Christ of Hebrews and other religions, The

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

Many have made the central christological theme of Hebrews the high priesthood of Jesus (e.g. Ladd, Bruce). However, while that is certainly the most creative aspect of Hebrews, it is not the central motif. Guthrie has shown27 that the references to Ps 110:1 in Hebrews with Jesus exalted to the right hand of God (1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12-13; 12:2) occur at "key turning points of the book" and serve as "temporal and spatial indicators" that "move the discussion from one stage to another." As such, these references "support the superiority of the Son over the angels, the location (in heaven) of the Son's offering of his superior sacrifice, the present posture of the heavenly high priest, and the ultimate subjection of all things to the Son." This makes sense in light of the author's concern to emphasize the superiority of Jesus over the levitical system and Jewish modes of salvation. So an exaltation Christology is at the heart of the epistle. Hughes28 goes so far as to organize the epistle on the basis of Jesus' superiority over the prophets (1:1-3), the angels (1:4-2:18), Moses (3:1-4:13), Aaron (5:1-10:18), and as the new and living way (10:19-12:29). While this is somewhat overdone, it does demonstrate how central this theme is. The basic point is that the exalted Christ is far superior to Judaism and therefore salvation can be found only in him, not by any other religious approach.

Let us flesh this out by surveying the presentation of Christ in Hebrews. The high Christology of the book begins in the first chapter, where we see (in a near-Johannine sense) that God's revelation through his Son transcends the OT revelation through the prophets because he is "heir of all" as well as both Creator and sustainer of the universe (1:1-3). The Son of God motif will dominate the book. In a strong section in which Jesus is presented as the very Wisdom of God, we see that he also transcends that category because the Shekinah glory radiates through him, and he is not only in the place of power at God's right hand (the first use of Ps 110:1 in the book) but is the very "representation of his being." In a Philonic sense this could mean the imprint of the divine in his mind,29 but the emphasis here is in the other direction, that Jesus is the exact replica of the very nature of God.30 This is saying that he is not only Son but is united with God (cf. 1:8). Finally, the author turns from his exaltation to his salvific work, noting that he provides "purification for sins," a cultic image in which Jesus removes the defiling presence of sin, thereby preparing for the later emphasis that he did so by becoming the once-for-all blood sacrifice for sin. In other words, the primary theme here (as in the book as a whole) is the cross and exaltation of Jesus.31

Then in 1:4-2:18 the exaltation of Christ is highlighted further by showing that he is also "superior to the angels." The situation may have stemmed from a Jewish veneration of angels as seen at Qumran and the LXX and reflected in Col 2:18 and Rev 19:10; 22:8-9,32 although this hypothesis will always be speculative since their worship of angels is never mentioned in the text. The catena of OT quotations introduces the central technique of anchoring the parenetic sections via an appropriation of OT proof texts and demonstrates that the author believed Christ to be the fulfillment of OT promises; even more, that he is the point of continuity between the old and new covenants. Bateman33 argues that the Psalm 45 quote in vv. 8-9 is the center of a chiastic arrangement in the seven OT quotes of 1:5-13 and proclaims "the Son's status as divine Davidic monarch." This is seen in the direct claim of v. 8, which says of Christ, "Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever."34 This attribution of divinity to Jesus makes explicit what is implicit in 1:3 (see above). Jesus is not only superior to the angels but is their eternal God35 as well as the God of these Christians. He is thus the proper object of the worship of angels (v. 6) and the worship of the readers. This becomes the basis of the epistle's first warning in 2:1-4. Jesus has established "so great a salvation," and if the covenant established at Sinai via the angels contained serious punishments (2:2), how much more the great salvation inaugurated by Christ.