Conclusions From the Letter to the Hebrews

CONCLUSIONS FROM THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS BY LEWIS BROWN Contact: [email protected] September 2021 ABSTRACT The Letter to the Hebrews is a rhetorically structured document, a written teaching sermon explaining Jesus and what his appearing means for a group of Jewish believers and the entire spirit realm of the Earth. The conclusions are not summarized in one portion of the text; rather, the premises and attitudes promoted in the document are supported and reinforced throughout the text. The perceptions and attitudes the writer espouses are reinforced and applied in the last chapters of the text. This paper will provide the background and the substance of three essential attitudes. These three attitudes are needed to live in a spiritual community that is eschatological in expectation and practice:1) The believers must see themselves as inheritors together with the exalted Christ. 2) They must trust the Heavenly Father in their daily life, maturing in Christ although they are not experiencing fulfillment of every promise presently. 3) They embrace a lifestyle living in God’s present provision while reaching for those promises not yet manifested. These attitudes will lead to a people sharing God’s holiness. 1 Search terms: Letter to the Hebrews, written sermon, Jesus, Christology, eschatological expectation, charismatic exegesis, eschatological exegesis, biblical fulfillment, rhetoric, pastoral passages, hortatory passages, perfection, Jewish hermeneutical practices, prophetic teaching, Hellenistic Judaism, supplementary covenantal teaching, anticipation–consummation motif, expectant lifestyle. INTRODUCTION The textual evidence in the Letter to the Hebrews is minimal regarding the author’s identity and location, the recipients’ identity and location, and the time period. This leaves commentators making educated guesses regarding the cultural, historical, and sociological settings. There is consensus on these essentials: the writer had rhetorical skills, excellent knowledge of Greek and the Septuagint, and in the letter, he assumed the recipients had biblical knowledge and eschatological Christian experiences. The teaching by the writer is apostolic in tradition and Christ-centered. Lane (1991, Introduction cviii, cxxiv) notes “Hebrews is written in exceptional Greek and is Hellenistic Jewish in conception,” and “the writer stands in the mainstream of Judaism and early Jewish Christianity,” having adopted an approach to the OT text and forms of exposition he had heard in a life enriched by synagogue preaching. The homily of Hebrews is a written speech, a deliberative argument with exposition of key scriptural passages. The letter uses speech styles like forensic rhetoric (to bring out the facts and convince with them) and 2 epideictic rhetoric (to convey emotions around life events and bring meaning to those events) in a blend of segments which alternate as pastoral or hortatory, intending to lead and motivate the Jewish recipients of the letter (deSilva 1997, 493–504). The writer could make no face-to-face adjustments for his hearers, so he constructed a sermon which is forceful and multilayered. He repeats and rephrases his arguments, and uses many related conceptual presentations to capture attention, make connections, and persuade his hearers. Due to the rhetorical nature of the text of Hebrews, the revelation of Christ and the results of Christ’s sacrifice and exaltation are gradually argued and explained. Kennedy notes that sacred rhetoric is more like authoritative proclamation than rational persuasion. The claims tend to be absolute, and the demands urgent (1984, 6). Hebrews reflects this type of rhetoric, although the writer’s Christian worldview is distinctly realistic—Jesus did live, die, and rise again. For the writer, the fulfillment of God’s promises already has preliminary manifestation in the earth. Since the document is composed for rhetorical effect, the writer uses alliteration and many Scriptural quotations, and embeds allusions in his arguments or applications. He uses phrases and terms repeatedly within his pericopes and throughout the text, and with exposition and exhortation interwoven together in a manner Kennedy (1984, 5) calls “linear and cumulative.” The concepts and their applications are developed, supported, 3 amplified, and applied throughout the text, so no portion of the text contains the complete or final presentation. This is an aspect of the developing and overlapping oral presentation. The last chapters are the closest to conclusions in the text and make final applications of the central message. The word of God and the work of Christ are the two main themes which dominate Hebrews, and in the concluding chapters their effectual value is rehearsed as motivation for renewed commitment and sacrifice (Brown 1985, 30). The attitudes promulgated by the writer of Hebrews require bold appropriation and willing participation. The extensive exposition of key Messianic scriptures in