Christ of Hebrews and other religions, The

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

Yet there is a third dimension to the solution as well, the temporal aspect. The author wants them to take their eyes off the temporal and center on the eternal, to learn the lesson of the past and rely on the God of the future. This is the meaning of "hope" in the book. In their past suffering they triumphed over the plundering of their possessions because they "knew they had better and lasting possessions" (10:34). So now the beleaguered believers must realize that "he who promised is faithful" (10:23). This is the message of the "heroes of the faith" in chapter 11. Like Abraham they could look upon themselves as "strangers" on this earth (11:9), because they, too, could look forward to the final "city with foundations." One of the basic messages of the faith chapter is that every prayer was answered, not in the present, but in the future, the final result of God keeping his promises (cf. 11:11, 16, 20, 39-40), summed up in v. 13, "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth."

Yet the author does not wish only to admonish and warn them of the terrible danger. He also wants to encourage them and let them know of his confidence in them. This is seen in his affectionate terms for them, calling them "holy brothers and sisters who share in the heavenly calling" in 3:1 and "dear friends" (literally, "beloved") in 6:9, as well as "brothers and sisters" in 10:19 and 13:22. This pastoral encouragement is especially seen in the two most serious warning passages. After warning them that apostasy is irredeemable in 6:4-6, he adds, "we are convinced of better things in your case-the things that have to do with salvation" (6:9). God would not forget them or their past faithfulness (v. 10), and he believed that with God's help they would endure this time as well. This confidence does not mitigate the seriousness of the warning, a very real danger due to their present weakened spiritual condition. But it does show the author's trust in them. The same occurs in 10:32 after the warning that a fiery judgment would be certain if they "shrink back" (10:26-31); as the author says, "we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved."25 Again, this does not mean the warning is only hypothetical, but rather that the author believes their past victory over persecution and mockery would be repeated in the present. The rhetorical strategy of Hebrews is therefore to combine reminders of the superiority of Christ with a mixture of negative warning and pastoral comfort in calling the believers to a renewed faithfulness in Christ

III. CHRIST IN HEBREWS

The primary epideictic aspect of Hebrews is the centrality of Christ for salvation. The author employs synkrisis (comparison) to show the superiority (kreitton, thirteen times in Hebrews) of Christ over every aspect of Judaism. DeSilva26 states that the emphasis is not just on Christ's superior accomplishment but also that he "serves as an extended development of a topic of amplification, magnifying the value of the access to God made possible by Jesus-an access never before made possible to God's covenant people." The purpose is to "motivate the hearers to preserve that advantage (10:18-25), as well as to heighten the folly and danger of renouncing such an advantage." This is caught well in the summary of 10:19-21, stating that Jesus has opened "a new and living way" to God and thus has become "a great priest over the house of God." The question is why they would want to return to their Jewish roots, in which God dwelt in the Holy of Holies, a sanctuary available only through the blood ritual of the Day of Atonement. Jesus entered by becoming the once-for-all sacrifice (9:12, 26-28), thereby becoming the eternal priest who has effected "a better covenant" (7:16-17, 22).