Hebrews Highlights - February 2023

Madison Pierce discusses Hebrews and the Word of God.

Podcast with Amy Peeler on Hebrews, Jesus' Maleness, and Women.

Purifying the Consciousness in Hebrews

New book:

Joshua D. A. Bloor. Purifying the Consciousness in Hebrews: Cult, Defilement and the Perpetual Heavenly Blood of Jesus. Bloomsbury T&T Clark.

"Joshua D. A. Bloor argues that the purification of the consciousness of sin, via Jesus' perpetual heavenly blood offering, is a vital motif for understanding Hebrews' sacrificial argumentation, and vice-versa. Jesus' 'objective' earthly achievements are many, yet only his 'subjective' heavenly blood offering purges the heavenly tabernacle and subsequently the consciousness of sin. Bloor views the Levitical cult as having a positive role in Hebrews, with Levitical 'guilt' foreshadowing and informing Hebrews' notion of the 'consciousness of sin'. Levitical sacrifices could purge the consciousness, but only Jesus' heavenly blood can offer complete perpetual purgation. This blood is a qualitative type of purgation which continually speaks in heaven, offering eternal assurance for the recipients regarding their consciousness of sin.

Bloor begins with the 'defiled consciousness' and situates the world of Hebrews within cultic defilement, enabling the consciousness of sin and its cosmic implications to be properly understood. From here, the solution to a defiled consciousness is explored by examining Hebrews' cultic argumentation. Bloor highlights the distinctive purposes inherent in both Jesus' earthly and heavenly achievements, with the latter concerned particularly with Yom Kippur imagery and the purgation of the consciousness. Bloor concludes by differentiating between Jesus' session, present heavenly activity and perpetual heavenly blood offering. Throughout this volume, Bloor engages, critiques and advances current discourse concerning the nature and timing of Jesus' offering in Hebrews."

Reading Hebrews in Context

Newly published:

 

Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich, Jason Maston, eds. Reading Hebrews in Context: The Sermon and Second Temple Judaism. Zondervan Academic.

 

About the Book

Study Hebrews in its Second Temple Context

Following the proven model established in Reading Romans in Context, Reading Mark in Context, and Reading Revelation in Context, this book brings together a series of accessible essays that compare and contrast the theology and hermeneutical practices of the book of Hebrews with various early Jewish literature.

Going beyond an introduction that merely surveys historical events and theological themes, this textbook examines individual passages in Second Temple Jewish literature in order to illuminate the ideas and emphases of Hebrews' varied discourses. Following the rhetorical progression of Hebrews, each chapter in this textbook:

1. pairs a major unit of Hebrews with one or more sections of a thematically related Jewish text
2. introduces and explores the historical and theological nuances of the comparative text
3. shows how the ideas in the comparative text illuminate those expressed in Hebrews

In addition to the focused comparison provided in the essays, Reading Hebrews in Context offers other student-friendly features that help them engage broader discussions, including an introductory chapter that familiarizes students with the world and texts of Second Temple Judaism and a glossary of important terms. The end of each chapter contains a list of other thematically-relevant Second Temple Jewish texts recommended for further study and a focused bibliography pointing students to critical editions and higher-level discussions in scholarly literature they might use to undertake their own comparative studies.

 

The Book of Human Nature

Froger, Jean-François. Le livre de la nature humaine: Ou la revelation de Jésus Grand Prêtre dans l’épître aux Hébreux. Paris: Éditions Grégoriennes, 2019.

 

"Is there a unique characteristic of humanity that can distinguish it from the animal world? Biology teaches us that the human species is different from the higher mammals by its number of pairs of chromosomes, from which one could think that man is simply better endowed than other animals. Biology does not exhaust the question. Indeed, anthropology reveals that all people have universally instituted rituals. Rituality is made explicit in language and ceremonies, whether in the multitude of religions or in the sciences. The ultimate ritual is that of thought: logic. This work aims to show that the rituality of man defines human nature. The author bases his demonstration on the Letter to the Hebrews by Rabbi Shaoul of Giscala. We see that the rituality linked to the Temple of Jerusalem is the perfect example showing human nature, and its chaotic becoming when it is not understood. Jean-François Froger has collaborated with several other authors in pursuing the aim of establishing a theoretical anthropology. Indeed, the historical or field experience that is essential is not enough to know the foundations of a science. He takes advantage of his work in logic to show that the human mind uses the same principles when studying physics or anthropology."

Realize What You Do!

New book:

 

Reichert, Jean-Claude. Réalisez ce que vous faites: Les rites de la Messe au regard de la letter aux Hébreux. Paris: Cerf, 2022.

 

"Why do we observe today a certain disaffection with regard to the celebration of rites? Because it is difficult to inhabit them, because of their prescribed character and the formalism attributed to them. To restore to the ritual gestures of a celebration of the mass all their density, Jean-Claude Reichert puts them in correspondence with significant passages of the preaching of Christ that the letter to the Hebrews deploys. The challenge is to receive from this biblical reading enough to rediscover the acts of faith in which we are invited to participate, by signing ourselves, by saying the Kyrie eleison or the Agnus Dei, by acclaiming the Word of God, by uniting ourselves to the prayers of the priest, singing the Glory to God or anamnesis. The eight chapters of this work thus constitute eight concrete examples of an approach that the Council promotes when it underlines that 'in the celebration of the liturgy, Sacred Scripture has an extreme importance' (Sacrosanctum Concilium 24). A substantial and luminous contribution to a little explored field." 

Gelardini Reviews Witulski

Gabriella Gelardini reviews Thomas Witulski's book,  “. . . da ihr ja träge geworden seid an den Ohren”: Zur textpragmatischen Situierung des Hebräerbriefes for RBL.

OT Quotations in Hebrews as a Witness to the Transmission of the LXX

New book out:

 

Marcus Sigismund and Siegfried Kreuzer, eds. Die Schriftzitate im Hebräerbrief als Zeugen für die Überlieferung der Septuaginta. WUNT 2/580. Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

 

"The Old Testament quotations in the Epistle to the Hebrews are a fascinating but also complex subject of study, in which the question of the textual form of these quotations has a particularly high significance both for the reconstruction of the New Testament text and for the textual history of the Septuagint.
 

The essays in this volume address this question from their individual perspectives, but with constant reference to the close connection between the New Testament text and the Old Testament tradition, for which the citation texts of the Epistle to the Hebrews represent an important text-historical witness. The contributions are based on papers presented during a workshop organised by the Institut für Septuaginta und biblische Textforschung (ISBTF) at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal in March 2021."

New Commentary on Hebrews by Philip Church

I just discovered this new book:

Philip Church. Never Give Up! The Message of Hebrews. Wipf & Stock.

"The book is a commentary on Hebrews designed for use as textbook for undergraduate and graduate level studies. It works through the text of Hebrews paragraph by paragraph, with additional notes on a variety of theological topics along the way. In Hebrews and the Temple Church argued for an eschatological reading of Hebrews, and this book applies that reading to the discipline of a commentary. It grows out of postgraduate level lectures on Hebrews delivered at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand, Myanmar Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in Yangon, Myanmar; Asia Graduate School of Theology in Kathmandu, Nepal; and Christian Leaders' Training College at Banz, Papua New Guinea."