Christ of Hebrews and other religions, The

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2003 by Osborne, Grant R

In short, the list demonstrates their inculcation into the differences between being a Christian and their former way of life. They had been removed from their previous social world and schooled in their new-found faith in such a way that they belonged to a new community and no longer belonged to the old, DeSilva,14 following Mary Douglas, describes this new self-perception as "dying to their old life" and being "reborn to the new," so that the rituals signified a new allegiance that rendered them marginal with regard to the society around them, They had rejected their past life and associations and found a new status within their own sect, but a status not recognized by the pagan world around them. As a result, while they rejected their former way of life, they were in turn rejected and persecuted by their former neighbors and fellow workers, Tacitus accused the Christians of "hatred against humanity" (Annals 15,44,2), and this was undoubtedly connected to their refusal to participate in the civic life.

The form this persecution took is described in 10:33-34. First, they were "publicly exposed to insult and persecution," which could refer generally to public scorn and ridicule (so Koester) but probably included more serious events such as "the confiscation of property" (v. 34, so Lane, who sees these verses as a chiasm). It does not include the type of persecution practiced by

Nero, who used Christians as human torches and threw them to wild animals, nor the public mockery in theatres (the verb theatrizein contains the idea of public exposure as in a theatre) described by Philo (Gaius 359). The fact that these believers had property to be seized points to a certain amount of wealth in this community (so deSilva) and shows they had a lot to lose. Still, the author makes a point to the current readers that these early believers "joyfully accepted" their loss because they "had better and lasting possessions," a definite message to the current readers who were forgetting how much they had in Christ. Moreover, they had "leaders" in the past who had helped them through their ordeals and had become models to the present Christians (13:7). Finally, some of the Christians had been imprisoned, and the others had "stood side by side" and "suffered along with" them through their ordeal. It is clear that no one had been martyred, even up to the time when the letter was written (12:4), but in the past they had suffered greatly. Koester brings out the fact that this had to involve official action against the church. While mob action could have resulted in stolen property, imprisonment had to be governmental action. Because Christians were the only group that stood outside the community and refused to participate, this would be easily justified. While these were local rather than empire-wide persecutions, they were just as difficult for the believers themselves to handle.

The present situation was some years removed. We do not know how many, but it was of sufficient duration that the author could challenge them that they had been believers long enough to be teachers (5:12). The persecution was still occurring, for some were still in prison (13:3), and Christians were still held in disgrace by those around them (13:13). The central problem was a basic "laziness" (nothros, 5:11; 6:12), a term that often means dim-witted but in a context like this refers to people who refuse to work at understanding but instead remain mentally dull. They listen, but fail to respond or grow. It is a current consensus (Attridge, Lane, Ellingworth, Koester) that the letter is written to one group, perhaps a single house church or so, among others. This is seen in the request to "greet all your leaders and all God's people" (13:24). If "meeting together" (episynagoge) is a reference to a local house church (thus "do not abandon your assembly," so Hughes, Lane, Koester, emphasizing the localizing influence of the epi- prefix), the likelihood that this is a small group of believers increases. They had been meeting for several years but had failed to grow spiritually and were seriously slipping in their walk with Christ.