the earlier chapters supports the exhortation and expository amplification of the themes in the conclusive interwoven segments of the last chapters of the Letter to the Hebrews. Hamm notes the seamless transition into a hymn of the exemplars of faith in chapter 11 (1990, 120). Lane sees the intense and selective exposition of chapter 11 as parenetic (i.e., persuasive and encouraging counsel) in function (1991, 316). Following the veneration of the forerunners of faith, the author continues to mingle warning and encouragement through chapter 12. Chapter 13 mingles pastoral directives with brief supportive enthymemes (statements reiterating his conclusions without all the steps of his logic or scriptural support). These last sections of the Letter to the Hebrews apply the high Christology of the text by entreating the struggling congregation to embrace their spiritual heritage and calling. 4  The writer of Hebrews distillates and reiterates his rhetorical themes in the last chapters yet rephrases them in different conceptual frameworks. Unlike speeches and sermons today, the writer does not end the letter with a summary or closing statement. In keeping with the rhetorical style of the times and his purpose, he continues to teach, warn, exhort, and encourage. Throughout the Letter to the Hebrews and particularly in the last portions, the writer emphasizes three perceptions and urges the adoption of related attitudes. The first perception requires believers to see themselves as inheritors and adopt an attitude of familial owners of the promises, those with access to the Heavenly Father. The second perception and related attitude is aggressive faith, boldly trusting the Heavenly Father although you are not experiencing fulfillment of every promise presently. You embrace change and maturation every day as an expression of your faith. The third perception or attitude reflects a life living in God’s present provision while reaching for those promises not yet manifested. These three insights and their accompanying attitudes will be the basis for discussion in the later parts of this paper. THE STYLE OF EXEGESIS IN THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS The writer boldly interprets passages of the scriptures to present and clarify his understanding of the impact of the life of Yeshua Mashiach, or Jesus the Christ. Clements (1985, 38) argues that the writer of Hebrews 5 exegetes the Old Testament passages eschatologically. For example, in Hebrews 1:5, the writer of Hebrews quotes verses of Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7 together to identify Jesus as the Son: For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”? Clements (1985, 38) comments on the writer’s use of these scriptures: It is important to bear in mind that the writer was well aware that the psalmist of Israel had not known the fullness of meaning attached to divine sonship, but had revealed his existence. Yet this is wholly in accord with the author's overall pattern of argument regarding the historical form and nature of God's revelation of himself to mankind. This revelation has been given in a whole range of experiences, and through a variety of agencies, including Moses, prophets, and angels, but has only been brought to its intended completeness through God's revelation of himself in the person of his Son. Lane (1991, Introduction cviii) agrees, indicating that “the writer of Hebrews, under the influence of Jewish apocalyptic and primitive Christian tradition, chose to develop [themes] eschatologically.” To provide a clear example of the writer’s approach in interpretation of the scriptures, this section of the paper will examine the writer’s use of a portion of Psalm 40 in his discussion and argument in Hebrews 10:5-10. The text reads: 6  5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; 6 IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. 7 “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’ ” 8 After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the Law), 9 then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The writer’s interpretation of the Psalm 40 passage is a charismatic and eschatological exegesis. Both the writer and his recipients assume the Old Testament scriptures are “promises and prophecies that have their fulfillment within the writer’s own time and community (Ellis 1996, 109)”. Bateman notes three presuppositions used in the interpretation which were shared by Christian and Jewish interpreters at the time: 1) the divine intent revealed is one and unvarying, 2) considerations about one commandment hold true for others, and 3) God’s draftsmen put commandments in place to permit comparison and deduction (1997, 16). Thus, the writer’s creative interpretation of Psalm 40: 6–8 not only came from a Christological perspective but employs Jewish interpretive logic. In the writer’s interpretation, he uses the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) version of Psalm 40:6b to demonstrate God’s preparation of a physical body for the eternal