Hebrews Highlights January 2014

The Hebrews Highlights for the month of January 2014:

Christian Brady proposes a comparison between 1 Maccabees 2 and Hebrews 11. He summarizes his argument when he argues that Hebrews 11 is a Midrash of 1 Macc. 2.

Phillip Long informs us about Frederic W. Farrar and his commentary on Hebrews. Logos is giving away free copies of this commentary in the month of January. He queries What Can We Know about the author of Hebrews? He also asks Why Not Paul? It appears that he is beginning a series on Hebrews:
Hebrews 1 - Jesus and the Angels
Hebrews 1 - Worship Jesus, the Firstborn
Hebrews 3 - Jesus is Superior to Moses
Hebrews 4:14 - A Great High Priest
Hebrews 4:16 - Boldly, Before the Throne of Grace

Mitch Chase comments On the Possible Inclusios in Hebrews 11and the Central Figure in the List of Names. He highlights commonalities of sacrifice in the Three Stories of Sacrifice in the Name-List of Hebrews 11. He also discusses The Strategy of Christology for Your Endurance.

Jared Compton also queries Did Paul Write Hebrews?
Some older posts by Jared:
     Galatians and Hebrews: A Key Similarity
     Hebrews: The Big Picture
     Hebrews: The Big Picture (imaginative)
     What Hebrews Tells Us about Preaching

Kibbe Reviews Calaway, The Sabbath and the Sanctuary

Mike Kibbe has posted another review:

Jared Calaway. The Sabbath and the Sanctuary: Acces to God in the Letter to the Hebrews and Its Preistly Contest. WUNT 2/349. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013.

Classic Commentaries and Studies on Hebrews by Logos Software

Logos Software has now made available an additonal 13 classic commentaries and studies dating from 1590–1914.  The collection includes the following titles:

• Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews by A. C. Kendrick
• Twenty-Seven Lectures, or Readings, upon Part of the Epistle Written to the Hebrews by Edward Deering
• A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 1 by August Tholuck
• A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 2 by August Tholuck
• Short Explanation of the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews by David Dickson
• A Commentary, Expository and Practical, on the Epistle to the Hebrews by Alexander S. Patterson
• The Argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews by George Steward
• Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 1 by William Lindsay
• Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 2 by William Lindsay
• The Christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews Including its Relation to the Developing Christology of the Primitive Church by Harris Lachlan MacNeill
• The Epistle of Priesthood: Studies in the Epistle to the Hebrews by Alexander Nairne
• The Apostolic Liturgy and the Epistle to the Hebrews: Being a Commentary on the Epistle in its Relation to the Holy Eucharist, with Appendices on the Liturgy of the Primitive Church by John Edward Field
• La Théologie de L’épitre aux Hébreux by Eugène Ménégoz
• L’épître aux Hébreux: Essai D’une Traduction Nouvelle D'une Commentaire Théologique by Édouard Reuss
• Der Brief an die Hebräer John Henry Kurtz

This collection apparently supplements an earlier collection of 25 classic commentaries and studies dating from 1820–1939:

