There is a widespread conviction that Hebrews is an unusually difficult book. It has commonly been neglected in the course of preaching, study, and devotional reading of the Bible. Three factors in particular appear to have contributed to this situation: (1) the form of Hebrews seems unusual; (2) its setting in life seems uncertain; and (3) its argument seems unfamiliar.

I. The Form of Hebrews

Hebrews has been grouped traditionally with the letters of the New Testament; we speak of the ”Letter to the Hebrews” or of the “Epistle to the Hebrews.” The canonical order of the documents of the New Testament reflects this understanding. The thirteen letters of Paul are followed by Hebrews, then by the letters of James, of Peter, of John, and of Jude, and finally by Revelation, which not only has the form of a letter but contains seven letters to the church centers in Roman Asia. The placing of Hebrews among the letters of the New Testament encourages a reader to regard the document as a letter.

This inference is an old one. In the Greek manuscript tradition Hebrews appears exclusively in association with the letters of Paul. In fact, the oldest copy of this document, the Chester Beatty Papyrus (P46), which is dated to the beginning of the third century, identifies it as ”To the Hebrews” in the same manner that Paul’s letters are identified as ”To the Romans,” ”To the Corinthians,” or ”To the Galatians.” In this early manuscript Hebrews is positioned after Romans and before 1 Corinthians. In the later uncial codices Aleph, B, A, C, and H, Hebrews is placed after the letters to the churches; it appears after 2 Thessalonians and before 1 Timothy. Hebrews was clearly regarded as a letter.

Yet Hebrews does not possess the form of an ancient letter. It lacks the conventional prescript of a letter and has none of the characteristic features of ordinary letters from this general time-period.^[1]For a helpful summary of recent research see W. G. Doty, Letters in Primitive Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973). especially pp. 21-47. In the opening lines the writer fails to identify himself or the group to whom he is writing. He offers no prayers for grace and peace and no expression of thanksgiving or blessing. The document begins with a majestic periodic sentence celebrating the transcendent dignity of the Son through whom the Father has spoken his definitive word (Heb. 1:1-4). These opening lines are without doubt a real introduction which would not tolerate any prescript preceding them.^[2]See A. Vanhoye, Situation du Christ, Hebreux 1-2 (Paris: Cerf, 1969), pp. 14-15. The initial statement commands attention. It immediately engages a reader or listener. Hebrews begins like a sermon.

The correctness of this impression is confirmed by the writer himself. In brief personal remarks added at the end he describes Hebrews as a ”word of exhortation”:

“Brothers and  sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly” (13:22).^[3]English renderings of the biblical text are the author’s own translations.

This descriptive phrase recalls the invitation ex­ tended to Paul and Barnabas by synagogue officials at Antioch of Pisidia after the reading   from the Law and the Prophets: “Brothers, if you have a word of exhortation for the people, deliver it now” (Acts 13:15). The expression “word of exhortation” appears to have been an idiomatic designation for the homily, or edifying discourse, which followed the reading from the Law and the Prophets in the hellenistic synagogues.^[4]For a similar use of language in a Palestinian setting see 2 Mace. 15:8-11. Judas the Maccabee “exhorted his men . . . encouraging them from the Law and the Prophets . . . . He armed them . . . with the en­ couragement of apt words.” What is described is an exhortation based upon the Law and the Prophets. When the writer of Hebrews says to the congregation he addressed, “I ask you to listen to the word of exhortation I have prepared for you,” he uses the customary designation for a sermon.

The liturgical pattern of the synagogue, in which the public reading of the scripture was followed by preaching, was adopted by the early church. Evidence for this is offered by 1 Tim. 4:13, where Paul writes, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to the exhortation, to teaching.” The expression “the exhortation” is a synonymous term for the sermon. It referred specifically to the exposition and application of the scripture which had been read to the assembled congregation.