Son, in order that his 7 incarnation would be effective as identification, reconciliation, and acceptable sacrifice. For the writer, Christ’s advent was God’s intent, and this psalm confirms other Messianic prophecies establishing the necessary sacrifice of the Messiah. The phrasing of God’s disdain for sacrifices within the same portion of the Psalm as the Messianic depiction corroborates one of the points being made in his text: the sacrifice of the Messiah is a better and more effective sacrifice. The writer perceives changes in covenantal functions as steps into fulfillment, not an abrogation of past relationship with God. This is presented in detail in chapter 8 and he revisits it later in chapter 10. In his discussion of Psalm 40, the writer supports and extends this understanding of covenant fulfillment. Lane (1991, 209) describes the writer’s insight this way: “A new unfolding of God’s redemptive purpose had taken place, which called for new covenantal action on the part of God. The new covenant thus brings to its consummation the relationship between God and his people, which is at the heart of all covenant disclosure from Abraham onward.” The writer “does not deny that God forgave and forgot sins under the Old Covenant. God is and always has been a forgiving God. But as wonderful and gracious as he was to those under the Old Covenant, in Christ God has done something even better. In Christ God shows how the process of forgiveness has been perfected so that he might make perfect those who 8 draw near to worship, and they would no longer feel guilty for their sins (Willis 2011, 15).” The writer’s exegesis of the Psalm 40 passage also reinforces the argument that Jesus came as the ruler who chooses to serve. This is a unique Jewish Christian countercultural perception in that time. Rather than the great patron having the honor because of his position of control and power, God the greatest patron grants honor to Jesus, who serves by his sacrifice. The apostolic teaching and Jesus’s example inverted the dominant culture’s definition of honor. Jesus’ teachings applied the Torah in a new way (see Matthew 20:25-28, Luke 22:24-27). He redefined greatness in the conceptions of the servant and the disciple (deSilva 1997, 522–525). “For the author of Hebrews, the believer’s honor is grounded in his or her relationship with Christ (deSilva 1999, 102, 105).” The author of Hebrews thus reframed the honor structure to combine the biblical fulfillment of Judaism with the patronage model of the dominant culture. Jesus the great one is honored for his willing and obedient self-sacrifice, and God establishes a new kind of rulership on Earth. THE FOCUS OF HEBREWS ON JESUS The teaching and interpretation in Hebrews present a high Christology; that is, it emphasizes the royal majesty and divine attributes of Jesus. Messianic fulfillment and the inauguration of God’s rule on Earth are 9 emphasized. The cause and focal point of this belief is the appearance and the life of Jesus. The text of Hebrews embodies a Christology which reflects the theological knowledge of the Tanakh (the Jewish term for the Old Testament texts) and a breadth of insight into the messianic fulfillment of Jesus’ appearing, ministry, sacrifice, resurrection, and ascension. The writer also demonstrates a pastoral awareness of the difficulties the communities of faith were facing as they lived in the time between Jesus’ first visitation and his return. In this corrective and teaching sermon, the writer rehearses and deepens the understanding of Christ. Lane comments on the writer’s perspective about his Jewish listeners: “Those who are the sons of the fathers understand that the word spoken through the Son constituted an extension of a specific history marked by divine revelation” (1991, 11). The writer imparts a renewed sense of purpose and perception of the hearers. The writer of Hebrews and his apostolic colleagues saw themselves in a prophetic function doing charismatic and eschatological exegesis (Ellis 1996, 109, 113–114). Bateman summarizes their Christological emphasis: “The Holy Spirit moves and allows the author of Hebrews to use first century Jewish hermeneutical practices so that he might clarify, emphasize, and recontextualize the theological force of certain Old Testament citations as they are applicable to one whom God calls His Son” (1997, 245). 