DrIBEX Ideas

ὁ θεὸς … ἐλάλησεν SUBJECT and PREDICATE
God Spoke

_____ λαλήσας
_____ having spoken

_________τοῖς πατράσιν
_________to the fathers

_________ἐν τοῖς προφήταις
_________ by the prophets

_________Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως
_________ in may parts and various ways

_________πάλαι
_________ of old

___________ (ἐλάλησεν) ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων WHEN
___________ (spoke) in the last of these days

___________ ἡμῖν TO WHOM
___________ to us

___________ ἐν υἱῷ, HOW
___________ by a son

____________ ὃν ἔθηκεν κληρονόμον πάντων 3 RELATIVE CLAUSES
____________ whom he appointed heir of all things

____________ διʼ οὗ καὶ ἐποίησεν τοὺς αἰῶνας
____________ through whom he made the ages

____________ ὃς ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης ἐν ὑψηλοῖς,
____________ who sat down on the right hand of the majesty in the heights

____________ ὢν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης 4 PARTICIPLES
____________ who being the brightness of his majesty
________________ καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ,
________________ and the express image of his being

____________ φέρων τε τὰ πάντα τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως,
____________ while bearing all things by the word of his power

____________ διʼ αὑτοῦ καθαρισμὸν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ποιησάμενος
____________ when he had by himself purified our sins

____________ τοσούτῳ κρείττων γενόμενος τῶν ἀγγέλων
____________ becoming so much better than the angels

______________ ὅσῳ κεκληρονόμηκεν ὄνομα. TRANSITIONAL CLAUSE
______________ inasmuch as he has inherited a name
______________________________ διαφορώτερον παρʼ αὐτοὺς (MODIFIES ὄνομα)
______________________________ more excellent than theirs.

“God spoke to us in the last days by a son, after He had spoken of old by the prophets in many ways. This son, whom he appointed as heir of all things and through whom he made the ages, and who was the brightness of his glory and express image of his being, while he was upholding all things by his powerful word, himself purified our sins and sat down on the right hand of the highest majesty. In this way he became so much better than the angels, because he inherited a more excellent name than theirs.”

See this analysis fleshed out by my friend, Cliff Kvidahl, at http://bit.ly/AdLbHE

A pastor asked a good question in response to my suggestion that Jude was the author of Hebrews: “How does one go about determining authorship, when the majority of early, external material attributes authorship to Paul? Other than Origen, why is Paul not the favorable author?”

Earliest writers on the subject, Clement of Alexandria and Origen, wrote that the Greek in Hebrews was not Paul’s. They could be wrong, but they wrote and spoke the language. In response to the good questions, I wrote to the pastor the following:

The strongest internal arguments against Pauline authorship, in my opinion, are:

(1) Paul’s practice was to mention himself clearly as the author of his epistles, and write it with his own hand (2Thess 3:17), because there were many false “Pauline” epistles circulating. Such a practice is lacking in Hebrews.

(2) The Greek of Hebrews is just so different from the Greek of the Pauline books, both in vocabulary and in style. There are many examples, such as the much larger number of subordinate participles in Hebrews, but note what follows:

(3) Auctor refers to the church leaders 3 times as the ηγουμενοι (Heb 13:7, 17, 24), a title Paul NEVER uses. Paul prefers overseers and elders, and uses προιστημενοι, επισκοποι, and πρεσβυτεροι in Acts 20:17, 28; 1 Thess. 5:12; 1 Tim 3:2, 5; 5:17. Τhese last 3 words words are never used this way in Hebrews (πρεσβυτεροι is used of the patriarchs, not church leaders in Heb 11:2).

(4) Auctor builds one of his main arguments on the truth of the priesthood of Jesus, something Paul never mentions. Words with the root ιερ- (“priest”) appear 20 times in Hebrews, but that root never appears with reference to Jesus in the Pauline epistles.

(5) Auctor cites the OT differently than Paul does. ‘‘As it is written” (καθως γεγραπται) appears in Romans 11 t. and never in Hebrews. “It says” or “he says” (ειρηκεν) appears in Hebrews 6 t. and never in Paul.

I just can’t see Paul NOT mentioning these important matters or omitting these expressions and teachings in his 13 other books!

