–64.
32. For a defense of this position see especially the argument by Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 144–49.
33. See the treatment of “fear” in relation to Heb. 4:12–13 above, pp. 155–56.
34. Charles Colson with Ellen Santilli Vaughn, The Body (Dallas: Word, 1992), 383–84.
35. Erickson, Christian Theology, 942.
36. J. I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Vine Books, 1992), 46–47.
37. Win Arn and Charles Arn, “Closing the Evangelistic Back Door,” Leadership Journal 5, no. 2 (Spring 1984): 26.
38. Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Salt Shaker and Into the World: Evangelism as a Way of Life (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1979), 24–25.
39. Earl Palmer, “Evangelism Takes Time,” Leadership Journal 5, no. 2 (Spring 1984): 23.
40. Joseph C. Aldrich, Life-Style Evangelism: Crossing Traditional Boundaries to Reach the Unbelieving World (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah, 1978), 20.
41. See Calvin C. Ratz, “The Velcro Church,” Leadership Journal 11, no. 4 (Fall 1990): 38.
42. Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven (Dallas: Word, 1990), 189–90.
43. John R. W. Stott, The Contemporary Christian: Applying God’s Word to Today’s World (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1992), 140.
44. As quoted in Chuck Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity: A Commitment to Excellence (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1987), 11.
2. On the unit at 6:13–20 as a special form of transition, see Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 110–11.
3. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 180.
4. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 149. The author of Hebrews uses the adjectival cognate of this noun at 2:2 and 9:17, both in the context of legal discussions. The use of the cognate verb at 2:3 also has legal overtones. In broader Christian literature this word group serves to speak of the early Christian message as offering permanence and stability for the faith of believers. See A. Fuchs, “βεβαίωσις,” EDNT , 1:210–11.
5. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 149.
6. Ibid.
7. See Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 234.
8. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 346.
9. Plutarch, Moralia, 446A.
10. Philo, De Sacrificiis Abelis et Caini, 90.
11. For a more extensive treatment of the tabernacle and the worship with which it was associated, see below, pp. 297–300.
12. See the discussion on 2:1–4 above, pp. 84–85.
13. P. E. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 229–30.
14. David S. Dockery and David E. Garland, Seeking the Kingdom: The Sermon on the Mount Made Practical for Today (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1992), 60–61.
15. “Letter, 28 Oct. 1815,” to the poet Thomas More (published in Byron’s Letters and Journals, vol. 4, ed. by Leslie Marchand [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1975]).
16. Jean Kerr, in the play Finishing Touches, act III.
17. Armand Nicholi Jr., “Hope in a Secular Age,” in Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians, ed. Kelly Monroe (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 112–13.
18. Jack Hayford, Moments With Majesty (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah, 1990), 214–15.
19. Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening Daily Readings, in God’s Treasury of Virtues (Tulsa, Okla.: Honor Books, 1995), 174–75.
1. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 158.
2. Ibid., 159; cf. Rom. 5:1.
3. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 165–67.
4. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 196.
5. On the uses of verbal analogy in Hebrews see above, pp. 25, 67.
6. On the interesting question concerning whether we as moderns can or should imitate the exegetical methods of writers of the New Testament, see, for example, Moisés Silva, “The New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Text Form and Authority,” in Scripture and Truth, ed. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 147–65; G. K. Beale, ed., The Right Doctrine From the Wrong Texts?: Essays on the Use of the Old Testament in the New (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), especially the final two essays, opposing articles by Richard N. Longenecker and Beale.
7. See G. K. Beale, “Did Jesus and His Followers Preach the Right Doctrine From the Wrong Texts?: An Examination of the Presuppositions of Jesus’ and the Apostles’ Exegetical Method,” in The Right Doctrine From the Wrong Texts?401.
8. David S. Dockery, Biblical Interpretation Then and Now: Contemporary Hermeneutics in the Light of the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 34.
9. C. H. Dodd, According to the Scriptures: The Substructure of New Testament Theology (London: Nisbet, 1952), 126–27.
10. R. T. France, Jesus and the Old Testament: His Application of Old Testament Passages to Himself and His Message (London: Tyndale, 1971), 75.