10  The writer of Hebrews presents Jesus the Son of God, a unique messianic expression of God’s prophetic, kingly and priestly representatives (Hughes 1985, 134). The beginning chapters present a messiah who is divine and divinely appointed: an eternal Son and an incarnate Son (Hughes 1985, 132). Jesus is shown as an eschatological expression of God’s nature, yet a human representative whom God appoints (Hurst 1987, 146). As such, he is the spiritual ruler over the angelic realm as well as His creation, and he is a human leader of God’s people in a role greater than Moses’ role. Later chapters emphasize Jesus’s roles as redeemer-deliverer and as high priest who makes propitiation in the unusual sacrifice of himself. The effectiveness of his action is confirmed in his resurrection and ascension, which are presented rhetorically as the elevation and recognition of the Son by the Father (Hughes 1985, 134). The accomplished work of the new high priest has brought a permanent covenantal change in the spiritual realities in heaven and earth. The provisions now made available are stable and trustworthy because they are based on God’s promise and oath, and the finished work of Christ. The provisions of the new covenant are superior, based on a superior mediator and actuator, who guarantees the results for both God and man. The activity of the exalted royal priesthood of Jesus makes the new covenant provisions effectual and transformative for God’s people. 11  The writer of Hebrews integrates the aspects of the divine and priestly Christology he has been preaching. The eternal royal Son is an eternally perfect priest and an effective conclusive sacrifice. He provides a permanent and secure pathway to the relationship with the eternal God. For the Jewish listeners of the sermon being read to them, Christ’s development as a man is their pathway and assurance of their own maturity. To press into their own growth is to leave behind any threat of apostasy. Now we come to the discussion of the three attitudes this author perceives as summative to the multiple forms of rhetoric and layers of revelation teaching used in the text. The three attitudes are: 1) The believers must see themselves as inheritors together with the exalted Christ and adopt an attitude of familial owners of the promises, those with access to the Heavenly Father. 2) They must trust the Heavenly Father in their daily life, embracing change and maturation every day as an expression of faith, although they are not experiencing fulfillment of every promise presently. 3) They embrace a life living in God’s present provision while reaching for those promises not yet manifested. They express a worship of the Heavenly Father and demonstrate their faith in loving service and determined loyalty. These attitudes will lead to a people sharing God’s holiness. 12  ATTITUDE ONE: The Benefits and Demands of Possessing an Inheritance The first perception requires believers to see themselves as inheritors, familial owners of the promises and those with access to the Heavenly Father. The role as children of God is packed with provisions. However, being part of the family also means representing the Heavenly Father and his family in one’s life. One must be like Him. The community must be like Him. This is the attitude the writer espouses. He takes time in these last portions of the letter to present the models in the biblical history (the cloud of witnesses in Chapter 11) as those to be emulated. God’s covenant provisions have been ongoing through redemptive history. His relations with his people have expanded and deepened over the centuries. The sense of relational arrangement that has constituted the Old Testament covenants are supplemented and extended rather than abruptly discontinued or replaced. “Rather than superseding the covenants of promise that had preceded it, the new covenant affirmed them as well as supplemented them (Kaiser 1978, 367).” In Jesus, “a new unfolding of God’s redemptive purpose had taken place which called for new covenantal action on the part of God (Lane 1991, 209).” Now, the believers are to embrace the fresh and more complete provisions available. 13  The high Christology of Hebrews not only exalts the Son but draws the believers into a place of willing and bold access, and responsibility as well. The writer of Hebrews addresses the recipients as children more directly than as inheritors. He intimates they are called to inherit salvation, and receive a kingdom, and emphasizes their access to God. However, his pastoral focus is their embracement of the maturing process. He chides their stagnant status (“you have come to need milk”) and notes they have “forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons”. In the conclusive chapters, the writer highlights those they should imitate: the faithful of Hebrews 11, Jesus, and those who “spoke the word of God to you”. The goal of the discipline is their maturity, wherein they “share His holiness”, are “sanctified in his own blood”, and are “equipped in every good thing to do His will”. As part of those who are called, they are urged to live up to their name and boldly identify themselves with the greater family of faith. “The community, Abraham, Moses, the martyrs, and Jesus all set aside the opinion of the unbelieving society and embrace a lower status in their eyes in order to maintain their commitment to God, the community of faith, and the promises (deSilva 1999, 35).” 