(6) There is more. Both authors cite Habakkuk 2:4 but apply it in different ways. Paul uses the verse to illustrate justification by faith in Romans and Galatians, but Auctor to illustrate the justified life of faith (chapter 11!).

(6) There are also some very distinctive Pauline words that are “missing” in Hebrews: ευαγγελιον (“gospel”) appears in each of the Pauline epistles, but never in Hebrews (ευαγγελιζω appears in Hebrews 4:2). μυστηριον (“mystery”) appears 20 t. in the Pauline epistles, but never in Hebrews.

(7) Finally, Auctor includes himself as part of the 2nd generation believers (Heb 2:3) who were not eyewitnesses and hearers of the Lord Jesus, thus excluding Paul who received special revelation from Jesus.

That there are themes in Hebrews that are also in Paul is something that should be expected - since they both were Christian believers! All NT writers shared a common faith and a body of truths. What concerns us here is the way in which authors expressed those common beliefs - and they expressed them in different terms and ways.

I think that the only internal argument for Pauline authorship is that the author of Hebrews evidently traveled with Timothy at times (Heb 13:23). But if Paul had a large number of different fellow itinerants, why couldn’t Timothy also travel with more than one person? But even in Heb 13:23, Auctor refers to Timothy as “our brother” (ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν), while Paul never referred to Timothy as “my brother” but only as “my child” (τέκνον - 1Tim 1:12, 18; 2Tim 1:2; 2;1).

The placement of Hebrews following Romans in p46 does not necessarily imply Pauline authorship but only that Rome was its destination (Heb 13:24: “those from Italy”). See Letters to the Church by Karen Jobes.

This is not something to fight about. I only expend this much effort on the subject because there are some Christians (and some teachers who should know better) who argue for the Pauline authorship of Hebrews with such zeal that you might conclude that it is a doctrine of the Faith! I may be wrong but I have a really hard time believing that Paul wrote a letter that seems to me to be so non-Pauline.

This is the first page of the earliest copy of the Letter to the Hebrews which has been found - second century AD. It is part of the P46 codex and is in the Chester Beatty Museum in Dublin. My wife and I saw it a couple of years ago. The end of Romans is at the top of the leaf and the title of Hebrews is simply “Pros Hebraious” or “To the Hebrews.” Enjoy.

(I posted this before, but it may be time for it again).

1. Jude started to write an epistle about the “salvation” he shared in common with his readers but changed to writing his shorter epistle (Jude 3). I suggest that he later completed this postponed work and it is the Epistle to the Hebrews.

2. I also suggest that the epistle that Auctor (my name for the author of Hebrews) wrote (ἐπέστειλα) in a “few words” is the one attributed to Jude, a very short epistle (Heb. 13:22).

3. Could Auctor really describe his own epistle as brief? It is the third longest epistle in the NT, after Romans and 1 Corinthians. The suggestion that Auctor is referring to a different document than that which he is now sending them explains the mysterious καὶ at the beginning of his statement: καi γαρ δια βραχεων ἐπέστειλα υμιν (“For I also wrote to you an epistle with few words”). Translators have usually ignored this conjunction. (The NIV and NET do have: “for in fact I have written to you quite briefly” - a translation for καὶ nowhere attested in BDAG or LN). Furthermore, his use of the verb ἐπέστειλα refers to a specific letter that Auctor wrote. He did not use the word εγραψα, which was the way a letter writer in the NT referred to his present writing: Rom. 15:15; 1 Cor. 5:11; 9:15; Gal. 6:11; Philemon 9, 21; 1 Pet. 5:12; 1 John 2:14, 21, 26; 5:13; 3 John 9. This verb (ἐπιστέλλω) only occurs elsewhere in the NT in reference to the so-called Apostolic Letter coming for the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:20; 21:25). I believe Auctor used this specific word so that his readers would understand that he was referring to a previous letter that he had sent and not the sermon he was currently sending to them!

4. Jude stated that he wanted to write about our common “salvation.” Hebrews deals much with the theme of “salvation.” The noun σωτηρια appears in 1:14; 2:3; 2:10; 5:9; 6:9; 9:28; 11:7). The verb σωζω appears in 5:7; 7:25. The word group appears more often in Hebrews than in any other NT book (e.g., only 5 times in Romans).