The exhortation consisted of strong encouragement and of helpful warning. This is precisely the character of Hebrews. The writer prepared his sermon with the intention that it should be read aloud to the members of a house church for whom he was pastorally concerned. The descriptive phrase “word of exhortation” (Heb. 13:22) is appropriate to a homily in written form, to which the preacher has added a few personal remarks at the end. He­ brews brings us in contact with first-century preaching.

Recognizing that Hebrews is a sermon permits important features of the style and structure to receive the attention they deserve. The preacher skillfully conveys the impression that he is present with the congregation and is actually delivering the sermon he has prepared. He carefully avoids any reference to actions like writing or reading that would emphasize the distance which separates him from the group he is addressing. Instead he stresses the actions of speaking and hearing, which are appropriate to persons in conversation or in the situation of preaching:

”It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking” (2:5).
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain intelligibly, since you have become hard of hearing” (5: 11).
“Even though we speak like this, dear friends, . . .” (6:9).
“Now the crowning affirmation to what we are saying is this. . .” (8:1).
”But we cannot discuss these things in detail now” (9:5).
“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about . . .” (11:32).

The preacher assumes a conversational tone in order to diminish the sense of distance which separates him from his audience and which makes writing necessary. He thinks of his work as speech. By referring to speaking and listening he establishes a sense of presence with his audience.

The writer was a gifted preacher. Hebrews is characterized by a skillful use of alliteration, of oratorical imperatives, of euphonic phrases, of unusual word order, and of literary device designed to enhance rhetorical effectiveness. The alternation between exposition and exhortation and back again, which is characteristic of the literary structure of Hebrews,^[5]See especially A. Vanhoye, La structure litteraire de I’ Epitre aux Hebreux. 2d ed. (Paris: Desclee de Brouwer, 1976). provides an effective vehicle for oral impact. Hebrews was prepared for oral delivery as a sermon to a specific community.

The most thorough study of the sermon, or homily-form, in the period close to the first Christian century is the investigation of Hartwig Thyen.^[6]Der Slit des judisch-hellenistischen Homilie (Giittingen: Vanden­ hoeck & Ruprecht, 1955). Thyen based his study on Philo’s allegorical commentary on Genesis, 1 Clement, 4 Maccabees, James, Hebrews, parts of 1 Maccabees and 3 Maccabees, the speech of Stephen in Acts 7, Didache 1-6 and 16, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the Wisdom of Solomon. For each of these sources he sought to trace the in­ fluence of the Cynic-Stoic diatribe (a specific form of preaching), the use of the Old Testament, and the ways in which paraenetic (or practical) tra­dition is treated. The following factors led him to classify Hebrews as a homily in the Jewish-hellenistic tradition:

(1) The writer displays a command of many different rhetorical devices.^[7]H. Thyen, pp. 43, 47, 50, 53, 58-59. Moreover, the frequent change from the first person plural “we” to the second person plural “you” to the first person singular “I” is characteristic of a preacher.^[8]Ibid., p. 17.

(2) Characteristically, the source of Jewish-hellenistic homilies is the Septuagint. The writer of Hebrews has a remarkable knowledge of the Septuagint and uses it exclusively.^[9]Ibid., p. 17, 62. See the essay by R. Clements, “The Use of the Old Testament in Hebrews” elsewhere in this Journal. On the use of the Old Testament in Hebrews the following studies are also helpful: M. Barth, “The Old Testament in Hebrews: An Essay in Biblical Hermeneu­tics,” in Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation, ed. W. Klas­sen and G. F. Snyder (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), pp. 53-78, 263-73; D.M. Hay, Glory at the Right Hand: Psalm 110 in Early Chris­tianity (Nashville: Abingdon, 1973); G. Hughes, Hebrews and Herme­ neutics: The Epistle to the Hebrews as a New Testament Example of Biblical Interpretation (Cambridge: CUP, 1979); F. Schriiger, Der Ver­ fasser des Hebriierbriefes als Schriftausleger (Regensburg: Pustet, 1968); J. Swetnam, Jesus and Isaac: A Study of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Light of the Aqedah (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1981); K. J. Thomas, “The Use of the Septuagint in the Epistle to the Hebrews” (Dissertation, University of Manchester, 1959).

