Hebrews Highlights - May 2014

Ken Schenck has been doing a series on Hebrews, apparently in the process of writing a book:

Its Situation
Strange Sacrificial Teachings
Strange Teachings Today
Jesus, the Definitive Sacrifice 1
Definitive Priest
True Sanctuary with a Superior Sacrifice
So Keep Going
The Big Warning
The Faith Chapter

Jim West has some excerpts of Hebrews 10:25 Among the Exegetes.

Ménégoz on Sacrifice in Hebrews

The following are my notes on Ménégoz's analysis of the theology of sacrifice in Hebrews.

Ménégoz, Eugène. "Le Sacrifice." Pages 102-27 in La théologie de l’Épître aux Hébreux. Paris: Fischbacher, 1894.

Sacrifice

[102] The goal of the incarnation of the Son was the sacrifice of his life offered for the remission of sins. The will of God is not the observation of the moral law, but the abasement in the humanity and offering of his body in sacrifice (10:10).

[103] The doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ is the main subject (8:1).

[/104] The author seeks to affirm the religious faith and fidelity of his readers and showing them the superiority of the sacrifice of Christ over the Levitical sacrifices.  Everything is superior in the Christian cult: the priest, victim, sanctuary, and the results of the sacrifice.

-the notion of sacrifice of Hebrews is the same as that of the Jews.  The author is working with the same presuppositions as his readers.

-“Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission” (9:22) is an axiom for him.

-He does not discuss the necessity of sacrifices.

[105] He produces an argument drawn from civil law. A testament is valid only upon the death of the testator; Christ must die so that we can enter into possession of the inheritance (9:15-17).

-The author plays on the double sense of diatheke, which means testament or covenant.

[107] The author recalls the sacrifices offered by Moses at Sinai and he shows that the law needed the sprinkling of blood for the remission of transgressions (9:18-22)

[108] The new covenant must be inaugurated with blood.  In the new covenant the sacrificer is Christ.  He must receive his vocation from God (5:4-6).

[109] The type of Melch plays a great role in the argument of the author.  Jesus was not from the tribe of Levi (7:14), which alone offered the sacrifices

-Ps 110:4, a messianic psalm - the order of Melch, the order of Christ, is superior to Levi.

[110] Author interprets Gen 14:17-20: Melch=King of justice; King of Salem=King of peace.  He is without father, mother, ancestors, without beginning of days or end of life; he is assimilated to the Son (7:2-3).

[111] The author shows the superiority of Christ (7:4-10).

-The word of Psalm 110 reveals the rest: Jewish priesthood was transitory, proving its weakness and insufficiency (7:11, 15-16).

[112] Sacrifice must take place outside the camp (13:10-12).

-As for the blood, Jesus carried it into the true tabernacle, of which the Jewish sanctuary was only a copy, into heaven in the presence of God himself (9:11, 24; 8:1-2).

[113] Other proofs for the superiority of Jesus’ priesthood: he became a priest according to an oath (7:20-22).  His priesthood is singular and immutable (7:23-24).  Jesus does not need to offer sacrifices for his own sins (7:26).  He does not need to renew his sacrifice which is offered once for all (7:27; 9:12; 10:2, 10, 12, 14).

[114] The Levitical priests are full of weakness; the Son is made perfect forever (7:28).

-The chief difference is that the Levitical priests offer animal sacrifices while Christ offered himself (7:27). The absolute superiority and the inestimable price of the victim gives to the sacrifice of the new covenant its unique value (9:12-14; 10:4-10)

[/116] The author tries to show that Jesus is the perfect realization of the divine thought, symbolically hidden under “the image and shadow” of the Levitical cult (8:5; 10:1).

-Contrast of the high priests: mortal vs. eternal; sinner vs. perfect; simple man vs. Son of God

-Contrast of the sacrifice: animal vs. celestial being; victim is without fault or spot vs. Christ who is pure, innocent, perfect holiness.

-High priest enters holy of holies once annually vs. Jesus entered once for all.

-Whole burnt offering burned outside the camp; Jesus was sacrificed outside the city.

-High priest traversed the veil; Jesus traversed the veil, his own flesh, torn by death.

[117] The high priest enters into an earthly sanctuary; Jesus entered into a heavenly one.

-High priest offered to God, symbolically the blood; Jesus offered his own blood.

What is the religious and theological significance of the death of Christ?