5. Jude itself is also an “exhortation” (Jude 3 – παρακαλων) very similar to the hortatory thrust of Hebrews. The noun παρακλησις occurs in Hebrews 6:18; 12:5; 13:22 (where it appears to be a self description of the work). The verb παρακαλεω appears in 3:13; 10:25; 13:19, 22. Only 2 Corinthians contains a larger number of examples of this word group, but the sense of the word there is more as “encouragement” rather than “exhortation.” The large number of hortatory subjunctives in Hebrews also illustrates its character as an “exhortation.”

6. Scholars view both Jude and Hebrews as examples of an early Christian sermon. A sermon is here defined as a sustained exposition of Scripture (not occasional citations as are found in the Pauline and Petrine letters). This involves not only the citation of a text but a following explanation of the text. This is quite obvious in Jude 5-19, and is characteristic of Hebrews throughout the work (e.g., Heb. 10:5-7, 8-9; 12:26-27).

7. Hebrews focuses on the exposition and application of two primary texts (Psalm 110 and Hab. 2:4), with a number of secondary texts utilized along the way. Jude deals in the body of his sermon (5-19) with the citation and exposition of four primary “texts” with a few secondary texts along the way. The pesher type of interpretation witnessed at Qumran is present in both books and seems to be peculiar to them in the NT writings.

8. In addition to the use of canonical Jewish scripture, both books refer to events recorded in non-canonical writings (Hebrews 11:35-38; Jude 9, 14-15). Bauckham views them both as being in the matrix of “first century Palestinian Apocalyptic Jewish Christianity.”

9. Both books contain an extended benediction (Hebrews 13:20-21; Jude 24-25). These benedictions include a prayer that God would “equip” their readers and that God would “keep” their readers. These are the only extended benedictions in the NT that include a prayer appropriate to the specific circumstances of the readers. (The textual status of Rom. 16:25-27 is uncertain).

10. Each book shares a more elevated literary style compared to other books of the NT. Although this is a generally observed characteristic, when examined it does not seem to be statistically significant, apart from their more extensive vocabulary. No one, however, mistakes the Greek style and vocabulary of Hebrews and Jude with that of Paul or John.

11. Only the authors of Hebrews (Heb. 11:5) and Jude (Jude 14) refer to Enoch and use him to make their point. Enoch’s name is mentioned in the genealogy of Luke 3:37, which Bauckham argues was preserved by Jude and his brothers – per Julius Africanus/Eusebius.

12. The writer of Hebrews appears to be engaged in an itinerant ministry (13:23). This is at least consistent with what we know of the missionary labors of Jude (1 Cor. 9:5; Africanus/Eusebius).

13. One objection to Jude authorship may be that there exists no patristic tradition about Jude’s being the author. But no tradition at all existed about Apollos until Luther suggested it and a large number of writers today seem to lean toward Apollos. The other possible objection is that Jude would not describe himself by the words of Hebrews 2:3: “It (salvation) was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard…” I am still working on this since this verse has been one of my strongest arguments against Pauline authorship, and it is the argument that Ellingworth uses against Jude. But Jude (like his brother James) was a non-believer in his older brother until after the resurrection, and he speaks of the “apostles” (“those who heard him”) as a group of which he was not a member (vs. 17). Perhaps, therefore, this is not an insuperable problem for Jude being Auctor – the author of the work sometimes called προς εβραιους

NOTE: I know of only two published articles that have advocated Jude’s authorship of Hebrews: A.M. Dubarle (Revue Biblique, 1939), and Edgar Cooper (Lutheran Church Review, 1917). Bauckham and Ellingworth refer to two unpublished papers by a “P.Y. Deshpande” and a “J.L. Gilmore.”

I start teaching Hebrews from the Greek text Tuesday night, so I thought that this would be a timely post.

When Helen and I were in Dublin in the summer of 2008, we were waiting for our timed entrance to Dublin Castle. When we realized that we had almost an hour’s wait, I saw that the Chester Beatty Library was next door. Now for most folks that may not mean much, but I recalled that the famous Chester Beatty Papyri are housed there. These are some of the oldest copies of NT books in the world! So I dragged the wife (she actually came willingly) and I feasted my eyes for the first time on these precious documents rescued from a trash heap in Egypt.