11. Klyne Snodgrass, “The Use of the Old Testament in the New,” in New Testament Criticism and Interpretation, ed. David Alan Black and David S. Dockery (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 427.
12. We will soon deal with the question of the old covenant being superseded by the new. See below, pp. 283–86.
13. Alden Thompson, Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 13–14.
14. Harry Blamires, Recovering the Christian Mind: Meeting the Challenge of Secularism (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1988), 16.
15. Donald G. Bloesch, “A Christological Hermeneutic: Crisis and Conflict in Hermeneutics,” in The Use of the Bible in Theology: Evangelical Options, ed. R. K. Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.: John Knox, 1985), 78–84.
16. John Stott, The Contemporary Christian: Applying God’s Word to Today’s World (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1992), 114.
17. Alister McGrath, “Why Evangelicalism is the Future of Protestantism,” Christianity Today 39 (June 19, 1995): 22.
18. “Standing on the Promises,” an interview in Christianity Today 40 (Sept. 16, 1996) with Carl F. H. Henry and Kenneth Kantzer, p. 35.
1. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 371.
2. Moisés Silva, “Perfection and Eschatology in Hebrews,” WTJ 39 (1976): 68.
3. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 174.
4. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 208.
5. De Defectu Oracurlorum 3. Spicq poses a derivative meaning based on context, translating the word as “nontransferable,” a rendering suggested by others in the history of interpretation (Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:144). However, Lane judiciously cautions against this translation since this meaning for the word is unknown to ancient literature, as Spicq himself admits. See Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 175–76, note u.
6. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 269.
7. F. F. Bruce also points to the fourth Servant Song in Isaiah, where the exalted Servant of the Lord is said to make “intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:12). See Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 174.
8. See the discussion of Hebrews 4:16 above, p. 176.
9. These two passages form an inclusio, a literary device based on distant parallelism meant to mark the beginning and ending of a section. See above, p. 186.
10. On the perfection of the Son see above, p. 191.
11. When in 7:18 the author mentions “weakness,” he speaks of the regulations of the old covenant.
12. See the discussion above, pp. 112–13.
13. See the discussion above on Hebrews 7:1–10, pp. 259–61.
14. Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (2d ed., Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1970).
15. As quoted in Monroe, Finding God at Harvard, 172.
16. Sholem Asch, Mary (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1985), 302–3.
17. On various models attempting to describe progressive revelation see Dockery, Biblical Interpretation Then and Now, 18. See also the statements of F. F. Bruce concerning how progressive revelation relates to “canonical exegesis” in F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1988), 296.
18. See, for example, the chapter entitled “A Clash of Worldviews” in Alister McGrath, Intellectuals Don’t Need God and Other Modern Myths: Building Bridges to Faith Through Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 144–86.
19. Of course we may change our interpretations of certain aspects of Christianity upon further study and spiritual growth, but here I refer to the foundational tenets of what traditionally has been recognized as “orthodox Christianity.”
20. See the discussion above, pp. 83–84.
21. Stanley J. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994), 101–2.
1. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 217.
2. See the excellent discussion by Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 288–89.
4. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 104–5.
5. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 206–7. Lane rightly notes that although the language used by the author here might be confused for Platonic dualism, the similarities are merely verbal. The author’s orientation, rather, is eschatological, drawing temporal contrasts between the past and present eras.
6.Phil. 2:15 and 1 Thess. 3:13 both use the word to encourage Christians in their manner of life.
7. See Lane, Hebrews 1–8, 202, notes; Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 298–99, note 19. Cf. also NIV text note on 8:8.
8. Bruce correctly cautions that these words do not necessarily mean that the Jerusalem temple complex was still intact at the time Hebrews was written. Yet if that system of worship was still functioning, as it would be if our date for Hebrews in the early 60s is correct (see above, pp. 22–23), the author could be reading Jeremiah as pointing to the system’s ultimate demise. This would place him in the same line of thought expressed by both Jesus and Stephen, who had predicted the fall of the temple (Mark 13:2; John 2:19; Acts 6:14). See Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 195–96.
9. See the discussion in the introduction above, pp. 21–22.
10. See, for example, Elliott Abrams, Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America (New York: Free Press, 1997).
