What does it mean to be Jewish? Does it mean something entirely different to be Christian? How does the Hebrew Bible fit with the Christian Bible? All important questions of faith, along with other foundational tenants of belief in the Lord God.
Authorship
Every authentic book of Scripture has at least two authors, the LORD God and a man writing God’s message for a specific reader response.
In the same way one might question the writings of a prophet to be authentic or the word of God accurately delivered to mankind, we might ask the source of the book of Hebrews, any other scriptural writings or a book authored by one claiming an authority of a god of their making.
I claim no expertise on the changing and varied practices of Judaism now or then, but defer to others. Hebrews lists no author and theologians speculate several suspected sources.
Of more importance to the reader than the human author or authors is a better understanding of the context as Hebrews relates to a specific audience.
Hebrews assumes a practice or at least knowledge of first century Judaism. The readers and more often hearers of the first century were Jews, who spoke Greek, likely learned Hebrew scripture and practiced blending into a Roman cultural context of their local town.
We can safely assume that first century Jews who came to believe in their Messiah did so by faith and by the witness of fellow Jews. They knew Scripture better than most Jews and Christians of this century.
As I pointed out in the previous series, only Matthew and John were Jews proclaiming the Good News of the Messiah Jesus (Mark and Luke were not).
In the letters of the New Testament we should note that Saul of Tarsus (Paul) was a Jew; highly intelligent, well-trained in Scripture and skilled in Hebrew and Greek logical argument. Unlike Paul’s letters, often addressing congregations of gentiles or Greeks, the letter of Hebrews addresses the cultural and religious issues of the faithful Jewish reader who sought to understand the love of God and incarnation of the Messiah Jesus.
Book of Hebrews
In the posts to follow we will explore Hebrews a bit at a time, mostly following the thirteen chapters, including some translation back to the Greek and Hebrew. As always, our study of Scripture verifies these teachings by looking back to the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, which Jews know as the Bible and Christians refer to as ‘the Old Testament.’
To be continued...
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