(3) Jewish-hellenistic homilies draw heavily upon the Pentateuch and the Psalms. This is true also of Hebrews.^[10]H. Thyen, p. 67. See further, M. R. D’Angelo, Moses in the Let­ter to the Hebrews (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1979); D. M. Hay, Glory at the Right Hand: Psalm I JO in Early Christianity (Nashville: Abingdon, 1973); P. Katz, “The Quotations from Deuteronomy in He­ brews,” Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 49 (1958): 213-23; S. Kistemaker, The Psalm Citations in the Epistle to the He­ brews (Amsterdam: Van Soest, 1961). The formulae of citation of the Old Testament in Hebrews follows a pattern readily discerned in the Jewish-hellenistic homilies.^[11]H. Thyen, pp. 69-74. See J. C. McCullough, “The Old Testament Quotations in Hebrews,” New Testament Studies 26 (1979-80):363-79; B. M. Metzger, “The Formulas Introducing Quotations of Scripture in the NT and the Mishnah,” Journal of Biblical Literature 70 (1951):297- 307.

(4) Apocalyptic materials served as a homiletical resource in the Jewish-hellenistic homilies. Although most of the apocalyptic books were composed originally in Hebrew or Aramaic in Palestine, they were soon translated into Greek and enjoyed a wider readership among Diaspora Jews. The influence of apocalyptic upon Hebrews is clear.^[12]H. Thyen, p. 68. See 0. Hofius, Katapausis. Die Vorstellung vom endzeitlichen Ruheort im Hebriierbrief (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1970); 0. Hof­ ius, Der Vorhang vor dem Thron Gottes. Eine exegetisch-religionsges­ chichtliche Untersuchung zu Hebriier 6, 19f. and 10, 19f. (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1972); P. Schmindgall, “The Influence of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature on the Book of Hebrews” (Dissertation, Western Kentucky University, 1980).

(5) In the Jewish-hellenistic homiletical literature sources are frequently introduced with a rhetorical question.^[13]H. Thyen, p. 73. This device is present in Hebrews as well (1:5, 13; 3:16-18).

(6) The many contacts between Hebrews and Jewish-hellenistic writings, particularly Philo and the Wisdom of Solomon, the use of scripture, and the exegetical method employed, all demonstrate that the writer was a hellenistic Jewish Christian.^[14]Ibid., p. 17. See especially R. Williamson, Philo and the Epistle to the Hebrews (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970) for a careful evaluation of the extent of the contact between Hebrews and Jewish-hellenistic writings.

(7) In Hebrews 11 there is an outstanding example of the manner in which the hellenistic synagogue proved a point by listing a catalogue of Old Testament witnesses.^[15]H. Thyen, pp. 13, 18, 30, 75-76, 115. See further M. R. Cosby, “The Rhetorical Composition and Function of Hebrews 11 in Light of Example-lists in Antiquity” (Dissertation, Emory University, 1985); W. S. Towner, The Rabbinic “Enumeration c,f Scriptural Examples”: A Study of a Rabbinic Pattern of Discourse with Specific Reference to Mek­ hilta d’ R. Ishmael (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973), pp. 100-16.

(8) The Jewish-hellenistic homily concludes with paraenetic instruction. Hebrews 10:19-13:21 exhibits this character.^[16]H. Thyen, pp. 87-96, 107-10. In its use of paraenesis Hebrews resembles Philo’s allegorical commentary on Genesis.^[17]Ibid., p. 10.

Thyen concluded that except for the few verses which follow 13:21, Hebrews is a carefully constructed homily of the type given in a Diaspora synagogue.^[18]Ibid., p. 17. In fact, Hebrews is ”the only example of a completely preserved homily” from this period.^[19]Ibid., p. 106. See further, J. Swetnam, “On the Literary Genre of the ‘Epistle’ to the Hebrews,” Novum Testamentum 11 (1969):261-68; J. Wood, “A New Testament Pattern for Preachers,” Evangelical Quarterly 47 (1975):214-28. The proper way to listen to Hebrews is to recognize that it is an early Christian sermon and to come prepared both for encouragement and warning.