14  ATTITUDE TWO: We are Perfect in Him and Being Perfected The second perception and resultant attitude is aggressive faith, boldly trusting the Heavenly Father even though you are not experiencing every promise presently fulfilled. We are redeemed in the sacrifice of the great and Royal High Priest Jesus, and full access to God’s gracious presence is provided. Yet we seem to be unredeemed in some ways. Living in this paradox demands a faith which deepens as one lives in the relationship with God. One is challenged to grow up in the discipline of the Heavenly Father who shares His holiness with his children in the process (Hebrews 12:9-10). Hamm identifies the definition of faith in Hebrews as “enduring fidelity, confidence in God that he is faithful to his promises (1990, 115)”. Lane notes that the parade of the faithful in Hebrews 11 demonstrates that “throughout redemptive history attestation from God has been based upon the evidence of a living faith that acts in terms of God’s promise, even when the realization of the promise is not in sight (1991, 315).” Just as the believer and community is living with partial fulfillment of the presence of God and his rule on the Earth, so the believer does not sense being perfectly at one with Christ, perfectly redeemed. Transformation is part of the experience, but fulfillment is partial. Believers are perfected for 15 all time but are living as one of His redeemed ones who are being perfected (Hebrews 10:14). The term for perfection and its cognates, like one used in Hebrews 12:2, where Jesus is the “perfector” or completer of faith, is a term which becomes complicated when translated into English. For the Western mind, which is often conditioned to Greek and related modern definitions, the term perfection produces an intractable conflict. Does perfection mean a present condition already in place or a partial condition still in process? It is a Western cultural concern that one must be perfect or not perfect yet. If perfection means to have a nature and resultant behavior that are superior to human traits, so that the perfect one is more than human, then it follows that one cannot be human and perfect. However, the concept of being that perfect superhuman or demigod is not biblical perfection. To define one’s human life as perfect is a conflict for the believer if they are working with a Western definition. In a person’s identification with Christ, the being of Christ in his perfection is imparted (Ahern 1946, 165). Though perfect in Christ, the believer’s perfection is an ongoing process. As a lifestyle the believer does not experience a once-arrived state or nature. Keener demonstrates the “otherness” of Jewish conception even in the Hellenistic milieu in which the writer and readers lived. He comments that the use of τελειῶσαι (as in Hebrews 10:1) reflects the Septuagint use (in 16 Exodus 29:9) for the consecration of priests (1993, 659). They could minister before God and offer sacrifices for sin, even though they are human, because they were “perfected.” The term is often rendered “consecrated” in English translations of this passage. This term as used in Hebrews reflects the sense in Jewish thought that one matures and is completed. One resolves one’s guilt with God and ends one’s opposition to God. The purpose behind appropriation of such maturity and connection to God is not to attain superhuman status. For the believer, the purpose is the freedom to relate to God. For the readers of Hebrews, culturally there were many “kinds” of perfection. “Perfection” has a multifaceted definition for the koine Greek term in Strong’s Enhanced Lexicon. The term means that a person: “has reached the goal, is complete and wanting nothing; is consummated, is consecrated, or is finished” (Strong 1995, # 5048). Kittel notes that the sayings in the New Testament which are teleological in content (i.e., having arrived at the goal of perfection) do not set man in the center or focus. “Rather, the scriptural perspective is God’s perspective of perfection (1964, Vol. 8, page 54).” You are God’s child today, and yet you are growing up. Related to God, you are perfect and being perfected. Based on the teaching in Hebrews and the Jewish understanding of perfection, believers are completed, acceptable, and pleasing to God. They 17 are “perfect” in the Jewish-Christian conception, perceived by God as inheritors, as part of his family, and thus under the discipline by the Heavenly Father who imparts His holiness to them (Hebrews 12:5–11). Appropriation of this attitude by members of the community of faith allows members to treat each other as siblings who are healing and maturing. Most directions and corrections are communal in the Letter to the Hebrews. The writer uses exhortation and shares statements of faith with the readers in the final chapters. He repeats and emphasizes communal values and expectations which he has already established by exposition of scriptures earlier in the letter. A believer does not have to live alone. One’s spiritual life and fulfillment is embedded in the communal life. While the believers live in partial fulfillment of the new covenant, they press for complete manifestation and they support each other (Hebrews 12:12-17, 13:1-3). ATTITUDE THREE: We have Come to the Heavenly City