One of the treasures there is the oldest copy of the Letter to the Hebrews. Now most know that the author of the letter/sermon did not mention his name, so the work is officially anonymous. But there are some folks who almost base their orthodoxy on Pauline authorship of this book! Recently I engaged in a long discussion with a seminary student who attempted to defend Pauline authorship as if it was part of our doctrinal statement!

While I do have an opinion on this issue (see the next post), I am content with the fact that the Lord and the human author did not intend to make this issue a big one because the author’s name is not mentioned at the beginning or the end or anywhere else in the thirteen chapters.

So I was interested to see with me own eyes the first page of Hebrews among the papyri. And what was the title given to this book by that lonely unnamed scribe in Egypt? Here it is in transliterated Greek capital letters.

PROS HEBRAIOUS

The translation of the title is so easy a first year student can get it: “To Hebrews.”

So if the earliest copy of the book has that anonymous title while the acknowledged Pauline epistles always mention Paul’s name, why can’t we be satisfied with calling it by that title as well? Now I realize that there are other issues in this discussion, but my point here is that the most obvious things are what we often miss. We don’t know who wrote the book, nor do we need to know his name!

There is a photograph of the first page of that papyrus in a later post (January 26).

There is a second way in which Auctor effectively but succinctly presents his message. Beginning in Heb. 2:9, he mentions Jesus by his personal name in the first of ten times. But the way in which he does it is obscured by most of the English translations. He piles up the titles and activities of Jesus first and then concludes by mentioning his name. This rhetorical device (climax) builds anticipation on the part of the reader until the climax arrives: JESUS!

The NASB does express the word order correctly the first time this occurs. “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus…” (Heb. 2:9). This translation accurately reflects the word order of the Greek sentence. The sentence builds to a climax and then that climax is announced: Jesus. In nine of the ten occurrences he mentions Jesus by that name alone, including our two exemplar texts (3:1; 12:2). Listen to them this way. “Fix your thoughts on the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, JESUS” (3:1). “Fix our eyes on the Author and Finisher of our faith, JESUS” (12:2). The parallel structure of the two commands becomes even more evident by his delaying the name of Jesus until the end, thus building anticipation until the rhetorical climax arrives: JESUS.

Now look closely at the other times that “Jesus” appears alone without his additional titles. In each of these except one, his name appears at the end of a series of his titles, actions, or characteristics.
Heb. 2:9; 3:1; 4:14; 6:20; 7:22; 10:19; 12:2; 12:24; 13:12; 13:20.

2.9: However, we do see the one who was made lower in order than the angels for a little while—it’s Jesus! (CEB)

3.1: Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus

4.14: Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus

6.20: Where the forerunner has entered for us, Jesus

7.22: He who has become the guarantee of a better covenant, Jesus

10.19: Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus

12.2: Fixing our eyes on the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus

12.24: And to the mediator of a new covenant Jesus

13.12: So Jesus, in order to sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate

13.20: Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus

Only in 13:12 does Auctor not place Jesus at the climax of his sentence. This exception is because in this sentence He is the subject of the main verb and not the object to which our attention is being directed.

This is a powerful rhetorical device, especially when we recognize that Hebrews is a sermon first delivered orally and then heard thousands of times by congregants as it was read out to them in their assemblies. The closest example of this rhetorical device that I can think of is the practice of many African-American preachers and some Southern evangelists. They will lead their hearers through a series of questions or statements to the climax of their point. By altering the question slightly the congregants will then start repeating the identical answer expected by the preacher. An excellent example of this is in the closing scene of the film, The Apostle, where the Robert Duvall character is preaching to his fellow prisoners on the chain gang as they cut grass beside a road. As the credits roll, he preaches by asking them a series of questions. “Who is the fairest of ten thousand?” “JESUS!” they answer. “Who is the Lily of the valley?” “JESUS!” they answer. And on it goes.

Try it sometime with your congregation or class or Bible study. The rhetorical effect is powerful, but more importantly your hearers/respondents will come away with a strong reminder of the ultimate answer that Auctor provides for all his hearers’ problems and challenges: JESUS.