This sermon concerns the God who speaks. It begins by focusing attention upon the God who has spoken to his people in the past, and who is speaking to his people in the present time (1:1–2a). It is an urgent call for the new people of God to listen to the word he has spoken through his Son. After demonstrating the transcendent dignity of the Son the preacher underscores the point he is making:

“We must pay the closest attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift off course” (2:1).

What has been “heard” is the word of the gospel which was spoken first by the Son, which had been brought to the community by those who had heard Jesus and had been validated by signs and wonders (2:3-4).

The emphasis on listening to the voice of God is sustained throughout Hebrews. For example, in 3:7-19 a quotation from Psalm 95 furnishes the basis for the exhortation to remain sensitive to the promise of eschatological salvation:

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion on the day of testing in the desert, where your fathers put me to the test through distrust, even though they saw my judgments for forty years” (Heb. 3:7-9).

This quotation from Ps. 95:7-9 was the customary call to worship in synagogue services on Friday evening and Sabbath morning.^[20]I. Elbogen, Der judische Gottesdienst in seiner geschichtlichen En­ twicklung 3d ed. (Frankfort: Kaufmann, 1931), pp. 82, 108, 113. In the first half of the psalm Israel is summoned to praise and worship (Ps. 95:2, 6), but the second half conveyed the warning that the hardness of heart displayed by the desert generation must not be emulated (Ps. 95:7- 11). It is virtually certain, therefore, that the community addressed in this sermon was familiar with the detail of the psalm. The quotation is developed by the preacher as a major theme in the section which follows:

“As has just been said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion’ ” (Heb. 3: 15).
“God again appointed a certain day, saying in the Psalter so much later ‘Today’ in the text already quoted:
‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts'” (4:7).

The section introduced with the quotation from Psalm 95 concludes with the preacher’s sober comment on the penetrating character of God’s word (Heb. 4:12-13). He summons the congregation to listen to the voice of God as preserved through the gift of scripture.

The preacher sustains the theme that God is speaking every time he cites scripture. He likes to use the present tense to emphasize that the word spoken in the past is being spoken once again at the present time. For example,

“So then, as the Holy Spirit is saying” [followed by the quotation of Ps. 95:7-11] (Heb. 3:7).
“So it is when Christ comes into the world he says” [followed by the quotation of Ps. 40:6-8] (Heb. 10:5).
”And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us” [followed by the quotation of Jer. 31:33-34] (Heb. 10:15).

The use of the present tense serves to bring the biblical text into the current experience of the community addressed. The preacher insists that it is imperative to listen to the voice of God now. He makes this indelibly clear when he brings his sermon to a point of climax with the sharp warning, “See to it that you do not refuse the one who is speaking” (12:25).

The emphasis throughout the sermon is that God is speaking to his people at the present time, freshly addressing their situation. When God speaks, the people of God must listen and respond with obedience.

 

II. The Setting of Hebrews

We do not know who wrote this sermon, or even where he was working when he learned of a crisis in the life of one of the Christian communities. We know nothing of the actual circumstances that surround the composition of Hebrews. Did the preacher receive a letter from a former co-worker or friend? Was he approached suddenly by a messenger who blurted out the details that prompted him to take up his pen? We simply do not know. The document appears to lack a context in life.

We possess only intimations concerning the situation of those whom he addressed. Where did they reside? To what pressures had they been exposed? How long had they been Christians? How rich was their experience when they sustained a fresh crisis of faith?

The evidence to be gathered from the sermon itself is open to divergent interpretations. Any reconstruction of the life situation which makes Hebrews intelligible must be put forth tentatively as a working proposal. The task is similar to piecing together fragments of a broken mirror gathered up from the floor: when the reconstruction is completed important pieces may still be missing. Hebrews is a sermon in search of a setting.