11. David P. Gushee, The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: A Christian Interpretation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994), 14.
12. Ibid.
13. See S. Sandmel, Anti-Semitism in the New Testament? (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978); J. T. Sanders, The Jews in Luke-Acts (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987).
14. Sandmel, Anti-Semitism in the New Testament? 160.
15. See the collection of essays in Craig A. Evans and Donald Hagner, eds., Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity: Issues of Polemic and Faith (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993).
16. See above, pp. 24–25; Robert W. Wall and William L. Lane, “Polemic in Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles,” in Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity, ed. Craig A. Evans and Donald A. Hagner, 166–85.
17. Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, in Luther’s Works, vol. 47, ed. Franklin Sherman (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971), 267.
18. Ibid., 268–70.
19. Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 183.
20. Clark M. Williamson, A Guest in the House of Israel: Post-Holocaust Church Theology (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1993), 110 (italics mine).
21. See S. Motyer, “The New Israel,” EDT , 571–72.
22. Ronald Goetz in “Exclusivistic Universality,” as quoted in Christianity Today (May 20, 1996): 54. It is interesting that the Gospel of John, a book some scholars consider to be anti-Semitic, was a primary source of religious conviction that motivated Gentile rescuers during the Holocaust.
23. W. M. Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches, updated edition, ed. Mark Wilson {Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1994), 220.
24. Sayers, The Whimsical Christian, 152.
25. Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups (New York: HarperCollins, 1993), 11.
26. Pippert, Out of the Salt Shaker, 130–32.
27. On the theology of conversion see Grenz, Theology for the Community of God, 528–62.
1. On the structure of this entire section of Hebrews see above, p. 278.
2. K. Kertelge, “δικαίωμα,” EDNT , 334–35; Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:343–45.
3. The word occurs only here and in 9:10 in Hebrews, forming an inclusio of 9:1–10 (see Attridge [who follows Albert Vanhoye], Epistle to the Hebrews, 231). On the use of inclusions in Hebrews see above, p. 71.
4. The inverting of themes (chiasmus) is a stylistic device used extensively by the author of Hebrews.
5. See Ex. 25:1–31:11; 36:2–39:43; 40:1–38. See Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 232.
6. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 220.
7. For a discussion of various interpretations see Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 234–35.
8. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 247.
9. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 221.
10. For other possibilities see Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 433. Ellingworth’s suggestion that the author might have in mind the twice-daily sacrifices of Ex. 29:38–43 or the burning of incense of 30:7–8 seems less likely because the altar for offerings was outside the tent. As we have seen, the author locates the altar of incense within the inner room.
11. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 222–23.
12. See Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 241.
13. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:332–36.
14. Erickson, Christian Theology, 284–85.
15. Ibid.
16. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 154–55.
17. Calvin Miller, An Owner’s Manual For the Unfinished Soul (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1997), 15–24.
18. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (New York: Doubleday, 1959; repr. 1990), 60.
19. Scott M. Peck, Further Along the Road Less Traveled (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 160.
20. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, 258–59.
21. J. I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant, 1992), 28.
22. A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publications, 1982), 101.
23. Andrew Murray, Daily Celebration, as quoted in Christianity Today 38 (August 15, 1994): 40.
1. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 448.
2. See Hughes’ presentation of these various interpretations and his cogent reply in A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 283–90.
3. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:423–29. See Psalm 109:9, in which the concepts of redemption and covenant are associated, and Luke 24:21.
5. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 251; Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 359; Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 261–62.
6. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 240; Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 216–217; Hagner, Hebrews, 139–40; Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 456–57.
7. On the “conscience” see above, p. 300.
8. Dreams 1:142–43; Moses 2:1.66.
9. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:465–68.
10. See the NIV ; Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 255–56; Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 221–24; Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 368–73.
11. Westcott, Epistle to the Hebrews, 265–66; Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 242–43.
12. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 243.
13. The elements of water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop are not found in the Exodus text, but the use of these in ceremonial sprinkling seem to have been common (see Ex. 12:22; Lev. 14:4–7, 51–52; Num. 19:6, 18). See Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 244; Hughes, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 375–76.
15. Later in Num. 19:17–19 the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were in the tent when it was defiled are sprinkled with the water of purification.
