Hebrews Highlights January 2022

Ken Schenck offers his Explanatory Notes on Hebrews 1:5–14, and on Hebrews 11:8–22.

Latest Hebrews Article in Tyndale Bulletin

Moore, Nicholas J. “‘The True Tabernacle’ of Hebrews 8:2: Future Dwelling with People or Heavenly Dwelling Place?” Tyndale Bulletin 72 (2021): 49–71.

"Many scholars hold that the Letter to the Hebrews portrays heaven as God’s true tabernacle, the original from which the Mosaic tabernacle was derived. Recently Philip Church, building on work by Lincoln Hurst, has argued that the heavenly tabernacle instead represents God’s eschatological dwelling with his people, and that the Mosaic tabernacle (and the temple that followed it) was a prior sketch and foreshadowing of this yet-future reality. They advance a number of important arguments which have not been systematically addressed by those who read the true tabernacle as primarily heavenly in a spatial and ‘vertical’ sense. This article examines and rebuts the arguments of Hurst and Church. First, the case for the ‘eschatological dwelling’ position is outlined; then I make two wider points regarding the cosmological presuppositions that underlie this view; next, the meaning of the key terminology in Hebrews 8–9, especially ὑπόδειγμα, is examined; finally, Hebrews’ perspective on the heavenly tabernacle is articulated with an eye to both cosmology and eschatology. Only by integrating spatial and temporal categories can a satisfactory account of God’s heavenly dwelling be offered."

Nick has made the article available via Academia.edu.

Two New Articles on Hebrews in JSNT

Two new articles have appeared in the latest issue of Journal for the Study of the New Testament:

 

Cooper, Mark. “To Quote or Not to Quote? Categorizing Quotations in the Epistle to the Hebrews.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 44.3 (2022): 452–68.

 

Abstract:

An overview of the appendices in NA²⁸ and UBS⁵ reveals that the editors agreed regarding the number of quotations in Hebrews on 37 occasions. They disagreed, however, as to whether an intertext was a quotation or an allusion on nine occasions. The compilers of these lists did not provide a basis for their conclusions, and inability to agree on the number of intertexts could be due to multiple reasons. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to develop a set of criteria by which to identify quotations in Hebrews. Auctor’s quotations were determined to possess four characteristics: (1) introductory formula, (2) a recognizable source, (3) verbal correspondence with the hypotext and (4) syntactical tension. These four characteristics were then utilized to assess the nine disputed intertexts between NA²⁸ and UBS⁵. By assessing the nine intertexts for the presence of the criteria, four out of the nine were determined to be quotations, whereas five were deemed to be allusions.

 

 

McKay, J. Michael, Jr. “‘If They Will Enter My Rest’: The Impact of the Greek Translation Technique of Psalm 95 for the Argument of Hebrews 3 and 4.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 44.3 (2022): 390–410.

 

Abstract:

Hebrews 4.3-5 introduces tension where the author cites Ps. 95.11b, ‘they will never enter into my rest’, then describes the available rest, and then quotes Ps. 95.11b again. The author appears to undercut the promise of rest by citing the prohibitive oath. This article argues that the tension in Heb. 4.3-5 can be dissolved by translating Ps. 95.11b not as an emphatic negative oath (‘they will never enter into my rest’) but as an open-ended conditional statement (‘if they will enter into my rest’). This is argued in the following way: first, the issue of an assumed Hebraism is explained. Second, three problems with the Hebraism solution are presented. Third, the Interlinear Paradigm of the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) is introduced resulting in two further criticisms of the Hebraism translation. Last, the author’s argument in Heb. 4.3-5 is read with the meaning of the open-ended conditional.

 

HT: Charles Savelle

Most Substantial Commentary on Hebrews in Spanish?

I have come across what appears to be the most substantial commentary on Hebrews - at least what I have found to date:

Samuel Pérez Millos. Hebreos. Comentario Exegético al Texto Griego del Nuevo Testamento. Viladecavalls (Barcelona), Spain: Editorial Clie, 2009.

The commentary weighs in at 865 pages. It begins with a roughly 40 page introduction dealing with canonicity, authorship, destination, reason for writing, date and place, theme, relation of the epistle with the Old and New Testaments, and the relation of the epistle to biblical theology. This is followed by a verse-by-verse commentary on the Greek text.

The commentary has very little footnotes and the bibliography is only a little over two pages with mostly works in Spanish (many translated from English) and a few in English. So, it may not have the same level of academic rigor as some of the more technical commentaries found in other languages. But to date I have not found anything more substantial in the Spanish language.

It just happens to be available for download on the internet.

This Is a First . . .

This is a first: I have discovered a commentary on Hebrews in Welsh!

Gan W. Rees. Nodiadau Eglurhaol ac Ymarferol ar yr Epistol at yr Hebreaid.