One fact is certain: Hebrews pertains to the cost of discipleship. It addresses a group of Christians who were struggling with the cost of commitment to Christ. A careful reading of Hebrews indicates that the sermon was addressed to men and women whose world was falling apart. The fact that they were Christians brought no privilege to them. If anything, it appeared to mark them out for a fresh experience of suffering. For them the cost of discipleship could be measured in terms of the loss of their property, their freedom, and perhaps even of their lives (10:32-34; 12:4).

Hebrews was clearly prepared for a specific local congregation. The preacher apparently knows his audience personally, and identifies himself with them by using the personal pronouns ”we” and “us.” He expects soon to revisit them (13:19, 23). At several points he displays a rather intimate knowledge of their past experience. He knows, for example, that they had become Christians when they responded in faith to the preaching of disciples who had heard Jesus of Nazareth (2:3-4). He is alert to their failure to mature as teachers of the truth, although they had been believers for some time and were capable of engaging in ministry (5:11-14). He is equally aware of their unselfish generosity in meeting the needs of other Christians as an expression of Christian love (6:9-11).

The people for whom the sermon was prepared seem to have formed a house church. They were a small group, consisting of the members of a household and some of their close friends. They numbered, perhaps, no more than fifteen to twenty persons.^[21]For helpful studies of such early house churches see R. Banks, Paul’ s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in their Historical Setting (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1980), especially pp. 37-42, 50, 121, 199; J. Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’ s Corinth (Wil­mington, Del.: Glazier, 1984), pp. 153-61. The admonition to “keep on caring for one another for the stimulation of love and good works, not discontinuing meeting together as some persons are regularly doing” (10:24-25), indicates that they had become weary with the constant struggle they faced as Christians. They were dis­playing signs of indifference and apathy. Some members of the church had stopped attending the called meetings of the assembly.

A common suggestion is that the group of Christians addressed in Hebrews were resident in Rome or in some center near Rome in southern Italy. In the closing paragraph the preacher conveys the greetings of Italian Christians who are with him (13:24). The most natural way of reading the text is that the writer was currently outside of Italy and that his sermon was prepared for a group of believers in or near Rome.^[22]For a close linguistic parallel to the expression see Acts 18:2 where Aquila is described as a Jew who had come “from Italy.” On the expression in Heb. 13:24 see C. F. D. Moule, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek 2d ed. (Cambridge: CUP, 1960), pp. 71-72. For a re­ cent defense of the Roman destination of Hebrews see R. E. Brown and J. P. Meier, Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Catholic Christianity (New York, NY: Paulis! Press, 1983), pp. 139-51.

This proposal finds a measure of support in an important reference to the cost of discipleship which the preacher assigns to the period shortly after the house church was formed:

“Remember those earlier days, after you received the light, when you endured a hard contest with sufferings. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to ridicule, both by insults and persecution, and on other occasions you showed solidarity with those who were treated in this way, for in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, and cheerfully accepted the seizure of your property…” (10:32-34)

The members of the house church had courageously accepted the consequences of their bold faith and had stood their ground. They had suffered public abuse, imprisonment, and the loss of property.

