Christ-Centered Exposition on Hebrews

I received in the mail today, R. Albert Mohler Jr.'s new commentary on Hebrews in the Christ-Centered Exposition series. According to the blurb on the back page, this series is "presented as sermons, divided into chapters that conclude with a 'Reflect & Discuss' section, making this series ideal for small group study, sermon preparation, and personal devotions."

The commentary is divided according to paragraph divisions of Hebrews. Each chapter begins with an outline of the passage, which becomes the basis of the exposition that follows. The opening chapter also has a brief introduction dealing with the title, audience, date, and authorship of Hebrews. Excurses are interspersed throughout the book. Each chapter concludes with a "Reflect and Discuss" section comprising ten sets of questions. End matter includes a very modest Works Cited section that lists largely Reformed authors, and a Scripture index.This is a popular-level commentary that appears to be designed for its stated purpose.

Church on the Temple in Hebrews

Philip Church's book appears to be available now with Brill:

Philip Church. Hebrews and the Temple: Attitudes to the Temple in Second Temple Judaism and in Hebrews.

Abstract:
"In Hebrews and the Temple Philip Church argues that the silence of Hebrews concerning the temple does not mean that the author is not interested in the temple. He writes to encourage his readers to abandon their preoccupation with it and to follow Jesus to their eschatological goal. Following extensive discussions of attitudes to the temple in the literature of Second Temple Judaism, Church turns to Hebrews and argues that the temple is presented there as a symbolic foreshadowing of the eschatological dwelling of God with his people. Now that the eschatological moment has arrived with the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of God, preoccupation with the temple and its rituals must cease."

A Couple of New Articles on Hebrews

Baugh, S. M. “Hyperbaton and Greek Literary Style in Hebrews.” Novum Testamentum 59.2 (2017): 194–213.

Abstract:
“Hyperbaton,” the separation of words that are semantically and syntactically inter-connected, is used in the epistle to the Hebrews nearly sixty times. Classicist Daniel Markovic has shown that various kinds of hyperbaton were used by Greek literary authors to indicate the boundaries of their basic informational unit, the colon (κῶλον), and sometimes of larger units of discourse like the period (περιόδος). This essay confirms Markovic’s conclusions by studying the instances of hyperbaton in Hebrews which the author used to frame colons while also adding some secondary reasons for its use throughout the composition.


Church, Philip. “Hebrews 1:10–12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos.” Tyndale Bulletin 67.2 (2016): 269–86.

Abstract:
The suggestion that the author of Hebrews is indebted to Philo sometimes leads to the assertion that he has a negative bias against the creation. One text where scholars have detected this bias is Hebrews 1:10-12, quoting Psalm 102:25-27, seemingly to predict the dissolution of the cosmos. The text is part of a Psalm that predicts the restoration of Zion and the gathering of the nations there to worship, and expresses the confidence that the descendants of the servants of Yahweh will live securely in Yahweh’s presence. This makes it unlikely that verses 25-26 predict the dissolution of the cosmos, and exegesis of the verses in question indicates not dissolution, but renewal after the destruction resulting from the exile. Attention to the context of the quotation in Hebrews indicates that dissolution there is also unlikely. The text supports the claim that the exalted Son upholds all things (Heb. 1:3) and sits alongside a discussion of the dominion of humanity over the world to come (2:5-9). A more remote co-text refers to the gathering of the nations to Zion (12:22-24), itself a further echo of the Psalm. The Psalm quotation functions to predict not the dissolution, but the renewal of the decaying cosmos.