-His premises are those of contemporary Judaism; he grounds his notion of sacrifice on the OT.

-Sacrifice in the OT is an offering made to God to gain his favor.

[/118] High priest is charged to offer gifts and sacrifices (5:1; 8:3; 9:9).

-The intention of the gifts is to make God agreeable and to gain his good graces. The remission of sins is obtained by this means.

-The author assimilates the sacrifice of Christ to the Levitical sacrifices. Christ’s death is likened to the sacrifices made in the temple (8:3).  The difference between the two sacrifices is not in the idea of sacrifice but in the respective value of the victims.

[119] Some scholars mistakenly see a substitutionary sacrifice in Hebrews.

-The ceremony of the scapegoat was not a sacrifice, but a symbolic act.  Having charged the goat with the sins of the people, it was not offered to God but released into the wilderness.  One offers to God only pure and spotless victims.

-In OT the sinner does not expiate his sin with animal sacrifice, and God does not take leave of the punishment because he approves of the substitutionary punishment of the victim.  The victim does not expiate the crime in place of the criminal.  Such an idea is absent in the Law and Prophets.

[/120] According to Leviticus, it is the sinner who expiates his fault by sacrificing to God a precious object.  In this sense Jesus has offered to God what is most precious, his life.  One can call this an expiatory sacrifice, but not a substitutionary one.

-The excellence of the sacrifice of Christ is manifest also in its scope: Jewish sacrifices only make cleansing of the flesh; the blood of Christ gives remission of sins. Cf. 10:4; 9:13; 9:9-10.

[122] The author supports this thesis on the fact of the repetition of sacrifices (10:1-3, 11).

[123] The sacrifice of Christ remits sins, purifies the conscience, gives access to God.

[124] In 12:18-24 the author makes a parallel between the old and new covenants.

[125] The author assimilates Jesus to the high priest; the high priest only functions in the name of the people of Israel.  The author does not consider Christ as representing humanity entirely.

-Hebrews also assimilates Christ to Melch. He gives Christ a greater sphere of action; it can be extended to the pagan world. This universal application also applies to the sacrifice of Christ.  Jesus died to purify the people (13:12).

[126] The death of Christ has universal expiatory value (2:9; 5:9; 9:28).  Included are the faithful since the creation of the world (9:26). Christ’s death is retroactive to cross the centuries.  The Jewish sacrifices cannot efface sin; it is the blood of Christ which effaces them.

-The author founds this idea of retroactivity on the fact that Christ only suffered once and offered to God a sacrifice of absolute value.  If his sacrifice had only a temporary value, he would be obligated to die many times as the efficacy of his sacrifice would embrace periods, just as the high priest is obligated to renew annually his sacrifice, whose effect was limited to the duration of one year (9:25-28).

[127] Christ died for all people and not only for his people.  His sacrifice is valuable for all time for all people.

Hebrews' Message to the World and Church

Hoare, Edward. “Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Message to the World, and to the Church of Our Own Time.” Pages 309-13 in The Official Report of the Church Congress, Held at Wolverhampton, on October 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, 1887. Edited by C. Dunkley. London: Bembrose, 1887.

Edward Hoare (1812-1894) was Vicar of Holy Trinity, Tunbridge Wells (1853-1894) and Hon. Canon of Canterbury. He was apparently known as the “Protestant pontiff of Tunbridge Wells.” A biography of his life can be found here.


There is no direct message to the world, since the epistle is addressed to those who had come out of the world. What does Hebrews say about the world?
1) It was created by Jesus (2:2).
2) It is now being upheld by Him (1:3).
3) It is about to be shaken, or removed by Him (12:27).
4) He has provided for His people a kingdom which cannot be shaken. The message to the world then could be that people should not seek their security in this world, but in Christ.

