Summary: Bible - Book of Hebrews

The GIST

Hebrews, a book of the Bible, is the New Testament's great sustained argument: a single case, built step by step, that Jesus is the final word from God and the one priest whose sacrifice never needs repeating. It reads less like a letter than a sermon, and modern scholars generally think that is what it first was, with travel plans and greetings added at the end. Scholars of Greek judge its writing the most polished in the New Testament.

Nobody knows who wrote it. The text names no author. For centuries it was counted as the fourteenth letter of Paul, and the King James Bible printed it under his name, but doubts were voiced early and modern scholarship mostly rejects the attribution on grounds of style, vocabulary and outlook. Candidates put forward over the years include Barnabas, Luke, Clement of Rome, Apollos and Priscilla. The third-century scholar Origen gave the verdict that has stuck: who wrote it "is known to God alone". Its purpose is clearer than its origin. It was written to believers under pressure, tempted to turn back, to persuade them to hold on.

What It Says

The Son above the angels (chapters 1 and 2). Hebrews has no greeting. It opens with one of the grandest sentences in scripture: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets", has now spoken "by his Son". That Son is described in the highest terms the writer can find, "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person", the one through whom the worlds were made and who, having dealt with sins, "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high". A chain of quotations from the Hebrew scriptures shows him greater than the angels.

The first of the book's warnings follows at once. If the earlier message was binding, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation"? Then the argument takes a turn that gives the book its warmth. This exalted Son became human and "was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death", so that he might "taste death for every man." He had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way in order to be "a merciful and faithful high priest". The practical point is stated plainly: "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted."

Greater than Moses, and the promise of rest (chapters 3 and 4). Readers are told to "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus", who is as far above Moses as a son is above a servant in the house. The writer then preaches on a psalm about the generation that left Egypt and never reached its destination: "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness". The danger is the same now, and so is the opportunity, because the invitation still says "To day". "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Nothing is hidden from the one who offers it: "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword". The section ends not in fear but in welcome. Because the high priest has known human weakness from the inside, "tempted like as we are, yet without sin", the conclusion is: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

A priest like Melchisedec (chapters 5 to 7). Now the central idea. A high priest is chosen from among people to represent them before God, and does not appoint himself. Christ was appointed by the one who said, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Before explaining, the writer stops to scold. His hearers ought to be teachers by now and instead need "milk, and not of strong meat." He urges them to "go on unto perfection", warns gravely about falling away, and then reassures them with an image of hope "as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast".

Chapter 7 unpacks the mysterious figure of Melchisedec, "king of Salem, priest of the most high God", who met and blessed Abraham. Since the ancestor of the Levitical priests honoured him, his priesthood is the greater. And if the old priesthood had been able to bring people to their goal, why would scripture promise another? The old priests were many, because they died. This one remains: "he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." He has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, "for this he did once, when he offered up himself."

A better covenant and a better sacrifice (chapters 8 to 10). "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens". The earthly sanctuary, with its priests and offerings, is called "the example and shadow of heavenly things". The writer quotes at length the prophecy of "a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah", and concludes that calling it new makes the first one old.

He describes the old tabernacle and its inner room, entered by the high priest alone, once a year, never without blood. Christ, by contrast, entered "a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands". The principle is stated starkly, "without shedding of blood is no remission", and so is the finality: "as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment", so Christ was offered once. The law had only "a shadow of good things to come". What the yearly sacrifices could not do has been done "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

Exhortation follows from doctrine. The readers are to draw near, hold fast, and look after one another: "let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works", and they are not to give up meeting together. A severe warning comes with it, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God", and then a reminder of their earlier courage and a call to endure: "Now the just shall live by faith".

The roll of faith (chapter 11). The most famous chapter begins with a definition: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." What follows is a procession, each entry beginning "By faith". Abel offered a better sacrifice. Enoch pleased God. Noah built an ark for a flood no one could yet see. Abraham "went out, not knowing whither he went", lived in tents in the land he was promised, and "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." He offered up Isaac. Isaac, Jacob and Joseph each looked ahead as they died. Moses "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" and "endured, as seeing him who is invisible." The people crossed the Red sea, the walls of Jericho fell, and Rahab was spared. Some of the faithful won victories; others were stoned, sawn in two, driven into deserts and caves, people "Of whom the world was not worthy". The writer's point is that all of them lived on a promise they did not see fulfilled. They "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

Running the race (chapters 12 and 13). The heroes become a crowd in the stands: "seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight", and "run with patience the race that is set before us". The runner's eyes are fixed on one figure, "Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross". Hardship is reinterpreted as a father's training: "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth". The readers have come not to a mountain of terror but to "Jesus the mediator of the new covenant". Reverence is still in order, "For our God is a consuming fire."

The last chapter gathers practical instructions. "Let brotherly love continue." "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Amid changing teachers and teachings, one thing holds: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Believers have "no continuing city" here and are to offer "the sacrifice of praise". A blessing invokes "that great shepherd of the sheep". The writer calls the whole work a "word of exhortation", mentions that "our brother Timothy is set at liberty", and passes on greetings: "They of Italy salute you."

Why It Matters

Hebrews is the book that presents Christ as high priest and his death as a sacrifice that ends sacrifice. Scholars call its portrait of Jesus as both exalted Son and priest unique in the New Testament. Because it was anonymous it had some difficulty entering the canon, and was accepted in the end for the quality of its theology and writing. It may have been composed before the Temple fell, as its talk of priests still serving suggests to some, or between 70 and 100, as others hold.

Its audience is debated. The traditional view sees Jewish Christians tempted to return to the synagogue to escape persecution. A growing number of scholars note that the words Gentile and Christian never appear, and read it as an argument among Jews who followed Jesus and those who did not. The dominant reading has been that Hebrews teaches the replacement of the Levitical priesthood and sacrifices by Christ. Scholars stress the difference between what the author intended and how later generations used the text, since that later use fed Christian hostility toward Jews and Judaism.

Who Should Read It

Readers who like an argument that builds, and anyone who wants to see how the first Christians read the Hebrew scriptures. It rewards those willing to follow its logic, and its eleventh chapter can be read on its own as a gallery of courage. It speaks most directly to anyone tempted to give up.