The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (155 page)

As will be seen below, Hebrews was most likely written to a group of churches in Rome. If so, the experience of believers mentioned in the book is entirely congruent with the time period subsequent to the edict of Claudius (c. 49) and the persecution of Christians under Nero
(64—66).
Since these believers seem to be undergoing persecution at the time of writing, a date of composition toward the end of this time period seems most likely, yet not at the very end, for the author noted that the recipients had not yet shed any blood (12:4). On balance, therefore, a date in the mid-60s seems most likely.

Provenance

The provenance of Hebrews is unknown. The only possible internal piece of evidence is 13:24, which states, “Those who are from Italy greet you.” But, as is argued below, most likely this indicates a Roman
destination
while leaving the question of the letter's provenance open. If so, perhaps the only safe conclusion is that wherever the letter was written, it was not penned in Rome since this was its probable intended destination. Especially since the author's identity itself is unknown, it is even more difficult to establish where that unknown author was at the time he wrote Hebrews. For this reason, to reappropriate Origen, “The provenance of Hebrews, only God knows.”
²³

Destination

The third unknown is the destination of the letter. The question of the letter's destination encompasses several factors. One is the ethnic makeup of the congregation(s) being addressed. Another is the geographical location of the recipients. Yet another is any other characteristics of the original recipients or their situation at the time of writing.

The first question is about the recipients' ethnic makeup. At first glance, this issue seems to be settled by the designation of the letter as “To the Hebrews.” Yet while this title suggests that the recipients were Jewish Christians, scholars do not all agree that the book was written to a Jewish audience. Some contend that they were Gentiles, and they view the title as vague and misleading—something added after the knowledge of the recipients
was lost.
²⁴
Nevertheless, while some factors are congruent with a Gentile audience, none override the cumulative impression that the original readers were Hebrew Christians.
²⁵

The first major argument in favor of a Jewish Christian audience of Hebrews is bound up with the title of the book. This title, which is the only title that is extant, most likely dates to the book's inclusion in the Pauline corpus. If so, it is chronologically so close to Paul's time that any appeal to the recipients being forgotten becomes untenable. Thus the title “To the Hebrews” should be taken seriously, and it unequivocally points to Jewish readers. The question of whether these Jews lived in Palestine or the Diaspora is not addressed by the title. Some have tried to identify the recipients with the Qumran covenanters26 or Jewish priests in Jerusalem (such as those converted in Acts 6:7),
²⁷
but these views have not generated a great following. The fact that the readers had not heard Jesus personally (2:3), the author's exclusive use of the LXX, and the presence of linguistic features characteristic of the Hellenistic synagogue all point to readers outside of Palestine.

The second major argument for a Jewish Christian audience is related to the pervasive use of the OT in the book. The author presupposed that his readers were thoroughly familiar with OT teaching, including the Levitical ritual, the priesthood, and the pattern of the tabernacle. Achtemeier, Green, and Thompson correctly stated that “it is difficult not to see Hebrews as directed toward Jewish Christians, to whom the exhortations and arguments from the exposition of so many OT passages, especially those regarding the wandering Israelites looking for the Promised Land, would have a particularly strong appeal.”
²⁸

The next question regarding the letter's destination relates to the audience's geographical location. The only possible clue in this regard is found in 13:24, which states, “Those
who are from Italy greet you.” This passage evidently establishes a connection between the readers and Italy. But is the reference to the location of the readers or of the writer? In other words, does the reference indicate that Italian expatriates are sending greetings back home or that the writer was in Italy at the time of writing?

Guthrie advocates the former (a Roman destination) based on the following set of arguments: (1) “from Italy” is used in Acts 18:2 for Aquila and Priscilla, who were Italian expatriates; (2) the reference to pastors as “leaders”
(hegoumenoi)
in Hebrews (13:7,17,24) is paralleled outside of the NT only in 1
Clement
(c. 95) and the
Shepherd of Hermas
(early second century?), both of which are of Roman origin; (3)
1 Clement
(written in Rome) made extensive use of Hebrews, so the earliest evidence of the book's existence comes from Rome.
²⁹
On the basis of this type of evidence, a Roman destination for Hebrews is indeed plausible, if not probable.

Beyond this, there are a few other characteristics of the audience that may be inferred from the letter. In fact, the author of the letter referred to the fact that the recipients, as well as the author, are second-generation Christians (2:3); that is, the author looked back to the apostles as belonging to the preceding spiritual generation. While they had been believers for some time, they had regressed in their growth in Christ (5:11—6:3), and some had stopped attending the weekly assembly (10:25). On the whole, however, the author was confident in his readers' salvation because of their labor of love (6:10), which includes supporting fellow Christians in need (10:34). These believers were not only under doctrinal pressure, but they also seem to have been well acquainted with persecution. They had endured “a hard struggle with sufferings” at their conversion (10:32), had their property seized, and had endured this ill treatment joyfully (10:34). Moreover, they were currently under pressure (12:3—13), though they had yet to suffer to the point of martyrdom (12:4), but there was an expectation of more severe suffering in the future (13:12—14).

