Hebrews Highlights - August 2023

Timothy Tennent discusses the importance of the figure of Melchizedek in Genesis 14:17–20 and Hebrews 7:1–17.

The Function of Divine Christology in Hebrews

New online article:

Compton, Jared. “The Function of Divine Christology in Hebrews: Critical Reflections on a Recent Proposal.” Themelios 48.2 (2023): 354–65.

Reconsidering the Context of Hebrews 13:7–14

Martin, Michael W., and Jason A. Whitlark. “Strengthened by Grace and Not by Foods: Reconsidering the Literary, Theological, and Social Context of Hebrews 13:7–14.” Novum Testamentum 65 (2023): 350–80.

"This study interprets the numerous veiled references of Hebrews 13:7–14 against the general problem addressed in the body of the speech, namely, the temptation to apostasy posed by the idolatrous, imperial culture. Specifically, the authors of this study argue that Heb 13:9 warns against idolatry and allegiance to pagan, imperial power broadly, and that the whole of 13:7–14 is a summons to embrace suffering by rejecting such identification in view of God’s promised future. Βρώματα, the authors argue, is shorthand for foods associated with pagan tables and imperial largesse. βεβαιοῦσθαι τὴν καρδίαν is an expression commonly used to depict literal nourishment, and in contexts where hunger was a real threat. Due to the perennial problems of food scarcity and chronic hunger, and to the critical role that foods derived from pagan and imperial sources played in alleviating these problems, the recipients of Hebrews likely were tempted to eat of these foods."

Death and Sacrifice of Jesus in the Letter to the Hebrews

Christian Lustig has informed me that his dissertation on Hebrews has now been published:

 

Lustig, Christian. Tod und Opfer Jesu im Hebräerbrief. Wissenschaftlich Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2/589. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

 

Translation of the blurb:
"One of the central questions in the exegesis of the letters to the Hebrews is the meaning of Jesus' death. On the one hand the author attributes decisive soteriological effectiveness to Jesus' death. On the other hand he emphasizes Christ's immortality. For the author, both death and immortality are prerequisites for the entry into the effect of the new covenant. Christian Lustig shows that the background and core of his interpretation of death is a Last Supper tradition of Markan-Matthaean provenance. Christ sacrifices body and blood. His spirit, on the other hand, is eternal according to Hebrews 9:14. Thus he remains the agent of this sacrificial offering even after death. Through them he accomplishes the purification, consecration, and inauguration of the heavenly tent as well as of believers. The cultic service of the heavenly high priest takes place on earth on the cross and at the same time in the pneumatic sphere at God's own sanctuary."

 

Congratulations to Christian on the publication of his book!

Rowlands Reviews Reading Hebrews in Context

Jonathan Rowlands reviews Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich, and Jason Maston (eds.). Reading Hebrews in Context: The Sermon and Second Temple Judaism.

Oil of Gladness and the Immortal High Priest in Hebrews

New article:

Duff, Justin. “Oil of Gladness and the Immortal High Priest in Hebrews.” Journal of Theological Studies 74.1 (2023): 103–36.

Abstract:

"The anointment of Jesus with the ‘oil of gladness’ in Hebrews 1 is a puzzling feature of Hebrews’ argument. The anointment—which is drawn from Psalm 45 and connected to Christ’s messianic enthronement—is often regarded as a royal investiture that transpired after the death of Christ. The relationship with royal messianism and heavenly enthronement, however, may overshadow another significant function of the oil of gladness: high priestly consecration and bodily immortalization. In this article, the function of Christ’s anointment is explored against uses of Psalm 45 in early Judaism and Greco-Roman and Second Temple traditions that depict heavenly oil as an agent of bodily transformation. These traditions suggest that Jesus’ anointment in Hebrews may signify a priestly consecration that transforms and immortalizes the human body for the heavenly realms. The anointment of Jesus in Hebrews may therefore be connected to the incarnate Son’s inheritance of ‘indestructible life’ (7:16) and clarifies when Jesus ‘became’ a royal-priestly Messiah ‘for the ages’."

Hebrews Highlights - April 2023

Madison Pierce and Max Botner discuss Why We Love Hebrews on the podcast, On the Way. Pocast is available on Spotify.

Theology of the High Priest Jesus Christ

I want to draw your attention to a little known monograph. It is written in Spanish and is published with a lesser known publisher:

 

Randy de Jesús Soto. Teología del Pontífice Jesucristo: Análisis retórico y semántico de Hebreos 4,15; 7:26 y 9,14. Estudios de Filología Neotestamentaria 8. Córdoba: Ediciones el Almendro, 2006.

Translation of the blurb:
"The Letter to the Hebrews is the only writing in the New Testament that attributes to Christ the title of Pontiff or High Priest. However, by calling him that way, he does not do so in the sense in which the pontificate of the Old Testament priesthood was understood, since the author knows perfectly well that, in order to be a priest according to the Mosaic Law, it was necessary to belong to the tribe of Levi. The novelty of this attribution lies in the fact that the priesthood of Jesus has qualities that make it eminently superior to the priesthood of the Old Testament."

 

The author recently passed away in December, 2022. An obituary can be found here.

A Note on the Structure of Hebrews 10:11–13

New article, which is available for download:

Akagi, Kai. “A Note on the Structure of Hebrews 10:11–13.” Novum Testamentum 65 (2023):227–39.

"Lexical, syntactical, and semantic correspondence demonstrates that Heb 10:11–13 consists of a concentric structure not discussed in the commentary literature. Observation of this structure clarifies the number of contrasts that appear in the sentence spanning these verses and provides additional data informing the debated question of whether the phrase εἰς τὸ διηνεκές in Heb 10:12 modifies the preceding participle προσενέγκας or the following verb ἐκάθισεν. This structure furthermore serves as one more example of the emphasis on the singularity of Jesus’s sacrifice in Hebrews."