The Letter to the Hebrews (The Holy Bible #58), Amplified New Testament

2022: from my notes from my seminary class:

The book of Hebrews was NOT written by Paul! (It's not even really a letter! There is no formal greeting. It's more of a sequence of “Do this, here's what I think...” - Exhortations and exposition; A sermon and a treatise.

The author of this text is reinterpreting Hebrew scriptures as pointing to Jesus.

Date: probably mid-1st century to early 2nd century; so AFTER Paul

Audience: unclear but not to the Jewish people - It is NOT asking Jewish people to convert to Christianity.

What is this letter about?

The letter is offering encouragement to people who are being persecuted.
The author doesn't see them progressing in their faith so is encouraging them in their faith and commitment to Christ. And also to assure them that Christ is coming back. Giving confidence to them in this by showing how Jesus can be seen through the lens of Hebrew Scriptures pointing towards Jesus.

If we call this text sacred it is our responsibility to wrestle with it and make sure we do not perpetuate harm with the text and try to undo damage that has been done.

Either find a glimmer of hope in the text and focus on that or resist it and call it out, point it out and say we have to do better.

Supersessionism teaches that Christianity supersedes Judaism. (This is deeply harmful!!! Don't do this!)

We have to learn how to talk about this text without perpetuating harm.

We need to understand that prophetic literature was not about predicting the future. Prophecy is about calling out injustice and calling us toward something better - God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Quotes from the article we read by Dr. Anna Bowden:

“In contrast to an approach that attempts to redeem a difficult text, another course of action for the preacher is to confront the text, to tackle it head-on, to push back against its theology. It is good for pastors to recognize problematic passages in the biblical canon because it helps point to areas in need of growth within the Christian tradition. Confronting the text recognizes that these texts impact and shape our theology, and acknowledges that it is important to know what is damaging about our history, in order to avoid further damage in the future and perhaps to set right any damage of the past. A sermon on this passage from Hebrews might, therefore, lean in the direction of dissent.”

“First, this week's epistle is dangerous because it is supersessionist in nature. Hebrews as a whole seeks to replace, or supersede, one theology with another—to replace the theology of the Jews with the theology of Jesus. Throughout the document, the author repeatedly reinterprets the Scriptures of Israel as pointing to Jesus. Both of the psalms cited in this week's text are an example. The author uses the psalms to make an argument from Scripture that Jesus is a high priest. In other words, the author appropriates Jewish Scriptures for Christian advantage. Christians would do well to remember that Jewish theology does not recognize the foretelling of Jesus in the Jewish canon. We need to be more careful in our interpretations of Scripture not to deny the Jewish community of its own interpretation of its Scripture.”

“If Christians are not intentional with the careful interpretations of sensitive texts, they risk reading the Jewish tradition through a Christian lens and therefore misunderstanding the Jewish religion as a whole.”

“Preaching against the text requires a studied, skilled, and brave pulpiteer. The goal of any sermon is not to strip validity from a beloved text, but to demonstrate where grace may be found, even when tradition has unwittingly erred. Speaking against the Christian canon is not to abandon Christian tradition; it is to raise one voice of our tradition to confront another. This is how traditions survive; this is how Scripture finds new voice.” - from Dr. Anna Bowden's article on Hebrews 5