16. For the various interpretations of this text see Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 379–81.
17. Attridge makes the important observation that the Day of Atonement analogy breaks down at this point. Our author says nothing of Christ sprinkling the blood in the heavenly realm since he does not wish to speak of the heavenly offering as separate from his death on the cross; they are one and the same. See Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 263.
18. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, rev. and enlarged ed. (New York: Walker, 1987), 45–46.
19. Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters, Pensées, Scientific Treatises, trans. W. F. Trotter, in Great Books of the Western World, vol. 33 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 265.
20. See especially the study by Alan M. Stibbs, The Meaning of the Word “Blood” in Scripture (Leicester, Eng.: Theological Students’ Fellowship, reprint, 1978).
21. B. F. Westcott, The Epistles of St. John (1883), 34–37.
22. Westcott, Epistle to the Hebrews, 266.
23. For a history of interpretation see Stibbs, The Meaning of the Word “Blood” in Scripture, 3–9.
24. James I. Packer, “What Did the Cross Achieve? The Logic of Penal Substitution,” TynBul 25 (1974): 21–22.
25. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884; Pan, 1968), 202, as cited in Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 16.
26. “Fifty Ways to Make a Difference,” Ladies’ Home Journal (May 1997), 142.
27. See Matt. 17:5; Luke 21:27; Acts 1:9; Rev. 10:1; 11:12; 14:14–16.
28. April 17, 1995.
29. Wendy Murray Zoba, “Trivializing the Cross,” Christianity Today (June 19, 1995), 17.
30. Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 26–27.
31. Evelyn Lewis Perera, “After the Gang, What?” in Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Christian Thinkers, ed. Kelly Monroe (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 51–52.
32. In Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1981.
33. C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York: Macmillan, 1946), 18–19. Lewis makes clear that he intends this book to be taken as pure fiction, presenting no real speculations about the afterworld (see pp. 7–8).
34. As quoted in Images of Heaven: Reflections on Glory (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1996), 29.
1. See the discussion above, p. 280.
3.Heb. 9:12–14.
4. Paul’s quote is probably a conflation of Isaiah 59:20–21 and 27:9.
5. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 261–62.
6. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 273.
7. The verb translated “take away” here is the aorist infinitive form of periaireo, a word used only here in the New Testament to refer to the removal of sin.
8. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews, 123.
9. On the use of this word elsewhere in Hebrews see above, e.g., 108, 191.
10. E.g., Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 280–81.
11. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 247.
12. That God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are considered the originators of Scripture implies an implicit Trinitarianism in the author’s theology.
13. Also used to introduce an Old Testament passage at 7:17, the verb translated “testify,” as employed in this context, simply means to proclaim the truth of something.
14. For an overview of the structure of Hebrews see above, pp. 39–40.
15. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:332–36; see above, p. 300.
16. One possible exception is 1 Cor. 11:27, which speaks of those who take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner and thus are “guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” See also James 2:10.
17. Erickson, Christian Theology, 956.
18. This is contrary to the “perfectionist view,” which suggests Christians can live entirely above sin. See Erickson, Christian Theology, 971–74.
19. E.g., 2:10; 5:9; 7:11,19, 28; 9:9.
20. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 267–68.
21. Max Lucado, God Came Near: Chronicles of the Christ (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah, 1987), 101.
22. Lucado, God Came Near, 155–57.
23. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Look” and “The Meaning of the Look,” in The Country of the Risen, An Anthology of Christian Poetry, comp. Merle Meeter (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978), 300.
25. The one sin that will not be forgiven is the “blasphemy against the Spirit” (Matt. 12:31). For comment on this sin see D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” EBC , 8:290–92.
1. On 10:19–25 as a transition with “overlapping constituents,” see Guthrie, Structure of Hebrews, 102–4.
2. As noted above, p. 71, an inclusio is a literary device by which an author marks the beginning and ending of a section by verbal parallels.
3. On the exhortation, “Let us draw near to God,” see the discussion at Heb. 4:16, p. 176.
4. The two bases are related grammatically to the exhortation to “draw near” but conceptually extend also to the other two exhortations in 10:19–25.
5. The author uses the term echontes, an adverbial participle of cause appropriately translated by the NIV with “since we have.”
6. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:56–62.
7. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 111–12. Also, see above, p. 176.
8. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:61–62.
10. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 406–7.
11. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 287; Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 284.
13. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 286.
14. See the discussion below on Heb. 11:1–40, pp. 387–90.
15. E.g., Moffatt, Epistle to the Hebrews,144–45.
16. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:288.
17. Ibid., 1:59.
18. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation, 2.83.
19. Balz and Schneider, EDNT , 2:265. See, e.g., Matt. 7:3; Luke 12:24; 20:23; Acts 27:39; Rom. 4:19; James 1:23–24.
20. Ellingworth is probably correct that the pairing of love and good works “is a virtual hendiadys, since the good works are the direct expression of love.” See Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 527.
21. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 290; Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 257–58.
22. The one exception here is the second part of 10:23, “for he who promised is faithful,” which is grammatically independent. Semantically, however, this assertion supports the exhortation to hold onto the hope.
23. A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, as quoted in Bob Benson, Sr. and Michael W. Benson, Disciplines for the Inner Life (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1989), 55.
24. Dolores Curran, Traits of a Healthy Family (Minneapolis: Winston, 1983), 117–18.
25. Tilden H. Edwards, as quoted in Bob Benson and Michael W. Benson, Disciplines for the Inner Life (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1989), 138.
26. Thomas R. Kelly, as quoted in Benson and Benson, Disciplines for the Inner Life, 142.
1. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 261.
2. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 419.
3. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 534–35.
5. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 293.
6. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 294. See, e.g., Plato, Leges, 4 (714a); Ps. 56:2–3; Dan. 8:10; Zech. 12:3.
7. See the discussion above, pp. 230–31.
8. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 423–24.
9. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 295. Lane points out that the Song of Moses was used both in the liturgy of the Diaspora synagogue as well as the early church. Therefore, the community addressed by Hebrews was likely familiar with the broader Old Testament context of these quotations.
10. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 267.
11. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 299.
12. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:319–20.
13. E.g., John 7:4; Col. 2:15; the word also occurs in 10:19; see comments above, p. 342.
14. On the use of “verbal analogy” as an interpretation tool in early Christianity, see above, pp. 25, 67.
15. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 301.
16. See, e.g., 2:1–4; 3:1–18; 6:4–12.
17. Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 210.
18. Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul and Concerning the Inner Life, as quoted in Benson and Benson, Disciplines for the Inner Life, 346–47.
19. Howard Thurman, The Growing Edge, as quoted in Benson and Benson, Disciplines for the Inner Life, 346.
20. William Faulkner, Intruders in the Dust (New York: Random House, 1948).
21. David Gates, “Dylan Revisited,” Newsweek (October 6, 1997), 64.
1. Michael R. Cosby, “The Rhetorical Composition of Hebrews 11,” JBL 107 (1988): 250–70.
2. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:421.
3. See Lenski, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 373.
4. Some have suggested the alternate translation “title deed” or “guarantee,” but F. F. Bruce is correct to express caution in the face of a lack of contextual evidence (Epistle to the Hebrews, 277).
5. The verse does not contain a conjunction “and” (kai), perhaps lending support to the interpretation that the first and second halves of the verse are parallel thoughts.
6. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 440–41.
7. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 277, fn. 11.
8. Ibid., 279.
9. In biblical literature God is the witness par excellence since he has the ability to look at a person’s heart (Jer. 42:5). His testimony is certain (Ps. 19:8) and greater than that of people (1 John 5:9). See Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:447.
10. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 317. Attridge points to a quote from Philo, Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat, 48: “[Abel] is alive with the happy life in God. To this the declaration of Scripture shall be our witness, where Abel is found quite manifestly using his ‘voice’ and ‘crying out’ the wrongs which he has suffered.”
11. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 339–40.
12. For a discussion as to whether Sarah should be understood grammatically as the subject of v. 11 see Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 471–76.
13. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 594.
14. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 333–34.
15. Mary Rose D’Angelo, Moses in the Letter to the Hebrews, SBLDS 4 (Missoula: Scholars, 1979), 91–131.
16. Hagner, Hebrews, 202.
17. Hughes, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 496–97.
18. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 377–78.