• The Epistle to the Hebrews in Greek and English with Critical and Explanatory Notes by Frederic Rendall
• The Epistle to the Hebrews with Notes by C. J. Vaughan
• A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 1 by Moses Stuart
• A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 2 by Moses Stuart
• The Epistle to the Hebrews in Greek and English with an Analysis and Exegetical Commentary by Samuel H. Turner
• The Apostolical Authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews by Charles Forster
• A Commentary on the Whole Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 1 by William Gouge
• A Commentary on the Whole Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 2 by William Gouge
• The Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews by George Milligan
• The Epistle to the Hebrews: The First Apology for Christianity by A. B. Bruce
• Notes and Reflections on the Epistle to the Hebrews by Arthur Pridham
• An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews by William Kelly
• The Epistle to the Hebrews: An Exposition, vol. 1 by Adolph Saphir
• The Epistle to the Hebrews: An Exposition, vol. 2 by Adolph Saphir
• An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews by Henry W. Williams
• The Epistle to the Hebrews by E. C. Wickham
• A Critical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews by Francis S. Sampson
• The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Devotional Commentary by G. A. Chadwick
• The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Doctrine and Significance by E. F. Scott
• An Exposition of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, vol. 1 by John Brown
• An Exposition of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, vol. 2 by John Brown
• The Jewish Temple and the Christian Church: A Series of Discourses on the Epistle to the Hebrews by R. W. Dale
• Notes Intended for an Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews by James A. Haldane
• A Paraphrase and Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 1 by Archibald MaClean
• A Paraphrase and Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 2 by Archibald MaClean
• A Commentary on the Various Readings in the Text of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Chester-Beatty Papyrus P46 (circa 200 A. D.) by H. C. Hoskier
• Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews by William Leonard
• The Hebrews Epistle: In the Light of the Types by Sir Robert Anderson
• Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 1 by Franz Delitzsch
• Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. 2 by Franz Delitzsch
• The Epistle to the Hebrews by Edgar J. Goodspeed

This is quite a collection of Hebrews works for an affordable price.

Philip Harland's Podcasts on Hebrews

Among Philip Harland's many podcasts on religions of the ancient Mediterranean, he has two on the book of Hebrews:

Podcast 2.10: Hebrews’ Portrait of Jesus – Highpriest Melchizedek, part 1 (Download)

Podcast 2.11: Hebrews’ Portrait of Jesus – Highpriest Melchizedek, part 2 (Download)

These links will also be placed on the Multimedia page.

Jared Compton's Dissertation

Congratulations to Jared Compton who defended his doctoral dissertation in November:

Jared Compton, "Psalm 110 and the Logic of Hebrews." PhD diss., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2013, xv + 232 pp.

Supervisors: D. A. Carson, Eckhard J. Schnabel, and Richard Averbeck

Abstract:
E. F. Scott once called Hebrews “the riddle of the New Testament,” considering how many basic questions the letter leaves open (e.g., the identity of its author, occasion, and audience, et al.). Sometime later, G. W. Buchanan called Hebrews a “homiletical midrash on Ps 110” in light of how often and, indeed, where the psalm is cited or alluded to in the letter. The following dissertation takes on board Buchanan’s (strangely-neglected) observation about the importance of Ps 110 in an attempt to shed some light on one of the more interesting riddles Scott identified: the situation of Hebrews’ audience. Moreover, since it is the author’s expositions—over against his exhortations—that address the heart of the audience’s crisis of faith and since Ps 110 plays such a fundamental role in the author’s expositions, each of the chapters comprising the body of this paper explore one of the author’s ten expositional units (chs. 3–12). Each of these chapters (1) surface the unit’s main claim, along with the role of Ps 110 in this claim, and (2) reflect on the unit’s—and, thus, psalm’s—function in the author’s larger argument. If, in other words, we can identify what the author says in the part of his letter addressing his audience’s crisis of faith, this should go a long way toward answering why he has written and, therefore, what his audience’s crisis of faith was. The dissertation ends with a final chapter offering a synthetic portrait of the author’s argument and, with this, a synthetic portrait of his use of Ps 110 (ch. 13; see, esp., table 13). Beyond this, the final chapter concludes with a brief, but suggestive, hypothesis about what this synthetic portrait may imply about the audience’s situation, which is another way of saying that it ends with a lingering puzzle but, at the same time, a clearer way forward for future work.

Some Resources on Hebrews

David Allen, Dean of the School of Theology and Professor of Preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has a ten-part series on Interpreting and Preaching Hebrews 6.1–8. He is an advocate for the "Loss of Rewards" view of this passage.

I had previously noted that Trinity Evangelical Divinity School posted a four-part video lecture series on Hebrews by D. A. Carson. Transcripts of the four lectures are also available on the same page.

Logos Bible Software is offering for the month of January a free download of Frederic William Farrar's Hebrews Commentary in the Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges series.