As I’ve been thinking about Hebrews, it occurs to me that there’s something wrong with the notion that it was written to Jewish Christians who were tempted to return to the Old Covenant. Here are my thoughts.
1. Jewish Christians were allowed to continue practicing Old Covenant rituals and ceremonies (Acts 15; Rom 14-15). They weren’t threatened with falling away from the faith to do so.
2. It seems that the harsh language with regard to observing Old Covenant practices was reserved for Gentile Christians, who were not under any circumstances to become Jewish as a method for following Jesus (Gal 5:2-4).
3. It seems that this letter would rather be aimed at Gentile Christians who had been studying the Old Testament, or who were under the influence of the Judaizers (thus making it parallel more with the situation of Galatians). Gentile Christians reading the Old Covenant Scriptures would make more sense to me since it might provide an explanation of why the argument of the book brings up the Tabernacle instead of the Temple that would have been much more a part of their current experience.
The only way I could imagine this book fitting what the rest of the New Testament says about observance of the Old Covenant for Jewish Christians would be if somehow the Jewish Christians’ needed to separate more fully from the Old Covenant law either right before 70AD. Maybe this was somehow part of the preparation to respond to the coming destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem. But I haven't read anyone who talks about this.
So how about it? Gentile Christians!
1 comment:
I guess you would say either that the rich OT references throughout the letter indicated an expectation that his audience was deeply familiar with such references, and therefore Hebrews, or that the author was using the OT extensively as an opportunity for instruction to those who weren't so familiar with it, and to remind them that they are not members of a new phenomenon. However, if it were the latter, why does the author rebuke the readers for not understanding Melchizedek? I have never seen the book as referring to those who wanted to return to rituals, per se, but as written to those who were discouraged and were beginning to wonder if the cost of following Jesus was worth it. Their crime was not in embracing rituals, but in walking away from Jesus. If these were Hebrews, it could easily be that they were willing to reject Christ, but thought that they could just continue in their respectable Hebrew practices. That could explain the strong language against the rituals - not as bad in and off themselves, but not better than what they had in Christ.
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