and We Seek the City which is to Come The third perception and related attitude reflects a life living in God’s present provision while reaching for those promises not yet manifested. The entire sermon of Hebrews is structured with an anticipation–consummation motif (Longenecker 1999, 155). The writer used recurring images and 18 expressions to clarify the facts: they were living in some fulfillment based on Jesus’s life and God’s involvement but were faced with the truths that the complete expression of Jesus’s rulership and the redemption of the society and the Earth was still in process. The recipients of the letter are urged to return to a lifestyle where they live in their present fulfillment but reach for more fulfillment. While recognizing the availability of God’s presence, the writer values a depth of honesty about the incomplete and needy condition of the self, the community and the world. The believers are sharing difficulties, loss, persecution, and discouragement. The writer of Hebrews notes the challenges they face, and the opposition to the lifestyle they have embraced. He identifies the human weaknesses, the pressure to withdraw in fear, the challenge to believe God in the middle of only partial change, of partial manifestation of His rulership. Such a stance of believing God is difficult to maintain over time and amidst opposition. Thus, the writer uses warnings and encouragements in the text to address the challenge. However, the writer of Hebrews makes no apology or gives no sympathy to the believers regarding the demand of living in such a paradox (Barrett 1954, 372). Rather he urges renewed commitment to live in anticipation, as Johnson describes, “now that redemption and covenant ratification are provided jointly in Christ, the stage 19 is set for both a present application and a future inauguration of fulfillment of the New Covenant (2010, 41).” In Hebrews 11:9-16, those with faith are seeking a heavenly city which God has prepared for them. It is not like the cities they have known; it is better. It has “foundations,” built to God’s architectural specifications. God has prepared, or “made ready”, as Jesus has the hosts prepare their feasts in his parables. The cloud of witnesses, those presented in chapter 11, has modeled such an attitude, seeking God’s provision here on earth, living together with anticipation in the meantime. The recipients of the Letter to the Hebrews are admonished to imitate their faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). In Hebrews 12:22 and verse 28, those with faith have come to Zion, and receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken. The writer of Hebrews indeed observes we have come to the city of God, and yet we seek the city that is to come (Ladd 1993, 623). It is now and it is future. Even though it is a “heavenly” city, it is not heaven. The third statement about the city we seek is in chapter 13:14: “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come” (NASB 1995). The paradox of faith is best lived out in a community growing together. In application for us, modern day congregations are challenged to live on the edge, appropriating the completeness, maturity, and sanctification now 20 available, worshipping God in the present fulfillment, yet pressing to see more of the promises fully experienced, His presence manifesting on this earth. C ONCLUSIONS Living with faith now in the middle of the conflict of the redemptive process is best lived with these three attitudes: 1) The believers must see themselves as inheritors together with the exalted Christ, claiming the provisions of their role and responsibly representing the Heavenly Father and his family in one’s life. 2) They must trust the Heavenly Father in their daily life, growing up in the discipline of trusting the Heavenly Father who shares His holiness with his children in the process. 3) The believers must appropriate the completeness, maturity, and sanctification now available, worshipping God in the present fulfillment. Although they are not experiencing fulfillment of every promise presently, they must eagerly reach to see more of the promises fully experienced. These attitudes are necessary to live eschatologically as believers and as communities. Personal growth in relationship to God and personal involvement with God’s reinstitution of his planet and people are effectively accomplished with these bold attitudes. There is little motivation to mature in spirit or be a part of restoring the planet and its people if you do not anticipate God’s presence here on the Earth. 