19. The phrase translated “I do not have time to tell,” found widely in both classical oratory and Philo, is highly stylistic. See Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 320. The author of Hebrews does, in fact, go on to tell of those he has in mind but in a much more succinct fashion than his treatment thus far. I once heard a gifted preacher use this device. He proclaimed, “I don’t have time to tell you about …,” then proceeded to give the audience a stirring account of all that he did not have time to preach on! The homiletical device was quite effective.
20. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistle of Hebrews and of the Epistle of James, 415, citing A. T. Robertson.
21. E.g., Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 623; Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 506. Samuel may be listed last of those named to place him in conjunction with “the prophets.”
22. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 507.
23. Yet see, e.g., Josh. 21:43–45, which emphasizes the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people.
24. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 325–26.
25. Ibid., 329.
26. On the uses of inclusio in Hebrews see above, p. 71.
27. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 392.
28. On the author’s use of the concept of perfection see above, pp. 108, 191.
29. Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 241.
30. See the discussion above, pp. 164–65.
31. Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 20.
32. Ibid., 28.
33. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? 261–62.
34. Charles Colson, “Can Society Survive Without Christianity?” Veritas Vincit (Fall 1997): 7.
35. As quoted in Karey Swan, Hearth and Home: Recipes for Life (Evergreen, Colo.: Singing Springs, 1997):148.
1. This word occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only at 1 Thess. 4:8 but was common in literature outside the New Testament.
2. See Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 407–8; Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 354–55; Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 333.
3. Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 333.
4. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 2:561–62.
5. The word does not occur anywhere else in the Greek Bible or secular Greek, and other Christian uses are dependent mostly on the passage under consideration. Consequently, interpreters struggle with the best way to translate the word in this context, suggesting variously, “easily besetting,” “leading to distress,” “easily avoided,” “admired,” “dangerous,” “so easily entangles,” and so forth. See Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 398–99 (note f), who discusses the difficulty thoroughly and opts for the strong variant euperispaston, which means “easily distracting.”
6. Throughout Hebrews he has used “sin” in a general sense.
7. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 639.
8. Balz and Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 3:157.
9. Attridge, Epistle to the Hebrews, 356.
10. See N. Clayton Croy, “A Note on Hebrews 12:2,” JBL 114 (Spring 1995): 117–19.
11. Hagner, Hebrews, 212. The word translated “perfecter” (teleiotes) only occurs here in the Greek New Testament and does not occur outside of biblical literature prior to the New Testament era. The author, however, is fond of the word’s cognates, especially the verb teleioo, and uses them throughout the book. See, e.g., 2:10; 5:9; 7:19, 28; 9:9; 10:1.
12. The fact that those of this church had yet to die for the faith plays a crucial role in determining the date of Hebrews. On the question of the book’s date see above, p. 22.
14. The verb can be read either as indicative or imperative, but the latter reading is called for, based on the hortatory context.
15. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 421.
16. On this form of argument see above, p. 25.
17. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 345.
18. For a different opinion see Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 535.
19. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 365.
20. See esp. the discussion of 6:4–8 above, pp. 226–32.
21. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 368–69.
22. The way, for instance, that many American athletes misuse Philippians 4:13, a text that has more to do with contentment in a variety of circumstances than with God-give ability to succeed.
24. E.g., Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 661; Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 431; Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews; 366. Lane and Attridge both point to the use of “the God of peace” in 13:20 as forming the closing “bracket” of an inclusio opened with the reference to “peace” in 12:14. However, the parallel is too weak to make a strong case for this position. Of more importance are the themes in 12:14–17 that provide a conclusion to primary themes of 12:1–13.
25. For a discussion of the theology of “falling away” from the Christian faith and my position in that regard see the discussion above, pp. 226–32.
26. Catherine Swift, “Olympic Gold,” in More Stories for the Heart, ed. Alice Gray (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 1997), 94–97. Liddell’s story is told dramatically, if not completely accurately, in the powerful, award-winning film Chariots of Fire.
27. One might differ with Liddell on his application of Sabbath principles to Sunday, but his conviction was held and applied as an expression of devotion. It is this devotion that is both praiseworthy and worthy of emulation.
28. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1935), 177.
29. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (London: 1940), 81.
30. Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, trans. Leo Sherley-Price (New York: Penguin, 1952), 117–18.
32. “The Letter of the Churches of Vienna and Lyons to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia,” Christian History Institute’s Pocket Classics (Worcester, Pa.: Christian History Institute), 1–3.
1. On the use of an a fortiori argument see above, p. 25.
2. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 464–65.
3. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 356.
4. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 413.
5. The NIV places “the heavenly Jerusalem” between “Mount Zion” and “the city of the living God”; the Greek reads literally here: “Mount Zion, and [even] the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.”
6. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:4–8.
7. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 679.
8. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 375.
9. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 470.
10. Ibid.
12. On this whole issue of grace and the church, see the book by Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997).
13. In this regard see the discussion above, pp. 134–38.
14. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? 11.
15. Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1954), 49–51.
16. John Piper, Future Grace (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 1995), 48–49.
17. In this regard see the discussion of Hebrews 3:1–19 above, pp. 124–97.
18. Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope: On the Grounds and Implications of a Christian Eschatology (London: SCM / New York: Harper & Row, 1968), 32–36.
19. Tim Stafford, “The Age to Come,” Christianity Today (May 17, 1985): 32.
20. E. Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1958), 15, 18–19.
1. For example, Floyd V. Filson, “Yesterday”: A Study of Hebrews in Light of Chapter 13, Studies in Biblical Theology (Naperville, Ill.: Alec R. Allenson, 1967).
2. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 562.
3. The verse reads more literally, “Let brotherly love continue.”
4. Hagner, Hebrews, 234; Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 511.
5. On the use of “gender specific” language here, specifically the use of a masculine designation for all Christians, male and female, see above, pp. 113–14.
6. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:454–57; Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 511–12.
7. E.g., Gen. 19:13; 31:32; 2 Sam. 12:4; Isa. 58:7; Matt. 25:35; Luke 7:36–47; 10:34–37; Acts 21:4–17; Rom. 12:13; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8; 1 Peter 4:9; see Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 694.
8. Leon Morris, “Hebrews,” 146.
9. Balz and Schneider, EDNT, 3:359.
10. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 373.
11. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:245–46.
12. The latter is more likely since the exact quote as given here also occurs in Philo.
13. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 390–91.
14. E.g., Sirach 17:17; 33:19; 1 Macc. 9:30; 2 Macc. 14:16.
15. Specifically 1 Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas.
16. E.g., Hughes, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 569; Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 436; Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary, 230; Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 526–27; Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 391–92.
17. Hughes, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 569. Although this interpretation has a great deal of strength and is, perhaps, preferred, the argument can be put forward that these were current leaders in the congregation for the following reasons. (1) The word “remember” (mnemoneuo) need not refer to a past event but can be used in the sense of “be mindful of.” (2) The word for “leaders” in v. 7 is used for current leaders in v. 17. Both are present participles in form, the former in the genitive case, the latter in the dative case. (3) The note that the leaders “spoke the word of God to you,” although probably referring to the original preaching of the gospel to the community, does not rule out current leaders, some of whom could have been involved in that activity. (4) The word translated “outcome” (ekbasis) could merely be used as a reference to the positive result of godly living on the part of the current leaders.
18. For a lucid explanation of this interpretation of 13:9–10 see Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 533–35.
20. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 398–99.
21. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 445.
22. See W. A. VanGemeren, “Offerings and Sacrifices in Bible Times,” in EDT , 791–92.
23. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:74–77.
24. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 554.
25. See Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 402; Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 386; against Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 556–57, who understands the “us/we” as referring to the author and leaders of the church as a group.
26. J. L. Wu, “Liturgical Elements,” in DLNT , 660.
27. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, 568–69.
29. MacDonald, Forging a Real-World Faith, 165.
30. Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage: As Iron Sharpens Iron (Portland: Multnomah, 1985), 150.
31. As told in Stacy and Paula Rinehart, Living in Light of Eternity: How to Base Your Life on What Really Matters (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1986), 103.
32. R. Kent Hughes, Liberating Ministry From the Success Syndrome (Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale, 1987), 177.
33. T. H. L. Parker, Karl Barth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 49.