I now return to my long “Nutshell” thread, explaining each book of the New Testament in brief terms, with one post laying out its major themes and emphases; another discussing what we can know about who wrote it, when, and why; another that provides suggestions for further reading; and at least one (and sometimes more) on other aspects of the book that are very much worth bearing in mind.

Eventually we will collect all these and issue them together (in some format or other – to be decided).  For now, if you want to check out earlier posts in the series, simply do a word search on the blog for “Nutshell.”

We have finished the Gospels, Acts, and the Pauline epistles, and now move on to the “Catholic” or “General” epistles.  In this context “catholic” does not refer to the Roman Catholic church (or any other “Catholic” church), but means simply “universal.”  The idea, rightly or wrongly, is that rather than being addressed to a specific congregation, these books were written to be read by all followers of Jesus. Actually, that is “wrong,” as you’ll see over the next series of posts, since many of these books were clearly meant for one particular community.  But we still call them “catholic” or “general” to differentiate them from the ones that claim to be written by Paul to specific churches.

I begin with the largest of them and one of the most intriguing, even if it is widely under-read and under-studied, the letter to the Hebrews.  As we will see, even though the book was traditionally ascribed to Paul, it does not claim to be written by him and almost certainly was not.

I begin by providing a one-sentence, 50-word summary of the book.

The anonymous letter to the Hebrews urges followers of Jesus not to abandon their faith by turning, or returning, to Judaism, because God has made a new covenant through Christ that is superior in every respect to the Jewish religion, and anyone who abandons their faith will lose their salvation.

I can now provide a fuller summary of the major themes and the book, some of it drawn from my fuller discussion in The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (Oxford University Press).

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As I will be explaining in the next post, even though this book has traditionally been called the Letter to the Hebrews, there are compelling reasons for thinking the audience was principally (or entirely) made up of gentile believers in Jesus, rather than Jewish Christians (or non-Christians).  What is clear is that it is a group of Jesus’s followers who have experienced some persecution for their Christian faith, possibly (although not certainly) for reasons similar to those I’ve talked before on the blog, that is, for refusing to worship state gods without having the Jewish roots that would make this refusal acceptable to local state officials.  The author is urging his readers/hearers to remain true to their Christian commitments: God will reward them in the end, when Jesus returns in judgment, and if they apostasize they will face his wrath.  That would not be a good thing:  “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

In order to show that turning to Judaism actually (and somewhat ironically) means turning away from the Jewish God, the author insists that the God of the Old Testament gave Jews only a provisional religion that he has now, according to plan, superseded in with the coming of Christ.  The old covenant (with the Jews) is now obsolete, and the new covenant, provided through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the only way to be right with God, enjoy his eternal blessings, and avoid his coming wrath (Hebrews 8:13).

To make this point, the author argues that Jewish law, as found in Scripture, was partial and imperfect, unable to accomplish the task of putting people into a right standing before God. The inadequacy of the old covenant, he claims, was recognized even by the Old Testament prophets themselves, who predicted that God would establish a new covenant to do what the old one could not. This new covenant was foreshadowed in the legislation of Moses and came to reality only in the work of Jesus. The old has now passed away, and believers must cling to the new (Hebrews 8).

The author explicitly refers to the persecutions of the followers of Jesus, and urges them to stay in the faith (Heb 10:26-39); their sufferings are a kind of “discipline” sent from God (just as parents discipline their children), and if they stay faithful, they will be rewarded in the end (Heb 12:3-13).  Since the author is afraid they may “fall away,” and since the great bulk of the book is devoted to show the superiority of the Christian faith to the now by-passed and “obsolete” Jewish tradition, it appears that he is urging them not to convert away from Christianity to non-Christian Judaism to escape persecution (as opposed to returning to paganism).

To abandon Christ for Judaism, in his judgment, would be a serious mistake. To do so would be to prefer the foreshadowing of God’s salvation to salvation itself and to opt for the imperfect and flawed religion of the Jewish Scriptures rather than its perfect and complete fulfillment in Christ. For this author, Christ does indeed stand in continuity with the religion of the Jews as set forth in their sacred writings; but he is superior to that religion in every way, and those who reject the salvation that he alone can provide are in danger of falling under the wrath of God.

Thus the superiority of Christ and of the salvation he brings to everything found in Judaism is the constant refrain sounded throughout this homily. Here are some of the major points that the author stresses to that end:

Christ Is Superior to the Old Testament Prophets (Heb 1:1–3). The Jewish prophets were God’s spokespersons in former times, but now he has spoken through his own Son, the perfect image of God himself.

Christ Is Superior to the Angels (Heb 1:4–11; 2:5–18). The angels mentioned in the Old Testament are God’s messengers par excellence, but Christ is his very Son, exalted to a position of power next to God’s heavenly throne. Angels are ministers for those destined for salvation, but Christ is the Son of God whose suffering actually brought this salvation.

Christ Is Superior to Moses (Heb 3:1–6). Moses was a servant in “God’s house,” but Jesus is the Son of the house.

Christ Is Superior to Joshua (Heb 4:1–11). Joshua gave the people of Israel peace (or “rest”) after the Promised Land had been conquered; but as the Scriptures themselves indicate, the people of Israel could not fully enjoy that peace (or “enter into their rest”) because they were disobedient. Christ brings a more perfect peace.

Christ Is Superior to the Jewish Priesthood (Heb 4:14–5:10; Heb 7:1–29). Like the Jewish high priests, Jesus was personally acquainted with human weaknesses that require a mediator before God; but unlike them, he was without sin and did not need to offer a sacrifice for himself before representing the people. He is superior to the priests descended from Levi because he is the one promised in the Scriptures as the priest from the line of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4), the mysterious figure whom Abraham, the ancestor of Levi, honored by paying one-tenth of his goods (Gen 14:17–20). For this reason, Levi himself, as represented by his ancestor, was inferior and subservient to Melchizedek and the descendants from his line. If the Levitical priests had been able to make the people of God perfect, God would not have had to promise to send a priest from the line of Melchizedek into the world. Moreover, Christ is superior to these other priests because they are many, but he is one—and unlike them, he needed to offer his sacrifice only once, not repeatedly.

Christ Is Minister of a Superior Covenant (Heb 8:1–13). God promised in the Scriptures to bring a new covenant (Jer 31:31–34), thereby showing that the old covenant with the Jews was outmoded and imperfect. Christ is the minister of this new covenant.

Christ Is Minister in a Superior Tabernacle (Heb 9:1–28). The earthly tabernacle, where Jewish sacrifices were originally performed, was constructed according to a heavenly model. Unlike the Jewish priests, Christ did not minister in the earthly replica; he brought his sacrifice to heaven, to the real sanctuary, into the presence of God himself.

Christ Provides a Superior Sacrifice (Heb 10:1–18). Christ’s sacrifice was perfect, unlike those that had to be offered year after year by the Jewish priests. His death brought complete forgiveness of sins; there is therefore no longer any need for sacrifice.

And so, the bottom line for this author:  He does not claim that Judaism was ever a false religion; it was what God provided to the Jews from antiquity.  But it was imperfect and was (intentionally) pointing forward to a new covenant, a new set of terms between God and his people, fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.  Judaism is a kind of foreshadowing of the greater reality to come.  Anyone who turns from the reality back to the shadow is rejecting God and Scripture itself, and they will lose their salvation and face the wrath of God that is soon to come (6:1-6; 10:26-31).

In future posts I will talk more about some of these topics, including who the author was, whom he was addressing, whether the book really teaches that it is possible for Christians to lose their salvation, and where the author is getting his ideas about “shadows” and “realities.”