The message to the church: no local church is addressed, but it is addressed to Jewish Christians who were tempted to lapse back into the Jewish faith. What then is the message for the church?
1) We should not be disheartened if we encounter people who are tempted to return to the bondage from which they once appeared to have been delivered. If people were tempted to relapse into Judaism in apostolic times, we should not be surprised if we find the same attitude in our day and age.
2) We should not leave this tendency alone, but we should vigorously oppose it.
3) This tendency should be opposed with the careful, argumentative exposition of the word of God, even as the author of Hebrews did.
4) If we wish to see men established in the truth, we must direct their attention to the great realities, and not merely the framework, of the gospel. For example, in one passage he mentions the church, but he does not mention its organization–its bishops, priests, or deacons–but it is described as “the Church of the first-born which are written in heaven” (12:23). “The new birth, and the name written in the book of life, these were the distinctive realities by which alone the Church was described” (311). Moreover, he does not emphasize the sacraments, but points them to the sacrificial death of Christ.
5) The message of the epistle is that the sum and substance of all reality is in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Christ is the fulfiller and fulfillment of all the types and prophecies. The perfection of Christ is brought out in connection with his priesthood, sacrifice, and covenant: a) the successional Aaronic priesthood is now replaced by the unsuccessional priesthood of Christ; Christ’s priesthood is eternal; b) the numerous and repetitious sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood is now replaced by the one, perfect sacrifice of Christ; and c) Christ is the mediator of a better covenant which is based on better promises–holiness, fellowship with God, knowledge of the Lord Himself, and forgiveness of sins.

Christ's Continual Sacrifice

Gibson, Edgar Charles Sumner. “Hebrews: It Revelation of the Person and Work of Our Lord.” Pages 301-5 in The Official Report of the Church Congress, Held at Wolverhampton, on October 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, 1887. Edited by C. Dunkley. London: Bembrose, 1887.

Edgar Charles Sumner Gibson (1848-1924), at the time of this address, was Principal of Wells Theological College. He later became Principal of Leeds Clergy School, Vicar of Leeds Parish Church and then finally Bishop of Gloucester in 1905.

In the early church there were two books which viewed this outward and visible world as the shadow of the unseen, heavenly world: Revelation and Hebrews. While the character of the two books is very different, both books give a revelation of the heavenly tabernacle. In Revelation Christ is the eternal sacrifice, the Lamb who was slain; in Hebrews Christ is the eternal high priest seated at the right hand of God.

There are three stages in the life of the Eternal Word: 1) His preexistent life from eternity past; 2) His incarnation on earth; and 3) His glorification subsequent to the ascension. While the first two stages are touched upon, it is the third stage that is the focus of Hebrews. His preexistence is implied in the expressions the “efflugence” of God’s “glory,” and the “exact expression or manifestation” of God’s substance, and by the fact that he was involved in the creation and sustenance of the world. Jesus’ incarnation, which involved temptation, suffering, and death, is the basis for his qualification as priest.

The Old Covenant as mediated through the Law was revealed by angels, inaugurated by Moses, and administered by the Aaronic priests. In the New Covenant all three offices are now united in Christ, whose superiority to all three is demonstrated in turn by the author of Hebrews. The emphasis of Hebrews, however, is on the last of the three, since it is his present, continuous work. “Hence the prominence is given . . . not to the Resurrection . . . but to the Ascension, as marking the point of time when He entered within the veil, and His present unseen work began” (303).

The writer of Hebrews attaches the session with the high priestly work of Christ. While the Levitical priest stands daily continually offering sacrifices, Christ sat down once for all having offered one sacrifice (Heb 10:11-12). His is a royal priesthood (cf. Zech 6:13). Christ’s offering is final, yet if Christ remains a priest he must have something to offer. He enters into the veil through his own blood (9:12). Here is where Gibson makes his most interesting comment:

“It is impossible to escape the conclusion that the writer had before him the conception of our Great High Priest as continuously presenting the blood in the Holy of Holies on high, as Aaron did in the earthly tabernacle. Time is lost sight of altogether. In the sphere of eternal realities it disappears. It is but one continuous action which is spoken of from the Ascension to the Second Advent” (304).

So, whereas Christ’s sacrifice is one, it is also a continuous sacrifice. This is reinforced by the fact that Christ entered once into heaven to appear before God (9:24) “passing through the veil into the unseen, as Aaron into the darkness of the Holy of Holies” (304) but he will appear a second time, apart from sin, to those that await him (9:28). Thus Christ remains hidden behind the veil offering the one, continuous sacrifice of himself, until at which time he will reappear at his parousia.

Even after death the blood was regarded by the Jews as living. Abel’s blood still cried from the ground, but Christ’s blood speaks better than that of Abel (12:24). Blood thus not only represented the death of the victim, it also represents the life of the victim surrendered in death, but now given and consecrated to God. Christ’s sacrifice of Himself is a continuous presentation of His life, as a life that has passed through death, and is now forever an offering and a sacrifice to God. The continual presence of Christ’s blood in heaven becomes the surety for the salvation of humanity whom Christ represents.