The sufferings endured are consistent with the hardships borne by Jewish Christians who were expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius in A.D. 49. We know of this ordeal through Suetonius, a Roman writer of the early second century A.D. who prepared biographies of the Julian emperors. In his biography of Clauius he mentions an incident of social disturbance: There were nots in the Jewish quarter at the instigation of Chrestus. As a result, Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome” (Life of the Deified Claudius 25:4). “Chrestus” was a common slave name, signifying “the good one.” Suetonius may have thought that an individual of that name was responsible for the riots. Historians, however, tend to believe that he confused the facts. His source had mentioned not “Chrestus” but “Christus,” the Christ, or the Messiah.^[23]The text of Suetonius has been much discussed. See especially F. F. Bruce, “Christianity under Claudius,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 44 (1961/62):309-18; H. Janne, “lmpulsore Chresto,” Melanges Bidez. Annuaire de l’lnstitute de Philologie et d’ Histoire Orienta/es 2 (1934):531-53; S. Safrai and M. Stern, editors, The Jewish People of the First Century, Vol. 1 (Philadelphia, Penn.: Fortress, 1974), pp. 160-70, and especially pp. 180-83 (with bibliography); V. Scramuzza, The Emperor Claudius (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1940), pp. 145-56, 283-91; R. E. Brown and J. P. Meier, Antioch & Rome, pp. 100-102.

Jewish Christians, apparently, had been conducting a preaching mission in one of the Jewish quarters. When they affirmed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah who had been crucified, disputes had deteriorated into riots. The disturbance of the social peace invited police action, and Claudius had banished the synagogue and church leaders responsible for the commotion. Insult, persecution, and especially the seizure of property^[24]It is not certain whether the seizure of their property reflected offi­cial judicial actions of magistrates, who imposed heavy fines or confis­cated property for suspected infractions, or whether the reference is to the looting of houses after their owners had been imprisoned or removed. For the first possibility see Philo, Against Flaccus 20; for the second, see Philo, Against Flaccus 56: “Their enemies overran the houses now left vacant and began to loot them, dividing up the contents like spoils of war.” were normal consequences of a decree of expulsion. If this reading of the evidence is correct, the preacher prepared his sermon for some of the Jewish Christians who had shared the expulsion from Rome with Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:1-2). They had actually experienced the cost of discipleship.

Now, however, it is perhaps fifteen years later. These same Christians are fifteen years older. They suddenly find themselves compelled to reckon with the cost of discipleship once again. A.D. 64 is remembered as the year of a devastating fire which threatened to reduce the Eternal City to ash and rubble.^[25]For details see Tacitus, Annals of Rome 15. 38-44. The fire broke out in the congested area around the Circus Maximus, cluttered with shops in the midst of a sprawling slum. A shift in the wind lifted the flames to the adjacent Palatine hill district, and from there it spread rapidly throughout the city. Of the fourteen districts of the city, only four escaped the flames. Three were leveled to the ground.

Nero responded to the disaster by providing emergency accommodations for the homeless and by ordering the reduction of the price of grain brought in from neighboring towns. In the subsequent months he entered into an elaborate program of urban renewal at government expense. But none of the measures he took won for him any popular support. The people were seething with resentment. They firmly believed that the emperor was criminally responsible for the fire. Their suspicions were fueled by the persistent rumor that at the height of the fire Nero had gone upon his private stage and had celebrated the calamity by singing about the burning of ancient Troy.

It was to silence such rumors and to divert attention from himself that Nero ordered the imperial police to move against the Christians. Tacitus remarks: ”To suppress this rumor Nero fabricated scapegoats, and punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians (as they were popularly called)” (Annals of Rome 15.44). Known Christians were arrested and tortured. On their information, numbers of others were rounded up and condemned to death, not for the crime of arson but because popular prejudice permitted the humiliation of the Christians. In the climate of uncertainty created by the emperor’s reckless action, many Christians fled to the catacombs. Arrest and martyrdom became a reality for Christians in Rome.^[26]Suetonius probably refers to the same occasion when he says: “Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of persons addicted to a novel and mischievous superstition” (Life of Nero 16.2). On the per­secution see T. D. Barnes, “Legislation Against the Christians,” Journal of Roman Studies 58 (1968):32-50; A. N. Sherwin-White, “The Early Persecutions and Roman Law Again,” Journal of Theological Studies 3 (1952):199-213.