All this evidence fits well with the audience being Hebrew Christians in Rome in the mid-60s. If the discussion above is accurate, the most likely date would be shortly before Nero's persecution in the last half of the 60s reached its climax. The community, having existed for some time, had previously endured persecution. Their property had been confiscated, and they had endured shame from outside their group (12:4; 13:13). All of this matches the situation in Rome from the time subsequent to the edict of Claudius in the year 49—at which time the confiscation of property was experienced when the Jews were temporarily expelled from Rome
³⁰
—to the latter half of Nero's reign (54-68). The warning passages and the repeated exhortations to endure, as well as the author's effort to prevent a reverting back to Judaism, indicate that this was a serious temptation for his readers. Also, by the time of Nero's persecution (c. 65—68), the state recognized the distinction between Judaism, a tolerated religion (Lat.
religio licita)
with certain leniencies, and Christianity,
which was forbidden. A Jewish Christian tempted to escape persecution thus may have found it appealing to retreat back under the protective umbrella of Judaism.
³¹

Purpose and Occasion

The occasion and purpose of the letter are closely connected to the judgments made about the recipients.
³²
As argued, Hebrews was most likely written to a congregation of Jewish Christians who were urged to move on to maturity (see 5:11—6:8) in the face of looming persecution. Whether the letter was written to one or several Jewish Christian congregations in Rome, two things seem certain: first, the recipients were facing continued pressure, whether social or physical; and, second, a retreat back into Judaism was viewed, at least by some, as an appealing solution to relieve the pressure. This is the temptation the author addressed.

The author described his writing as a “word of exhortation” (13:22), a phrase found elsewhere in the NT only in Acts 13:15, where it refers to a synagogue homily (sermon). This makes it likely that the genre of Hebrews is that of a written series of oral messages. Lane argued that this means the author identified his work as “an earnest passionate and personal appeal.”
³³
As the book unfolds, this appeal turns into a series of arguments designed to encourage the readers to move on to maturity, holding on to their Christian confession (see 6:1; 10:23).

The basis of this series of appeals is the utter superiority of the Son to all previous intermediary figures who spoke for God, whether human or angelic. Moreover, the recent revelation of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, ushered in the new covenant that had been announced by the OT prophets (see 8:8—13, citing Jer 31:31—34), so that now the old Mosaic covenant had become obsolete.

The essence of the appeal can be found in the three exhortations at 10:19—25 (marked in English by “let us”). The first is “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water” (v. 22). The author invited his readers to draw near and approach God in trust, based on the assumption that they were believers. His primary concern was the actual conversion of his hearers and their orientation toward God. The second injunction is in verse 23: “Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Thus the related concern subsequent to salvation was an authentic confession of faith in Jesus Christ. The third exhortation further enjoins believers to express that faith to one another: “Let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works”
³⁴
(10:24).

This triad of concerns climaxes at 12:1—2, where believers are encouraged to “run with endurance the race that lies before us.” Thus, the purpose of Hebrews is not merely to
maintain believers' confession in the face of persecution but also that they would move on to full maturity in Christ by holding fast to their confession.

LITERATURE

Genre

Two major issues have dominated the modern discussion of literary matters related to Hebrews: the genre and the structure of the book. The genre of Hebrews, while complicated, is actually the simpler of these issues, though one writer stated that “it is easier to describe Hebrews than to classify it.”
³⁵
Nevertheless, Hebrews' genre has been the subject of considerable debate. The letter opens and proceeds like a work of rhetoric but closes like a letter.
³⁶
This phenomenon has led to multiple explanations, including the theory that the ending was simply attached to an existing sermon by another writer.
³⁷

Since the author described his piece of writing as a “word of exhortation” (13:22), many have made the questionable assumption that the letter is an example of a Hellenistic-Jewish synagogue sermon based on the usage of the same phrase in Acts 13:15, following H. Thyen.
³⁸
Several writers have attempted to advance Thyen's work.
³⁹
For the most part, these proposals suffer from exceeding the available evidence, since there is an insufficient number of examples contemporaneous to Hebrews to derive a set style of the “synagogue sermon,” Hellenistic or otherwise.

Whether or not a specific type of sermon can be identified, the description “homily” or “sermon” certainly seems to fit the book well. Johnson located four phenomena that support the notion that this work derived from an oral original.
⁴⁰
First, the author referred to himself in the first person (both singular and plural, asserting authority and identifying with his hearers). Second, he cast his activity as an act of speaking, not writing. When making such a self-reference, he generally used verbs of speaking rather than words of writing.
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He also preferred “hearing” to “reading” in reference to his audience. Thus he created a sense of personal presence with his audience.
⁴²
Third, he alternated exposition and exhortation, which “allows
an orator to drive home points immediately without losing the hearers' attention.”
⁴³
Fourth, the author introduced a theme only to explain it later in his work. Thus Jesus' priesthood is introduced at 4:14 but not developed until 7:1—9:28, and his connection with Melchizedek is mentioned in 5:10 but not taken up in detail until 7:1.

For these reasons it may be concluded that Hebrews was in all probability first delivered as a series of oral messages and subsequently compiled and edited for publication as a letter, which included attaching an epistolary ending. Also, in keeping with the ancient notion that the written form of the letter served as a substitute for the author's presence, the letter was aimed at moving the audience persuasively to adopt the author's argument that reverting back to Judaism would be a serious mistake with disastrous spiritual consequences. Most likely, the letter would have been read to the congregation aloud, and thus the writer used several devices that enhanced the material's memorability, such as alliteration, repetition, and arguments from the lesser to the greater. Indeed, the identification of the letter as originating in a homily or sermon calls attention to a host of rhetorical devices and matters in the book. Table 16.1 contains just a sample.

Table 16.1: Rhetorical Devices in the Letter to the Hebrews