21  The link between an expectant faith and real growth, an expectant faith and an active life of worship and service, is worth a brief discussion. One of the summative messages for the readers is in chapter 13:15–16: praise God and share a life of doing good and sharing (Lane 1991, 548). Worship and acts of care for each other are the sacrifices that please God. Instead of waiting for heaven, they grow in grace, looking for the city that is to come. Believers can live a good life without expecting anything from God in this life. Worship and acts of doing good and sharing can be done by obligation and religious fervor. Tradition and ritual, sincere commitment and honorable habit can motivate and define “Christian” behavior, although there is no expectation for fulfillment of the promises of God’s complete redemption of his people and his Earth. A sincere belief in the redemption and forgiveness provided in Christ and loyalty to the biblical principles can be in place without any anticipation of God’s impact on a person or their world. All fulfillments then wait for the believer to pass into “heaven”. If those to whom Hebrews was written struggled with the difficulties of living in eschatological faith, how much more today’s believers! Attitudes of identification with Christ, everyday trust in God, and a faith that claims today and reaches for that which is to come, make for a vibrant, challenging, life-changing lifestyle. These are believers and communities living expectantly. Communities which live this eschatological faith are living in this paradox every day. We possess so much, but we want so much more. 22 "...let us run with patient endurance the race that has been set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the originator and perfecter of faith... (Lexham English Bible, 2012, Hebrews 1b-2a).” REFERENCE LIST Ahern, Alvin A. 1946. The Perfection Concept in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Journal of Bible and Religion 14:164-167. Bateman, Herbert W. 1997. Early Jewish Hermeneutics and Hebrews 1:5– 13. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Barrett, C. K. 1954. The Eschatology in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In The Background of the New Testament and Its Eschatology, ed. W.D. Davies and D. Daube, 363–393. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Brown, Raymond. 1985. Pilgrimage in Faith: The Christian Life in Hebrews. Southwest Journal of Theology 27, no. 1: 28–35. Clements, Ronald E. 1985. The Use of the Old Testament in Hebrews. Southwestern Journal of Theology 27, No. 1:36-47. deSilva, David A. 1997. Investigating Honor Discourse: Guidelines from Classical Rhetoricians. Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 36:491–525. deSilva, David A. 1999. Bearing Christ’s Reproach: The Challenge of Hebrews in and Honor Culture. North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL Press. Ellis, E. Earle. 1996. The New Testament’s Use of the Old Testament. In Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Introduction to Interpreting 23  Scripture, ed. Bruce Corley, Grant Lovejoy, and Steve W. Lemke, 40- 56. Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman. Lexham English Bible. Harris, W. H., III, Ritzema, E., Brannan, R., Mangum, D., Dunham, J., Reimer, J. A., & Wierenga, M., eds. (2012). (Heb 12:1–2). Lexham Press. Hughes, Philip E. 1985. The Christology of Hebrews. Southwestern Journal of Theology 27, No. 1:19-27. Hurst, L. D. 1987. The Christology of Hebrews 1 and 2. In The Glory of Christ in the New Testament: Studies of Christology, ed. N. T. Wright and L. D. Hurst, 151–164. Oxford, UK: Clarendon (Oxford University Press). Johnson, Elliot. 2010. Does Hebrews have a Covenant Theology? The Master’s Seminary Journal 21, no. 1:31-54. Kaiser, Walter C. 1978. Toward an Old Testament Theology. Grand Rapids, Mi: Zondervan. Keener, Craig S. 1993. The Bible Background Commentary New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press. Kennedy, George A. 1984. New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Kittel, Gerhard, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey W. Bromiley, eds. 1964. Τελειόω. In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, electronic ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 24 Ladd, George E. 1993. A Theology of the New Testament. Rev. and ed. Donald A. Hagner. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing. Lane, William L. 1991. Hebrews 1–8. Volume 47A of Word Biblical Commentary. Nashville, TN: Word Publishers (Thomas Nelson). Lane, William L. 1991. Hebrews 9–13. Volume 47B of Word Biblical Commentary. Nashville, TN: Word Publishers (Thomas Nelson). Lexham English Bible. Harris, W. H., III, Ritzema, E., Brannan, R., Mangum, D., Dunham, J., Reimer, J. A., & Wierenga, M., eds. (2012). (Heb 12:1–2). Lexham Press. Longenecker, Richard. 1999. Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing. New American Standard Bible: 1995 update (Heb 13:14). (1995). The Lockman Foundation. (Most quotations are from this version.) Strong, James. 1995. # 5048 τελειόω. Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship: Logos Bible Software, 2017. Strong, James. 2009. # 5048 τελειόω. In A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and the Hebrew Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. Willis, Timothy M. 2011. “I will remember their sins no more” Jeremiah 31, the New Covenant, and the Forgiveness of Sins. Restoration Quarterly 53, no.1: 1–15. 25 26