There were several house churches in the city, and the group addressed in Hebrews had not yet been affected directly by the imperial actions (Heb. 12:4). But the threat of arrest and a violent death was factual. The preacher knew that these men and women were frightened. They were acquainted with the paralysis that issues from fear of death (2:14-15). In their fragileness they had considered what measures they might take in order to avoid calling attention to themselves. They began to show signs of regression (5:11-14), and in some instances they withdrew from the house church altogether (10:25). The public acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as the Son of God could cost them their lives. Withdrawal appeared to be an expedient measure. It was in this setting that the remaining members of the house church gathered to listen to this sermon.

 

III. The Argument of Hebrews

The writer of Hebrews was a man with a pastor’s heart. He understood the peril to which his friends were exposed, and he cared deeply for them. He was also a person who was vitally committed to Jesus Christ. He was concerned that if these Christians were arrested they might accept the Roman terms for release, a public denial of Christ (6:6; 10:29). He recognized the conditions that Jesus had laid down for discipleship, warning that we must not be ashamed of him or of his words (Mark 8:34-38). He knew that the one circumstance in which a Christian might express shame for his relationship with Jesus was in the eventuality that his life was endangered through association with Jesus or with other Christians.

The preacher’s pastoral concern finds full expression in Hebrews. He writes as a friend to friends. He prepared his sermon with compassion because he was concerned for these frightened men and women. He committed the sermon to writing because the situation was urgent. It could not wait for a later time when he might visit them and strengthen them in person. He wrote to encourage Christians to stand firm in their faith and to warn them of their danger if they remained immature. He knew they would incur the judgment of God if they renounced their Christian commitment (Heb. 10:29-31, 35-39).

His strongest encouragement is to remind his friends of the character of the Lord who cares for them. He portrays Jesus in a fresh way as their champion, who not only identified himself with them but who has released them from the paralyzing fear of death (2:10-16). If compelled to stand before a Roman magistrate, Christians must fix their eyes on Jesus, the champion and perfector of faith (12:2). They would not enter an arena alone. They would be sustained by the one who shed his blood, but who is now enthroned at the right hand of God (12:2-4).

He also portrays Jesus as our great high priest (2:17-3:1; 4:14-5:10). The fact that he suffered death qualifies him to help those who are called to suffer (2:18). The depth of his own exposure to death enables him to empathize with the human weaknesses Christians can feel (4:14-15). In a moving passage the preacher reminds his friends that “during his earthly life Jesus offered both prayers and entreaties with fervent cries and tears to God who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his godly fear” (5:7). The response to his prayers and tears, however, was not removal from the experience of suffering and death, but resurrection (13:20-21).

Jesus has become our great high priest by virtue of his resurrection. The preacher stresses that ”he has become a high priest forever, like Melchizedek” (6:20). The description of Jesus as a high priest like Melchizedek is the preacher’s way of representing Jesus as a royal priest who holds his office permanently because he was raised from the dead (7:1-3, 16, 23-24). He is quick to add, “And so he is able to save absolutely those who approach God through him, because he continually lives in order to intercede for them” (7:25). The portrayal of Jesus as our high priest establishes the point that the Lord cares for his people and will strengthen them. This was the message the members of the house church needed to hear.^[27]For an exposition of these themes see W. L. Lane, Call to Com­mitment: Responding to the Message of Hebrews (Nashville: Thomas Nel­son, 1985).

The preacher leaves his friends with a word God has spoken: ”I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deut. 31:6, 8). He reminds them of the triumphant response that assurance makes possible for the new people of God:

“So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'” (Heb.13:5-6).

This is the appropriate reply of faith to the experience of adversity and crisis.

Hebrews, then, is a sermon rooted in actual life. It is addressed to men and women like ourselves who discovered that they could be penetrated by circumstances over which they had no control. It proved to be a sensitive response to the emotional fragility that is characteristic of each one of us. It throbs with an awareness of the cost of disciple­ ship. Hebrews is a vibrant pastoral response to the sagging faith of frightened men and women at a time when the imperial capital was striving to regain its composure after the devastation of the great fire. It conveys a word from God addressed to the sometimes harsh reality of life as a Christian in an insecure world.